An enquiry says they own a site, they are thinking about a development and they would like a feasibility study. That is the whole brief. It could be two days of desk work or three months with specialist surveys.
The client is not being vague on purpose. Not knowing is the reason they need the study.
The teardown: why this stage is difficult
Feasibility work exists precisely because nobody knows the answer yet. That makes it the hardest work to scope, the easiest to underquote and the most likely to expand once it starts.
Failure one: no defined question
A study must answer something specific. Can this building take another storey. Can this site drain without a pumping station. Can this process handle double the throughput. Without a question, the study has no end.
Failure two: the decision behind it is unknown
A study informing a purchase decision before exchange is a different document to one informing a planning strategy. Asking what happens after the report determines its depth.
Failure three: existing information is not gathered
Surveys, drawings, ground investigation, previous reports and planning history. Clients often hold more than they realise, and it changes the fee substantially.
Failure four: the deadline is not established
A study needed before an option expires has a different shape to one with six months. Sometimes the honest answer is that a proper study cannot be done in the time and a limited appraisal is what is possible.
Failure five: specialist input is assumed to be included
Ground investigation, topographical survey, ecology, traffic and drainage may all be needed. Clients assume one fee covers everything and are surprised by a schedule of extras.
Failure six: the deliverable is undefined
A memo, a report, drawings, cost estimates or a presentation to a committee. Public sector clients in particular need something specific to take to a decision-making body.
Failure seven: the answer might be no
A feasibility study that concludes the proposal does not work has done its job. Saying this explicitly at the outset, and that the fee is for the answer rather than a favourable one, protects the relationship.
Failure eight: public and private clients are handled identically
Councils have procurement processes, thresholds and committee timelines. Developers have option periods and funding deadlines. The commercial conversation differs entirely.
What to establish before proposing
The site and its address, what is being proposed, the specific question the study must answer, what decision follows, what information exists, the deadline, the budget and who else is involved.
Quote in stages
An initial appraisal that defines the questions, followed by a scoped study. This converts clients who cannot commit to a full fee for something they cannot yet describe.
Proposals rather than prices
Scope, assumptions, exclusions and deliverables, which is the discipline in fee proposals and scope questions for engineering firms.
The enquiry pattern generally
It is covered in project enquiries for engineering consultancies.
Technical people enquire at odd hours
The timing is described in technical product questions from engineers at midnight, and capture behaves as in an AI receptionist for opticians.
Getting started
Publish what a feasibility study covers, how you scope it and what sits outside, then capture the site, the question and the deadline at any hour. SpideyChat for B2B firms answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.