I start many website copy projects by auditing websites. And one of the biggest gaps I find again and again is pricing. There’s a bizarre convention in B2B service world where we don’t talk about pricing up front. But it’s BS. It’s time it stopped. And I’m here to help.
Today we’re going to look at
Why it’s important to put your prices on your site.
Things stopping people being up front with prices.
Four ways to add pricing to your site.
Where to add pricing on your site.
This guide should give you the inspiration / information you need to get your pricing front and centre on your site, so you’re not annoying the heck outta potential clients before they’ve even got in touch.
6 good reasons to add pricing to your site
There’s probably a heap more, but we’ll start with these good uns.
1.Your clients want you to
This reason should be enough. If your clients want pricing up-front (and they do), give them pricing.
People want to know if they can afford you before they invest time in getting in touch and scheduling get-to-know you calls. And fair enough too. None of us have time to waste.
2.You lose potential clients if you don’t
Not having pricing on your site is more than a barrier for potential clients.
These days, it’s a disqualifier for you. People can’t be bothered to email or call for a price anymore. That’s old school. In this digital age, we want instant gratification. If we’re comparing consultants or coaches, we want to benchmark prices and work out if we can afford them.
So, if someone doesn’t have a price on their site, we don’t get in touch to check.
We just move on and find someone who does.
If you’re not putting your prices on your website, you’re losing potential clients. Simple as that.
3.Clear pricing is a sign of professionalism.
If a consultant has priced their services it shows they’ve invested time defining their processes and know how long a service takes to deliver.
Working with them is likely to be a smooth, easy process.
Conversely, if a consultant doesn’t disclose prices that can ring alarm bells. Will they do the hard sell? Do they really know what they’re doing? Do they charge everyone different prices?
Putting your prices on your site also shows respect and empathy for your clients. Don’t make people fall in love with you, reach out and realise they can’t afford you. That makes people feel bad.
4.You get better quality leads
When you put your prices on your site you’ll notice two things.
You may get fewer enquiries. But that’s ok.
Because most of the enquiries you do get will convert into sales.
The job of any good website is twofold. It exists to attract your ideal clients and repel people who are not ideal. One of the key aspects of ideal clients is they can afford your services. So, if your service is premium, be unashamedly premium, and put that price out there.
5.It improves your conversion rate
Last week I blew my 100% conversion rate* on proposals. And it’s all my own fault because they knocked me back on price.
That never usually happens because I check potential clients can afford me before I spend time chatting and preparing proposals. So, I did a bad job making it clear to this person how much I cost.
Usually, when someone approaches me about one of my services I reply, saying this.
“Bloody delicious to hear from you. I may be able to help you with that. That service starts at $X,XXX + GST. You can check out the process and more info over here (link to landing page ). Have a gander. If that works for you let me know. We’ll schedule a Zoom to see if we’d like to work together.”
It takes me 30 seconds.
If someone comes back, I know they can afford me, and they’re down with the way I work. As a result, my conversion rate is always well over 80%. This year it was 100%, until I blew it by not following my own watertight process. I did send this person to my site, but I forgot to mention price in my first email.
I’m telling you this so that you can steal my technique to get your conversion rate up too.
Step 1: Put your prices on your site.
Step 2: Qualify all leads by stating price.
Step 3: Send them to your site.
Step 4: Close 80%+ of your deals.**
*Full transparency. I’ve a bunch of proposals out in the wild right now so my stellar conversion record this year may be dented further. I don’t count a proposal as a fail until (a) they tell me to piss off or (b) I’ve been ghosted for over six months, cos I kid you not, it can take folks that long to come back and say let’s go.
** You also need a decent sales page to get a conversion rate like this.
6.You don’t waste time on bespoke quotes
I don’t know about you, but I find doing proposals really boring.
They’re a waste of valuable time I could be spending eating cake, reading books, and enjoyably ranting on LinkedIn. So, I put my process and price on my website, and send people there. As a result, I hardly do proposals anymore, and last year I had an 84% conversion rate.
Things stopping you adding pricing to your site
See if any of these bad boys feel familiar.
All your projects are different, so all your pricing is different
This is super common when new consultants start their practice. You take any work you can get; you try a whole bunch of stuff, nothing is the same, it’s all trial and error. And that’s fine. That’s how we work out what the market wants, what we enjoy, and what makes us the most money.
But you don’t want to be in that reactive stage for too long. Because bespoke projects and bespoke pricing are inefficient and a recipe for burnout. If every time you start a project you’re scoping from scratch, you’re wasting valuable time you could be investing in honing your processes, elevating your practice, and improving your profit margin as you get better and better at what you do.
But to achieve that you have to specialise. If you allow your clients to keep on requesting bespoke services they will do so. But you are the expert. And clients are looking to you for leadership. You get to say to them, this is the package, this is the process, and this is the price because this is what works. So, if you’re a few years into your business and you’re still bespoke pricing every service, you might like to consider doing this.
Analyse your last few years of revenue. Where is it coming from? You will see trends. The old 80/ 20 rule is probably in play and you’re probably making most of your revenue from one service.
Pick your top service. This may be the service you sell most, the service making you most money, or the service you enjoy most. Hopefully that’s the same service across the board, but sometimes it’s not, so you may have to do some horse trading.
Define the process you go through to deliver that service and price it accurately. Then price it generously, so you’ve built in a decent profit margin above and beyond the cost of your time. Build yourself a sales page to sell this service. Include pricing. Voila. You have your first package.
You’re scared it’ll put people off
It will put some people off. Because some people won’t be able to afford you. But that’s a good thing. You don’t waste time doing discovery calls and preparing proposals for prospects who can’t pay your fees. Remember an ideal client is someone who needs what you’re offering, digs your vibe, and pays you what you’re worth. And you’re hunting ideal clients.
You were told to hold the pricing back so potential clients have to get in touch
Yeah, I know … someone once told you to focus on getting your prospect on a call so you can build a rapport with them and increase your conversion rate, yadda, yadda …
And to a degree that logic works.
Building rapport does increase your conversion rate. But you don’t have to get people on a call to do that. You can build connection with your content. And people like it better that way because they’re not being forced into conversation until they’re sure they’re ready to talk.
The problem with this approach is it’s all about you and what you want (sales) and not all about your potential client and what they want (information). That’s a potential red flag for savvy clients.
The other problem is that this approach is simply outdated. People hate being forced to have unnecessary conversations. A growing swathe of the population would rather conduct all transactions digitally. Even when it comes to relationship-based services like consulting and coaching, people want to be sure they’re in the right place before they reach out for help. And a big part of knowing they’re in the right place is knowing they can afford your service.
But my competitors will know my price
So what? What are they going to do with that information?
Are you afraid they’ll undercut you?
Let them.
Competing on price is a race to the bottom and you don’t want clients who shop around on price.
If your only competitive difference is that you’re cheaper, you need to work on how your express the value of your offer. Building a strong brand is about differentiating yourself on things you can authentically own, not underpricing your competitors in the hope you’ll one day be good enough to charge more. You’re so much better than that.
You sell the same service to different clients
Last time I posted about pricing someone said, but what if I want to change big organisations more than small organisations? And that’s not a bad question. Big organisations are often a pain in the ass to work with because they’ve more stakeholders, more meddling, and slower sign off processes than smaller organisations. So, charge a premium.
But that question misses a bigger point.
Working with big corporates and small businesses is very different, unless you’re solving exactly the same problem in the same way for both, which is rare, and also doesn’t merit a premium*. So, if your client base includes both large and small businesses, ask yourself, have you niched hard enough. And if you’re still adamant you want to serve both, create two service packages, one for each niche. That way you can have your value-based pricing cake and your clear pricing cake and eat them both.
*Value based pricing advocates would disagree with me on this. More on this below.
Ways to add pricing to your site
Hopefully by now I’ve convinced you that transparent pricing is the way to go, and you’re champing at the bit to get that pricing out there and start making more sales.
There are several different ways to work out your pricing.
Package pricing
This is where you charge a flat fee for a service.
This works if your service has a well-defined process, you know how long it takes you to deliver, and it has standard deliverables.
Base your pricing on a realistic hourly rate that:
Ensures you can pay yourself your target salary.
Incorporates business overhead costs.
Creates profit, so you can reinvest in your business and save a buffer.
Excludes GST.
Remember to budget for current expenses and future investments when you calculate your operating costs. And make sure you pass on all project costs, including a mark-up, because you’re not a non-profit lending society. If project costs vary, you can simply state it as a variable added cost.
Now, I’m not a pricing expert, so if you need help setting a solid hourly rate that enables you to meet your business and your lifestyle goals, I recommend Natalie Coombe.
From $X,XXX pricing
This is where you list a starting from fee.
This works if your service has a well-defined process, but your deliverables vary slightly, and the time it takes you to deliver varies slightly accordingly. The key word here is slightly. If the scope of your projects vary a lot, tiered pricing is a better option for you.
Base your fee on a realistic hourly rate as outlined above. But don’t quote the absolute bottom end of your price range. Make your fee the average price you charge your clients. That will be a more accurate reflection of most of your estimates, so you’re less likely to scare the horses with a monster quote that bears little relation to your starting from fee. And if your estimate comes in under … bonus.
With this option, you will need to confirm a price for each client. But because you’ve managed expectations, your conversion rate should be high, and you can save time when it comes to quoting by having estimate templates all set up.
Tiered pricing
This is where you offer two-three tiered price options.
This works if the scale of your service varies quite a lot. So, for example I write simple, small websites for solopreneurs, but I also do sites for more established consultants who offer three-five services and want case studies to go with each service. The difference in price is several thousand dollars, so I use a tired pricing model for my website copy service.
To work out your tiers, audit your invoicing and look at where your projects are grouped. Then create two-three options. You can use package pricing or a starting from fee for each tier, depending on which suits best. Again, you will need to confirm a price with each client.
But what about value based pricing?
Value-based pricing charges for a project based on the value it represents to your client, rather than the time / cost it takes you to do the project. To work out value-based pricing, you ask your prospect questions to work out their goal for their project and the value of that to their business.
Start with their goal.
Why are they doing this project with you?
What change are they looking for?
How will they measure success?
How much is that change worth to their business?
What is the potential cost to their business if they don’t make this change?
Agree a price that’s a fair percentage of this value.
If you negotiate value-based pricing on a case-by-case basis, that doesn’t mean you can’t manage expectations and improve your conversion rate by putting pricing on your site. It simply means that you use the starting from fee model and set a generous starting point.
You might say something like, ‘Typically, this service starts from $XX,XXX. I’ll have a conversation with you about your business goals for this project, and we’ll agree a fair price.’ You can also prepare templates for your scope of work and estimates to make the estimating process smoother and swifter.
Where to add pricing on your site
Pricing needs context. Last time I talked about this on LinkedIn, a coach said, “I find the vast majority of the time people are sceptical coming in, and pricing in any way turns them off immediately. Yet after a discussion / call / value demonstration the pricing becomes significantly more acceptable.”
This is a great point. But here’s the thing. You don’t have to get on a call to demonstrate value. A decent sales landing page should be doing the heavy lifting for you.
It’s absolutely fine to have a discovery call as part of your sales process but do everything you can to make sure that by the time people get on that call they’re 99.9% of the way sold. That way your job is simply to diagnose their problem and talk about how you’ll solve that problem together.
So, pricing sits in the context of a detailed sales landing page. I’ve made you a guide to writing effective sales pages, but the key thing you need to know is that pricing comes after you’ve made the case for your service, outlined the problems you solve, the benefits you deliver, the process you go through, and have offered up proof that you deliver the goods.
TLDR. Put your pricing on your site already
Seriously. Do it.
Any reasons you have for resisting don’t serve you.
And the pros far outweigh the faff.