What is the right way to put a pricing list on your company website - (Mobile App Development Services)?
Hello all, one of my friends is a SEO specialist. He asked me to put our company's pricing plans on our website. He suggested, as we are a start-up, it will help to boost customer interaction.
I am confused on how to come up with pricing packages, as we are charging per hour charges or per project quote. I have checked many websites in our same domain (mobile app development) and it seems nobody is putting the pricing list on their website.
Can you please suggest the right way to put pricing plans on your website? Thank you.
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Jun 28, 2016
Hello, Sonima.
You are right, putting a pricing list on a developer’s website is not a common practice. The reasons are many - the most important one is that all projects are different, there is no way to make a unified pricing for all the project.
However, a good-looking website with a comprehensive description of app development process and the services you provide is a must. You can browse through the websites of respectable developers, for example, you can find the list here - http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4901-best-app-makers-creators.html
If you want to boost customer interaction, it is better to provide a box for asking questions - like it is done here at the bottom - https://magora-systems.com/mobile-application-developers-london/ - this way customers will be able to ask you directly about the prices and other stuff they are interested in.
Jim
Jan 9, 2015
Depend how you shape your business model based on how you deliver your service, the pricing model with be different. There are pros and cons in putting pricing - I normally check whether my clients will make a different decision if I going to put or not put pricing.
Good thing you are a start-up -> trial and error is the nature of a start-up. No harm just put up some pricing and see the result while seeking others (friends, consultants or this website) to advise.
You may put up a package deal say:
1. one month completion work xxxx
2. three month completion work xxxx
3. Startup pack (three month) - for new customer at special price
4. Hours pack - say 20 hours xxxx; 50 hours xxx etc
You can change anytime since the impact to startup rather low.
Why am I doing this?
Testing, testing, testing ...if your sales and profit increase because of putting up the pricing - than that's great, else you will know the other answer
Jan 7, 2015
Read the Graphic Design Guild's guide to prancing and guidelines. https://www.graphicartistsguild.org/handbook
Standard Industry Pricing will give you a good basis on how charge for your services.
Jan 7, 2015
If you are set on offering pricing on your website, the best thing you can do is offer several packages. Design them with your per hour rates in mind - think of a small, medium, and large-scale project you may have done in the past. Definitely still tell clients to contact you for a custom quote, too!
Jan 7, 2015
I found wonderful reference for you...http://www.perceptionsystem.com/pricing-model-matrix.html
Jan 5, 2015
Hi Sonima,
I appreciate your analysis and based on information there are a few questions:
* what is the main reason to publish a price list? and what is the result of much interaction?
* if your work is standardize is quite simple to create a price list
* if each project is unique and with different challenges the standardize hour cost is not a real indicator.
maybe you can create a list for basic services and evaluate the others. What can you consider a commodity?
Hope to help you
Jan 5, 2015
Posting your pricing is great for your competitors who may or may not price their products/services. Are you selling on price? If so, close your doors now, as the next company that comes around with lower prices will take your business. What are you offering that will convince me to buy from you?
What price would you use? Per hour tells me, the customer, nothing. By project would work. However, how do you know what the project will entail.
A better approach would be a quote within xx hours. Or a range of prices.
Jan 4, 2015
If you are offering a bespoke service to everyone I'd steer clear of pricing plans and perhaps offer a "price from" type"; Brochure sites from £x. ecommerce sites from £x etc. At least then you won't get time wasters with no budget.
Jan 4, 2015
Recently I have been required to manage an extremely complex project due to the diverse nature of the stakeholders.
Jan 4, 2015
Some companies do not put their pricing because they fell that listing their pricing plans might stop them from considering to contact the company! Now if the website lists their services but not their pricing, the prospect might pick up the phone and contact the company to inquire about their services and pricing! When your price is not listed, it will give you the opportunity of explaining your pricing scheme to the client versus not even receiving a phone call and get that opportunity!
I run a test for our SEO services for 3 months where I had the pricing list and did not get any calls! But as soon as I removed the pricing list, I started receiving calls and answered the prospect's question about our SEO services and why our price is different than my competitor's! I was able to retain some clients because they were really interested in the service quality and features than getting a cheap price for SEO and then having it end up costing you more!
Jan 3, 2015
The first thing to keep in mind is that service industries are VERY different from product/goods industries and each types of service market is different from other types of service markets. Products can list prices, and they are expected to in order to compete in their market. However, services are a touchy area.
You were right to look at your competitors. That's a good starting point in considering what is appropriate for your industry and what your market is expecting. Another factor to think about is the complexity of your service offering.
For example, I work at a marketing/advertising/PR agency. We DO NOT list pricing because we are an agency that customizes our service per business based on their needs, their industry, their size, and the potential we see for them. We also provide for both short and long term, not just solving their current issues but shaping them for growth in the next year, five years, ten years out. The majority of our clients are million to billion dollar corporations, where are goal is to build long term relationships and we wouldn't even be working with them if we were some agency that tried to standardize our service offering by putting static prices on the types of services we provide. You cannot list prices in that type of market with that type of service offering. However, there are also so-called agencies that work only with small local businesses. For them, they DO provide a sort of a la carte service listing of things like, "If you need a new website, its $____, if you need a new logo it's $___" etc. They DO NOT customize much for companies and their goals aren't to nurture long term customer relationships but rather to work project based, knocking out the client's current needs and that's it.
So you see, to answer your question here, it really depends on so many attributes. What type of service offering do you have? Is it:
1. Highly customized and meant to be long term relationship based
2. Highly customized but for a short term customer relationships
3. Relatively standardized and able to be broken down into an actual list of costs
4. Other?
I hate to give a recommendation without better knowing your business, but I would say this is what your variations may be:
If 1. probably not best to do a price listing. Rather, focus on having content that thoroughly describes what your services include and how they benefit your potential customers so that they are convinces of the quality and level off offering you provide that they are willing to contact you to discuss their options.
If 2. Either the same as what I recommend for 1. OR you can possibly provide "price ranges" that have details on level of service customization per each price range bracket you develop.
If 3. Your services are relatively standardized, it may be easy for you to create a price list and if you don't think it'll hurt you in the market, then list it. My caution is that this should only really be done if you are price leader, meaning you provide the best price in your market to all competitors. If you aren't, providing your pricing on the website will actually make you lose customers since they are able to get a price without talking to a representative at your company.
Like I said, it's hard to recommend anything without knowing what your service is, but my best recommendation is to assess your industry, your service offering, and the position you hold or expect to hold in the market (price leader, quality leader, etc.) in order to decipher if putting a price listing up is appropriate.
Jan 3, 2015
Just because no one else is doing it, there is no reason for you not broach the pricing subject...I would suggest you be upfront and talk about your pricing on a per project basis, based upon the estimated hours to complete the project. Without going into specific detail you can give pricing structures and ranges based upon your historical experiences...In any sales situation the 3 parts are interest, money, decision...Do not be afraid to discuss the prices you are considering...and you might want to ask for a potential client to evaluate the job you do as you go along and determine a value for your services that works for both parties...Pricing is always based upon qualitative and quantitative values that you must decide upon and than share in some form once the decision to buy gets close...
Jan 3, 2015
Simple, if you are in a competitive market, do what others are doing. Don't be the first to start posting pricing. Unless you are selling a commodity that can't be differentiated, market your company based on the value of the benefits to your customer.
Jan 3, 2015
This sounds as if you expect a website to do your sales. First mistake. A website is advertising, not a salesforce. Pricing can be good advertising if it is lower than competitor's, but only if you have a reputation for delivering the correct item in good shape. Many retail outlets already price match from major websites. Perhaps a better approach for your business model is to guarantee lowest rates. Have you had a marketing analysis done yet?
Jan 2, 2015
Use maximum choices i.e per hour charges and also per project charges, and also show charges in dollars and in Euro and also show comparison table with respect to per hour and per project also with respect to all other web,...
Jan 2, 2015
In principle I am against to put a pricing list on company website.
Advertising can scare away potential customers,
I'd rather leave it to the negotiations between the parties.
Jan 2, 2015
Have you checked out the competitions' pricing? Do your prices compare? Why do they not include pricing on their websites? Do the rates fluctuate? I would request answers to these questions at least before I committed my Company to a public price list.
Jan 2, 2015
I would agree with Walter Wise's advice. You don't want to put a price but I will elaborate more:
1) In service industry every project is a bit different if not a whole. The requirement of the clients will vary and so will the expertise and the timeline of your team, too.
2) Being a start up you know that you will need a business, some to survive but some to build references. Example: if you are say doing XYZ sort of development you need references for bringing in future business. So to build references you might want to lower down your rates so that you can get some business easily and then "WoW" those clients and build reference. In coming years those reference will win you more business and make it up for the loss.
3) When you put a price on website most of the clients will runaway if it is too high (general impression is that there is no room for negotiation) and if it is too low (they will think you are some sort of scam, "Too Good To Be True" habit). "Price is a myth" If the price you charge is higher, compared to your offshore competitors, you would want to show your prospects what value do you add and why is it worth to pay that price.
4) Strictly from business point of view you know that every client has different budget. Some have higher and some have lower. You would always want to hit the higher note so that if there is any negotiation you are still at a happy go lucky rates.
There are endless reasons but I hope these four will justify why I support Walter
Jan 2, 2015
IMHO, never put your price list on the web. It gives your competitors too much information on your business and gives you no wiggle room to charge a higher price for a project.
I would also never divulge what your clients pay for your services. Again, too much information and it gives clients the info to start to nickel and dime you to get a better price.
Jan 2, 2015
I agree with Ray that being able to put up pricing is an advantage, but in the app development business this is nearly impossible. We've published over a dozen apps, and all of them have been completely different in terms of pricing
However, on your pricing page you could
1.) Talk about your process and what dimensions affect pricing
2.) Link to some completed projects with indicative pricing
3.) Link to one of several app cost calculators, that attempt to help a client assess estimated costs around a development effort.For example, check out https://www.otreva.com/calculator/
#3 has helped us a lot in weeding out non-serious projects, since newcomers to the mobile space sometimes expect that apps should cost only a few hundred dollars to create, develop and launch:)
Forgot to mention instead of mentioning price put something related to value and why they should go with you or even to contact you first to learn more. Work on CTA