"Contact us for a quote" vs Set Price List
 

Do you provide services or buy services (or both?)

Do you prefer to have a customized quote for each client or have set rates for everyone, listed on your site?

Why not have set prices higher then your lowest price, then encourage people to contact you for special package deals?

You make more if they don't want to start a dialogue and the customer still has both options.

Both

Set prices get more action, I have passed up many domains, link deals, content at this forum cause it wasn't priced, I don't have time to contact everyone for pricing to find out which ones are realistic in their pricing, not priced= no contact made :2 cents:

Go with the set list price. It's all about expectation management.

I usually won't contact someone if they don't have at least general prices listed, as I prefer to have a ballpark price before I waste anyone's time.

set your "price i want" on your site but let clients talk you down a bit so they feel they are getting a deal

Same here. My first reaction to a "call us for a quote" is 'great, i get to call up and listen to some salesman do their spiel. pass.'

Good to know! I might be convinced to change. I suppose I'll have to if there's a high number of people that don't even ASK.

I'm concerned that some people will be scared away by the 'what i want' prices and not realize that they can be negotiable depending on how busy I am, what the deadline is, discounts for personal usage or charities, etc. I guess I could just make this all clear.

I always feel bad about giving a 'ballpark' and then having to charge higher.. thoughts?

Ballpark high, or don't give ballparks.

If you ballpark high, you can still come down. As long as your ballpark didn't send them running for the hills lol.

You can actually come off professional and trustworthy if you indicate a discomfort with giving ballparks. "Mr. Prospect, without knowing your unique situation, there's no way i can give you an accurate quote...So Mr. P, can you tell me about your needs?" Now you have them talking about themselves, which everybody loves to do. This is part of the 'become their trusted advisor' sales technique.

This is my preferred sales technique as it fits my personality well. I'm not the high-energy, high-pressure, keep-talking-till-they-buy-just-to-shut-your-ass-up huckster type.

I am the same. No prices is ok for markets and tourists, not for straight business.

Here is my two cents, and from various industries...

If your competition lists their pricing, you should too. If they don't, you should at least list your "starting at..." price point.

Without listing a price can be bad to attract consumers, as well get in people who waste your time that have no idea what your price point is.

We offer software and our competitors don't list prices, or do so in a way that is not very clear. As we have multiple levels of service, we created a "low ball" figure to compete with some providers who offer sometime similar, but have a far inferior product; therefor we needed to try and show them ours.

However, we since removed the low end and out in our pricing based on our true target audience. We haven't received as many leads, however the quality has been far superior to before. For instance, maybe 1/2 the leads but 4-5x better. This is important to us as we typically spend about 30-45+ minutes doing a demo of the software.

We made this change early this month and just noticed one of our competitors did that same!

Point being, it depends in your competition in the space. Don't try to undercut others and sacrifice quality, show a real value and why it's worth more.

This pretty much hits the nail.

What are you selling?

I love pricelists - hate those kind of "deals" and stuff...
I close the website when I see "contact us for quote" instantly...