Next steps: the Discovery phase
If everything in your conversation has been going well so far, you can now begin the planning process with the client to begin the relationship. This is sometimes known the Discovery phase. There are a few important pieces to emphasise here:
No changes are made to the client’s books during the discovery period; it is research and review. This is what helps you create a clear starting place and be able to price the project from an educated perspective rather than taking a guess.
The Discovery Phase is a valuable service, and it needs to be priced as such. To make it easier, use a checklist and give the client a Discovery Report at the end of this phase, complete with recommendations for next steps.
Be sure to give yourself enough time to really do the Discovery Phase justice. You could schedule Discovery for the calendar month following the month in which you are first meeting. If the client is in a hurry, then you can discuss with them how their expedited timeline may alter the flow of your work and the price of the engagement.
This is when you would set the price for the Discovery phase. Generally by this time you have an idea of how much of a mess you may be walking into. Keep in mind that, while no changes are being made to the books, you are working to document all of the issues you can find to help eliminate surprises as you move forward with the relationship. Vary your pricing depending on the client’s size, complexity, and potential mess.
*Special story #2 – When discussing the Discovery price, this is when the client will often ask what the monthly maintenance is going to cost them down the line. Ingrid Edstrom’s favorite analogy to give them is Housekeeping. Pretend that you want to hire someone to regularly clean your house, and you want to know how much it will cost each month. Now pretend that your house hasn’t been built yet. You don’t know how many rooms you have, which ones have carpet vs. hardwoods, or how much of the maintenance you are planning to do yourself. Do you do your own laundry and dishes, or is that expected of your housekeeper? Until they have a better understanding of what this is going to look like, there really isn’t a way to ballpark a price for the monthly maintenance.
That being said, it will set the client’s mind at ease to have even a wide ballpark. After sharing that analogy with them, let them know the pricing range they could be looking at from your minimum price to some of the higher figures.The important thing is to reassure them that the value you offer always exceeds the price. That will set their mind at ease, and show them that you are on their team.