Who this is for: marketing / creative / dev agencies that scope projects via discovery calls and lose deals to ghosting.
The pitch in one line: upload your retainer / project scoping spreadsheet → get an interactive calculator you can co-build with the prospect on the call. No more "send me a proposal" → ghost.
What your scoping spreadsheet looks like
Every agency has a version of Retainer_Calc_v4.xlsx. Inputs columns for:
- Number of channels (paid, SEO, content, email, social, PR)
- Hours per channel per month
- Senior vs. junior split per channel
- Account management hours
- Strategy hours per month
- Tooling pass-through (HubSpot, Ahrefs, Mailchimp, etc.)
- Discount or new-client offer
- Length of commitment (month-to-month, 6mo, 12mo)
Then calcs:
- Sum hours × blended rate
- Tooling × markup
- Discount applied
- Multi-month commitment discount
- Net monthly fee
- 12-month contract value
You build this on a discovery call by typing into the sheet on your second screen. The prospect sees nothing. You email them the proposal the next morning (after you "checked the numbers"). Half the time they ghost.
What CalcForms gives you instead
Even faster: drop your existing scoping sheet into Claude
If you have Retainer_Calc_v4.xlsx (you do), drag it into a Claude chat with the CalcForms connector and say:
Convert this into a CalcForms scoping tool. Inputs that the prospect should see: channels, hours per channel, contract length, account mgmt hours, strategy hours, tooling pass-through. Hide internal columns like "actual cost," "margin %," and "minimum bid." Everything else stays as calculations.
Claude maps your existing inputs/calc cells, pulls the blended rates out of your reference cells (or hardcodes them if they're not in named ranges), and ships you a working calculator in about 10 minutes. You spot-check by entering an existing client's scope — does it produce the same monthly number? If yes, ship it. If not, tell Claude what's off ("the senior split discount kicks in at 50%, not 30%") and it'll fix the calc.
You skip the next bit if you used the drop-the-xlsx path.
Or live-build on the call from a prompt
If you'd rather build it in front of the prospect (which is its own power move):
Build a retainer scoping calculator with:
- Channels (checkboxes): Paid ads, SEO, Content, Email, Social, PR
- Hours per channel (number, default 20)
- Senior split (dropdown: 20%, 30%, 50%, 70%)
- Account mgmt hours/month (number, default 10)
- Strategy hours/month (number, default 8)
- Tooling pass-through ($/month) (number)
- Contract length (dropdown: monthly, 6 months, 12 months)
Rates: Junior $145, Senior $235. Tooling markup 1.25x. Commitment discount: monthly 0%, 6mo -5%, 12mo -12%.
Calculate: total hours, blended cost, tooling cost, gross monthly, discount applied, net monthly, contract value (net × length), effective hourly rate.
Within 4 minutes the calculator is live. You share screen, type in their numbers WITH them — pause on "Senior split 50% vs. 30%" and let them see the $4,400/mo difference appear in real time.
You don't email a proposal. You email a URL: "here's the scoping tool we built on our call — adjust anything and ping me with the version you want to move forward with."
The outcome
| Spreadsheet-after-call workflow | CalcForms live-scoping | |
|---|---|---|
| Time from call → proposal | 24 hours (or 3 days if you got busy) | Same call |
| "Let me think about it" rate | ~50% | ~25% |
| Negotiation surface | One number to push back on, take it or leave it | They can see exactly what one less senior hour saves them — collaborative |
| Calls that turn into "send me a proposal" | 70% | 10% (they decide on the call) |
| New-client onboarding speed | 2-week proposal cycle | Often same-week start |
The wedge: by the time the prospect leaves the call, they've already negotiated the price WITH you. They left bought-in, not "thinking about it."
Honest gotcha
This works great if you can drive the call. It's awkward if the prospect wants to disappear and read your proposal alone. For those calls, send the URL after and tell them: "Plug in any combination you want — when you find the version that fits your budget, click submit and I'll loop in our PM to start onboarding."
Either way they get a real interactive tool instead of a static PDF.
Try it
Reference example (different industry but same engine): forms.badabingapp.cc/f/commercial-underwriting.
Build your version in Claude with the CalcForms MCP connector. The first agency we showed this to closed a $14K/mo retainer on the call where they built the calculator — the prospect literally said "yeah, the version where we drop content marketing and add PR, do that."