Benefits/Drawbacks of Listing Rates on WebSite

[Cinka]

I see that some, not all, photographers, list their rates and options on their website. I'm just starting out, but have found that haggling has been an important part of getting business. I'd like to get to the point where I no longer haggle. It tends to make me feel like I'm getting gypped, but I also don't want to miss out on lower paying jobs because I need the money and experience.

What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of listing your rates on your site? Does anyone have any experience in this? Is is better to list them, stick to your guns, or not?

Thanks!

~Kristen

 

[jlykins]

Totally depends on the market you're after. If you want to deal with the people that want to haggle, then you shouldn't list the prices. This can lead to wasted time spent dealing with people that in the end aren't going to make you any money anyway. I have found that listing my packages on my site is good for business. I don't have to spend a whole lot of time replying to emails from people wanting to know prices. When they contact me, they know what to expect, so most of our conversations involve what all they want to add on...

 

[Cinka]

Good point, jlykins. I've been haggling with clients for about a year now and like I said, I seem to end up feeling gypped. I do way more work than I'm getting paid for. I'm really trying to make a legitimate go of this, career-wise, and while it's fun to do lower paying gigs, they're not paying the bills. I'm also afraid of loosing a lower paying job - 'cause it's better than nothing some months.

I'd love to hear from more of you on this subject. What are your thoughts?

~K

 

[LarissaPhotography]

We list our prices on our site. It's one of our selling points. We encourage our customers to look around at other photographers prices. Then they can easily come back and look at our prices as a comparison. We try to be fair an up front with customers, and I think they appreciate that.

 

[RyanLilly]

I think it also depends on the type of services you offer, for weddings and portrait it seems logical to have a set price for your products, because most weddings and portrait sessions are basically the same format and the same amount of work. For selling Art or prints, or doing some jobs that are not typical situations, than working out a price with your client might work better.

 

[Bthornton]

I thought long and hard about the same thing back when I was setting up my website. In the end I listed prices for portraits on my site. Parties, events and corp work I give a price after finding out what's really needed.
I don't list every price for everything but I list session fees, basic size portraits and the like. I ended up going that way because I found if to many prices were listed it confused portraits. If people are shopping by price not talent then they will know by the price of a session fee and an 8x10 if it's in the price range they want to spend.

 

[Big Mike]

Someone around here recently posted a link to their blog...it was about why they don't put their prices on their web site. The basic idea was that when people see the price, that becomes their primary focus and then they start to compare you to others based on your price. That is probably not what you want them to do and you probably don't want the type of customers who only choose you because of your price.

Alternatively, if you don't show your price, they will concentrate on the images or the service etc. If you can get them to contact you, then you are closer to making the sale etc.

That's the theory anyway.

Another theory is that if someone is searching for your services and they pull up 10 websites. They are likely to pass on the ones that don't have a price because it's just easier for them.

So if you aren't going to show you prices...you had better have some great images or something else to entice them.