What is a proposal template?

A proposal template is a piece of paper that helps you make a business plan. A business proposal could be for professional services, sales, marketing, a relationship, or any other business deal that requires two parties to agree.

Companies can use business proposal templates to make proposals that look and feel the same. These templates help them make high-quality documents that correctly and professionally show off their goods or services.

They usually have company names, colors, and fonts on them so that they quickly show who the company is.

A standard template also saves time because the business doesn’t have to make a new paper from scratch for each proposal.

Businesses usually use proposal software to create and store business proposal templates with pricing, product, and service data. This makes it easy for sellers and other players in the business to drag and drop the necessary information into a template and change it to fit their needs.

Synonyms

• Sales proposal template
• Business proposal template

What does a template do to make the proposal process easier

At every step of making a plan, using templates saves time.

1. Outlining and putting together

At first, businesses had two choices for making business proposals:

• Writing them by hand in a Google Doc or Word template (this is easier and faster, but the plans will be dull)
• Putting them together in design tools like Photoshop (which needs a lot more skill but makes custom proposals look good)

You have to spend hours setting up the proper formatting for each choice and do it all over again for each new plan.

Repeatable processes help businesses save a lot of time and effort. For example, if they repeatedly sell the same product or service, they can preset their business papers with standard content and formatting.

2. Making brands and changes

Companies can also quickly change the content of proposal templates by adding or removing logos, colors, fonts, images, and clever copy that supports their brand.

Giving partners a clear set of rules ahead of time will help them write a good business proposal every time. This also ensures that the document has a consistent voice and looks “on brand.”

3. Putting down

There are many tools that companies can use to quickly add price information, product configurations, and sales literature to standard templates that they use to make business proposals.

Since the rest of the content is already standard, the person on the team proposing will only need to change the parts already set up and add any new information.

4. Creation of Documents

Making documents shouldn’t be challenging, but it is when you use the old ways of making proposals. It can take longer to make a document because Word documents and graphic design vectors don’t work together.

Standardized proposal templates are easy to turn into PDFs, so clients can view the files quickly and without worrying about whether they will work with their computer.

5. Sending and keeping track of

Proposal templates speed up the delivery process by giving companies a single source of truth for an ongoing document. Sharing the template’s download link or adding it to an email is all it takes to send a proposal.

This is what businesses can do when they put their templates in proposal software:

• Automate the approval process to get ideas out the door faster.
• Keep an eye on progress to see what’s happening with the plan.
• Keep all ideas in one place to be checked and reported on.
• Change the state of proposals in CRM to see more of the sales pipeline.

6. Electronic signature

E-signature software lowers hard costs by 56%, speeds up the time from quote to cash, and boosts sales productivity by giving sales teams less work.

Also, possible customers like to pay, sign documents, and share them with their teams when it’s most convenient.

E-signature technology can be easily added to proposal forms (if it isn’t already built-in). This helps salespeople close deals faster and be more productive overall.

7. Keeping to the Rules

Proposal examples ensure everything is the same and suitable for sales and branding.

Branded proposals with formatting, a color palette, logos, and fonts that fit the brand identity show buyers and employees that you are professional, organized, and have a lot of experience.

Consistency in the proposal process makes selling more accessible for the sales team. Buyers know what to expect, and sellers know what kind of proposal to send to each possible customer.

What You Need to Know About a Business Proposal Template

How a business proposal is put together depends on the kind of business and the reason for the proposal. But in general, all business plans have a few essential parts:

The title

A strong opening page could mean the difference between a potential client ignoring a proposal and continuing to do business with you.

Still, the title of a plan should be manageable—it only needs to include these things:

• The name of the client’s business
• The name of the company rep
• The name of the client (or the name of their business)
• The day it was turned in
• A professional title or tagline that fits with the brand (DealHub might call a plan “One Fluid Revenue Motion” as an example).

The Table of Contents

One of the most essential parts of a plan is the table of contents, which makes it easier to read and find information.

The people who will read the proposal—C-level executives and business owners—won’t likely do it all at once. A table of contents lets them pick up where they left off.

Adding links to the table of contents can help make the paper more accessible for people to find and use.

Summary for executives

An executive summary of the business and its contents tells the reader what the proposal is for and what the company can do for them.

These are the goals of the executive summary:

• Talk about the business
• Give a summary of the proposal’s goal.
• Make sure the solutions, goods, or services being offered stand out.
• Please talk about the history of the company, its goals, its value offering, and plans for the future.
• Get people to read more.

If the person receiving the proposal doesn’t read the whole thing, the executive summary should still give them a good idea of how the sending group can help them.

What the Problem Is

The problem statement makes it clear that the whole point of a business plan is to solve a buyer’s problem.

Now is the time for the company to make the offer to show that they know what the prospect wants and what problems they’re having.

This is what the problem statement should say:

• An outline of the current position of the potential customer
• An acknowledgment of any issues or pain points they’re facing
• The preferred state of the buyer (what they want to do)
• Issues or worries they might not know about

Possible Solution

The suggested answer should center on how the business’s goods and services can assist the buyer in reaching their goal state. What should be done is:

• Explain how the service or product works.
• List the most critical features and perks of this product or service.
• Explain how this product or service will help the customer.
• Back up your claims with facts, figures, and statistics that show how the company will gain.

The most important part of the proposed solution is the metrics. It needs to answer the question, “Where will the customer see real improvement, and how will they measure it?””

Required Skills

People buy things based on social proof; a proposed answer isn’t enough to convince someone to look at more than one vendor.

Adding qualifications like accomplishments, case study results, certifications, awards, industry experience, or anything else that stands out gives buyers faith that the company can meet their needs (and has in the past).

There isn’t much room on a proposal template for long testimonials or case studies so that these skills can be short bullet points.

Dates for the project

The plan lets the person receiving the proposal know what to expect if they choose to work with the company that sent it.

There are a few simple ways to make a project timeline:

• A flowchart. Flowcharts help people buying complicated solutions understand how they work by showing a picture of an algorithm or workflow.
• A plan. One- to three-month projects with clear steps and results, like software releases, digital marketing plans, or branding ideas, work well with roadmaps.
• An infographic timeline. The best way to pitch long-term projects is with a timeline. Timeline infographics can show big-picture goals and project details for each step because they’re easier to scan.

How to Price and Bill

Businesses that send out business proposals often have trouble with price, especially if the product or service has complicated pricing models.

A price table is a great way to give the buyer more than one choice. They might change their minds about what they need if they see how different parts of the plan affect the price.

Putting the prices in steps also helps. That way, they won’t see one considerable number, and it will be easier to understand what they’re paying for.

Along with prices, the plan should also include terms for billing. These include the currency, any available discounts, when payments are due, and the payment methods taken.

Conditions for customers to pay should also include what could happen if they don’t, like late fees and return policies, and what might happen if they don’t pay.

The rules and terms

There are conditions for doing business with the company sending the proposal that are spelled out in the terms and conditions.

In this part, you should find:

• The shortest amount of time a deal lasts (if any)
• Rights to intellectual property
• Clauses that protect privacy
• Both sides have duties to follow
• Rules for ending contracts

The terms and conditions page will have this basic information, which won’t change much once the proposal template is finalized. It will also summarize the project timeline, deliverables, and billing terms.

Getting along

In a business proposal form, the “acceptance” part is easy to understand and may not even need its page. It’s meant to make it easy for the other person to agree to the terms of the offer.

This is what should be on the acceptance form:

• Some quick facts before signing (if needed)
• A place to sign (or initials)
• A place to write the date
• Information about authorized signers
• How to get in touch

Elements of Branding

A black-and-white document won’t withstand the test of time because most brands look at more than one seller before making a purchase.

Logos, company colors, and pictures can be added to a simple business proposal template to make it stand out and help people remember your brand.

Elements of the brand should also be used in other parts of the proposal, like the signing or terms and conditions pages, where they will stand out more.

Types of Templates for Proposals

Proposal for Consulting Services

A consulting services proposal is usually about how the company sending the proposal can work with the customer to meet their goals as a partner.

Consulting is much like a business relationship, even though it costs money. Consultants get paid because they know things that could fix, save, or improve the buyer’s position.

Consulting proposal examples should make the potential client take action by drawing attention to problems or risks that the buyer may not be aware of.

A proposal for business consulting

General consulting service ideas and business consulting proposals are alike, but business consulting proposals are usually more project-based.

A business consultant might join a company to help them develop a go-to-market (GTM) plan, grow into a new market, or connect different teams to work together more efficiently.

When a company offers business consulting, it mainly focuses on how it can help clients reach their long-term goals through clear project deliverables and performance measures.

Sales Proposal for a Product

Business use case analysis, product bundling, added services, and price are all parts of product sales proposals.

Instead of discussing how the company can help the buyer reach their goals like advising proposals do, product sales proposals focus on the actual business problems the prospect can solve with the product (for example, improving operational efficiency, cutting costs, or ensuring data is correct).

Product sales proposal templates are usually set up differently, but they should still have a roadmap to help buyers see when the product will be implemented and how it will be used.

Sales Proposal for a Service

Professional service firms that work on projects usually have to send proposals to get new clients. Often, these proposals are asked for through a process called “request for proposal” (RFP).

Service sales proposal templates give a complete answer to the customer’s issue and include prices, terms, and outputs that are all customized to meet the buyer’s needs.

Buyers should feel confident in the provider’s ability to keep their word and understand their business goals if the plan is good.

Business Plan for IT

A project proposal form is used in service sales and IT business proposals. They usually have a technical answer that involves integrating systems, moving data, cloud computing, or making software. This means they need a flow chart to show how the project will work and a roadmap to show when things need to be done.

For IT proposal templates to work with non-technical users, they must focus on the solution’s benefits, like how it will save money, make things safer, or respond faster.

Template for a Web Design Proposal

A web design proposal is much like a standard branding proposal, but it also includes SEO, UI/UX, and conversion rate optimization.

Web designers often use a mix of services to finish their projects. To show the scope of work, web design proposal templates should include project and payment deadlines and deliverables like wireframes or mockups.

They should also give an overview of the planned web technology stack. This can help buyers better understand how complicated the project is.

Template for an engineering design proposal

To make good engineering plans, you need to know much about what the client wants and how engineering works to make it happen.

In this kind of proposal, the scope should be broken down, the project’s end date should be given, and the details of how it will be carried out should be broken down into small tasks. It should also consider any risks or issues that might arise during completion.

Request for a Business Partnership

Partnerships are not the same as sales proposals because they focus on the benefits both parties can get from working together, while sales proposals hide these benefits.

In business partnership proposal templates, you should list the skills of each company and how they can work together to make something more significant than they could have done on their own.

They should explain each person’s role in the partnership, how they are expected to communicate and work together, how they will share profits, and how the money will be handled.

A proposal for advertising

An advertising plan usually talks about the company’s contacts, skills, and ability to get results.

It should give the possible client an action plan with goals, a budget, a timeline, and any unique ideas or concepts the advertiser offers.

Metrics for success, like impressions, conversions, click-throughs, and cost per action (CPA), must also be in advertising plan templates.

Proposal for Marketing Services

When a marketing firm pitches a client, current or potential, its plan should focus on the most important ways to get more leads and sales.

A marketing plan template should have detailed summaries of each service, different pay methods, and how much they cost.

Case studies of successful efforts from the past should also be included, along with a timeline for implementation and measuring performance.

The Best Way to Use a Template to Write a Business Proposal

An excellent proposal template alone won’t bring in new business if it doesn’t have personalized text.

Fill in the gaps on a proposal by following these steps:

• Know your customers and what makes them unhappy. Reading through the RFP is the best way to determine what the buyer wants before sending a requested proposal. Talking to your prospect can help you get your message and value lines right.
• Add facts, pictures, and videos. Do you still need pictures to fill in some space? Then don’t use stock photos. Instead, use graphs, charts, or pictures of your products.
• Add proof from other people, like reviews or results. Many people will trust your plan more if it has client testimonials, photos of past clients’ successes, and awards from the industry.
• Ask people to do something. At the beginning of the plan, the call to action should be a firm offer with clear goals. At the end, it should say to get in touch with you and start.
• Add-on and up-sell options should be included. You can increase the size of the deal and give the customer more value by upselling and cross-selling. In some cases, these extra services could make your goods stand out and make them want to do business with you more.
• When people disagree or ask a question, take the initiative. When writing your proposal, it’s helpful to address the most common complaints and consider what else people might think as they read it. It can mean the difference between winning and losing the job if you think of their questions ahead of time and answer them.
• Make the answers and deliverables fit your needs. People who design their items are more likely to get them from 76% of buyers. It’s essential to show that you know your customer by adding something special to your proposal.
• Stick to your name. Making sure your name stays the same is very important. Everything else you make should use the same font, color style, and language.

What You Should Look for in Software with Proposal Templates

It works with CPQ and CLM.

It’s possible that CPQ software already has proposal templates built in. DealHub’s does.

If it doesn’t, you should look for proposal software that works with your existing CPQ system. If you don’t, you’ll have to enter parts of your plan by hand into both systems.

It’s the same with contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, which keeps track of your contracts and proposals and saves them safely for later use.

What DealRoom Can Do

DealHub’s internet sales room is called DealRoom. It is a shared sales area where you can find your sales files, data, and customer details in one place.

The buying process is labeled from the beginning to the end, which is the next step in the proposal template process. It puts all of the sharing, review, and signing of content in one place, which helps businesses get the most out of their proposals and other sales communication.