A few days ago, I found myself on the buying end of a sale, and it reminded me why it’s so important for designers to put prices on their website.

As someone who spends a lot of time teaching interior designers how to guide clients through decisions, I always find it fascinating to experience someone else’s sales process from the client side. It gives me a chance to see what works, what creates trust, and what unintentionally creates friction.

This particular experience reminded me why I’m such a passionate advocate not just for transparent pricing, but for more subtle price signaling. Not because it helps you sell, but because it helps people decide.

A Textbook Marketing Win

The journey started exactly the way we’d all hope it would.

• Someone posted something on LinkedIn that caught my attention.
• I looked up her website, liked what I saw, and scheduled a call.
• We had a great conversation.
• She offered to put together a proposal, and scheduled a meeting to walk me through it.

So far, so good. A marketing win for her, momentum for me! 🙌

The problem?

I had absolutely no idea what her services cost.

The Question I Couldn’t Stop Thinking About: What’s the dang price?

Since this gal’s website didn’t include any prices, at the end of our discovery call I asked if she could give me a sense of potential costs. I wasn’t looking for an exact quote. I just wanted to understand the general investment range we were talking about, like:

How many zeros are we discussing here?

She explained that she needed to better define the scope before discussing pricing.

That’s perfectly reasonable. Many service providers are hesitant to discuss numbers until they understand exactly what’s involved, and I always tell designers that it’s better to say you don’t have an answer than to paint yourself into a corner you can’t escape.

But over the following days, as I waited for our proposal meeting, do you know what I was thinking about?

Not her strategy. Not her skills.

Just: “What is this going to cost?”

Even during the follow-up meeting, the entire time she was going over the proposal, I kept wondering: “How much is this going to cost me, and will it be worth it?”

It was like having a mosquito buzzing in my ear.

She couldn’t hear it, but I could. 

And it made it harder to fully absorb everything she was saying.

That’s the thing about pricing conversations.

When clients don’t know whether they’re about to hear $2,000 or $20,000, they’re not listening. They’re worrying.

Worried people rarely make bold decisions

Her lack of price signaling had put me into a heightened state of worry. Not because her service wasn’t valuable or because I wasn’t interested, but because uncertainty creates anxiety.

The lesson here isn’t that you need to give exact pricing before you’ve defined the scope. But it is that your clients need some sense of the investment long before they receive a proposal.

This Isn’t Really About Pricing

Designers often seek out my business coaching because they want help with their pricing. They show up asking if they should raise their prices, lower their prices, change their services, offer more, or offer less.

I try to help them understand that the price is rarely the problem. If clients balk at your prices, it’s because you’re not helping them understand the value of our services. Without any good way to compare one designer to another, they end up making a false decision based on a number, thinking they were comparing apples to apples.

This isn’t a price problem.

It’s a decision-making problem.

When we don’t give people the information they need to make a confident decision, they feel uncertain. And when people feel uncertain, they become cautious.

Instead of evaluating opportunities, they start evaluating risk.

Instead of asking whether a solution is valuable, they begin wondering whether it’s affordable.

Instead of imagining what’s possible, they’re bracing for what might happen.

That’s what happened here. Her lack of price signaling had put me into a heightened state of worry. Not because her service wasn’t valuable. Not because I wasn’t interested. Simply because uncertainty creates anxiety.

Why This Makes Sales Harder

To be clear, none of this means she’ll lose the sale. In fact, she may very well win my business.

That’s not really the point.

The point is that she’s made the outcome less predictable than it needs to be.

By holding back key buying information until the very last moment of her onboarding process, instead of me being able to say “that aligns with what I expected, let’s do it!,” the meeting ends with the dreaded “let me think about it.”

Now we risk of losing the momentum that got me interested in the first place. I may second-guess the investment, then set the decision on a dusty mental shelf, intending to come back to it… but never quite getting around to it.

If you want to help your client, you have to be willing to share uncomfortable information — prices and policies they may not want to hear, but need to know about. When you withhold important information until the very end, you don’t just extend the decision-making process. You also increase the risk that it ends with a fizzle instead of a clear, confident commitment. But when you do it early and effectively—whether that’s on your website or early in the conversation—you make it 100% easier for clients to say “yes” when it’s time to buy.

But What About Soft Sales?

Note that I’m not advocating for aggressive sales tactics. I use a very soft sales process myself, and don’t believe clients should be pressured into making immediate decisions.

I don’t believe proposal meetings need to end with a dramatic closing technique. People deserve time to think and need space to evaluate their options so they can make the decision that’s right for them. One of the reasons I like this professional is that she isn’t pushy.

The issue wasn’t that she invited me to consider my options.

The issue was what she left me considering.

When our conversation ended, the strongest thing in my mind wasn’t the value of the solution. It wasn’t the transformation she could help create. It wasn’t the strategy she’d presented.

It was the price. Because that was the very last thing we went over, and thanks to the recency effect, it ended up being the main thing rolling around in my mind after the call.

That’s a very different emotional place from which to make a decision than if I’d already been prepared for her price, and that last thing she told me was how we’d achieve my goals by working together.

What Great Price Signaling Does

The goal of price signaling isn’t to provide exact quotes before you’ve defined the scope of work. The goal is to reduce uncertainty.

Great price signaling helps clients understand the general investment range, why projects cost what they cost, what factors influence pricing, and whether they’re likely to be a good fit before they ever receive a proposal.

Done well, it doesn’t scare people away.

It helps the wrong people self-select out while helping the right people move forward with confidence.

The right kind of price signaling reduces anxiety, builds trust, and helps clients decide whether they’re a good fit long before you present a proposal.

And that’s exactly what makes sales conversations feel easier. You’re no longer trying to convince someone to buy. You’re helping an informed client decide whether moving forward makes sense.

My Best Advice

Every step in your marketing and sales process should answer a simple question:

Does this reduce anxiety or increase it?

Because your clients aren’t just evaluating your services. They’re evaluating the decision itself.

When clients understand the investment and the value behind it, they can stop worrying about the price and start evaluating whether the solution is right for them. That’s why I love teaching price signaling in my Lead to Launch onboarding bootcamp.

It isn’t a sales tactic.

It’s a decision-making tool.

💛 Rebecca