Proposal templates Paid discovery
Paid discovery is the honest answer when you can't write the scope without guessing. Instead of quoting a build you don't understand yet, you sell a short, fixed-fee phase that produces the scope: a written roadmap and a fixed quote for the build.
Brennan Dunn calls this roadmapping. The idea underneath it, argued in Blair Enns's Win Without Pitching, is that nothing should be prescribed until the diagnosis is agreed. The client gets a plan they can use with anyone, and you get paid for the thinking you used to give away before a quote.
The PDF is free and needs no account. Sending it as a link instead adds read tracking and a tamper-evident e-signature — free plan, no credit card.
Type a client, a fee and a timeline and watch this proposal fill in. No account, no email.
Example figure — illustrative, not a pricing recommendation.
For Your client$5,000 · 2 weeks
Use this template freeRuns in your browser — nothing you type is saved or sent, or carried into the editor.
Prepared for Your client
PreviewPaid discovery proposal
Investment
Illustrative figure.
Timeline
What discovery produces
+ 1 more in the full proposal
Signature
Your client signs here once you send it.
How the payments and terms read to your client
Discovery feeDeposit
Due on signing
$5,000.00
100%
The discovery fee is paid before the workshop and is credited in full against the build if you go ahead within 90 days of receiving the roadmap. The roadmap is yours to keep and use whether or not we build it. Overdue invoices may pause the work until they are paid, and may carry interest at the rate allowed where we are based.
Every section below exists to answer a question your client is silently asking. Use the example copy as a starting point and replace the specifics.
Open with the questions discovery will answer. It shows the client why a build quote today would be a guess, and a padded one.
“Before we can quote the rebuild we need to know which of your pages still bring in enquiries, whether the booking system stays or goes, and who on your team will update the site. Discovery answers those three questions in two weeks.”
List deliverables as documents, not meetings. LowCode Agency's test: the result should be something the client could hand to another vendor, not just a meeting summary.
“A half-day stakeholder workshop. A written roadmap covering goals, requirements and what success looks like. A sitemap and technical plan. A phased build estimate, with a fixed quote for phase one.”
Discovery produces little that looks like progress, so sponsors can feel short-changed. Lullabot's fix is to end the phase with something visual, such as key-page wireframes or style mocks.
“You'll also get wireframes of the home, service and booking pages, so you can see the plan before you approve the build.”
Discovery is priced as one fee and paid in full on signing. Published benchmarks put it at 5–15% of the expected build, but every one of those figures comes from a firm that sells discovery, so treat it as a sanity check, not a rule.
“Discovery and roadmap: one fixed fee, paid on signing. The workshop is booked once it's paid, and the fee is non-refundable once the first session has run.”
Crediting the fee against the build is common but not universal. Wbcom credits 100% if the client goes ahead within 90 days; Wavect deducts it from the first build invoice; some studios don't credit it at all. If you offer a credit, give it an expiry.
“The discovery fee is credited in full against the build if you go ahead within 90 days of receiving the roadmap.”
Say whether the client may take the roadmap to another vendor, that there is no obligation to go ahead, and that any build range is an estimate until the roadmap is done.
“The roadmap is yours to keep and use whether or not we build it. You're under no obligation to go ahead. Any build figure in this proposal is an estimate; the fixed quote comes with the roadmap.”
Example pricing section
Discovery and roadmap, fixed fee (example)
$3,000
Paid on signing (100%)
$3,000
Credit against the build, if signed within 90 days
−$3,000
In ApeiroCraft the payment schedule becomes invoices after signing — the deposit invoice is drafted the moment they sign.
A short, fixed-fee engagement before the main project. You run the workshop, research and planning you would otherwise do for free before quoting, and deliver a written roadmap with a fixed quote for the build. The client can go ahead with you or take the roadmap elsewhere.
There is no independent benchmark. Published figures put discovery at 5–15% of the expected build cost, and quoted fees include Brennan Dunn's $3,000 and agency ranges of $3,000–$8,000 and $5,000–$15,000. Every one of those comes from someone who sells discovery. Price it from the days it will actually take you.
It's common, not universal. Some studios credit 100% if the client goes ahead within 90 days, others deduct it from the first build invoice, and some don't credit it at all. If you offer a credit, put the expiry in writing.
Yes. One pattern is a standalone proposal paid 100% on signing, with a separate build proposal afterwards. The other is a milestone proposal where discovery is phase 1 and later phases are marked 'to be confirmed after phase 1'. The standalone version is cleaner when the build is genuinely unknown.
See the milestone payment template →Use this template and the draft opens with the discovery scope, a single fixed-fee line and a 100% payment due on signing. When the client signs, the invoice for the full fee is drafted for you to send. The credit is written into the terms; ApeiroCraft doesn't yet show it as a line on the later build proposal.
This template as a tracked, e-signable link — with the invoice one click away once your client says yes.
Use this template freeStill deciding? Talk to the founder
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