3 Strategic and Sincere Reasons to List Your Prices Publicly

Should you post your prices on your website, or prompt leads to inquire with you for pricing? Many sales experts will teach you that you should deliver your pricing on the sales call, but today I want to present three strong reasons for making your prices public instead.

#1: People Are More Likely to Inquire

While I wish someone out there would conduct a proper study on this consumer behavior, I can say that I've seen behind-the-scenes of a lot of business market research (here-and-there surveys and conversations conducted by business owners like you with their audiences).

My observation and experience has been that leads are more likely to abandon your sales pages if your prices aren't listed.

And in fact, I am one of those people.

Being told that I have to inquire about pricing (and we all know that means jumping on a sales/discovery call) is simply tedious. Especially as an introvert, my solution is never to "jump on a call." I will do everything I can to gather the information I need without speaking to another person - every single time.

I know I'm not alone in this, as I've talked to many other people who feel the same.

Many people are afraid that if they list their prices, they'll lose potential leads. But I'm willing to bet that you'll lose more leads by hiding your prices.

#2: Self-Qualifying Saves You Time + Awkward Moments

The process of qualifying a lead means determining if a prospective buyer is the right fit for your offer(s). However, when done right, your sales funnels can do a lot of the work for you by helping your leads to qualify themselves before ever getting on a call with you.

Think about it. Say you're an OBM whose specialty is working with Etsy Shop Owners, and you make that extremely clear on your website. Someone else lands on your site while searching for an OBM, but they realize you work with Etsy stores and that's not them. So they leave and find an OBM for their industry, while the next person who is an Etsy Shop Owner fills out your inquiry form.

Instead of you having to get on a call with leads just to determine if they're even the right kind of business, they can self-qualify whether or not you can help them before taking up space on your calendar.

The same thing works with listing your prices and helping your leads self-qualify based on budget.

Not only does this save you time, but it also saves you from awkward conversations on your sales calls.

If you've ever delivered a price for the first time on a call, you know how it can feel to put that number out there. "Is this going to be way more than they expected? Or am I under-quoting here? Are they going to be upset by this number or will they be happy to pay?" That internal panic does nothing to help you show up confidently and easily on these important calls.

Listing your prices clearly on your website or in your package guides helps you to know that the person you're getting on a call with already knows your price range. No one will be surprised, and you can feel a lot more at ease talking about it (and probably close more sales because of it!).

Pro Tip: To close more sales, always strive to increase predictability and reduce surprises in your sales conversations! The more information that both parties have in advance, the better.

#3: The "Sales Call Ambush" Is Dead

A huge reason why the strategy of hidden pricing became popular is that the big sales strategy being taught for so long was that you needed to deliver your price while you had your lead on the call.

The idea here is that you'd be better able to navigate their objections to that price and encourage them toward the sale. These same sales teachers will have you getting their payment information on the call, or at the very least, scheduling the follow-up so they have a hard deadline to make their decision. I was taught this way, and I'm sure many of you were, too.

In time, I've come to see this for what it really is. It's an ambush. Whether or not this has been your intention as the seller, the chances are high that your prospects have felt highly pressured and backed into a corner to make a purchasing decision.

And, the chances are high that they will experience more buyer's remorse than a buyer who was given time to think through their decision.

How do I know this? Because I've worked with the victims whose finances have suffered for months and years to come from being pressured into "investing in their business TODAY" by both well-intentioned and sleazy sellers alike.

I recently had the privilege of meeting Andrea Mac, a sales expert, genius growth strategist, and the founder of Prequal (an innovation consultancy serving women-owned businesses). She says this:

"Sales is about solving another person's problems. It's not necessarily about how it benefits you as the seller. Effective sales is about what you can do for other people."

Times are changing in the sales world. Sleazy, high-pressure tactics won't work anymore. Instead, selling with integrity and authenticity is the new standard (and that's a beautiful direction for us to be heading in)!

And the biggest key to selling with integrity is transparency, honesty, and making sure your buyer has all the information they need to make the right decision for them.

But What About...?

Offering custom packages and rates? - You can still list your price range or starting prices! It still helps the buyer to know whether we're talking hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, etc.
Don't I need to make sure they understand the value of my offer first? - Yes, but there are so many ways you can communicate this to them in the self-qualifying stage. In fact, you SHOULD so that they can be better informed. Your sales/service page, your package guides, your website, your content marketing, your email marketing - all of these pieces are opportunities to share the value of your offers in advance.
But won't price shoppers go to my competitors? - Maybe, but chances are that you wouldn't want them anyway. I'm an advocate of not devaluing leads just because of a low budget, but there is still a point where "price shoppers" are no longer your ideal client. In my experience, if a lead is going to agonize over your price and not focus on the value you have to offer, they're not going to be an easy client.
But what if I can genuinely help them overcome pricing obstacles? - This is valid! There are ways to help leads navigate this area in a way that isn't manipulative. If this is something you feel you can do but you're worried about not having any way to reach out to them, then make your pricing a part of an opt-in guide to your offers. Just ensure that all leads you're getting on calls with would have received this guide.

Your Next Steps

Evaluate your website and lead pipeline to determine if you're selling with integrity. Commit to making a change so you can feel in alignment both with your offers and also how you sell them!
Follow sales experts who teach you how to do sales the right way. I recommend Andrea from Prequal and Kristen from Going Ultraviolet as a great starting point!
Surround yourself with business owners who do business the way you want to do business. Consider joining a community (like the Financial Legacy Lounge!) of entrepreneurs with similar values so that you can continue creating a business that looks the way you want it to (not the way someone else thought it should).

Click here to read more from the Price Your Offers series here on the blog!

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This ever-growing collection of online courses and trainings are specially designed to support entrepreneurs like you on your path to financial wellness. The Academy contains carefully designed courses that are easy to understand and implement so that you can be empowered with the practical concepts, streamlined systems, and powerful mindset to transform your business and personal finances.

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