How to write a sales proposal

Why most proposals lose

Many proposals lose before the client reaches the price, and often for the same reason. The document describes the vendor instead of the client’s outcome. It opens with a company history, lists credentials, names the software, and reaches the work the client actually wants on page four.

A proposal is not a brochure. It is a written answer to a decision someone is about to make, usually with a colleague reading over their shoulder. The question in their head is narrow: will this person solve the thing I described, for a price I can defend, on a timeline I can plan around. Everything that does not answer that question is weight.

Two things follow. The client’s situation goes first, in their words rather than yours. And the price arrives attached to what it includes, not alone on a final page where it reads like a bill.

TIP

Read your last three proposals and count the sentences before the client’s own situation appears. If the number is above three, that is the first thing to fix.

The six parts of a proposal that closes

Six parts, in this order. Together they run two to four pages. Longer than that and you are padding.

1. The situation, in their words
   Two or three sentences quoting what they told you on the call. “You have eleven retainer clients and no consistent way to onboard them, so every project starts from scratch.” If they correct this section, you have learned something cheaply.

2. The outcome
   What is true once the work is finished, stated as a result rather than a deliverable. Not “brand guidelines” but “a new client can be onboarded in a day by someone who is not you.”

3. The approach, in three steps
   Three named phases, one sentence each. Three is enough to show a method and few enough to be read. More than five starts to look like you are justifying the fee.

4. What it costs and what it includes
   One number, then a short list of what sits under it. Include revision rounds, meeting count, and what triggers an additional fee. Vagueness here is the most common cause of a scope argument later.

5. What happens next
   The timeline, what you need from them, and when. Dates, not durations: “kickoff the week of 14 October if signed by 3 October.”

6. The yes
   One line and one action. “Sign below and I will send the kickoff questionnaire the same day.” No menu of options, and no “let me know your thoughts.”

A worked example: brand designer

A brand designer is quoting a twelve thousand dollar identity project for a regional coffee roaster opening a second location. Here is the whole proposal, compressed.

SITUATION
“You are opening a second location in March and the current logo was drawn in 2017 by a friend. You have no files above 1000 pixels, and the signage shop has asked for vector artwork twice.”

OUTCOME
“By February you have a complete identity and a file set the signage shop, your printer, and your packaging supplier can all work from without asking you questions.”

APPROACH
“One, a half-day session on how the second location should feel different. Two, three directions, one chosen. Three, production of the full file set plus a four-page usage guide.”

COST
“$12,000. Includes the session, three directions, two rounds on the chosen direction, final files in vector and raster, and the usage guide. Additional directions or a third revision round are quoted separately.”

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
“Signed by 10 October means the session happens the week of 20 October and final files land 6 February.”

THE YES
“Sign below and I will send the session prep questions the same day.”

The price sits in the middle of the document rather than the end, and every number is attached to something countable.

WATCH OUT

Never send a proposal with three price tiers to a client who described one problem. Tiers hand your decision back to them, and the usual outcome is a delay rather than a cheaper yes.

Write one in under an hour

Set a timer for each part. The constraint is the point: a proposal written in an hour is specific, and one written over three days is padded.

1. Fifteen minutes. Reread your call notes and copy the client’s own phrasing into the situation section. Do not translate it into your vocabulary.

2. Ten minutes. Write the outcome as a single sentence that someone outside the project could verify in February.

3. Ten minutes. Name three phases. If you cannot name them in ten minutes, the scope is not clear enough to quote yet.

4. Fifteen minutes. Write the price and the inclusion list together. Add the two exclusions most likely to cause a disagreement.

5. Ten minutes. Set the dates, write the one-line close, delete your company history, and send it.