Build a Better Brief™

What does it mean to build a better brief?

A brief is basically just a set of instructions about a given job, project or task. 

Have you ever had a job that has just blown out and then cost you a lot of time and money to either fix it to bring it back in line with client expectation because the contract didn’t allow for variation? We’ve experienced that, and we sure you have too. Not getting enough information (or having clarity about the information) means that a job isn’t scoped properly right from the start.

When this happens it can create a lot of problems between the client and ourselves as professionals. Lack of information contributes to an expectation gap. This gap is the difference between what the client THINKS that we are going to do and WHAT our professional perspective says that the client needs.

This often comes down to the fact that as professionals, we know our jobs inside out and often overlook that the client doesn’t know what we know. In addition to this, we often don’t have a common language in which we can explain the tasks. This means that there are generally a lot of assumptions inbuilt into a scoping document – from both sides.

This scoping document directly impacts the price that you will quote for the job. A poorly scoped job can lead to either a lot of profit left on the table or even worse, a job that costs money to deliver.

To Build a Better Brief is one of our core principles that we wanted to address for service providers. It comes from the fact that clients don’t know what they don’t know and as a service provider it can be a little frustrating to work with inquiries that are simply – ‘How much do you charge?’.

Aside from the many questions that would need to be answered to actually come to a price – going through this process is not the highest and best use of your time. And let’s be brutally honest, your A Class clients are not very likely to be driven solely by price alone.

This just isn’t the sales conversation that we wanted to have, nor is it one that you should want to have either.

You have a specialist skill set and should not let yourself be commoditised to the lowest price.

To Build a Better Brief is to get enough information so that you can clearly see what it is that the client is looking for.  You can then give them a strong reason to do business with you that isn’t only price driven – all without having to spend time on a phone call for basic information gathering OR having to go back and forwards in emails to try and piece together everything they wanted you to do.

It is our aim to use our Opportunity process, especially the Quote, to ask your prospective client a lot of questions that are relevant to your industry so that you are getting the information you need to actually begin to scope a job properly.

We want to educate your prospect while at the same time get enough information to help build the brief where nothing falls through the cracks, the business owner gets done what they need and there is no miscommunication over the deliverable or who is responsible for what.

We hope that you can use sixty:forty to Build a Better Brief and make your small business journey easier.

If you would like to help us build out the initial questions and get access to some cool gear then fill out the form below and let us know the top 5 questions that you ask your prospects to get a better understanding of their requirements.