It's great when you get the opportunity to submit a consulting proposal. It's the culmination of all of your marketing and sales efforts right up until that point.
Despite proposals being the chief way that consulting has been sold ever since its invention, there's no standard approach. In fact, the guidance that's out there is often contradictory, leaving people easily confused.
Of course, every consulting business is unique and needs to determine what's right for it.
In this article, I'll share with you guidance for creating a consulting proposal based off of what I've done to sell management consultancy with fees from around £5k to over £1m.
I've also led many complex procurement and tender processes, so I've been on the other side and reviewed numerous consulting proposal submissions.
Finally, I've also included a free consulting proposal template that you can download and use.
Why do I need to write a consulting proposal?
Your proposal is where you set out the prospect's needs, how you will fulfil those needs, and most importantly what outcomes you'll deliver, and the subsequent benefits that the prospect will realise.
Your proposal establishes the ground rules, sets client expectations, and makes your demands in return clear, i.e payments terms, etc.
You write a proposal to create a formal record of what you should have already agreed to verbally. It also provides a document to fall back on should things go off-track later on. Even though the shouldn't, it can happen on occasion, and it's only when things go wrong do you realise how important a documented proposal is.
Your proposal is actually a collection of documents (wrapped up as one), that includes:
- Scope of works and approach
- Payment terms and invoicing profile
- Terms and conditions
When should I submit a consulting proposal?
This is one question that lots of consulting firms seem to get wrong! The mistake they make is to submit a proposal too early. They focus more on the volume of proposals submitted than they do on their win ratio.
(Learn more about how to calculate your Win Ratio).
A key indicator of knowing when you've rushed things is when the prospect says:
Ok, send me a proposal.
More often than not, if the client drove the request in similar language, they're just being polite whilst also not having the confidence to say, "No thanks, it's not for us right now."
Another indicator is when you find yourself asking:
Can I submit a proposal?
Sounds counter-intuitive, but when selling consultancy, you shouldn't find yourself having to ask to submit proposal.
So how do you know when to submit a proposal?
The conversation should be led by you, but more as a summation of your conversations and an obvious next step. It should be something like this:
Ok, great. So we're agreed on the scope and the outcomes of the engagement. I'll formulate this into a formal proposal and get it to you by Friday. Let's get a time in the diary now for next Tuesday so that we can run through it together.
For me, this is never a surprise to my prospects. The reason being that I like to slow the whole sales process down. Rather than rush to submit a proposal, I'll provide an Approach Document first.
(Learn more about my 5-Step Sales Process).
Only once the prospect has bought into the outcomes that I am promising, and the approach that I will take, will I then offer to turn my Approach Document into a formal proposal.
At that point the proposal serves as a record of the things that we've discussed and agreed, along with detail on the less exciting things, such as T&C's, and the all important fees and billing.
The price I pay for being doubly sure before submitting a proposal is that I have a slightly longer sales process. All be it, one with a higher rate of win likelihood.
How long should a consulting proposal be?
I've seen and read the books on the 'One Page proposal'. And I've seen and written proposals that have been tens of pages long! In some professional services firms I've worked with, proposal submission might include an entire technical design and even be hundreds of pages long.
I used to have a boss who exclaimed that even McKinsey only write one-page long proposals. They don't. I mean, they might sometimes, but the ones I've seen are have been about a dozen pages long.
Once you determine a framework for your proposals, I say write as much as you feel is needed. The more time that you've spent with your prospect, the shorter you should be able to make your proposal.
In the Consulting Proposal Template that I've provided, the document comes out at 6 pages long, which might be too long. However, it has most of the guidance included with this blog article. Once you’ve deleted the guidance notes and replaced it with you own content, it may end up much smaller (depends how much you write!).
What should be in a consulting proposal?
As I've stated above, I like to start with an Approach Document. I then formulate this into a formal proposal. The key difference between the two is that I don't include fees and billing in the Approach Document. The reason is simple - think of it like this...
You walk into a designer store and see a jumper you really like. Before evaluating whether or not it meets your needs (i.e. it helps to overcome your challenges), your first temptation is to look at the price. Once known, you then evaluate the jumper primarily through the lens of 'value for money', rather than whether it provides the outcomes and benefits that you need.
I want my prospects sold on the outcomes before we get into the fees.
This is what I recommend you include in your Approach Document:
Business Background
If you are proposing to a new client, provide a brief paragraph or two that demonstrates your understanding of the client’s business. Two or three sentences should be fine, perhaps highlighting key statistics and the client’s position in their market place.
If you know the client’s business well, and have already completed work for them, then you can omit this section.
Business Challenge
This is your opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the client’s challenges. The information that is contained here comes from the notes you will have taken in your pre-sales meeting(s).
If there’s anything that you’re unsure about, call or email the client to confirm. You will have the opportunity to update your proposal later, so it doesn’t need to be perfect for the first draft.
Here is where you sell your understanding of the problem, and how it is impacting the client. This section should be quick and easy to read so consider using bullet points.
Outcomes & Benefits
This is what the client is really buying. Consider what outcomes the client is seeking? What benefits will this engagement bring, and what problems will be mitigated for the buyer, their team, their organisation, and their organisation’s clients and customers? The more you delve deep on this, the more the value will be extracted.
Your fees will be justified largely upon how compelling this section is!
Approach
This is where many consulting firm’s get it wrong, and in fact this is what I did as an employed consultant for many years. They focus either solely or primarily on selling their approach rather than the outcomes and benefits.
It can be important to provide some details on the approach, especially with a new client. But the more you focus on your approach, the more you encourage the client to start focusing on time and effort. That risks driving a commercial conversation about day or even hourly rates. You must sell the value (outcomes and benefits), over the inputs (time and effort).
I typically include some form of diagram here that:
- Simplifies understanding for the client
- Demonstrates my knowledge and expertise of the challenges and ho to approach them.
Deliverables
What are the tangible things that the client should expect from this project?
This section provides an opportunity to clear up any ambiguity. For example, if you say the deliverable is a report, what does that mean? Maybe you’re planning to write a 50-page report, yet the client wants an easy to read 10-page document or even a short presentation.
Use a simple table like the one below to list the tangible deliverables. If your work is of a more technical nature, there may be more product-related items which require greater depth of description.
Title | Purpose | Format | Quality Criteria |
Example: Strategy Report | Example: To detail the options analysis and provide direction for the project sponsor | Microsoft Word | Max 25 pages |
Example: Strategy Presentation | Example: To present the Strategy to the Board | Microsoft PowerPoint | Max 10 pages. Legible from a distance. Max 50 words per slide. Suited to an exec-level audience |
Timeframe
The client will want to know how long the project will take, and you will be keen to know when you can get started. If you’ve followed our guidance in the Consulting Sales Process you may initially be proposing to undertake a Discovery Phase. Use this section to layout the expected timeframe of your first project phase, then provide indicative timeframes for any remaining phases (where feasible). A simple timeline diagram works well here.
Whatever fee expectations you suggest for later of stages of a project, no matter how loose, usually get interpreted as fact and remembered! Be very careful here, and overestimate to be cautious.
Assumptions, Constraints, & Exclusions
Consulting projects are nearly always collaborative. This means that’s it’s very easy to have differing expectations of what will be provided, by who, and when.
This section is your opportunity to clear up any ambiguity. It allows you to set out the parameters within which your firm will deliver the project. Either a table or a bulleted list will usually suffice, although sometimes a project and resource plan might be needed.
It is important to list any assumptions you have made. For example, you might assume that all project stakeholders will provide you with 3hrs of their time in a workshop. If they don’t, can you still deliver the project?
Another example might be that you assume all documents that you provide will be reviewed within 3 days. If not, what would be the impact on the project timescales and cost to deliver?
Constraints might include a limitation on the time and effort you will provide.
Think ahead to what challenges you might have and how you can mitigate any risks in this section. Your aim is to be open and transparent. It’s also to provide a mechanism where you can justify additional fees if things don’t go to plan through no fault of your own.
You've now reached the end of what to include in your Approach Document. Once the client is in agreement, you can proceed and turn the Approach Document into a proposal by adding the following elements:
Fees & Billing
Fees
In this section you will layout the fees and how the project will be billed.
Use a simple statement as follows:
Your Company Name proposes to do whatever Is the thing you are offering for a fixed fee of £ XX,XXX. This fee is exclusive of VAT and is valid for 14 days.
NB. Don’t use pence here as it looks rather amateur when a fee is in the thousands.
Expenses
Expenses can eat into your profits rapidly. They also take a lot of time and effort to administrate. Don't forget about them! Include a section stating which expenses are included and excluded.
I usually including a 5% expenses admin fee. This might not equate to much revenue, but it serves two purposes:
- it covers some administration costs
- It provides leverage in negotiations to close the deal – i.e. you might forgo the expenses admin fee
Billing Profile
Let the client know when to expect invoices. If there are lots of different payments, then I recommend inserting a table here.
As a rule, if the project will be completed within a timeframe shorter than the payment terms duration, then the project should be billed in total in advance. That doesn’t mean you’ll get paid in advance, but at least the process is started.
Outside of the above rule I recommend leaving some element of billing until the project is completed. This serves somewhat like a guarantee as the client has the power to delay final payment (I’ve never had that actually happen and if you’re good at what you do, neither should you!).
A typical split for a billing profile might be as follows: 40% on order, 40% at the midway point or when a specific milestone is achieved, 20% on completion.
The world is your oyster in terms of what billing profile you want to propose.
Be very cautious in respect to ‘completion’. Define the term to mean the provision of your final deliverable or activity.
Note ‘provision’ and not ‘acceptance’. Why?
Because you must be in control of getting paid. You send the deliverables, then follow up with an invoice. You must not specify ‘client acceptance’ as that is too vague and hence a risk to your cash flow. Obviously, if the client is unhappy, you’ll have to fix that. But as a general rule, you don’t want to get stuck in an approvals process that might require multiple people and take weeks to complete.
Terms & Conditions
You have two approach choices here. You can either insert your standard Terms & Conditions, or make reference to a separate file.
I recommend the latter as, let’s face it, T&Cs are boring! They’ll interrupt the flow of your proposal and significantly increase its length. I prefer that the client gets to the sign-off page quickly, rather than wading through pages of stuff they’re never likely to read.
Depending upon the client, you may be required to meet their standard T&Cs which may contradict some of yours. For example, you may have 14-day payments terms, and if the client is a large corporate, it may have 90-day payment terms.
Always review a client’s T&Cs to ensure there are no discrepancies. If there are, discuss them with the client, seek changes and/or use them as leverage in negotiations.
Compromise where needed as some things are not worth losing the opportunity over. Conversely, some things could have a negative impact on your business, so be diligent.
Ensure there is clarity as to which T&C's apply.
Statement of Acceptance
Client Company Name and Your Company Name agree to the consultancy services as outlined in the proposal (ref. The Name of This Document) for the development of whatever Is the thing you are offering.
The agreed fees and terms for the referenced assignment are those stated in the proposal.
Additional items to include in a consulting proposal
Should you include case studies in your consulting proposal?
You may be requested to provide case studies, or you may be tempted to include them in the proposal. Whilst case studies can be extremely powerful in winning the prospect over, they shouldn’t be inserted into the proposal. Instead they should be provided as separate files.
The reason for this is that we want to keep the proposal as brief as possible. We want the prospect to become a client as soon as possible. The inclusion of case studies is often to convince the client to make a decision. I personally use references here rather than case studies as I believe case studies are relevant earlier on in the process.
(Read our article on how to write great case studies.)
Should you include CV’s in your consulting proposal?
As a rule, you don’t want to get into listing your project team. Why?
Because you're at the proposal stage. There's been no commitment made by either you or the client. You may have a team member in mind to deliver this job, or you may be planning on doing it all yourself. If the latter, and you’re a one-person business, there’s no need to include this section at all.
If it’s a bigger project, the client may be requesting team member CV’s. If you must include CV’s of your project team, they should be provided as additional files, not within the proposal itself.
Make sure CV’s are written from the perspective of your business. Don’t use the standard type of CV you would use when applying for a job.
See the CV more as a profile of your team member’s skills and experience. Limit them to a single page. And if you do have to provide them, state that they are only indicative rather than promising specific resources.
In what style should I write a consulting proposal?
Broadly speaking, there are two styles you can consider - formal and informal. I've never used an informal proposal. However, one way a consulting proposal differs from a consulting report is that you may refer to people by name, and use first person terms such as 'We', 'You', etc. You wouldn't ordinarily use these terms in a consulting report.
No matter how jovial the relationship with your client, don't make the mistake of being too casual in your formal written word. You never know who else the proposal needs to be passed on to!
What format should a consulting proposal be in?
I submit my proposals via an online tool. Often I draft them in Word first.
You can submit proposals in whatever format suits you and your prospect. This might include Word or PowerPoint. I always recommend submitting them in a version that cannot be edited too, so that it serves as a record. For example, saving a PowerPoint file as a protected PDF, etc.
How do I submit a consulting proposal?
As the vast majority of my work is remote, I'm confident in submitting my proposals remotely. I use an online proposal tool (Better Proposals). I prefer using a tool as I get notified when a prospect accesses the proposal, and how long they spend in each section. This gives me an indication of: a) win likelihood, and b) how important price is to them.
Sometimes, however, you may choose to walk your client through your proposal face-to-face. This is equally fine and it really comes down the situation at hand, and what you feel is right.
If you've done your job well, you might get your client to sign-off there and then. I've certainly had this happen many times. It can mean some last minute negotiations that happen at breakneck speed, so be warned!
Regardless of how you submit your proposal, what you absolutely must do is remain in control of what happens next. This is what I call Keeping Hold of the Ball.
You never want to be in a position where you're waiting for the client to come back to you when it suits them. If this happens, it's often a sign that you've rushed the process. Instead, at the point that you agree to submit a proposal, schedule in your follow-up call a couple of days later.
Free consulting proposal template
And that's it - you now know all you need to in order to write winning proposals! One final thing to do, should you wish, you can download our free Consulting Proposal Template. It's created in Word. Feel free to download and use it and edit it as you see necessary.
Just click on the image below. No contact details required.
