Buyers ask models what things cost
Cost is among the first questions anyone asks about a category, and assistants answer it using whoever published a number. If your page says “contact us”, you are not in that answer — your competitor’s range is, along with their framing of what is expensive and why.
Hidden pricing doesn’t stay hidden
The traditional argument for withholding price is that it forces a conversation. In practice a model will still answer the question, using review sites, forum posts, and third-party estimates you didn’t write and can’t correct. Silence doesn’t prevent the answer; it just removes you as its source.
If you won’t publish a number, the internet publishes one for you — and it’s usually wrong in the direction that costs you deals.
You don’t have to publish a price list
A defensible range with the variables that move it is enough: what a typical engagement costs, what makes it more, what makes it less. That is quotable, honest, and it qualifies buyers before they reach a call — which is the actual commercial goal.
Make the structure unambiguous
Put the number close to what it buys, state the unit plainly, and avoid formats that read as ambiguous out of context. The same discipline that makes any fact liftable applies here, and it pairs with schema that disambiguates what you sell.
Say who you’re wrong for
Naming the buyer you don’t serve — too small, too large, wrong sector — is one of the most quotable things you can publish, and it filters your inbound rather than deflating it. It also gives a model something specific to reason with, which is what separates a confident recommendation from a mention.
The teams most nervous about this are usually the ones whose pricing is inconsistent. That is worth fixing on its own merits before it becomes a content problem.