💼 Proposal Template

Consulting Proposal Template

Management consulting proposal. Example: 'Business Process Review - 4 week engagement, $18,000 fixed fee.'

What a consulting proposal should contain

• The problem, restated in the client’s own words, before any mention of your approach
• The outcome the engagement is meant to produce, in terms the client can verify
• The approach, phased, with what happens in each phase
• Deliverables, named and dated
• What is explicitly out of scope
• The team, and who will actually do the work
• Fee, structure and payment schedule
• What you need from the client: access, data, decisions, and by when

The scope-out section is what makes a proposal winnable

A proposal that only lists what you will do reads as a wish list and invites a price comparison. Naming what you are not doing does two things: it shows you understand the problem well enough to have drawn its edges, and it makes the fee defensible when someone else quotes less for something narrower. It is also the section that protects the engagement six weeks in.

• Put the client’s problem in their language first — if they do not recognise it, nothing after matters
• Tie the fee to phases, so a client can commit to the first without committing to all of it
• Give the proposal an expiry date; open-ended pricing invites an open-ended decision

Before you send it

• Check every name, entity and figure — a typo in the client’s own name is fatal
• Include one page a decision-maker who was not in the meeting can read on its own
• Say how a variation would be handled, so the first one is not a negotiation

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General information only — not legal, tax or financial advice. For contracts and tax documents, confirm your obligations with a qualified professional or the relevant authority.