system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why b2b companies rarely put prices on their website?

Sometimes just out of curiosity I look into the web sites of companies that sell products to business and they rarely show prices. Normally they present the product and then direct you to talk to a salesperson, is there an economic reasoning behind this business model? Why is it so common?
gpt
This is called price discrimination. The idea behind it is to sell each product at such a price as to maximize the producer surplus.

For example, consider a machine tool and two companies A and B. Company A is more profitable and is willing to pay at most $500k for the machine tool. Company B is less profitable and is will to pay at most $400k for the machine tool.

If you set the price at $500k you’ll lose the company B market and make only $500k. If you set the price at $400k, you’ll make $800k. However, if you set the price at $500k for company A and $400k for company B, you’ll make $900k.

It is important to note that the above strategy only works if one has enough market power to set prices. A patent, which is a monopoly right, is one such situation. Otherwise the producer will be a price taker due to competition.