Hey Reader,
I don't know about you, but if I can't see how much something costs, I assume it's going to be way more than I'm willing to pay.
And that's a lesson I've learned from cold hard experience.
Whether it's a SaaS product that wants me to request a demo, or some sort of service provider that offers free consult, every time I've made the enquiry, I've ended up feeling bad because I couldn't afford it (or didn't think it was worth it).
But, even knowing all of this, for a long time I didn't put prices on my own website.
And this was another experience thing.
I found in sales calls, people often had a budget in mind that was lower than what I charged. But once they got some clarity around the value my service would bring to them, they'd understand it was worth it.
It was kinda conflicting. On one hand, better user experience is to show the price. On the other, it might scare off people who I could probably talk into paying the proper amount.
So what did I do?
Well, ultimately, I went with the better user experience and put pricing on my website.
I wouldn't make an enquiry if I couldn't see a price, so why would I expect good clients to do it?
And even though I could talk people up to spending a higher amount, it's not a fun experience having to do that every time (and it didn't work every time).
Some people just won't pay that much no matter what, which means spending lots of times on sales calls with non ideal clients that would never sign. I'd rather not find out they're a bad fit after spending an hour on a sales call.
I figured if I go super transparent with my pricing, I might have less conversations overall, but I'm talking to people who are cool with my prices and it makes everything much easier.
When NOT to show pricing
There's a few situations where showing pricing isn't the best move.
You charge a different price for every client, based on what you think they will pay
You're in a very narrow market where competitors can drag you into a price war easily (real situation with a client right now)
Everything is custom and you have a crazy wide range based on the scope of the project
Outside of the price war thing, I'd say at the very least try to show a range or give some sort of indicator.
Don't hide your prices cause you're worried it'll scare people away. Those people aren't good fits, and you'll be wasting a LOT of time to convert a small percentage of them.
ps. I've got the flu and my brain is a scramble right now, which is why this email is kinda short and probably doesn't cover everything. But let caveman brain Nick tell you: price on website good.
Cowabunga,Nick Gulic