Internet = cheap?

I said in a previous blog that I chose O2 as my new broadband provider primarily for reasons of price, but became an advocate based on experience. I think this is a fairly typical behaviour pattern for many internet customers. We shop online because:

1. It's convenient
2. We can find suppliers that we wouldn't have found any other way.
3. Some of these suppliers will have used the cost efficiencies of the internet to reduce their price
4. I won't have to talk to a salesman before I make my decision to buy

So why do some sites insist on saying "call us for a quote"?

They might as well say, "this is going to cost you" or "our pricing is so complex you're not going to understand it".

Basically, "Call us" = "We’re expensive"

I mean, what a waste of our Google Ad budget to bring customers to our site who have practically no chance of buying.

I recently compared a number of different providers of a telephone answering service - as if by magic, the expensive ones all turned out to be the ones I had to complete an enquiry form for.  The conditioned response for this is that if you don't put your price on your website, you might not get the enquiry and you definitely won't get the sale (unless you sell something that is quite unique or you’re lucky enough to talk the customer into buying).

The moral of the story:  Put your price on your website.

If you don’t, your competitor will put theirs.