Should I Post My Service Rates On My Website Or Not? The Pros and Cons

Whether or not to put service rates on your website is a decision each service provider has to make. Should you leave the prices off or should you list the rates for prospects to see? There are pros and cons to both scenarios. We offer services obviously with our company and we choose not to post our rates because each production, web design, or other offerings we have varies from client to client. That does not mean however that posting your rates may in fact benefit your business.

The benefits of putting rates on your website:

Sets the expectation of your price: Putting your rates on your website helps you weed out people who can’t afford you. It will help you avoid wasting time on sales calls with people who aren’t your ideal client.

Sets the expectation of what’s included: You can make it very clear what service comes with each rate if you create packages. The prospect can make decisions on what service will be best for their budget before even talking to you. Taking this approach saves you and the prospect’s time.

Gives you the ability to sell passively: Have you ever been in a situation where you were interested in a service but the website says to call for details? This adds an extra step to the rate shopping process. A customer may sign up for the service without talking to you if the price is right.

The benefits of not putting rates on your website:

Gives you room for negotiation: The prices for your service may change depending on who you’re working with. You may charge a corporation a different price for a service than you would charge a mom and pop store. This gives you space to get details about a prospect before you name a price.

Let’s you customize: Not putting rates for each service on your site gives you a chance to customize packages. On a sales call, you can get an understanding of what the prospective needs so you can sell a service package that’s tailored to them. Leaving prices off of your site gives you quite a bit more flexibility in this regard.

Helps you express the value of high-ticket services: Prospects may scoff at very high-ticket service offerings when the price is listed on the website. There’s no context behind the price. For these services, a sales call may be necessary to learn their needs and explain how the value and your experience backs up the price point.

Keeps your competitors Guessing: Sadly, but a part of doing business, you all know as well as I do that if you don’t put your prices out there, most of the time, your competition does not know what you are charging for your services. Everyone crawls each competitors’ websites or social platforms just to see what they are up to. If you are not doing this, you need to. How else are you going to better your business or stay “in the game”?
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In Summary
You can always do both pricing strategies to test which method performs better. Do a mix of both by listing a starting price on your website. This gives the prospect an idea of what you charge but also leaves some room for negotiation. If you set a starting point for your prices, stand firm in how much you’re charging. And remember that negotiating your prices down can cause the client to undervalue your work. Any freelance or service-based business provider will tell you that low paying clients can be high maintenance and not worth the trouble.
-Roy

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Tags:  #websites, #marketing, #advertising, #pricing