Playbook, marketing agency
The quote question every agency site gets, and the number nobody should say
Every project an agency sells is bespoke by definition, and the same brief costs three different amounts depending on what already exists, what has to be migrated and who is available to make decisions. So a number said early is not an estimate, it is a ceiling the rest of the negotiation happens under. The specific failure to design out here is an assistant naming a price for work nobody has scoped, which is easier to trigger than agencies expect, because the number is usually sitting on the site already.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for quotes and estimates holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The work does not exist yet, so there is nothing to price, and the honest answer describes a process rather than withholding a figure.
- A number said at the enquiry stage becomes the anchor for the entire commercial conversation, regardless of what the scope turns out to contain.
- Prospects asking are usually establishing whether they can afford the agency at all, so refusing every indication loses the enquiries that would have been the right size.
- The variable is what already exists on the client's side, which the prospect never volunteers and often does not know, so scoping is discovery rather than specification.
How it arrives
- how much does a website cost
- can you give me a ballpark for a rebrand
- what is your minimum engagement
- how much would a campaign like this be
- is ad spend included in the fee
- can you quote from a brief if i send it over
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Indicative starting points, framed as starting points | Not a price list. A typical entry point per service, what moves it upward, and an honest statement that the number follows a scope. This is what lets the assistant answer at all, and how it is worded decides whether the answer is safe. |
|---|---|
| Service definitions written as deliverables | What a brand engagement, a website build, a content retainer or a paid media programme actually produces: the artefacts, the cadence, the reporting. Every agency claims the same qualities, and almost none of them say what arrives. |
| What a discovery call covers | How long it runs, who attends from your side, what you will ask, what the prospect should bring, and what they receive afterwards. The biggest reason a good prospect does not book is that they cannot tell whether it is a consultation or a pitch. |
| What sits outside the fee | Media spend, licences, stock imagery, third party tools, hosting. Prospects budget the fee and then meet these, and stating them in the same document as the starting point is what keeps a first invoice from being a surprise. |
The reply
Website projects start at the entry point published on our services page, and what moves a project above it is usually the amount of content to migrate, the number of templates and whether there is an integration involved. I am not going to put a figure on your project, because a number given before anyone has scoped it tends to be wrong in both directions. Media spend, licences and hosting sit outside our fee and are billed separately. A discovery call is the fastest way to get a real number, and I can take your details for one.
It gives the published starting point exactly as written, because refusing outright costs the agency the enquiries it wants. Naming what moves a project upward is more informative than a range and it quietly qualifies the prospect. Saying the number would be wrong in both directions is more persuasive than a policy, because it reads as being on the prospect's side.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor describes their project, sends a brief, or asks for a figure tied to what they have just described.
I can give you our published starting points but not a price for your project, because that follows a scope rather than a description. Leave your name, email and a line on what you are trying to do and someone will set up a discovery call.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never produce a figure, a range or an order of magnitude for a described project.
- Never say a project sounds straightforward, small or quick.
- Never quote a timeline for work that has not been scoped.
- Never say what another client paid, or that a discount might be available.
Questions
- We deliberately publish no prices. Does that break this?
- It limits it. Without any indication, a share of your enquiries are people discovering they cannot afford you, which costs your team the calls. A published entry point per service, framed honestly as a starting point a scope moves, filters those out before they book without committing you to a number.
- What stops it improvising a price?
- It answers only from what you index and refuses below a match threshold you set rather than reaching for the nearest page. If the only pricing material you index is a starting point with its qualifications attached, that is what it can say, and the citations show you what it used.
- Somebody wants to send a brief. What should it do?
- Take a name, an email and one line, not the brief. It cannot receive files, and a brief pasted into a chat invites exactly the priced reply this page exists to prevent.
Keep reading
- Everything for a marketing agencyService definitions and engagement terms convert. A price quoted for work nobody has scoped is the trap on an agency site.
- Handling quotes and estimates in generalWhat has to be known before a number is possible, how the scoping step works, and how to answer without stonewalling or inventing a figure.
- How an agency charges, before anyone talks about what it costsEngagement shapes, minimum terms and what sits inside the monthly fee. The commercial structure prospects compare before they compare agencies.
- Data and security questions from the prospect's procurement teamAgencies process customer data for clients. What the assistant can answer from a published position, and where a person has to commit the firm.
- What happens when a client wants to stop working with the agencyNotice periods, work in progress and who keeps the ad accounts. The questions clients ask late and should have been able to read early.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.