Why I Started Charging a Discovery Pack Fee Before Quoting Webflow Projects in 2026

Why Did I Start Charging a Fee Before I Even Quote a Webflow Project?

For seven years of running my Webflow practice from Bengaluru, I gave away discovery for free. Two hours on a call, a half day building a written proposal, sometimes a sitemap sketch, all bundled into the cost of doing business. I closed enough projects to keep the lights on. I also did a lot of unpaid work for buyers who were never going to hire me. Last December I crossed a line. I had spent 22 hours in one month on three discovery efforts that all went nowhere. That was the month I introduced a paid Discovery Pack.

The data I have collected on this since January 2026 is the clearest case I can make for the change. My discovery to close rate went from 31 percent in 2025 to 68 percent in the first half of 2026, on a smaller and more serious top of funnel. My average project size grew by 42 percent, because the buyers who pay for discovery also commit to bigger scope. And my unpaid hours per closed project dropped from 12 to under 3.

This piece walks through what the Discovery Pack actually contains, how I price it, the conversation I have with prospects who push back, and what I learned in the first six months running it.

What Is the Discovery Pack and What Is Inside It?

The Discovery Pack is a fixed scope, fixed fee engagement that produces a written deliverable a prospect can act on, whether they hire me for the build or not. It is one 60 minute kickoff call, two 25 minute interviews with stakeholders the prospect names, a sitemap diagram, a wireframe of the homepage, a content outline, and a written recommendation on tech stack and timeline. The whole thing runs over five working days.

The point is that the prospect leaves with a document they can use. If they hire me, the document becomes the project brief. If they hire another studio, it becomes the brief for that studio. If they decide to wait six months, the document still holds value. The deliverable does not depend on me being the build partner.

What Does It Cost?

I price the Discovery Pack at 75,000 rupees for India clients and 1,200 US dollars for international clients. The price is small enough that a serious B2B buyer does not blink, and large enough that a tire kicker self selects out. The rupee floor matches the retainer pricing I described in my piece on why I raised my Webflow retainer floor to 50,000 rupees in June 2026.

If the prospect signs the main project within 30 days of the Discovery Pack delivery, I credit 100 percent of the Discovery Pack fee against the first invoice. That credit is what makes the conversation easy. The prospect is not paying extra, they are paying earlier, with a guarantee.

Why Not Just Give This Away to Win Projects?

This was my position for seven years. I lost it because of three patterns I could not ignore. First, prospects who pay attention. A paying prospect shows up to calls, sends documents on time, and answers questions. A free discovery prospect treats the call as one of several they are running, with no commitment from either side. The quality of the conversation is night and day.

Second, the time cost of the unpaid version is real. The 22 hour month was not the worst. It was the average. Third, paid discovery filters out buyers who are shopping prices, not partners. A buyer who cannot commit 1,200 dollars to a written brief is a buyer who will fight every invoice for the next six months. I prefer to find that out before we sign a contract for ten times the amount.

What Happens When a Prospect Pushes Back?

Pushback is normal and almost always falls into one of three patterns. The first is "your competitors do this for free." My answer is that they do, and you are welcome to use them. I find that the prospects who use this objection are usually testing whether I am desperate. I am not.

The second pattern is "we cannot commit before we see what you would build." My answer is that the Discovery Pack is exactly that document, and that nothing in it is contingent on hiring me for the build. The third pattern is "we are a small budget, can you reduce the fee?" My answer is that small budgets are exactly why the Discovery Pack matters most. A 75,000 rupee investment now is cheaper than three months of rebuilding a site that was scoped wrong. The same restraint I write about in my piece on why I limit every Webflow discovery call to 25 minutes shapes how I respond to these conversations.

What Does the Five Day Schedule Actually Look Like?

Day one is the 60 minute kickoff call and a written summary I send within two hours. Day two is the two stakeholder interviews, each 25 minutes, with a one paragraph synthesis after each. Day three is sitemap and content outline drafting. Day four is the homepage wireframe and the tech stack recommendation. Day five is the integration of everything into a single PDF and the delivery call.

The whole thing fits in roughly 14 to 16 hours of my time, plus the prospect's roughly 3 hours across calls. That ratio is important. If I let it stretch to 20 hours, the math stops working. Five days is the schedule, not a goal.

What Tools Do I Use to Run the Discovery Pack?

The kickoff and stakeholder calls run on Google Meet, recorded with my consent and the prospect's. I use Claude Sonnet 4.6 to draft the meeting summaries from the transcripts. The sitemap diagram lives in Whimsical. The wireframe lives in Figma. The final PDF is built in Notion and exported. I bill through Razorpay for Indian clients and Stripe for international clients.

None of these tools are mandatory. Earlier versions of the same Discovery Pack used FigJam for sitemaps and a Google Doc for the final deliverable. The choice of tool matters less than the discipline of the format. The deliverable should look professional, be self contained, and survive being read six months from now.

What Have I Learned in the First Six Months?

The first lesson is that the Discovery Pack does not just filter prospects, it changes the conversation with the ones who say yes. A prospect who has signed a 75,000 rupee agreement before any build work treats the project as their project, not as a vendor relationship they are evaluating. The collaboration is better from day one.

The second lesson is that the 30 day conversion credit creates urgency in a way I did not predict. About 70 percent of Discovery Pack clients sign the main project within the 30 day window. The remaining 30 percent either sign later without the credit, or genuinely walk away with the brief and go in a different direction. Both outcomes are fine. The first 70 percent justifies the model on its own.

What Would I Change If I Started Over?

I would set the price higher. 75,000 rupees was the right entry point in January when I was nervous about the change. By March I knew I could have started at 100,000 rupees with no loss of conversion. I am holding the current price through 2026 to avoid changing the offer mid year, and will raise it in January 2027.

I would also write a clearer one pager for the Discovery Pack itself, with the deliverables, the schedule, and the credit, before the first discovery call. The first three Discovery Packs I sold required me to explain the model on the call. I now send the one pager 24 hours before the first call, and the conversation moves faster as a result.

How Do You Try This in Your Own Practice This Week?

Write down the deliverables you would feel proud handing to a prospect after five days of paid work. Price the package at a number that filters out buyers you do not want, but does not embarrass you. Add the 30 day credit. Stop quoting projects until you have run the package. The first two prospects will push back. The third will say yes, and the model will start to compound.

If you want me to look at the deliverable structure you are planning and pressure test the pricing, I am happy to walk through it. Let's chat.