You took the call. They seemed nice. The project sounded straightforward — rebrand, new site, maybe some SEO. You sent the proposal the same evening because you didn't want to lose the momentum. Three weeks in, you're rewriting the scope for the fourth time. They've added their business partner to the thread who has "a completely different vision." You're eating hours you can't bill. And you're thinking: I knew something was off on that first call. You did know. You just didn't have a system for acting on it. The most expensive mistake isn't a bad project — it's a bad client Most agency content focuses on what happens after you sign a client. The onboarding flow, the kickoff, the handoff. But the highest-leverage filter in your entire business sits upstream of all that: the discovery call. A tight onboarding process can't save you from a client who was never going to be a good fit. It just makes the failure more organized. The problem is that bad-fit clients don't show up wearing a sign.…