On my list of sites I visit on a daily basis is Sitepoint.com. It’s a pretty decent place to keep up with web design news, participate in forums or buy a business (looking to buy right now). I recently was poking around the forums when I came across a poll that asked whether or not web designers show pricing information on their marketing sites.
Poll results show that over 70% of people don’t show pricing information on their web site! I was just blown away at this number. Such a large amount of people frustrating prospective clients by forcing them to contact them for no good reason.
Several people mentioned how it’s bad to do this because you can’t give out pricing information without knowing the requirements. There were a few other reasons given why it’s best not to do so.
The key posts were from the customers point of view that stated one simple fact: it’s frustrating as all hell having to contact someone to find out how much something will cost.
That’s it.
Say what you want to say about the benefits of having people contact you, you’re off to a bad interaction if you’ve already frustrated them before your first conversation!
Why It’s Sleazy
The reason why it’s sleazy is simple: customers view it as sleazy. Whatever your intentions may be, you’re casting yourself in a bad light. It’s the same sort of gimmick car salesman pull by showing an outrageous sticker price to force negotiations. No one likes going through that for the same reason no one wants to contact you for pricing information.
Give Them Pricing Without Giving Them Pricing
What’s the solution to this problem? Don’t piss off your customers.
It’s really very simple. Give them what they want. Do they want to know exactly what the project is going to cost them? Of course. But you shouldn’t do that. Why? Because every web design and development project is different.
Giving an exact price for something you’ve not properly defined is a sure-fire way to undercharge.
What I mean by giving them what they want is to give them a decent idea of whether you’re in their price range. That’s it. It’s that easy. Just give them a price range of how much your services cost. Or if you can, a price range for different types of projects: CMS, E-Commerce, Intranet, etc.
Of course people would prefer knowing exactly what it’ll cost them without having to contact anyone, but this at least gives them an idea whether or not you’re in their price range. Which means they won’t be wasting their time (or yours) if they contact you.
And that simple act will put you ahead of most web design shops out there (70% according to that poll).
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I came from the same thinking as you not too long ago.
While I do provide pricing information on my website, I am soon going to be taking it away. My thinking is this: When my pricing information wasn’t there, I was contacted by prospects asking how much a website would cost. This would often lead to a needs analysis meeting and more often than not, a sale.
Now that I post pricing information, my prospects say to themselves “OK, he costs $5000 (or whatever), let’s see how much XYZ Company charges”. When that company doesn’t provide pricing information, they phone them up to get a price… that leads to a needs analysis meeting, and they end up with the sale.
I think the decision for displaying pricing information is really a matter of “test and measure”. My personal experience tells me that companies selling products should (nearly) always display prices, and companies selling services should (nearly) never display prices. It varies from business to business.
Tom
I agree with Tom. We are selling a service not a product. How many attorneys, accountants, plumbers or electricians have pricing on their sites?
Tom and Nick — I think you could make it work either way really.
I understand what Tom’s saying about losing a sale because there’s no interaction. If you do post pricing information, I highly advise against pricing by page, or posting exact pricing information.
It’s really more about transparency and saving you time in that you don’t talk to leads that aren’t really leads. I also wouldn’t put this information front and center on the marketing site — I’d put in my FAQ or a page that’s giving more detail about your work and the relationship (again, for increased transparency) .
For instance, I might put something in the FAQ part of my sales site that states that medium to large size projects can range anywhere from 5k to 100k. Yeah, it’s a huge range on purpose, this would eliminate the people that are shopping around for $100 websites. If you get a fair amount of traffic and are in high demand, this could have a very positive impact in getting more qualified people to you.
Another example is the newly released Haystack by 37signals.com. There aren’t exact prices, just very large ranges. Though it’s much more prominently displayed than I would advise on your sales website.