The briefing that gets you a quote in 48 hours

A useful discovery call is short. Ours is 30 minutes, and the reason it can be short is that we ask for the same facts every time — facts that let a written quote be a fixed quote instead of a hopeful estimate. This post is the checklist we send before the call, plus what happens to your answers afterwards.

The seven facts that make a quote possible

1. What has to be true when the project is done. Not "a new website" — "visitors from Bogotá can request a quote in Spanish and we can answer within one business day." Outcomes can be priced; adjectives cannot.
2. Who decides. One name, one role. Projects slow down when approval is a committee that was never introduced.
3. The audience, in each language. Who buys, in which city or country, and whether English and Spanish are equals or one is primary.
4. References you actually like. Two or three sites or brands — and, useful, one you dislike. Taste is faster to read from examples than from adjectives.
5. What already exists. Domain, hosting, logo files, brand guide, analytics, content in a doc or only in someone's head. Missing assets change the number more than missing features do.
6. A budget band, in the market's currency. USD for U.S. work, COP for Colombia. We do not need your maximum — a band tells us whether the shape you imagined is the shape you can buy, and we would rather resize the scope than the invoice.
7. The date that matters, and why. A trade show, a launch, a contract renewal. Deadlines without reasons make us guess; deadlines with reasons let us sequence the work.

What we do with the seven answers

They go straight into the quote desk as a scoped list: pages or deliverables, both languages with parity, the revision rounds, what is excluded, and the delivery window measured from when your assets arrive. If the budget band and the desired scope do not meet, the next message from us shows two or three shapes the band can buy — smaller, phased, or prioritized — instead of one number that quietly assumes a discount.

Then comes the written quote (about 48 hours for a complete brief; a complex store or a large catalog takes longer and we say so up front). The quote is approved online, the approved version is frozen, and only change orders can add to it later.

What "48 hours" actually means

It means 48 working hours from the moment the brief is complete — call plus these facts, in writing (an email is fine). It does not mean a number invented during the call. And if you want to start before the call: the public quote form asks the same seven questions in the relevant language, and it lands on the same desk.

The one-paragraph version

Outcome, decision maker, audience, references, existing assets, budget band, deadline with a reason. Thirty minutes, written quote in about two working days, fixed number attached to a list. That is the whole trick — there is no second trick.