To Price Or Not To Price – An Age Old Question

I was hit up for some more free advice today.  Gotta love it.

I need to ask you something — is it better when putting down the different consultation programs [privacy edit] has to also put down the price for each?

[privacy edit] mentioned that the other people working on the site before advised [privacy edit] not to because it might scare people away — but I feel there is nothing wrong to put the price. That way, people will know how much they’ll need to pay for such program or package.  What do you think?

My response…

Hi [privacy edit],

It all depends.

I wouldn’t put it on the front page if that’s what you’re asking.

The further down the sales funnel you go, the more likely you’ll see a price tag.  First, you should warm up your customers, not hit them with a ‘buy’ button from the start.  There’s nothing wrong or deceptive with that.  Both parties should get to know one another before you discuss price.  [privacy edit]‘s help isn’t about the lowest price, or should it be.  It’s about what [privacy edit] can do for [privacy edit] clients.  That’s why the opt-in download and the blog posts are all ways to bond with [privacy edit] before one asks the all-important, “So, how much is this going to cost me?”

You don’t want to scare off your customers like this…

If you ask a plumber how much it’s gonna cost to fix your drain, you’ll wonder about the price, but if you ask your brother-in-law who is a plumber, you’ll accept the price for what it is.  Do you see the relationship between how well the two parties know each other and price?

If you want to do something — here’s what I’d do.

At the end of each blurb for the different programs, put a link that says, “learn more” and have it go to a page where there’s a contact form.  (Just make another blog page, install Contact Form 7 plugin and put the shortcode on that blog post).  On the new contact page, say something like…

Thank you for your interest in my consulting programs.

Each consultation is tailor-made for each individual.  As such, it would be unfair to place you into a program that only offered X, Y, or Z, when it might be beneficial for you to experience two of the three and therefore, the pricing structure would change.

Please select the programs that you are interested in from the drop-down menu and I will contact you to discuss your needs personally and confidentially.

Let’s discuss how we can get you feeling like the real you!

The real intent here is to get a chance to talk with these people — each and every one of them, not to shoo them away because of a certain price point.

[privacy edit] may want to take a client here and there, because something is better than nothing or that a person may be in a financial shortage at the moment — both of which wouldn’t be possible if you slapped the price sticker up there.

Does that make sense?

-K