Ask for a fixed-price scope

Three things have to be true for this to fit.

• You run the business, or you can approve a change without asking anyone else.
• You spend enough each month that a result can be read.
• You can grant read-only access to the account.

The fit response comes back in writing, and it takes one of four forms.

• A priced scope. It names the engagement, the access it needs, what it produces, what sits outside it, the assumptions it rests on, and the fixed price or the basis the price is set from. It arrives as a document you can read in one sitting and compare line by line against anything else you have been sent.
• A smaller priced step. When the question is smaller than the ask, the answer names the triage or the diagnostic instead, and says why the larger engagement is not needed yet.
• A decline with the reason. When the work does not fit, the answer says so and names the reason. Where I can, it names what would have to be true for it to fit.
• A request for the missing facts. When the form does not carry enough to answer, the reply names the exact facts that are missing and asks for those and nothing else.

Agencies and white-label partners can ask for a call once the written fit response is out.