Showing prices when every job is different is still possible

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

Every project is different, so the website says prices are available on request. The reasoning is sound: quoting a figure that turns out to be wrong is worse than quoting none.

The consequence is that visitors comparing three suppliers can evaluate two of them and not you. A proportion assume you are expensive, another proportion assume you are hiding something, and the enquiries you do receive include many people whose budget was never within range. Saying nothing about money is itself a decision with costs.

1. Showing prices when every job is different means showing structure, not a figure

Reframe what is being asked for.

Visitors want to know whether they are in the right place financially, not to be quoted without a conversation. A range, a starting point, or an explanation of what drives the cost up and down answers that completely without committing you to a figure for work you have not seen.

2. Publish a starting point

The minimum useful disclosure.

Projects start from a stated figure. It commits you to nothing beyond the floor, and it lets somebody with a much smaller budget disqualify themselves before either of you has spent an hour on a conversation that was never going to conclude.

3. Give a typical range with context

More useful than a single number.

Most jobs of this type fall between two figures, with an explanation of what puts a project at each end. This is honest, it is defensible when challenged, and it survives the awkward conversation later because the customer was told the range before they were told the number.

4. Explain what drives the price

The part customers genuinely value.

Size, condition, access, materials, urgency, complexity. Somebody who understands why the figure varies is far better prepared for a quotation, and the explanation itself demonstrates expertise.

5. Use worked examples

Concrete beats abstract.

Three short descriptions of real projects with what each cost and why. Examples communicate the range more effectively than the range itself does, and they let people locate their own situation against something real rather than against an abstraction.

6. Offer a productised entry point

A way to give a fixed figure honestly.

A defined survey, audit, initial consultation or standard package with a fixed price. It gives the website a real number, gives the customer a low-risk first step, and preserves your position on the larger work.

7. Say what is not included

Prevents the worst kind of surprise.

Being explicit about exclusions protects both sides and is what makes a published range mean anything at all. Most disputes about price begin with an assumption about scope that nobody wrote down.

8. Accept that this filters enquiries

Fewer and better is the goal.

Publishing figures reduces total enquiries and increases the proportion that convert. Businesses measuring success by enquiry count experience this as a loss, which is why the measurement should be converted work rather than volume.

9. Keep the figures current

Stale prices are worse than none.

Review published prices on a schedule and note when they were last updated. A figure from three years ago produces an argument at exactly the wrong moment.

Watch what your competitors publish. If two of them show ranges and you show nothing, you are the one requiring extra effort from the visitor, and that effort is frequently spent elsewhere instead.

Conclusion

Answer the question people are actually asking, which is whether they are in the right place financially.

Publish a starting figure at minimum, give a typical range with an explanation of both ends, describe what drives the price up and down, use worked examples so people can locate their own situation, offer a fixed-price first step that lets you show a real number, state clearly what is not included, accept that fewer and better enquiries is the intended outcome, keep figures current with a review date, and look at what your competitors already disclose.