Andy Beal and Karri Flatla are having a blog discussion about whether service professionals should put their prices on their websites.
Karri's reasoning centers around Jakob Nielsen's suggestion to "plainly answer your user's most burning questions".
Andy is persuasive when he says that listing your prices ensures that your visitors will shop by price and not value. He also points out the fluidity of pricing - when people are demanding your services, you can up the pricing if it isn't set "in stone", while during slower times you can decrease it to get the business in.
His reasoning is a little flawed, however, when he says
You’ll miss out on small clients and large clients. Small companies will likely believe they can’t afford you - because of the price. Large companies may see your price and laugh, then leave your site believing that if you charge that little of an amount, you can’t possibly handle their campaign.
While you could miss out on the larger companies if they see your prices is low, smaller companies are more likely not to contact you if they see your slick website and no pricing. They'll assume that they can't afford you.
A compromise might be publishing simple case studies of projects you have completed. Give a general description of the challenges, what your solution was, the time it took and the general cost. Have 4-5 of these case studies covering both high and low end projects. Large companies can get a feel for your scope, without eliminating you from the process, while smaller companies can align their needs with projects you've done before to get a ballpark figure.
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