Pricing a full-service client pilot

prpro

I'm working with a general contractor who's moving from commercial to residential. Huge operational capacity, zero marketing so far. The potential is massive. But I'm stuck on how to price the whole thing.

After talking it through with a couple of tools, they both suggested monthly retainer plus a percentage of each completed job. Couldn't find much else online.

I'm leaning towards a 90-day pilot. My scope: rebuild their website (it's dreadful - all those visitors going nowhere), set up Meta ads, manage the campaign, and actually handle the appointment booking. I'd call leads as soon as they submit a form and book quotation appointments straight into their calendar. A full done-for-you system - client just shows up.

I'm confident I can deliver on both lead gen and booking. But the pricing? I'm thinking £1,250 per month plus 5% of each completed project. That feels high, but then again, it's a lot of work. The pilot is meant to give them an easy exit (they own all assets after 90 days), and it's an offer I can replicate for other clients.

Someone mentioned that 90-day pilots create an unnecessary deadline - the client expects magic in three months. They suggested a rolling monthly contract with a 30-day cancellation instead. That makes sense. And they also said my price seems low for the full package, especially if the client didn't ask for a new website. Maybe I should scale the scope back and keep the price as is, then upsell later.

I'm torn. The website rebuild is essential - sending prospects to a rubbish site would hurt the campaign. And rebuilding it in Webflow sets me up to offer SEO, Google Business, Google Ads down the line. So it's a foundation, not an upsell.

Any insight on structuring this? Value-based pricing feels right, but I don't want to scare them off or undervalue myself.

leadgen

I've been burned by the "90-day pilot" thing before. It puts a ticking clock in their head, and then you're scrambling to hit some vague finish line while they watch the calendar. What I've found works way better is setting expectations for proper results over 3-6 months. That's just reality for most marketing work.

I switched to a recurring monthly contract with a 30-day notice to cancel. No more renegotiating every quarter-just one simple agreement that keeps going as long as they're happy. I've got clients who've been on the same contract for nearly a decade now. They see progress, they keep paying. Simple.

On pricing: honestly, what you're quoting sounds way too low for everything you're planning. Did they actually ask for a brand new website and that booking form? If not, I'd strip the scope back to what they explicitly requested, keep your price where it is, and then upsell the extras later as standalone projects. That way you don't set yourself up for scope creep from day one.

cpaoptimizer

Cheap clients aren't worth it. I price by cost per acquisition benchmarks.

ctrjunkie

Oh mate, we ran into the same headache with project-based commissions-tracking was an absolute nightmare. Ended up switching to a smaller cut of booked appointments instead. Way easier to verify, and it shows ROI way quicker.

prpro

That's a fair concern about the 90-day pilot - it can easily become a self-imposed deadline for failure if you're not careful. A colleague once described that kind of setup as "booking your own exit interview" before you've even started.

The website situation resonates. A terrible site isn't just an inconvenience; it's actively undermining every bit of trust you try to build elsewhere. Rebuilding from scratch in Webflow makes sense, especially if you're planning to later layer on SEO, Google Business Profile, and Ads. That's a classic service-stacking approach, and it works well when each piece is positioned as a natural next step rather than a desperate upsell.

For me, the key is framing that pilot not as a trial period but as a foundation phase. You're not proving you can do a half-baked job cheaply; you're demonstrating that you can fix the core infrastructure so everything else has a fighting chance. If they're happy with that, then yes, the next stages become logical extensions - not a bait-and-switch.

The real trap is offering a pilot that feels like a free sample rather than a strategic investment. Make sure the value delivered in those 90 days is undeniable, and that the price reflects real work - not a discount that devalues the entire relationship.