Should you have your prices up on your website and your instagram handles? Will NOT putting up the prices increase the number of enquiries that you’ll get?

Some people have contemplated putting up the price on the website, but then get worried that their best customers might get scared away.

Whether the prices should go up or not depend on a variety of factors.

Either approach is valid and goes along with a particular strategy.

Putting the prices up on the website and social media is a means of “pre qualifying” potential customers.

What this means is that you’re trying to make sure that ONLY people who can afford the product or service reach out to you.

Either that, or to make sure that when people call or email, they have realistic expectations around finances.

The goal here is to make sure that only “serious buyers” call you.

If you look at things this way, then the question isn’t about pricing per se, but rather about how you can “qualify” people to make sure no “time wasters” come through the channel.

There are some products and services on the other hand where you CANNOT put up pricing because a quote requires a lot of particular information that varies from persons to contexts.

That’s the reason why a carpenter, plumber, and an engineer can’t give you a quote “just like that”. They need more information about what you’re trying to build, what you’re trying to repair, and the purpose you’re using the thing for.

So if you’re an architect, should you put prices on your site or Instagram handle? How could you put a price not knowing for sure if you’re under selling yourself and running at a loss?

The strategy for these kinds of people, services, and products is to get as many people to call in as possible so that you can “qualify” over the phone, email, WhatsApp, or when they come into the office.

In this case when the people call, you have a chance to figure out if this is a person worth doing business with by having conversations with them.

If you look at things this way, the main question isn’t “price or no price?” ...but “what is the best way we should be sorting through our potential clients?”

Is there a middle ground strategy one can use that takes the best of these two approaches?

Maybe!

Some people put a price range on the site initially to ward off “price shoppers”.

After that there’s a little note about circumstances needed to narrow the price down to a final number.

An example of this would be a wedding photographer posting...

“Packages range between 400K and 850K depending on the number of days, and the size of the albums and frames being ordered. Call 080XXXABC for a quote today”

Or an architect could post...

“Our happiest customers should expect to spend anything between 3M and 9.5M for custom residential plans not exceeding ABC sqm in size. Email XYZ for a consultation today”

These price ranges should ensure that only “certain kinds of people” reach out to you that you’d be happy working with.

But remember that at the end of the day it’s not about price.

It’s about how best you think to “qualify” and “sort through” potential clients to separate the “serious” from the “time wasters”.