How we scope and price a 30-day website in 48 hours

How we scope and price a 30-day website in 48 hours

Most agencies take 1 to 4 weeks to deliver a quote. We deliver in 48 hours. This is the process that makes it possible.

Why 48 hours works

We have built the same kind of project 50+ times. The unknowns are gone. We run the intro call. We fill the form. We read the matrix. We send the pitch.

This does not work for new projects. It works because we built a scope form and a price matrix from 16 live sites.

Step 1: Discovery call (60 minutes)

The agenda is fixed. We do not wing it. The discovery call sets the scope, the stack and the timeline.

See the 30-day marketing website guide for the four-week structure that discovery feeds into.

Min 0–5: Goals. What is the business result? More leads, a faster site, a new product launch?

Min 5–10: Audience. Who is the primary user? Indian SMB founder, US enterprise buyer, internal team?

Min 10–25: Pages. How many pages? What are they? We estimate word counts and page size.

Min 25–35: Content. Who writes the copy? Who supplies the images? Is there a CMS or do we hardcode the content?

Min 35–45: Add-ons. Forms, CRM, email, stats, chatbot, payments, third-party APIs.

Min 45–50: Timeline. When does this need to be live? Is the date flexible?

Min 50–55: Budget. What is the budget range?

Min 55–60: Next steps. If there is a fit, we send a scope form within 24 hours. We send a proposal within 48 hours. Our pricing page playbook explains the pricing structures that proposals follow once scoping is complete.

Step 2: Scope form (24 hours)

The scope form has 14 sections:

1. Goals
2. Audience
3. Pages
4. Content ownership
5. Add-ons
6. Timeline
7. Team
8. Stack
9. Deliverables
10. Out of scope
11. Assumptions
12. Change orders
13. Payment schedule
14. Support window

We fill in 12 sections on the discovery call. We fill in sections 7 and 8 within 24 hours.

Step 3: Price matrix (24 hours)

We do not use hourly pricing. We use a price matrix.

The matrix has 12 tiers. Tier 1 is 5 pages with no CMS. Tier 12 is a custom web app with complex add-ons.

Each tier has a price. We pick the tier that fits the scope.

We apply add-ons for integrations, content and timeline.

The price is in the job, not hours. We do not sell hours. We sell results. Our pricing page playbook shows how pricing pages convert.

Step 4: Proposal (48 hours)

The proposal is 2 pages. Not 20.

Page 1 covers the scope. It has a 3-line overview. It has a table with price. It has a timeline with milestones. It has the total with payment plan.

Page 2 covers terms. It has the payment plan. It has the change order process. It has the support window. It has a signature line.

The client signs. We start the project within 3 business days.

When this breaks

• The scope is unclear.
• The client wants hourly pricing.
• The timeline is too tight.
• The budget is too low.

About 30 percent of intro calls end with not a fit. That is fine. We would rather say no than over-promise.

The 30-day marketing website guide describes the fixed scope and fixed fee structure that makes this process work.