As a business, you must ask yourself whether it’s possible to discuss this question of variable costs. Could you explain the factors that keep the costs down? Could you explain the elements that push the cost of a project up? Could you help the readers (or viewers, listeners, or other type of customer) understand all the factors that dictate cost within your industry as they’re doing their research?
Chances are, if you want to give the potential customer a feel for how pricing works within your industry, as well as how pricing works within your company, you could very likely do it.
2. Our Competitors Will Find Out What We Charge
This one is often the most laughable: Most companies already know exactly, or at least have a very good feel, as to what their competitors charge.
In other words, it’s not a big secret.
Everyone knows what everyone else is charging.
It’s almost like saying you have a “secret sauce” when in reality everyone knows it’s just Thousand Island dressing.
Plus, if you consider this even further, you have to ask yourself why you’d ever let the competition dictate your ability to educate, and ultimately gain the trust of, your ideal customers.
One of these groups takes your business, and the other is your business.
3. We’ll Scare Customers Away
Think about this one for a second. It’s as if you’re saying, “If I’m honest, people won’t want to do business with me.”
But if we look at how we behave and what we expect as consumers, the thing that actually scares us away is the idea of a company not addressing cost and price on their website.
To crystallize this point, imagine you’re taking a friend to dinner tonight and you all have decided to try a restaurant you’ve never been to. Before going, if you’re like most people, you’re going to research two main things before you walk through their front doors: online reviews (like Yelp) and the restaurant’s website.
In this case, the main reason you want to go to their website that you want to look at their menu.
Well, what happens if you go to the menu and you find that it lists items but not prices? What do you do?
If you’re like most people, you’ll not go to that restaurant, not because you couldn’t afford to go there, but rather because of the simple fact that they didn’t want to show it, which planted seeds of doubt in your mind as the consumer. And as consumers, where there are seeds of doubt, inaction and the inability to make a buying decision almost always occur.
Folks, discussing cost and price is not about affordability, it’s about psychology. It’s about trust. And believe it or not, every business can do it, as we now explain.
11
How One Article about Money Generated More Than $3,000,000 in Sales
For years in my career as a pool guy, whenever a potential customer would call me, within the first five minutes of a conversation I would almost always hear the same question:
“Marcus, I’m not going to hold you to it, but could you at least give me a feel for how much something like this is going to cost?”
For a long time, that question bothered me as a business owner. I wanted to talk about products, benefits, and features, but the customer wanted to immediately know about pricing.
In hindsight, the fact that I let this bother me so much was foolish. If roles had been reversed, I would have wanted to know the same thing.
In other words, as consumers and buyers, we at least like to have a sense of how much things cost before we spend hours upon hours dedicated to learning about that product, service, company, and so on.
Once I stopped thinking like a business owner and started thinking like the consumer (They Ask, You Answer), I realized one of the most important pieces of content I could produce would be the one that addressed the question, “How much does a fiberglass pool cost?”
So after years of not wanting to address this subject until I was face to face with a prospect, I shifted and wrote the article shown in Figure 11.1 on my company website.
Figure 11.1 How Much Does a Fiberglass Pool Cost? Web article, 2009
In it, I explain how buying a fiberglass pool was much like buying a car—there were many options, accessories, and so on. I listed each one, offering to the consumer a true sense of the potential scope of a project.
Next, I explained different types of packages we offered as a company: how some buyers wanted a pool in the ground without any patio, landscaping, or other features, and how others were just the opposite–wanting a true “turn-key” installation, complete with patio, fencing, landscaping, and so on.
With each of these, we gave large ranges as to what the buyer might expect to spend, but ultimately, after 1,000+ words of explanation, we said the answer to the question of “How much does it cost?” was “It depends.”
What happened next was very, very interesting.
You see, when I wrote this article “How Much Does a Fiberglass Pool Cost?” on our website in 2009, take a guess as to how many other swimming pool builders had addressed this question on their company websites?
If you answered zero, you are correct.
No one did it. Out of the thousands of pool builders around the globe, every single one of them was the ostrich with its head in the sand.
And of course, the reasons why they didn’t address it were the same reasons we discussed earlier:
Each project is different and therefore costs vary.
They didn’t want their competitors to see their pricing.
They were afraid they’d scare prospects away if they honestly discussed pricing.
But for us at River Pools, the fact that no one had addressed this question meant a blue ocean of opportunity for the business. The marketplace was dying for someone to be open and honest enough to address this question, and so that’s exactly what we did.
We saw immediate action on two fronts.
Within days of posting the article on our website, we noticed an increase in qualified, productive conversations with leads who contacted us. Many people commented on how impressed they were to “finally” find a company that was willing to discuss the subject of cost and price.
But with search engines like Google, things got even more interesting. Within forty-eight hours from the time I posted the new page on our site, the article became the first article to pop up any time someone went online and searched anything to do with how much a fiberglass pool cost. In fact, here is a list of keyword phrases for which this article ranked number 1 in Google search engine results, all within days of publishing the post:
How much does a fiberglass pool cost?
How much does it cost to install a pool?
Cost of in-ground swimming pool
Fiberglass pool cost
Fiberglass pool pricing
And on and on
Now, you might say, “Well, that’s fine, but website traffic doesn’t necessarily equate to money. It takes more than traffic to get a customer.”
And if you were thinking this, you’re exactly right. What we’re discussing here isn’t about getting more traffic to your website. Fact is, Web traffic doesn’t pay your bills, sales do.
Luckily, the tools (in this case HubSpot) we used on our site allowed us to track how people were finding our company and what they were searching for when they found us. So over the course of time, we saw how this one article would send our company more than 1 million new visitors, thousands of whom would eventually become leads and hundreds more who would “request a quote”—all because they originally had searched a phrase that had to do with the cost of a fiberglass swimming pool.
But here is the key question that one must consider: If that article had never been written, would any of those sales appointments have ever occurred? The answer, of course, is no. The prospective buyer (very likely) never would have found us and shown up to our site in the first place—all because we hadn’t been willing to address the subject. But in our case, we were willing to ad
dress the question. And because of this, search engines like Google showed that article (and our website) to thousands and thousands of potential buyers. And because of that, many of these potential buyers were able to say to themselves:
Okay, now I have a much better sense of what would drive the cost of a fiberglass swimming pool up or down. I now know what to expect.
With this education came a feeling of trust, and many visitors eventually filled out a form to get a quote for a swimming pool. Because we’re able to track the people who filled out a form (from the cost article) and know which ones bought a swimming pool, we know the value of each one of these customers—a value that can be directly tied to that one article that was written about the cost of a fiberglass pool.
Here is the culminating point: We know that since the time this article was written on our site in 2009, it has made our company more than $3 million in additional sales—revenue we would not have gotten had we been an ostrich with our head in the sand.
Think about that: $3 million in sales simply because we were willing to explain to prospective customers that the cost of a fiberglass swimming pool depends on several factors. Without exaggeration, this single article saved my business. It saved my home. It saved the homes of my two business partners. It also saved the jobs of all of our employees.
But the funny thing is, we never specifically stated how much a fiberglass pool costs. We simply answered the question the best we could. We were honest. We openly discussed the industry as a whole. And in the process of doing that, my entire business, and ultimately my life, was altered dramatically.
Fellow reader, this is the power of honesty, transparency, and seeing yourself as a teacher. But sadly, most businesses, especially in the B2B space, still don’t recognize this massive need to openly discuss the issue of pricing, budgets, money, and related topics on one’s website.
As mentioned earlier, I now have a digital sales and marketing agency that helps companies all over the world generate more trust, traffic, leads, and sales. More than 50 percent of these clients are B2B. And with more than 80 percent of all of these clients, the number 1 traffic, lead, and sales-generating content has to do with money, costs, and even salaries (if you’re looking to recruit great people, answer their questions about salary).
Remember, it doesn’t necessarily matter what you specifically say in terms of the numbers. What matters is that you’re willing to teach your prospective customers what would drive the cost up or down and help them get a feel for the marketplace.
Over the years, I’ve had dozens upon dozens of companies approach me and discuss this matter of pricing, only to tell me how they simply can’t discuss numbers on their website because their competition charges so much less than they do. My response is always the same:
“Why is their product or service cheaper?”
Almost always, the response has to do with overseas manufacturers, low quality, customer experience, and so on.
Once again, my retort is always the same:
“Have you bothered to explain these factors well on your company website?”
In almost every industry, consumers make poor buying decisions and purchase the “cheapest” products and services, not because they are solely price motivated, but rather because they don’t know any better. They haven’t been educated. No one has bothered to truly explain the good, the bad, and the ugly of the industry. And that, once again, is the fault of the business, not the consumer.
Along these same lines, at the Sales Lion any time a client of ours states specific pricing on their site, they inevitably find such a strategy generates better, higher-qualified opportunities. With specific pricing on their site, they spend less time dealing with prospects who never would have been a good fit in the first place and instead focus their energies on educated, ideal-fit prospects who aren’t just looking for the cheapest thing, but rather the best value.
My point to you and your business is this: When it comes to money, you cannot be the ostrich with your head in the sand.
You must be willing to address the most important questions—regardless of whether you’re a service, product, value driven, and so on.
Remember, it doesn’t matter what you and I think—what matters is what consumers think, how they behave, and what they expect.
So the question is, Are you willing to meet their expectations?
Or, would you prefer that the competition be the one who answers the question for them?
Remember, they’re going to get their answers from someone, so wouldn’t you prefer they get their answers from you?
Putting It Into Action
Focus on Cost, Price, Salary, and So On
At this point, I want to repeat the question we discussed earlier in this chapter:
Based on what you have now read, would it be possible for you to address the question of pricing and costs (or even salary) on your website?
Remember, I’m not suggesting you put a “price list” on your site. Rather, be willing to specifically address the main pricing questions you get. To do this effectively, complete the following activity:
List out all the major products and services you sell.
Once this list is complete, identify the items and services that generate the most revenue and/or have the most opportunity for you as a company.
Now, for each one of these, produce at least one article and video explaining the factors that dictate costs, what the buyer can expect to see in the industry, and where you fall as a company.
Place this content on your company website. In fact, we strongly recommend to clients that they have a “pricing” tab on the home pages of their websites, and that the content therein funnels visitors to the articles and videos that address these core pricing questions.
Immediately start using this content throughout your sales process (as we discuss later in the book).
12
Case Study 1
High-End B2B Technology Company Generates More Than $8,000,000 in Additional Revenue
Note: As mentioned previously, throughout this book we integrate powerful stories of businesses that have embraced They Ask, You Answer in their own ways to achieve extraordinary results. As is the case with Segue Technologies, you will hear about them embracing strategies that are covered later in the book. When this occurs, you can simply consider it a preview of what is to come in later chapters, as it all will become very clear by the end.
In today’s world, few industries are as competitive as technology. In order to stand out in these types of businesses, companies often have to embrace new and creative ways of thinking and doing things, or watch as their business slowly fades away into oblivion only to be replaced by the next guy who had the foresight to embrace the vision of the future.
Segue Technologies is a perfect example of a company that saw the power of great teaching and transparency as a new and more efficient way of doing business, and quickly set out to be the first, and best, to do it in their industry.
About Segue Technologies
Segue Technologies specializes in application development and support services for federal, commercial, and nonprofit companies looking to have their IT challenges solved.
Segue provides custom Web applications, solves data management problems, and supports the evolution of the mobile workforce.
Segue’s goal is to help clients customize their IT services in a way that saves them money, improves their performance, and allows them to work more efficiently.
Rather than pushing a one-size-fits-all solution for their clients, Segue customizes solutions based on the specific needs of each of their clients.
Ron Novak, Segue Technologies’ executive vice president, discusses the changes Segue has made over the years to their marketing efforts and business model (going from just Business to Government [B2G] to Business to Business [B2B]) as they continue to stay at the forefront of the IT solutions industry.
“Initially, we started off doing Windows-bas
ed desktop development, mostly for procurement software and budgeting software for the Air Force. As technology changed rapidly, we moved to doing Web application development and branched off into doing commercial as well, and then expanded from working with just the Air Force to working with the Marine Corps, Navy, and Army.”
For a couple of years, Segue was comfortable growing their business strictly through the Armed Services sectors. However, during a time of government budget cuts, Segue realized (as many did in the B2G space) that in order to continue growing and evolving, they would have to branch out into the commercial space as well. Says Novak:
“It was almost like an experiment just to see if we could even do commercial work. Fortunately, we ended up landing some pretty large clients. We started working with Sprint, Five Guys, and the United Negro College Fund. We had some good diversification at that point, which allowed us to kind of weather the storm during the government sequestration.”
Novak quickly realized that doing business in the commercial space was quite different from doing business in the government space. Rather than using advertising, most of the business they had solicited from the federal government came via word of mouth and attending networking events.
“Before 2008, it was almost exclusively word of mouth, organic growth, and networking events. Doing business in the government space is a lot different than in the commercial world, so a lot of our marketing was just in-person networking and relationship building.”
Like many companies, Segue Technologies had a business website, but they hadn’t really been utilizing it. Novak realized the value a solid, evolving website and blog could add to the business if they were going to enter the commercial space with any success.
They Ask You Answer Page 5
