I think it’s good to display your pricing for three reasons:

1) It makes it easier to talk price when you arrange business

2) It gives the buyer confidence that you price is legitimate and not fluctuating

3) It encourages more sales … I compare it to the experience when my husband and I were looking for a house. If the ad didn’t include the price, we just skipped it and assumed it was too high. If it did include the price, we were much more likely to consider it.

Kathy Bernard
Getajobtips.com

I seek out my clients or they are referred.  I don’t post my prices because my services are pretty much tailored to my client’s needs.  Some of my client’s are billed by the hour and some based upon the project, so it would not work in my situation.

I am the opposite of @kathybernard and @russellallert regarding the posting of prices, especially when looking at purchasing creative services.  Web or graphic design projects have so many variables I would be hesitant to deal with someone who quoted me a price before they knew the scope of my needs.
Steve

I was going to say – it all depends. (I offer handmade products, so it’s not an issue.)
As a consumer, I prefer (at least) a rough idea of what something is going to cost me. I can work with “We start here, but that only gets you blah-blah-blah.”
With absolutely no ball-park for charges, my naturally skeptical nature would have me wondering. If a business can’t set a we-can’t-even-talk-to-you-for-less-than X amount, then how many ‘additional charges’ am I facing before the job is done?

But, that’s just me.

@foxxtrot 

I’m going to agree with @stevecurran (and disagree with just about everyone else.)

OK, maybe I’ll agree with @julie-g-hughes, because it does depend.
If you sell a commodity product and your competing on price and your price is the lowest, then by all means, compete on price and show your prices; that should speed up the buying process.
However, if you’re in a creative business, or if you’re not the cheapest (looks at self in mirror), but you feel that you provide a product or service that is the most valuable, then you should NEVER list your prices.
Why? 
Because let’s say you’re a wedding photographer and you charge twice as much as the other guy in town. If you both list your prices on your website, you’re going to lose a lot of business.
Even though you have two camera people, and he has one.
Even though you have someone shooting b&w candids throughout the day.
Even though you produce a high quality photo album as part of your pricing.
Even though you cover your own travel, brown bag it, have 20 years of experience, and will make any bride look like the most beautiful woman in the world for that day.
You get where I’m going with this?
Your service is worth five or possibly ten times the value of that other guy. Sure, you may lose some people who only care about price, but you didn’t want them as customers anyway.
Instead, say that you work with all size weddings and all size budgets, and we’ll tailor a solution just for you. Free consultation. Call us now or fill out our form.
Once you get them on the phone you can get a better sense of what they’re looking for, decide if you’d be a good fit, and put together a price that makes sense.
I hope that helps.

@foxxtrot
My wife starting this post because we were curious how others felt about this subject. I have to admit a lot of sympathy with those who get frustrated wanting to find pricing but, after years of experience, I have to cast my lot with Rich. @rich-brooks

If you are competing on price, then by all means, prominently display your pricing. However, if you are not the cheapest (looking in that mirror as well Rich) then you will lose business. There are always those who will make purchasing decisions based on price with little, or no, regard to quality, features, service or percs. If they look at your website alongside Brand “B” and your prices are much higher, many will choose the latter without asking why there is a difference. If they have to contact you, at least you are able to explain the value of your additional cost and services.

Yes, there will be those who “pass over” the sites with no pricing and settle on the cheapest site with stated prices. Personally (again from 17 years web experience) I believe if your website has proper design and copywriting, along with an outstanding call to action, you will miss few of the quality customers you seek.

As Steve @stevecurran mentioned there are so many variables in creative work. And as Rich said, there may be many “behind the scenes” differences (I like the photographer example he used). As a web developer, I find the key is to present your company as the “solution” to a person’s problem. If you can draw a site visitor deeper into your site to see how well you can “meet their needs” and then convince them that “you are the man with THE solution”…then “don’t know if I can afford it” becomes “I must have it!”

Back in the day I used to own a computer store. I started before computers became just another mass-produced commodity like a toaster or microwave oven. Then along came the discount stores. I got very tired of people coming into my store telling me that Sam’s Club was 10% cheaper. One day a man walked in and walked up to a computer on display and said, “I can get this computer for $100 cheaper at Sam’s.” I replied, “Then why are you talking to me.” He was stunned and asked, “Aren’t you going to try to deal with me.” I said, “No, because you are only interested in price. You didn’t ask me a single question about the features or service…or anything else for that matter.” I continued, “You are talking to the owner. I am a computer professional, not a sales clerk. I can answer any question you have about this computer. If this computer needs service, I can repair it right here without shipping it off somewhere. When you buy from me, the money goes in the local bank, not wired off to Bentonville, Arkansas. I turn around and spend it locally which is good for our community.” Well, I won’t bore you all with the full rant but that was the start. OK, tell me I was rude as hell…but from that day forward I made the decision that I wanted a target market…one was not myopically fixated on price alone. I have never regretted that decision. No, it’s not for everybody, but it sure works for me.

Thanks for all the input. I know there is no single “one size fits all” answer.

@annfurnivall

I hear what you’re saying, but I can’t count the number of projects I wouldn’t have gotten if I posted prices on my site. Our products are unique in a different way than yours are. 

Yours are unique, but anyone could purchase them (assuming they have the cash.) Are are unique in that we’re entering into a partnership with a business for a few months to create something that will help that business grow.

What works for us on sharing pricing wouldn’t work for you.

In my business, anyone can build a website. I’m competing with the guy down the street, the guy in India, and the free or nearly free websites from companies like 1 and 1.

I need to show people that we’re not just going to build a website, we’re going to help grow their business. We’re going to understand their goals, their audience, their competition. 

We’re going to come up with a plan for them to rank higher, engage in social media, drive traffic to their site and convert that traffic.

Many people who are shopping on price for a website don’t realize that it’s more than a 5 page brochure. During the sales process, I help them realize this isn’t an expense, it’s an investment. 

If a fancy steakhouse tried to compete with McDonald’s strictly on price, they’d get clobbered!

Sure, sometimes I waste my time and theirs for someone who can’t come close to paying for even our entry-level products, but mostly people who wouldn’t talk to a company that doesn’t post prices on their site aren’t the type of people that we can best serve, so it all works out.

I’m with Kathy and Russell on this. Definitely display pricing… at least a base price with add-on options, maybe.

When I go online to buy, I’m like Kathy shopping for a home… if there’s no price tag, I keep looking. It’s a waste of my time to email or call and find out their price was not in my budget. Then I resent them wasting my time and regardless of the beautiful work they produce, I won’t recommend to friends or other businesses should THEIR budgets be within that price range. All I’ll remember is their wasting my time.

So definitely… give at least a base price or provide a few package prices, with a note to ask for quotes on something a bit different… or maybe a message like “we also cater to creative folks who have something totally different in mind. Call us and let’s talk.” Anything like that makes both the budget conscious who appreciate the stated prices and the out-of-the-box thinkers feel at home and appreciate you for giving them ALL the info they need up front that encourages them to call you.

Robin

@kathybernard

@mojofoxx

John, I love your local service marketing focus! What I’ve been talking to local businesses about, and something I recommend for you, too, is to incorporate your big box store competitors into YOUR OWN online marketing.

Meaning, become an affiliate, join Commission Junction or whatever affiliate site represents your local competitor big brands, and add that to your site in a locally meaningful way. That way you can be sweet to those who don’t get your “service” focus, while still profiting from them. It’s a balancing act, to be sure, but veterinarians, dentists, other “regular” businesses are adding this “local” focus to their sites and it is resonating with county taxpayers, chambers of commerce, and local government officials who are chiming in “Buy Local” in desparate moves to keep taxpayer money flowing into their counties and not outside them.

It’s also helping rescue businesses who can’t compete at all with the big box stores… those who haven’t thought the service end of product sales as well as you and your wife so far.

Just a thought…

Robin Carlisle

@geoffrey-gordon that  sounds  so good… and what we would want in  our time crunched lives…..

so  frustrating  to   get  interested in   someone and  down the road   realize  they are aiming at   fortune  500  companies  with huge  budgets,,,    or  that they are   looking   to sell trash at the lowest price….

i like  your  part about   charging  enough….its  easier to  lower  your price later   than to go   up after  you start……..  

@annfurnivall Thanks. Personally i only like to work with small to medium size business. I know big companies pay well, but they also give you a lot of problems too. Plus i like the personal relationship not a faceless corporation that thinks you work for them and not with them.

Thanks to all y’all who commented. This has been an interesting discussion. My husband and I actually use both methods in our three business entities.

I have a screenprinting business and I display all the pricing because it is basically the same t-shirts, inks and screens as others…the difference being our hand-drawn artwork which is displayed on the site. Our pricing is not the cheapest but is close, the art gives us the edge.

For our mobile app/marketing business we also display the pricing. Here we are competing on price against those selling an inferior product. It works well here demonstrating how many more features our customers get for the same price as our competition.

For our web design business…well that’s a whole nuther story (as we say in Mississippi). There are too many variables, plus we build quality sites with a lot of attention on copywriting, good graphic design and SEO. We publish pricing only for very basic sites and list what they get for the money and what we require of them. For other jobs, there is no pricing listed. However, we use an approach that has gone over quite well.

agree with @kathybernard

I agree with @julie-g-hughes. That it all depends with what you are offering. If you are offering products better put the price on each item and if you are offering services it all depends also but I prefer not to put price on it. Just put your number so that customers can inquire.

Customers are very wise enough to choose whether what product they’ll gonna buy or what services they’ll hire. Make your product / services a BEST one.