Should I put prices on my website?
Wondering whether you should put prices on your website? In this episode I run through some points to consider & why I’m all for it, as well as some quick tips for displaying your prices.
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PEOPLE & RESOURCES MENTIONED
Episode 15: Profitable Pricing with Natalie Coombe
Should I put prices on my website?
Well, hello, and welcome to episode 16 of the fierce impact podcast.
And after last week’s awesome conversation with Natalie Coombe, about profitable pricing, I wanted to continue the conversation a little bit more about pricing, specifically in relation to pricing transparency, and putting prices on your website.
So what I believe is that as a service provider, it should be no different to if you were an E commerce business, at the end of the day, as a service provider, you’re still selling something.
And so okay, you might be selling a service rather than a product. But why does that make us feel like we should hold the price back, like we shouldn’t display it on our website?
The job of a website is to clearly communicate your value and the unique abilities and expertise that you have, in addition, of course to resonating deeply with your audience and speaking directly to them about what they are experiencing and their desires.
Your website is essentially your online sales person. That means that it should help you to book clients with greater ease, it should make the process for your ideal clients as frictionless as possible. So that when you do have a call with an ideal client, you’re able to focus more on building connection and rapport, and seeing if you’ve got a good vibe going on, and making sure that there is a really good fit between you and that potential client. rather than needing to sell yourself on that call. Rather than needing to be worried about talking about prices.
I just think that it’s a much nicer way to do business, when you can actually focus on having a chat with the ideal client and building that connection and making sure there’s a fit for both of you, without the pressure of having to bring a price into the conversation. Yes, absolutely, that will happen. But if you’ve got your prices on your website, it means that your ideal client, your potential client will already have an idea of the kind of budget they are going to need in order to work with you. So it actually means that bringing up the price is almost a sidebar of the conversation.
It’s a: you’ve obviously had a look at my website, you’ve obviously been through, the support I provide, the value I provide, how I can help you. For this particular package, this is what it costs, this is the process we go through.
Actually, it just becomes a lot easier to talk about pricing. It removes a lot of that fear and tension that we feel about how to actually say to people, this is what it costs.
It also removes that worry that a lot of us have that when someone gets on to a call with us. We’re not sure whether or not they can potentially afford our services or not. And so what happens is sometimes if people think that someone can’t afford their services, we might end up taking some of the money off of what our services actually cost in order to make it seem more affordable to the potential client.
By having prices on your website, it just enables you to take the pressure off everyone in that initial call. And as I say, you know, I just think that that is a much nicer way to do business.
So obviously you can tell that I’m all for putting prices on your website.
3 reasons to put prices on your website
I want to run through a few key reasons why it is important to put prices on your website.
Number 1: Transparency
First and foremost, number one, it’s about transparency.
I believe in being open and transparent. I would rather that people make an informed decision about getting in touch with me fully knowing what my prices are.
I want people to have complete agency in making the decision to get in touch with me and going through that process of booking me to support them. I want them to be able to make a really good informed decision for themselves in a pressure free environment.
Number 2: Time
Essentially, we’re all short on time, it’s one of our most precious resources. By putting prices on your website, you’re protecting your time, it also means you’re not wasting other people’s time either.
If you don’t have your prices displayed, you are going to need to field far more inquiries about price. And you’ll more likely end up having calls with people who are just price shopping, or with people who aren’t a good fit from a budget perspective, then if you are displaying the prices on your website, so essentially, it’s a time saver for everyone.
Number three: User experience
So think about how annoying it is when you go to a shop. And there’s something that you really like, but there’s no price on it. Maybe the shopkeeper is busy, and you’re unable to ask them or maybe you can’t find anyone. And you know, you might end up thinking, Ah, I can’t be bothered. So you put that product back on the shelf, and you head off somewhere else.
Essentially, the same goes for service based websites. If your visitor has a problem that they need help with, if your potential client has got a problem that they need help with, and they like the sound of the solution that you’re offering, they like the sound of you, they feel like maybe they could connect really well with you, then they don’t want to have to necessarily hop on a call or to write an enquiry, just to ask about the price.
They want to know what the price is in that moment.
So think about it from your own perspective, it will be exactly the same. From your perspective, I’m sure there have been times when you have been interested in a service, and the price has not been there. And you’ve thought, I wonder what the price is, I wonder whether I can afford that? And then you’ve either gone, I can’t be bothered to send an email at the moment, I can’t be bothered to fill out the contact form at the moment just to find this out. I don’t want to have to hop on a call to find this out.
And so what will happen is that you will probably just X out of the website, and either not bother getting in touch, or you’ll move on to someone else’s website. And you’ll find another person that really resonates with you. Maybe they’ve got the price point on their website. And so you go yep, Heck, yeah, that fits in my price range, I want to go ahead with that. Or I want to book a call to find out more about this particular service and how it can help me.
And so that means that if you’re the person that hasn’t put the price on their site, then you have potentially lost out on a sale to someone else that has, because essentially, you know, hopping on a call with someone to find out a price can make some people incredibly anxious, because they’re worried that they’re going to have an obligation to say yes, they’re worried about feeling like they’re going to have to make a decision there. And then they’re worried about potentially not being able to afford it, and what the person they’re talking to might think about them and their business, because they have to say, you know, I’m sorry, actually, I can’t afford it.
So it makes people feel really pressured in that moment to commit to something that maybe they are not ready to commit to. That’s not the case for everyone. But absolutely, there are people who do feel like that. And as I said, what we’re wanting to do is we’re wanting to make that whole process part of the user, the user journey, the customer journey. We’re wanting to make that as frictionless and respectful as possible to people.
There is a lot of old school sales advice out there about not displaying prices on your website so that essentially you can get people on the phone and encourage them to whip their credit card out and make sure you get a payment there and then deposit there and then. And because of that, it’s no wonder that many of us actually feel nervous about getting onto sales calls to find out the price. It’s totally understandable.
And so as I say, we need to make it really easy for potential clients to decide yes or no, it’s important for our websites to make it really easy for our visitors to get the information that they need to make an informed decision to work with us.
Ways to display prices on your website
That simply means that on your service page, you might display a starting from price.
This works really well for service providers who need to tailor the price based on the needs of the client. So it lets people know where your price is set as a starting point.
Number 2: Display package prices
The second way that you can go about it is by including package prices. So if you have set prices for specific services, such as a block of coaching sessions, a strategy session, a day rate, website, design, copywriting packages, all of those sorts of things, then you can simply display the price for that service, and the inclusions of that service, what people are going to get for that price, if you have different levels of support for a particular service.
Or, for example, maybe you’re designing websites, and you’ve obviously got different prices for the number of pages that people commonly ask for, then you can have something like a pricing table on your services page that lets people see what the different prices are really easily and lets them see what is included or not at each tier level.
Number 3: Pricing kit
Another way that you can do, it would also be to include a pricing kit that could be downloaded from your website. And if you choose to do this, then what I would encourage you to do is to actually put a starting from price on your website, where you have a pricing kit download.
Essentially, when you have a pricing kit download, it often means that you will ask someone for their name and email address and then you will automatically send them the pricing kit with all of your prices in it. So it’s a really good idea, again, from a transparency perspective to make sure you’re letting people know where your starting point is.
Providing a downloadable pricing kit also means that you’re able to welcome people into your email community who are obviously searching for help with the problem that you solve. So you know that the services that you’re offering are of interest to them.
And it also means that even if the person requesting your pricing kit isn’t a match with your prices, currently, it’s not to say that they’re not going to be able to afford those prices in the future. So for example, some people might want to know what you cost in order to plan and budget to work with you.
Similarly, in the future, you might also end up offering new services that are more of a price fit for them. And so having them in your email community means that you’ll be able to let people know when you’ve got new services new offers, and what those services and offers cost.
So that option opens up the doors for future possibilities. So that can be a really good way to convey your prices. But also make sure that you are drawing people into your community that you can potentially serve and support.
So I’d love to know, what are your thoughts about putting prices on your website? Are you in the camp of not having prices on your website? Or are you more in the camp of being transparent and displaying your prices?
And how does it make you feel as a buyer or a potential client when someone does or doesn’t have prices on their website? I would really really love to know that as well.
So make sure you send me a message on Instagram @hayleymaxwellwrites and let me know your thoughts on this because I think it’s such an interesting conversation.
As always, I hope that you found this episode useful. If you enjoyed it and don’t want to miss any upcoming episodes, then please hit the subscribe button in your favorite podcast player.
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Until next time, go forth and be fierce.
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