The Priceless Call-to-Action
One of the most controversial decisions for many B2B companies is whether to post pricing information on their website. In most cases, companies are inclined to keep this information off the website (this is not true for pure commodity driven sites like hotels or car rentals, but for B2B items like enterprise technology, business services and even some high-end B2C products).
But why is this the case even though it’s perhaps one of the most important pieces of data in the buying cycle?
This article will show (in detail) that this is a huge mistake! If there is one thing that every buyer wants to know, it’s “What’s this going to cost me?”
Price is the most specific piece of information customers use to understand the nature of an offering…we have miles of videotape of users asking “Where’s the price?” while tearing their hair out.
Jakob Nielson, Web Usability Expert
So, why won’t companies put pricing on their websites?
When we open a discussion about using Pricing as a Call-to-Action, most people assume we are talking about publishing pricing on their website and we always get some version of these responses:
1) “It’s not done in our industry”
2) “What happens if my competition sees it?”
3) “Our products are complex and everything is custom, nothing is standard”
4) “Our sales people need to build value before we discuss pricing”
5) “We are an exclusive channel company; only our dealers/resellers give out pricing”
And then finally:
6) “We would never do that”
We’ve heard them all!
Own the Price Conversation
Here are some compelling reasons that hesitant companies and site owners should explore a way to safely provide pricing.
Here’s the logic: any buyer is trained to search for price as part of any purchase decision, especially in the early stages. They will continue to search until they find a price. And if it’s not easy to get from your site, you will not be part of the price dialog. If there’s a price conversation going on anyway, don’t you want to be a part of it? It’s up to you to own the price conversation, not hand it over to Google.
Not having an easy way to get pricing from your site cedes the opportunity to your competition — or worse, someone not even affiliated with your industry — to control this crucial aspect of the buying decision. In fact, you should blog about the fact that you provide a way to get pricing that your competitors don’t. The goal is to own the price and value dialog of your product or service, so you can provide prospects with the context they need to understand your pricing model.
What About Sticker Shock?
There are tactics you can employ to offset the fear that a prospective customer will experience sticker shock if they receive pricing — another common (and valid) concern.
First, use testimonials right on the page that speaks to the value of your product or service. Quotes from satisfied clients or buyers who shopped around and decided to purchase your product or service is a powerful strategy. There is an innate sense from buyers that the low-cost provider is never the best, and there is more assumed value in a higher priced product.
You can provide a range of pricing based on a specific configuration versus a single “List” price. This is one of the best ways to provide a ballpark estimate without knowing all of the details about the customer’s requirements. A range gives your sales team wiggle room and also allows for channel partner pricing to be different.
Don’t forget the SEO opportunity
Here’s something else we’ve discovered. Ranking for pricing related keywords is easy. Why is that?
No one wants to put price on their site!
This is SEO gold. Highly searched terms with little to no competition means we should all set out to do some keyword research. Check out the terms and phrases in your industry related to “cost” and “price,” and invariably you’ll uncover some huge content opportunities.
Always use a Pricing Page
Regardless of whether you utilize a pricing based call-to-action tool built for B2B or not, you should always have a Pricing page. Make all of the links to that page just say “Pricing”. This simple word leaps out at prospects and they will invariably click on it. Don’t be tempted to use “Request a Quote” or “Get a Quote”, our extensive A/B testing proves that those imply a Sales phone call and are ignored.
Summary
The need by prospects for Pricing is stronger than ever, especially now that we live in a self-service world. If you don’t take control of the Pricing conversation, someone else will. You can make small changes like creating content around “cost” and “pricing” to drive more inbound traffic. You should also use a Pricing page to convert the curious visitor to an active prospect.
If you have the option, try using a tool built for the purpose of B2B Lead Conversion. Trial a tool like EchoQuote™ that is built to take in requests, route them to your sales team for approval. You’ll find that you can generate 3-5 times the number of high-quality leads your website captures while owning the price conversation.
In B2B Sales the first company in has the best chance of shaping, and winning, the deal. Using Pricing as a Call-to-Action could be your secret marketing weapon…Priceless!
Good selling!
Additional information:
Case studies on using Pricing as a Call-to-Action for B2B companies here.
