Why we publish our prices (and most MSPs don't)
The argument for transparent pricing, the objections we get, and the customers it brings - unfiltered. A post we've been threatening to write for two years.
Most of our prospective customers arrive through a specific cycle. They've been burned by an MSP whose quote looked nothing like the invoice. They've spent six weeks in a sales process that still ended with "we'll need to scope this properly before we can give you a number." By the time they find us they're exhausted - and they're reading a pricing page as their first act of hope.
We publish our prices because we got tired of being the fourth conversation in that cycle. Here's what happens when you do, and what the objections are - from our own sales team, not from Twitter.
The objections we get
“But every business is different.”
Yes. And every coffee shop is different, but they still put the price of the flat white on the board. The price is a baseline. The conversation starts with whether you need extras - not with whether we'll quote you at all.
“It kills your negotiating room.”
This one's true. We used to quote every job from scratch - every MSP does - which gave us discretion to close harder deals and pad softer ones. Published pricing removes that lever. We've priced ourselves honestly instead, and we sleep better.
“It undercuts relationship selling.”
If your relationship with a customer depends on them not knowing what you charge, it's not a relationship. It's a negotiation position.
The customers it brings
The customers who find us via the pricing page have already decided they want a partner, not a sales cycle. They arrive with questions about fit - about whether we'll turn up on day one of a compliance audit, or how we'll handle their three offices across two timezones - not questions about cost. That's a much better conversation.
“We spent three months going back and forth with two other MSPs before we found Interconnekt's pricing page. The whole thing took thirty minutes from reading it to agreeing a scope.”
What it didn't do
It didn't flood our pipeline with bargain hunters. We thought it would. In practice, customers who find us via transparent pricing tend to be better-fit, higher-retention, and more collaborative than average. The market self-selects.
It also didn't cost us enterprise deals. Enterprise buyers - the ones who run procurement cycles and three-way bids - still get a tailored quote. Transparent pricing is the front door, not the whole house.
The conclusion we kept arriving at
Secrecy is a tax. On you, because you spend hours preparing custom quotes for prospects you'll never close. On your customers, because they spend weeks in sales cycles they didn't ask for. We got tired of paying it.