We like it when sales and marketing work well together. Often, including prices on marketing material sets you up for a confrontation rather than making conversations possible. And that means less business for you!
We’re not talking about transactional businesses here. With something like fast food, coffee shops, or other lower-priced items, this doesn’t hold true. Of course, you should tell people how much a cup of coffee is.
But in businesses where transactions are a higher dollar amount and business is done based on relationships, you can lose business by including pricing on your brochures, flyers, website, and other marketing material.
Everyone comes into interactions with two things: behaviors and expectations.
Behaviors are all about things like being high-detail or low-detail. It involves whether someone is a fast decision-maker or a slow decision-maker. Of course, your marketing needs to keep all that in mind. But it also needs to not undermine their expectations.
Let’s pretend you’re selling hour-long consultations and your website says the investment is $99 per hour. Someone who sees that may think any number of things:
“$99 is way too expensive for me!”
“I thought this sort of thing was more like $200 an hour. Is this company even any good?”
“No professional worth anything would only charge $99 for this.”
In each of those cases, the price caused a disconnect. Did those people even know whether your consultation would solve their pain? No! Before talking with anyone, they made a judgment based solely on the price you shared.
Your marketing shouldn’t disqualify people your sales team needs to talk with!
Good marketing leads to conversations with a salesperson. Even if $99 is too expensive, you may find another way someone can do business with them. And if they’re used to paying more than you usually charge, uncovering their budget early on can help you adjust accordingly.
Leave your pricing out of marketing and let your sales team have that conversation instead.
