8 Proven Steps for Writing Consulting Proposal
The consulting proposal is a document that you prepare for the prospective client to convince them that your consulting services are a perfect fit for their business. In today’s competitive world, it’s important to have a proposal that stands out, differentiates itself from the others (follow this checklist to create such proposals).
Your proposal should help the prospective client to make the decision in your favor, it should influence the customer and convince him/her to invite you for the further process.
There are two very important things you must know and apply to your consulting proposal template for obvious benefits.
- The prospective client is only concerned about his/her own needs.
- The customer has very little time to get through all the proposals, s/he may reconsider a given proposal only if it makes a good first impression.
Now let’s get rolling and see how to write a consulting proposal that closes deals successfully.
Proposal front cover
You only get one chance to make a first impression. The cover page of your consulting proposal is the first thing your prospect/sales lead is going to see hence you better make it impressive (it is unquestionably a big challenge). A cover page of your business proposal should look visually appealing, neat, and should be easy to read. A good cover page typically includes,
- Name of applying organization and logo
- Project title
- Date
- Contact Information (personal contact name, address, country, phone, email, website)
- Name of the client you are applying to
Opening letter
The cover letter in your business proposal sets the tone for the rest. So ensure you don’t make any common consulting proposal writing mistakes which cost the business tremendously. It outlines why the solution you are proposing is the most suitable and your company is well prepared to deliver it.
The cover letter of your consulting proposal has to be highly convincing with a focus on what benefits clients can have using your services. If you can’t get this section right, chances are high that the rest of the content in your proposal will be skipped.
The best practice of writing an impressive pitch is using your prospective client’s words them. This means simply describe the problem they are facing. Your cover letter should include,
- Opening paragraph
- Reason for the pitch
- Showing you understand the problem
- Baseline metrics ( before and after)
- Goals
List of services
This section should include the details about your approach. However, the details should only be about the approach and not about the solution.
- The key here is to give a rough sketch of the method you will use for the execution.
- Include the list of the specific services that are being offered.
- You should be ultra-careful about not going into detail.
A detailed timeline showing responsibilities
You must break down all the key steps and the timeline for your client. Providing an accurate timeline with deliverables allows you to set the client’s expectations early. That means how and when you will be able to implement your solution. The right consulting proposal template comes with a built-in implementation plan that includes information about
- List of deliverable
- Important Milestones
- Items in scope and not in scope
- A detailed timeline showing responsibilities
Interactive pricing table
This is a crucial section because it is about money. Everything else falls in place/as expected, prospective clients will certainly want to know, how much it will cost him/her to accept your offer.
Keep things short and to the point and use a pricing table with a range of options that let your prospect or customer edit the quantities, select the services that best fit their needs, and allow them to customize your solution.
- Standard package (includes all the services mentioned)
- Less expensive package (where a client can choose the services)
- Deluxe package (with extra services)
Presentation of your skillset
You can fill out this section with the expertise you have, who will be working with him/her, are you a known vendor in the market, whether for all good reasons, etc., the awards you won, the big list of your happy clients.
- Introduction
- Name, faces, and credentials of the people who will be working on the campaign
- Client benefits
Do not forget to add vision and values because these two aspects have a long-lasting impact beyond the proposal. Clients would pay extra for the reliability factor once they realize you have principles, values, vision; and you stick to those values in all weathers.
Client testimonials
In this section, you can make your clients visualize themselves working with you by telling the past clients success stories with similar issues with case studies or client testimonials.
- Project goal
- Solution
- Result
Legal terms
Always keep the contract and your terms and conditions part of your proposal and get them signed together to avoid future conflict.
- Payment
- Warranty
- Termination
- Agreement
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