A builder asks his client for the engineer's drawings. The client has a document full of calculations, two sketches and a specification, and no drawings at all.
Nobody was misled. The proposal said calculations, the client assumed that meant everything, and the job is now held up for a week while somebody produces the missing part.
The checklist
Publish these and clients know exactly what they are buying.
1. List the deliverables by name
Calculations, drawings, specifications, schedules, reports and certificates. As a list, in the proposal, rather than described in a sentence.
2. Say what each one is for
Who uses it and why. A client cannot judge whether a deliverable is sufficient unless they know whether their builder or building control will accept it.
3. Say what is not included
Drawings where only calculations are provided, details where only a general arrangement is produced, and anything a client might reasonably assume, which is the ground in fee proposals and scope questions for engineering firms.
4. Say what level of detail drawings reach
General arrangement, details, connections and whether fabrication information is included. The word drawings covers a very wide range of work.
5. Say what format everything arrives in
Electronic, printed, file types and whether editable versions are provided. Builders and other consultants need particular formats.
6. Say how many copies and revisions
Included as standard, with what a further revision costs. Design changes and a revision policy prevents an argument at the third one.
7. Say who the deliverable is addressed to
The client, the contractor or an authority, and whether it may be relied on by others. It matters legally and clients never think about it.
8. Say what building control will need
And whether your deliverable satisfies it. Clients assume any engineering document does and frequently discover otherwise.
9. Say what the contractor will need
Because that is who actually builds from it, and a deliverable a builder cannot work from creates a second round of fees.
10. Say what a certificate is and is not
Where certification is provided, what it covers and what it does not. It is the most misunderstood deliverable in the field.
11. Say when each item is issued
At which stage, so the client can plan around it, which connects to turnaround questions clients ask under pressure.
12. Say what happens if the design changes
Whether deliverables are reissued, what it costs and how it affects the programme.
12b. Say how long the deliverable remains usable
Projects stall for a year, standards move and a design prepared for one scheme gets reused for another. Stating how long an output stands, what would require it to be revisited and what a review costs prevents a client building from a document that was produced for a different situation entirely.
13. Show an example
A sample deliverable set from a similar project, redacted. Clients understand a picture of the output far better than a list, which is the principle in reporting questions from marketing clients.
14. Answer deliverable questions before appointment
Clients compare proposals in the evening and choose the one they understand, which is the approach in how financial advisors use chatbots to answer client questions.
Getting started
List deliverables by name with formats, revisions and exclusions, build the page with the AI FAQ generator, then answer 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.