Getting back to the topic of this post, which talks about the wisdom of putting your rates on your professional service site, I want to address a common sentiment.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from Virtual Assistants and other independent professionals is having tire-kickers and price-shoppers waste their time. That’s usually the rationale they have for posting their rates.
But there are lots of ways you can screen the price-shoppers and prequalify prospective clients without giving away all your value.
For one, simply having the standard that you have an interview process and require scheduled consultations will eliminate many looky-loos who aren’t serious about hiring a real professional.
This also helps you manage client expectations from the get-go. It shows prospects that you have a system behind the solutions you provide, and allows you to set the quality and pace of the relationship, if there is one to be established.
You can also prescreen prospects on your contact form. If I may use my own site as an example, you will see on my consultation request form that I have two checkboxes to help me to categorize the kind of prospect I have and where their interest lies.
Depending on which box they check, I know I have either someone who is ready and already “gets it” to some degree, or they are more or less just curious and possibly price-shopping. Knowing their level of interest helps me determine which gets the highest priority, and what starting point to take in my initial contact with them.
So don’t think you have to list your prices and put all your cards on the table just to eliminate the tire-kickers. Because what you’ll really be doing is throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Thanks for commenting. Yeah, the virtual assistant term is really completely idiotic to...
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