Build a phased fee proposal for an architecture or engineering project
A fee build-up by design phase and role, checked against percentage-of-construction benchmarks, with assumptions and exclusions.
The prompt
Help me build a fee proposal for an architecture or engineering project.
Project: [type, size, location, estimated construction cost, delivery method - e.g. "design-bid-build", "design-build", "CM at risk"]
Our services: [disciplines we provide in-house and through consultants]
Phases in scope: [e.g. "Programming, Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, Bidding, Construction Administration"]
Staff roles and billing rates: [e.g. "Principal $X, Project Architect $Y, Designer $Z"]
Consultant quotes: [AMOUNTS and markup]
Construction duration: [MONTHS - drives CA effort]
Fee basis the client expects: [lump sum / percentage of construction cost / hourly not-to-exceed]
Client and risk factors: [e.g. "first-time owner", "complex approvals", "existing building with unknown conditions"]
Produce:
1. A bottom-up fee table by phase: hours by role, labor cost, consultants, reimbursables, and phase subtotal.
2. The phase split as a percentage of total fee, compared with the split I tell you is typical for my firm [MY TYPICAL SPLIT], with any phase that looks under-resourced flagged.
3. A top-down check: total fee as a percentage of construction cost, against the range I provide [MY BENCHMARK RANGE].
4. Assumptions that protect the fee: number of design iterations, meetings, site visits, submittal reviews, CA duration, and what happens if construction runs long.
5. Exclusions and items offered as additional services (e.g. surveys, geotechnical, specialty consultants, LEED or energy modeling, extra renderings).
6. A short fee narrative for the client explaining value, not just hours.
Use my rates and quotes only; mark anything missing [ADD]. Do not invent industry benchmark percentages.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Sales prompts
What to fill in
- disciplines we provide in-house and through consultants
- e.g. "Principal $X, Project Architect $Y, Designer $Z"
- AMOUNTS and markup
- MONTHS - drives CA effort
- MY TYPICAL SPLIT
- MY BENCHMARK RANGE
- ADD
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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