Fees, show it or let them ask?

This thread is about either you decide to put your fees on your site or have the clients ask about them by sending you a form or mail

I saw that there are two options about fees, yo put them on your website or not. There are another strategies one is showing only a part of your prices, show the complete, or make an automatic invoice form.

There are some agencies that directly put the basics to more or less let the client make an idea of what will be the cost of their product and lean for the option that the potential client will make a invoice request by form/mail.

Myself when making a market research send emails with imaginary profiles I made to figure out how other designers work and what the charge for it. So I found that a lot of them lie, about there fees to hook the client. They post lower fees on their sites so the client falls and mail them, then the typical psychological game in which the make a counter offer and so on.

And there are the typical design agencies that directly don't publish their fees, I guess to watch of from the competition and don't give to much details about what they charge. And save theme self from loosing clients either from being to cheap or charge more than others.

So, in my case I consider to publish my fees so I can save time by not having to answer to the same question over and over again, it is true that yo can make a mail template or even a automatic response. But still I want to be transparent so the client can make a estimation about what will cost them, by making design products, services and plans

As a matter of fact we are working on a form that helps the client make his own invoice by selecting the required numbers of pages, images, forms, extras and other elements and get a result in the act.

What do you guys think about showing or no your fees?

Love to hear your opinion.

 

My opinion is put the price on website, then you can save a lot time to reply them about the price. If you want to attract more inquiry just put some bonus or FREE service option.

 

I would prefer to publish your fees in a summarize format for the customers to visualize the detailed offer and will be talked about later in a chat or call for additional customer queries. However, its not really convenient if you will just make a mail template for an automatic response.

 

I would not want to do business with anyone who lies about anything. I do not like to be surprised by fees either. Show them to me upfront and I will decide if I want to proceed. I shouldn't have to inquire about someone's fees. They play that trick in restaurants if they don't show the price you know its going to be expensive. Show the fees and what is included in the fees.

 

By way of background, I have led the sales and marketing efforts of high tech companies (software, services and hardware, in that order of priority) for over 30 years. The companies I get involved with are open about their fees, but do not publish them on their websites. We are also careful to whom we send our price lists out to. It is not so much about the customer, but about our competitors. We know that our competitors will get our pricing, but we do not want to make it easy for them. Why let them know instantly if we have a price change? Of course, I tend to be involved with highly specialized companies offering high value solutions and we are not looking for a big volume of clients (we tend to have hundreds of customers versus tens of thousands of customers, e.g.)

When it comes to offering services, I also do not like publishing any "standard" prices because it makes it look like you are offering "cookie-cutter" solutions for everyone. Otherwise, how can you correctly price one job from another? My sales messaging tends to focus on how highly custom our solution will be for them, thereby increasing the value that they will receive because they and their needs are unique. A custom solution, of course, requires a custom quote.