Most consultancies hide the price until they've hidden the scope. We did the opposite — and the work got better, not cheaper.
When we started Backstage Advisors, we made a decision that made a few people nervous: put fixed-scope fees and a sample outcome next to every service, right on the website. No "let's get you a number." Here is what actually happened.
Opaque pricing protects the seller, not the buyer
The traditional pitch keeps the price vague so it can flex to whatever the client looks like they can pay. That's great for the seller and quietly unfair to the buyer. Publishing a price flips the relationship: the buyer can plan before the first call, and we have to be honest about what fits in that number.
Fewer tyre-kickers, faster trust
We expected to scare people off. Instead, the conversations got shorter and more serious. People who weren't a fit screened themselves out before booking a call — saving everyone time. People who were a fit arrived already knowing roughly what things cost, so the call was about their problem, not about prying a budget out of them.
- Calls now start with the situation, not the small talk of price discovery.
- Buyers trust a firm that shows the number more than one that guards it.
- Scopes are tighter because the price forces us to define what's in and what's out.
A price is a promise about scope
The discipline of publishing a number made us better at scoping. If "$25k" has to mean something specific, you can't be woolly about what the client receives. Every price on our site is tied to a defined deliverable — a sequenced 90-day plan, a ranked AI shortlist, a costed pilot. The number keeps us honest.
What we'd tell anyone considering it
Publish ranges where the work genuinely varies, and say so — honesty about uncertainty beats false precision. Start most engagements with a small, low-cost diagnostic so the buyer can test you before the big spend. And report value against a baseline every week, so the price always has evidence behind it.
Transparency isn't a marketing gimmick for us. It's the fastest way we've found to earn trust — and trust is the whole job.