A client receives three proposals. One is half the price of the others. He takes it, and discovers that it excludes site attendance, assumes drawings he does not have, and covers one of the three elements he needs.
He has not saved money. He has bought a different thing.
What buyers should compare
These are the questions a client should ask. Consultancies that answer them openly win against cheaper proposals that quietly exclude things.
1. What exactly is in scope
Element by element. Two proposals for the same project routinely cover different work, and the client is the only person who does not realise it.
2. What is excluded
Site attendance, revisions, meetings, coordination with other consultants and anything assumed to be provided. Exclusions explain price differences better than anything else.
3. What is assumed
Existing drawings, survey information, ground data and access. A proposal assuming information the client does not have will change in price the moment that becomes clear.
4. Who will actually do the work
Named, with experience and whether they will be involved throughout. Clients meet a director and are served by somebody else, and they should know beforehand.
5. What the deliverables are
Calculations, drawings, reports, certificates and in what format. Clients need to know what physically arrives and whether it is what their builder or authority needs.
6. How many revisions are included
And what a change would cost. Design evolves and a proposal without a revision position will produce an unwelcome conversation.
7. The programme
From appointment to delivery, with what it depends on. Compare dates rather than durations, because durations start from different points.
8. The insurance position
Level of professional indemnity and whether it suits the project's value. Clients rarely ask and occasionally need it.
9. Relevant experience
Similar projects, similar buildings or similar sites. A consultancy that has done this exact thing before is usually worth more than the fee difference.
10. Who they coordinate with
Architects, contractors, other consultants and the local authority, and whether coordination is included. Projects fail in the gaps between consultants.
11. Whether site attendance is included
How many visits, what triggers them and what additional visits cost. It is the most common exclusion and the one clients feel most.
12. What happens if the project changes
The variation process, how it is agreed and how it is priced, which is the ground in fee proposals and scope questions for engineering firms.
Publish your own answers to all of this
A comparison page setting out what your proposals include as standard. Clients use it to assess everybody, and it reliably favours whoever wrote it honestly.
Smaller practices should lean into it
A named engineer who answers the telephone is a genuine advantage over a large firm, which is the argument in independent consultants competing with big firms.
Respond while they are comparing
Clients assess proposals in the evening and ask questions then, as in project enquiries for engineering consultancies, and the distinction in the difference between a chatbot and live chat matters for how those questions get answered.
Getting started
Publish what your proposals include and exclude as standard, then answer comparison questions at any hour. SpideyChat for professional services firms answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.