Deciding Whether Or Not To Publish Your Prices

Deciding Whether Or Not To Publish Your Prices

Copyright (c) 2008 Mark Silver

Your website is up, your services/workshops/products page is
finished. So… do you publish your prices along with it?

If you do, won’t that scare people away? If you don’t, won’t
people think you’re hiding something? It’s a lose-lose
situation, it would seem. So, do your clients need to see your
prices, or not?

Safety first.

When someone is looking to hire you, in their heart of hearts,
they’ve already made a decision. There is a Yes or No that has
already sprung to life, because our inner truth compass is just
that certain.

The problem comes in when the mind gets involved. Because
following one’s heart-knowing involves surrendering control, the
ego gets a mite touchy about it. “Uh, are you sure about this?”
your client’s ego asks.

Unless your clients are all spiritually-enlightened masters,
chances are their egos will need some soothing, and the price
isn’t going to do it.

Well, not the price all by its lonesome.

The question I often hear is “should I publish my prices?”
perhaps because money is such a hot topic. But, the truth is, the
price only makes sense in context.

“Balloon, $27,390” Seems absurd, until you realize it’s an
Aerostar S66A Turnkey Ride System- a hot air balloon, with all
the trimmings, by Paul Stumpf. (www.stumpfballoons.com)

Price or no price, people will be slow on the uptake.

Unless you give them more. If you just have two or three bullet
points and a short paragraph, whether you have the price or not
is irrelevant. You’re just not giving enough information to
answer all the questions churning in the mind of your potential
client.

That $27K Aerostar is going to raise a lot of questions before
someone buys. It may be true that your service or class doesn’t
cost twenty-seven thousand gees, and yet if you’re asking any
significant price at all, their egos are going to need some
answers, before they’ll let the heart take control.

So, publish prices or not?

You thought it was a simple question, and it is. But the answer
takes a little bit more work than you had thought. But, never
fear! It’s worth it. The little bit of extra work will mean
extra safety, and extra safety means extra responses.

So, what’s the extra? Let’s find out.

Keys to Publishing Your Price.

* Get help coming up with questions.

Use friends, colleagues, trusted clients: tell them the
three-sentence version of your offer. “It’s a class about
finding work when you’ve been unemployed, it’s a day-long
workshop, and I’m thinking of charging $200 for it.”

Then, tell them to come up with all the questions they might have
about it. Don’t ask them for answers. Don’t ask for what they
want to see in the workshop. Just the questions that they want to
ask you before they say ‘yes.’

Push ’em to give you some outlandish questions – the ones
they’re embarrassed to ask. “Should I wear a suit? Do I need to
bring a resume? Does it matter if I was fired for bad conduct?”

* Now, answer those questions on your web page.

Answer ’em. If they have the questions, then believe me your
prospective clients have the questions. And they’ll be looking
for the answers. Including the price.

* And yes, include the price.

At this point, after answering all of their other questions, it
definitely will cause more suspicion on the reader’s part if you
leave the price out. They’ll be wondering: “They’ve told me
everything but the price… is there some catch?” They won’t
want to call you or email for fear of getting caught in a hypey,
hard-sell attack.

Your price is your price. It’s okay to present it. If it’s the
right price, you’ve answered their other questions, and it’s
really the right thing for them, they’ll pay you happily. If
it’s not the right thing, whether you show the price or not,
they won’t buy, and they shouldn’t.

Publishing prices is somewhat of a no-brainer – you want to
publish your prices. But you also need to answer as many of their
other questions as possible, or they’ll walk away… not because
of the price, but because their egos don’t yet feel safe enough
to trust the heart.

The best to you and your business, Mark Silver