Are your rates visible on your website? Many organizations are cautious about this, but lose sight of the importance of their potential customers.
Those who have come into contact with inbound marketing or online lead generation know: to generate leads via the website, offering educational content is indispensable.
This does not necessarily mean to go into in-depth (technical) knowledge for which you have to produce an e-book of 30 pages. Just start by asking the sales and customer service staff what the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) of leads and customers are. And yes, guess three times what the most commonly asked question from your potential customers will be… Quanta costa?
The openness of affairs and the provision of transparent and educational content that teaches the reader something inspires confidence and strengthens the bond with (potential) relationships. And that last part is just the most important. Nevertheless, many organizations are still suspicious when it comes to showing rates on their websites.
Showing rates on websites inspires confidence and contributes to online lead generation.
Why don’t you put rates on your site?
The three most common arguments for not doing this are the following:
Every assignment or every product is different. We always deliver custom work so we can not display standard rates on our site. The mentioning of prices deters our customers, mainly because we as a supplier are in a higher price range. If we mention our prices on the website, our competition can benefit from this.
Each and every one of these is understandable reasons to be cautious. Yet it is a pity that we often weigh the disadvantages more than the benefits. In doing so, we do not have enough leads and prospects. But let me show you these disadvantages from a different perspective.
Every assignment is different
Of course, every task is different. But that does not mean that you can not show guidelines that clearly define which factors make a product or service more expensive and which factors actually reduce costs. The majority of our potential customers will experience this explanation as more than reasonable and get the impression that your organization is a transparent and reliable partner to do business with. This also saves the sales team a lot of extra time. These factors no longer need to be explained separately for each quotation or application.
It scares our customers
What is more likely to deter potential buyers than suppliers who use ‘high’ tariffs are suppliers who do not share any tariffs at all. Besides, you have to ask yourself whether leads that are deterred by the level of your rates do not drop out when you announce these rates to them at a later stage. In this phase, sales have already spent the necessary time (or lost in this case). Namely to personally address these leads and the development of customized offers.
It is competition-sensitive information
Do you choose not to be transparent in costs, because it allows you to show the competition in your rates easily? That means, in fact, nothing more than that you give the interest of the competitor more weight than the interest of the potential customer. Also, sales staff usually know precisely in which price range the competitors offer their products. Well, I have news for you. If your organization is aware of the competitor’s rates, then the chances are that your competitor will also be aware of your rates. Whether they are online or not.
Customers are more difficult to make an informed choice
Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. Maybe your organization operates in a gray area and the FBI or CIA closely watch you. Or is there another reason why you may cause serious harm to the organization by publishing your price list. Most of us, however, are not concerned with rocket science and will, therefore, have to deal with competitors who offer more or less the same products and services. For the potential buyer, it is, therefore, all the more difficult to make an informed decision about which supplier to use.
If all goes well, your organization has opted for a positioning whereby it offers added value for its customers. And that in a way that distinguishes itself from the competition. If this is not the case, it is probably not the biggest challenge that you are giving out.
I am also aware that some organizations have based their earnings model on opaque pricing structures. In the short term, this tactic may still bring in money. But times are changing fast and we are becoming increasingly critical and demanding for our suppliers. You can therefore seriously question the profitability and the growth potential of this tactic in the longer term. Moral of the story remains that when offering educational content, we often let the wrong factors influence.
Make pressure on your customer
That is how we are most concerned about the competition. Then there is a large group of potential customers that fits within the target group, but where your products or services do not provide the best solution for their needs. So they are actually a bad fit. This group is therefore unlikely to be willing to pay your tariff for the product or service that you offer, regardless of the phase in which you make them known. The last group around whom we seem to be busy, or who have an influence on the information we share, is now just the one that makes sure that there is bread on the shelf — your ideal customer.
Turn this triangle around and let the interests of your best fit customer weigh the most in the communication and content that your organization produces. Then you will see that this approach has a positive influence on your lead generation process. You create a very positive impression thanks to this form of transparency. As a result, the sales professionals within your organization will have less trouble to eventually make a deal and convert the relevant lead into a customer. And was this not the most critical reason now?