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I think that the business goal of secret pricing to get a high pressure sales guy on the in contact with the potential buyer to close the deal.

russell 17y ago
I agree that that is the primary motivation. You will notice that these companies usually do not give enough technical information to do a preliminary evaluation. My experience has been that I have to sit through a presentation, before I get what I need. I dont like this song and dance, so they are hurting themselves with me.
tptacek 17y ago
No, the business goal of "secret pricing" is the same as the business goal of not being the first to name a number in a salary negotiation. The person who gives a number first concedes an advantage to their counterparty. Another practical advantage of not naming your price is that it ensures you get maximal contact with your market. If you publish a pricing matrix, some percentage of your market will (almost by definition) "price themselves out" of your product. You'll never even get to talk to most of these prospects. With "secret" pricing, you retain the ability to at least talk to them, to learn if it's feature/function you're lacking or if it's pricing, and to figure out what your pricing should be. Note that there are a lot of tricks that PMs can use to get "secret" list pricing from competitors; you could use the same tricks to uncover prices as a customer, but it's much easier just to get on the phone and ask.
- moe 17y ago
  Another practical advantage of not naming your price is that it ensures you get maximal contact with your market. If you publish a pricing matrix, some percentage of your market will (almost by definition) "price themselves out" of your product. I call myth. In the general case when there is an offering A that costs a known figure $X and an offering B that costs a phonecall only to get a quote then I won't even bother making that call unless there is a serious headache with offering A. Not telling a price speaks "we are more expensive than the others". It also speaks "we will waste your time with phone conferences and powerpoint presentations" and "we wear ties and are very important, probably much more important than you". None of that gets my business if I can avoid it.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    Almost every enterprise product is "solution priced", with no published price list. You're getting upvoted because people don't like solution pricing, and I don't blame them. We're not doing it either. Your general buying approach is probably sound most of the time, because the companies who publish their prices are usually the price leaders. In most markets there's a price leader (Honda), a premium leader (BMW), and a couple of niche players. Going wide with an attractive price list is the right call for the price leader.

russell 17y ago

I agree that that is the primary motivation. You will notice that these companies usually do not give enough technical information to do a preliminary evaluation. My experience has been that I have to sit through a presentation, before I get what I need. I dont like this song and dance, so they are hurting themselves with me.

tptacek 17y ago

No, the business goal of "secret pricing" is the same as the business goal of not being the first to name a number in a salary negotiation. The person who gives a number first concedes an advantage to their counterparty. Another practical advantage of not naming your price is that it ensures you get maximal contact with your market. If you publish a pricing matrix, some percentage of your market will (almost by definition) "price themselves out" of your product. You'll never even get to talk to most of these prospects. With "secret" pricing, you retain the ability to at least talk to them, to learn if it's feature/function you're lacking or if it's pricing, and to figure out what your pricing should be. Note that there are a lot of tricks that PMs can use to get "secret" list pricing from competitors; you could use the same tricks to uncover prices as a customer, but it's much easier just to get on the phone and ask.

moe 17y ago
Another practical advantage of not naming your price is that it ensures you get maximal contact with your market. If you publish a pricing matrix, some percentage of your market will (almost by definition) "price themselves out" of your product. I call myth. In the general case when there is an offering A that costs a known figure $X and an offering B that costs a phonecall only to get a quote then I won't even bother making that call unless there is a serious headache with offering A. Not telling a price speaks "we are more expensive than the others". It also speaks "we will waste your time with phone conferences and powerpoint presentations" and "we wear ties and are very important, probably much more important than you". None of that gets my business if I can avoid it.
- tptacek 17y ago
  Almost every enterprise product is "solution priced", with no published price list. You're getting upvoted because people don't like solution pricing, and I don't blame them. We're not doing it either. Your general buying approach is probably sound most of the time, because the companies who publish their prices are usually the price leaders. In most markets there's a price leader (Honda), a premium leader (BMW), and a couple of niche players. Going wide with an attractive price list is the right call for the price leader.