Most companies need to rethink their online price & lead generation strategies. Ignoring the sales force is the first step.

I can’t quite figure out why so many companies avoid putting prices on their Website. Actually, I do know. The company’s sales force wants to embargo product prices to force Web visitors to fill out that pesky contact form or engage in an online sales chat. This, they say, allows them to sell the product’s value and benefits, and work around the product’s price.

This is a big mistake. Here’s three reasons why.

Price pre-qualifies if the visitor is a real prospect (need and ability to buy) or simply a window shopper.

Lowers the costs of sales by sifting out the wannabees from the winners, which focuses the sales force on real prospects who have the budget to buy.

And here’s the third (and all important) reason. Creating an avalanche of unqualified leads requires salespeople to cherry pick through them trying to deduce which ones fit their requirements—and which they are going to ignore. This, in turn, leads to a cacophony of complaints from the sales force that the Website isn’t generating enough quality leads. What they conveniently forget, of course, is that they brought themselves to the pity party.

For those who can’t or won’t publish prices (or have complex products that require a lot of additional bells and whistles) here’s an alternative approach that works. Use the “starting at” pricing gambit. You’ll find that this simple change will instantly filter out the wheat from the chaff – and allow more qualified buyers to plop right into your prospect pipeline.

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