Why You Should Share Your Prices Publicly

I’ll break the rules of authority by opening this post with an exception to the rule: Sometimes, it just isn’t possible to share the prices for your product or services publicly. That's even true of a very small section on my own pricing page.

But the point I’m making still remains in the overwhelming majority of situations:

Putting up your prices publicly does more to benefit your business, your customers, and your industry than it ever could to harm it.

Our society has a lot of weird feelings about talking openly about money we make and what we charge. I’m arguing against that today, and I hope you’ll humour me by playing along, even if only for the length of time it takes you to read my reasons.

Here are a few of the major benefits of sharing your prices publicly:

1. It demonstrates confidence

Think of the last Apple commercial you saw somewhere. Did they sound humble and nervous about their computers? “Our computers are pretty good.” LOL uh no. “A revolution in computing”. They are confident.

Professionals are confident. We don’t hum and haw. We are knowledgeable and articulate.

Putting your prices online demonstrates that you have a tried + true process, and that you know what you’re doing. You send subliminal messages to potential clients that you know what you are doing, and you have systems in place for whatever it is you do.

2. Few of your competitors are doing it

I’ll peddle this philosophy all over town, but few of anyone that listens to me will ever actually follow through. Do a search for an industry near you: say, plumbing. How many of those plumbers have a price on their website about servicing your leaky basement? I’d bet good money that the answer is less than 5—no, less than 3—of the probably 50 plumbers you might be able to hire in the city.

If it doesn’t inspire confidence in your customers like I say it will, it’ll at least capture their attention. And it ties into #6 below.

3. It weeds out tire-kickers faster

There is a (generally) horrible belief that you’ll be able to make someone swoon over you and pay you whatever price you name if you first get to know them before talking numbers. In most industries, this is false.

Most customers will have a budget in mind already, and maybe only spend an additional 20% - 40% of that, if you know how to make a sale.

If your customer has a price in mind of $300-$500 for something, and your lowest, cheapest option begins at $1200, you guys aren’t even in the same galaxy.

It might sound counter-intuitive, but you want to get rid of the people that can’t afford you as fast as possible. Why? Because bad clients waste precious time trying to haggle you into charging less, when instead you could be spending working with better clients.

So what happens when you have someone who can’t afford you reach out, is you thank that customer for their consideration, and pass them along to a vendor within that price range as fast as possible. If you are genuinely helpful, they will remember how you went out of your way to help them, and you build rapport you can’t directly track, but might benefit you in the long run.

4. It earns the trust of potential clients much faster

“Put your money where your mouth is.” That’s a common way of expressing that money = trust, so before your client gives you their money, they need to trust you. (Would you buy something from a store that might just be giving you an empty box?)

When you’re upfront about your pricing, it shows that you have nothing to hide.

You de-mystify the process of what it’s like to work with you. This breaks down barriers and lets clients imagine what you’re going to be like on the other side of their deposit.

5. It keeps you within consideration longer

If your potential customer is shopping around with other similar businesses, they will keep considering you longer into the process because you’ve already started building trust with them by being upfront about your prices.

When you share your prices publicly, you put less obstacles between qualified clients hiring you. You’ve already rid yourself of tire kickers taking up your inbox or clogging your phone lines. You’ll notice your number of inquiries might decrease, but the quality increases significantly. This is a net-gain overall.

Posting prices isn’t a trick to win every inquiry from now on, but it changes the way customers already think about you from the very onset of your potential working relationship.

6. It helps your industry

Here’s a hot take: you help your industry—yes, even your competitors—by being upfront about what you charge.

No one wins in a race to the bottom. If you need a list of reasons Why You Can’t Afford Cheap Clients, read that blog.

When your competitors know what you charge, it allows them to charge something similar, which changes the public perception of what your services are worth.

When potential customers realize they’re paying (roughly) the same for your service regardless of who they go with, they start hiring you for reasons beyond money; like your work ethic, your portfolio, your niche or your talent.

That’s a much better place to be.

All ships rise with the tide. You’ll also be building better relationships with peers in your industry when you start breaking down the barriers that stand between you. Not only does the confidence you emit attract better clients, it also attracts better peers.

7. Current clients feel like they get a “better deal”

As long as what you’re showing on your website is more than what your current clients pay for the same service, they will like you more because they realize what they’re paying is no longer offered.

Kind of like people that have grandfathered phone plans. All the new ones cost more, so they stick with the one they have for as long as humanly possible before upgrading.

Even if you end up lowering your prices and your current clients—who pay more—take notice, you can justify it in a few different ways:

• The new price doesn’t include X service that your current customer gets

• Your overhead cost decreased, so you’re passing along those savings to your customers

• You’re running a sale like a brick and mortar store can

In the vast majority of circumstances, your current clients aren’t going to be browsing your pricing page to see if you’ve changed your prices, so don’t let this one keep you up at night.

— — —

If I’ve managed to put you on the fence about sharing your prices, but you’re still not ready to commit, there are 3 reminders I want to leave you with that might push you over the edge:

1. You can still adjust your prices all the time

And, in fact, I do!

Just because my prices said something yesterday, doesn’t mean they have to say the same thing today. Nor tomorrow.

You always, always have the authority to change what you charge.

Sharing it publicly doesn’t strip you of that right. In fact, you might see your number of inquiries noticeably spike or dip in relation to price changes on your site. You can use that to your advantage!

2. You can still quote someone higher than what’s advertised

If your services vary too much from job to job or client to client, at the very least, you can put a “Prices start at _____” with a “The average customer spends _____” to qualify people. If you do nothing else, this alone can be a huge game-changer.

A price on your website is not a commitment in most cases. As long as that’s clear before they hire you, and you’re giving them the actual figures of what they’ll pay long before you send a contract or they make a commitment, you are in the right to charge more than what’s advertised.

3. You can stop sharing your prices publicly anytime

What have you got to lose?