Proposal copy

What proposal copy is

Proposal copy is the written content of the document you send after a sales conversation to say what you will do, for how much, by when and on what terms. The service produces a master proposal in which every section that stays the same between clients is written and settled, and every section that changes is marked with what to put there. A new proposal is then assembled, not composed.

It is not an RFP or tender response, where the buyer dictates the questions, the order and the word count and the job is compliance. It is also not a pitch deck, which is spoken to a room. A proposal is read alone, often by someone who was not in the meeting, and it has to hold up without you there.

When you need one

You need this when proposals are being written from scratch each time, usually by the owner, usually late, and each one describes the business slightly differently. You need it when proposals go out and nothing comes back, and nobody can say whether the price, the wording or the silence afterwards is the problem. You also need it if two people write proposals and a buyer could tell which one wrote theirs.

You do not need it if you send fewer than a handful of proposals a year and each is genuinely different. In that case, have the next one edited before it goes and keep the improved version as your starting point. And if you cannot yet say in one sentence why a buyer should choose you over the alternative, a value proposition comes first; a proposal cannot supply an argument the business has not settled.

What it contains

A master proposal has eight parts. Five are fixed and written in full. Three vary and get a written brief for whoever fills them in.

Fixed. The cover letter, which restates the buyer's problem in their words and says what the document contains. The description of how you work, including what you need from the client and what happens if that is late. The proof section, with space for one or two case studies chosen to match the buyer. The terms in plain language: payment, changes, what ends the agreement. And the next step, which names the action, the person and the date, because a proposal that ends with "let us know" ends there.

Variable. The scope, written as a list of what is included and, more usefully, what is not. The price, presented so the reader sees what they are buying before what it costs, with options if you offer them. And the timeline, with the client's own obligations on it. For each of these you get a one-paragraph brief and a filled-in example, so the person assembling the next proposal knows what good looks like.

What you get

The master proposal. Six to ten pages in an editable document, with the fixed sections finished and the variable sections marked in a way that cannot be sent by accident. Written to your existing template if you have one.

The assembly guide. One page. What to change, in what order, and what to check before sending. Written for whoever will do it when you are not there.

One completed proposal. A real one, for a live prospect if you have one or a recent lost bid if you do not, so you see the master used rather than imagine it.

A worked example

An illustration. A four-person architectural technology firm sends about 30 proposals a year for residential permit drawings. The owner writes each on a Sunday from the last one, and the last one was itself written from the one before. Reading six of them side by side shows three different descriptions of the same service, a fee table that changes format every time, and a closing line that reads "please let me know if you have any questions" on all six.

The master proposal fixes the description of the service in one version, states the three things the firm needs from a homeowner and what happens when they are late, adds a half-page case study of a recent laneway house, and ends with a named next step and a date. The scope section becomes a checklist of twelve items, ticked on or off per job. The fee section gets two options, standard and with the permit application handled. The next proposal takes 50 minutes on a Tuesday. The firm cannot yet say whether more are won; it can say the owner has Sundays back and every proposal now describes the same business.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What you sell, how proposals are written now, and what a buyer says when one is declined. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Scope and number agreed before work starts.
3. Reading. You send five or six recent proposals, won and lost, and any terms your accountant or lawyer requires. I read them for what changes and what should not.
4. The draft master. Within ten working days. You read it against a real prospect and mark what would not survive contact with them.
5. The completed example and the guide. One real proposal assembled from the master, with the assembly guide, and a 45-minute walkthrough for whoever will use it.

Two to three weeks from first call to finished master is typical.

What it costs

Proposal copy is not a published band on the pricing page, so it is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on how many distinct services the master has to cover, whether there is a usable template to work from, and whether legal terms already exist or need to be written in plain language from a lawyer's draft. One service line with existing terms is the simplest version.

What happens next

A proposal is stronger with proof in it, so a case study is the usual next piece. If buyers go quiet after receiving it, an objection handling document finds the reasons they do not say aloud, and a short follow-up email sequence keeps the conversation open without pestering.