How should I price a paid audit as a first offer to B2B clients?
Price it at 10–20% of the project it usually leads to, with a fixed scope and date, and credit the fee against that project if the client signs within 60 days.
A paid audit is a small, fixed diagnostic: a website review, a CRM health check or a security baseline. It lets a client test you for a small amount, and it lets you learn their problem before you quote the larger project. Unlike a free pilot, it filters out people who only collect free advice.
The 10–20% rule keeps the price serious but easy to approve. If your typical follow-up project is €15,000, an audit at €1,500 to €2,900 usually fits within a manager's own spending limit, so it needs no committee. Below 5% the audit looks like a giveaway; above 25% it starts to compete with the project itself.
A worked example: a CRM consultant sells a €1,900 audit that takes three days, and 4 in 10 audits lead to a €14,000 project with the fee credited. Each audit is then worth about €6,740 in expected revenue: €5,600 from projects plus €1,140 from the audits that do not convert.
Five rules for an audit offer
- Fixed scopeList exactly what you check and what the client receives, for example a ten-page report and a one-hour review call.
- Fixed delivery dateDeliver in 5 to 10 working days. A clear date makes the audit easy to plan and easy to approve.
- A credit with a deadlineCredit the fee against the project only if the client signs within 60 days, which adds gentle urgency.
- Findings, not the full fixShow what is wrong and in what order to fix it. Leave the actual work to the project.
- A review call, not an emailPresent results live. The call is where the audit turns into a proposal and where you can answer a price objection on the spot.
Treat the audit as a product: the same name, price and format for every client in one niche. After ten audits you will know your real conversion rate and can adjust the price with confidence. It also gives hesitant buyers a small next step, as in what to do when a prospect says let me think about it.