Tips on Picking a Template for Consulting Proposal

Customizing your consulting proposal is a convenient way to show your prospect that you understand them. The more you tailor your proposal, the more it will be effective and convincing.

That’s why it is advisable to use the RIGHT template to create a sales document. The right consulting proposal template will not only help you hit the right targets it will also help you save a lot of time and most importantly it will ensure consistency.

In this article, we are going to look at all the things that you need to tick off before you create or select a consulting proposal template and enjoy its benefits.

Let’s go!!!

Pick a visual appearance

You may have the best content but if you fail to present it well, you won’t be able to catch your potential client’s attention. Keep one thing in mind that you have to make your consulting proposal dynamic and memorable (here’s a quick checklist to create such a proposal).

A well-designed consulting proposal will not only sell your business but also help you close more deals. Sure, the consulting proposal template must follow a document-type design format but that doesn’t mean you can not dress up your proposals. Below are the elements that plays a major role in proposal design

• The layout of your proposal should represent a relationship between various ideas. Through headings, reflect a hierarchical relationship between your ideas – like from major ideas to minor ones.
• Make sure your consulting proposal does not have those funky or non-standard fonts. What if your client won’t be able to read the proposal because he doesn’t have that font?
• It is often neglected but it’s still an important part of the design. An ideal consulting proposal template always comes with a table of content.
• As per the saying ” show, don’t tell”. To enhance your text incorporate visuals like charts, graphs, infographics, screenshots, photos in your consulting proposal.

A template that follows a clear and concise structure

Creating a consulting proposal is challenging and is exactly similar to building a house. The way structure of the house varies according to the location, architecture, owner’s requirements, the same way consulting proposals vary based on the industry type, company size, and many other factors. There are some important factors that are always essential in both cases.

Which are those Elements that Define the Structure?

• About your company: Who are you, what qualities do you have why should a potential client prefer you over the competitors?
• Problem awareness: Show that you have done the research and you know the problem and the results the potential client wants.
• Pricing and the process: Clear picture about how will you solve their problems and how much will it cost?

Pay attention to the language and tone

Business proposals must have the right tone to ensure it is effective. If the tone makes the content unclear, confusing, or even worst – offensive, the reader will not be able to soak up or react properly to the proposal. The overall tone in a written document affects the reader just as the same way the tone of voice affects in face to face conversation.

What are the factors that help the consulting proposal template achieve the right tone?

• Companies close deals with people who are confident about their business. Make sure the template reflects that confidence.
• Sincerity can be proven by the evidence of past success. Numbers play a major role in maintaining the tone of sincerity.
• A positive tone is more appealing. Make sure your template has a phrases used in a positive manner.

Choose the right color scheme

The goal of any business proposal is to sell something and if you want to sell something the first task you need to accomplish is to grab the attention. And of course, color plays an important role in capturing attention and setting up a path for the readers’ eye to follow.

You don’t want to be that person who lost a big client because you sent a high-energy red, orange, and yellow color proposal to a conservative client. Or a grey color proposal to a hippy, funky startup, do you?

If the color theory is too confusing for you, then you can go with blue. Blue is the safest color used across the world- Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. You can’t really go wrong with BLUE.

Read more about common consulting proposal writing mistakes

Pick a template based on your style and feel of your brand

You can’t just pull up the real estate proposal template and use the same for a consulting deal.

The look and feel of the business proposal template differ depending on the type of industry. Not all the templates follow the standardized structure, wedding planning is very different from construction, web design is different from cleaning services

The first thing your client is going to see is the cover image, and what if the cover image itself is misleading? He won’t even spend time looking at the rest of the proposal. It doesn’t matter how interactive your sales proposal is because no one will review it if you go wrong with the template selection.

Now, get started with your work.

Good luck!