The most common question in a first conversation is: “What will it cost?” At that point the answer is almost always that it cannot be said yet.
Fixed prices without preparatory work
A fixed price based on a project outline is either guessed or contains a risk premium that makes the work needlessly expensive. Neither serves the client. The premium is not ill will but the logical response to uncertainty: whoever does not know what lies ahead prices in the unfavourable case.
Process and result
During the discovery sprint we capture requirements, sketch a technical solution and cut the work into packages. What comes out at the end is not a sales document but a concept with a roadmap and an effort estimate, and it is yours even if we do not go on to work together.
Working together before the contract
A week of joint work shows both sides whether the collaboration holds. That is considerably more informative than three meetings, and considerably cheaper than finding out four months into a project.