Will A Call For Pricing Generate Leads On Your Site?

If you were hoping that your website was going to generate leads and now you aren’t impressed with the results, it may be time to change things a bit.

One area you might challenge is if you have a ‘request a quote’ form on your website. If your form is looking to weed out those who aren’t your best customers, try changing the form to something more inviting and stop asking so many questions. Try stating who would be your ideal customer and then asking a few simple questions. Give it a try and test it out, then let me know if that improves your incoming leads.

Exploring countless websites everyday on the internet, examining new tools, doing competitive research for clients, and even just some shopping for myself, I think I’m rather typical in that once I see that either the product or service might be viable, my next step is to look for pricing.

What Does It Cost?

I get that question from prospects all of the time. I hear it come out of my mouth just as often and it weighs like a dark cloud in my thoughts. Yes, what does it cost? I want to know at least the range before I become too invested in my desire. Being asked to answer a lot of questions on a ‘request a quote’ form feels invasive and worse, as though I’m surrendering control. No thanks. An even worse feeling is that I’m offering up data such as how many employees I have and my annual revenue. Really, is this an IRS audit? Is this information safe or am I going to see it posted somewhere else soon? These forms are scary so rethink what you ask versus what you share.

Call For An Estimate?

No thanks, that sounds like an invitation to get ‘sold’ and I am not available for that today. But let me check my calendar… nope, not available anytime in the near or distant future either. Besides, why do I need to call? Is anyone even there now at 11pm? Can’t you just tell me what it costs? Isn’t one of the points of a website to gather viable leads, instigate an incoming call, or potentially make a sale?

Oh, I see, it’s more complicated than that, or it must be customized to my needs? There are too many variables? Really, there are – just try pricing out a website design and development project.

I also have problems with this – just take a look at our website and you’ll see that we are still struggling with how to offer pricing or budgeting information online. Do I want to tip our hand to our competitors? Do I want to potentially lose a prospect because we appear too expensive? I have at least three draft versions of a pricing page to add to our site and still haven’t settled on the best way to present pricing. So I feel your pain.

It is a rare web development, design, and marketing firm that does reveal pricing. Once you get past a few ‘do it yourself’ or template makeover service providers, pricing in my industry is almost never shared online. The sites that do provide pricing target a different audience then our ideal customer.

However, for our clients, some of whom are in a more commoditized, less customized industry, pricing on websites is more often shared than not.

To the Point

If your competitors are sharing prices then you might want to consider doing the same. If you feel that your differentiator will not translate to a higher price than your competitors, you may never get the chance to share your story if the visitor decides that there is something less trustworthy about your not revealing costs. Consider creatively changing what and how you are presenting your pricing options and your story. Maybe even offer a competitive report, a service performance report or some evidence that you are worth the higher price.

If there are too many variables then consider investing in programming a small budgeting calculator. This will not only help your prospects match their budget to their needs but it will also provide the flexibility to offer a budget rather than a fixed price. Chances are most of your competitors haven’t been so creative or helpful, which might just better position you to win the price war.

If you don’t want your competitors to discover your prices, well, get over the idea that they can’t have this information, because that’s what secret shoppers do all day long. Maybe the unspoken point you want to make is, if you have to ask, then you can’t afford it.

Ask yourself what message you’re sending when you don’t share your prices. If you aren’t sure you need to show your prices on your website, create a test by putting a search feature on your site and monitor how often the term pricing is used.

Do you have pricing visible on your website? Let us know why or why not.