The debate of, “should you show pricing on your website” constantly circulates every social platform. Facebook groups, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, the only place I haven’t seen it shown is LinkedIn, and I’m probably not looking hard enough!

Because I work with many service based entrepreneurs and have extensive experience as a service based entrepreneur, I’m going to speak to this market. (Product based businesses are their own strategy, not my current zone of genius.)

First, Know Your Market

You must understand your client and how your offering is priced in relation to their business and how they buy. Is this an easy investment for them? Is this an intense investment where multiple decision makers need to sign off? Understanding this process will allow you to dial in presenting pricing to them.

If it’s a big investment, it’s best to show an insane level of value before you share pricing. Showing a lot of value could mean an in-depth consult and a custom feeling proposal with pricing afterwards. It could mean your website offers immense value, and they fall into a beautiful know, like and trust funnel—one quick call seals the deal.

If this is an easy investment where the value is obvious, showcasing pricing on your website (or a starting price!) can make the process straightforward. It’ll also pre-qualify any leads so they come prepared to spend.

As Your Business Grows, Your Pricing Process Will, Too

Here is your permission to get curious, experiment and shake it up if things aren’t working! I’m an open book with how we’ve handled pricing, so I’ll use BRANDSPEAK to illustrate this:

First, let me give you the History Channel rundown of how I’ve dished up pricing. 

I started sharing pricing during an initial phone call.

This worked.

I could show value during the consult so the client rarely experienced sticker shock. (I could make little adjustments to give a custom experience, too.)

Then, I became too booked with free consults, and many of them weren’t a great fit. We were too expensive, and they needed something we couldn’t offer, etc.

I decided to make our starting price something that people could grab on our website.

All they had to do was drop their name and email to get added to our list. (I made a reel showing how you could do this on your site, too!)

This is how I like to shop! I want to see pricing so I can budget and plan like the recovering impulse buyer I am.

Our email list blew up. People were curious! Pricing? Right away?! With no sales call?! Completely different from all our competitors.

I added an automated sequence where I emailed them once a day. This would happen for 5 days and offer helpful insights (that most people pay for). Then, I invited them to a consult.

We got insane leads from this and grew our email list. So why change?

The same problems started again.

I became booked with too many free consults, eating up my valuable work time. Many of them weren’t a great fit because our services had increased in scope and price.

At this point, we were serving entrepreneurs who had been in business for at least a few years. They were looking for value and weren’t opting into our email list.

Our email funnel was attracting new entrepreneurs.

They were looking for the best rate they could find. (Totally fair and super important to keep a trim budget when you’re kicking things off!)

Sooooo, I switched it up.

I put our updated pricing right on the site, with a detailed map of what people receive when they work with us.

If you’re experienced in entrepreneurship, you see that our worth and investment are also along the lines of what you budgeted.

It’s also handy for new entrepreneurs, because they are like, “oh, that’s way more than I need.”

But… this also left a gap for new entrepreneurs looking for website copy that slays the game. They need to communicate effectively to bring in clients. Powerful website copy is tough to completely DIY. So… This led us to build a totally new offer I’d never thought of. Our mastermind!

For us, maintaining flexibility with the question, “should you show pricing on your website?” has kept us growing and learning. I’m sure we’re not done. (And I’m excited to see what serves us in the next chapter!