Marcus Sheridan

AI-Powered Instant Pricing Ends Call-For-Quote Era

True Story: I was recently asked to speak at a home services conference but the organizer said they did not want me teaching pricing transparency to contractors because, "That's not how we teach them to sell." In other words, they are teaching them to sell like it's the year 2000. Meanwhile, seemingly everyday Google adds some new "instant pricing" feature to their search interface. Just last week I used their new "Have AI Check Prices" feature and two days later I was sent a report of contractors with pricing information. Incredible what's happening right now. And trust me, it's coming for EVERY service-based business. Home services will be the first industry to accept they no longer have the option to rely on "call for quote" to satisfy their leads. Then other B2C services will follow. Then it will come for B2B. And yet, many will still read this post and call me crazy, despite the fact I've been predicting this massive shift for over 10 years now. Well, it's here folks. The time to choose your path is now. But the present and future will be much kinder to those business that allow people to shop, learn, and buy the way THEY want instead of relying on an antiquated sales and marketing model that is destined to fail. What say you? ---- PS #1: I turned down the invitation to speak at that event. I care too much about being honest to audience members about what's coming than I do about picking up another check. PS #2: Notice I did not say to give "exact" prices. But your business will need to be willing to address pricing and give buyers a rough estimate. That will be table stakes.