Start with the decision the customer needs to make
Before opening a template, write one sentence describing the situation the buyer wants to change. Use the language recorded in the conversation. ‘You need a more efficient business’ says almost nothing. ‘Enquiries move between two inboxes without an agreed owner after the first reply’ names a specific problem that can inform scope. Do not turn a suspected impact into a measured loss or invent a target the customer has not agreed.
Then ask what is missing. You may know the problem but not the approval route, budget boundary, deadline or available information. Mark those points NEEDS CONFIRMATION and ask focused questions before committing. A template improves the structure of known information; it does not replace discovery. Business Fix 016 includes a customer problem builder and readiness gate for this step.
- Capture one customer's situation and desired change from verified notes
- Record the approved scope, price and next decision
- Resolve material unknowns before sending
Build the proposal around seven buyer questions
Use this sequence: What have you understood? What needs to change? What do you recommend? What exactly is included? When and with whose help? What is the investment? What do I do next? Put the recommendation before the detailed scope, and the commercial explanation beside the price. Separate assumptions, exclusions and customer responsibilities so they do not disappear inside an attractive description of the service.
For a bounded service, one concise document may be enough. Complex work may need a fuller proposal with deliverables, dependencies and evidence. There is no useful universal page count: remove anything that does not help this buyer understand or assess the work. Include only relevant, permissioned proof. A proposal is not automatically a substitute for your approved contract or terms; use your normal professional review and instruction process.
- Problem and desired outcome
- Recommended approach
- Scope and deliverables
- Timeline, responsibilities and dependencies
- Assumptions and exclusions
- Investment and meaningful options
- Specific next action and approved instruction route
Illustrative example: an enquiry handover review
This is fictional, not a customer case study. Weak opening: ‘We are pleased to offer our services. We are an experienced team with a wide range of solutions.’ Stronger opening: ‘Your current situation: enquiries arrive in two inboxes, with no agreed owner after the first reply. What needs to change: each enquiry needs a visible owner and next action. Recommended approach: review one enquiry route, identify the handover gaps and prepare a draft handover checklist using the tools you already have.’ The stronger version gives the buyer something concrete to confirm or challenge.
Continue with bounded scope: ‘Review one route and supply a findings summary and draft checklist. CRM configuration is excluded. You provide the current process notes and a named reviewer.’ Investment: insert only the approved fee and explain the tax, external-cost and payment basis applicable to your business. Next step: ask the buyer to confirm the scope or identify the unresolved point, then follow your approved instruction process. Do not invent a delivery date, savings figure or customer endorsement to make the example sound more persuasive.
Review the buying decision, not just the spelling
Check names, figures, arithmetic, dates, scope boundaries, assumptions, attachments and the next action. Ask a colleague to read the document without the call notes: can they explain what is being bought and what is not? Use READY TO SEND only when material facts and commitments are approved; use NEEDS WORK for clear but poorly presented information, and DO NOT SEND YET for a material unknown or unapproved commitment. A percentage score must never override that gate.
After sending, record the proposal ID, value, status, last contact and next follow-up in one register. Follow the buyer's stated review timetable. A useful follow-up answers a decision question or clarifies scope; it does not merely say ‘just following up’. When the customer pauses, record the reason if known and agree the next action. Silence alone is not proof of a lost sale. The Business Fix 016 tracker and cover/follow-up emails support this routine without becoming a full CRM.
Present price clearly without rebuilding your pricing system
Use one recommended option when the need is clear. Good / Better / Best works only if the options serve genuinely different needs: explain the outcome, scope, support, timing, price and suitable buyer for each. Base plus add-ons can work when optional work is genuinely separable. State the period for recurring fees and distinguish an optional item from something necessary to achieve the promised scope.
Do not use arbitrary extras to justify a higher tier or hide necessary work in an add-on. Check that the chosen fee is approved and viable before placing it in the proposal. Business Fix 007 addresses deeper pricing analysis; 010 helps define the repeatable service itself. This proposal toolkit concentrates on presenting those decisions clearly, not calculating a new pricing strategy for you.
Use AI for a draft, never for missing commercial decisions
If you use AI, provide only information you are authorised to share: verified notes, customer context, approved scope and pricing, timeline, assumptions, exclusions and relevant evidence. Instruct it to retain uncertainty and label missing information NEEDS CONFIRMATION. Do not ask it to make the proposal ‘more convincing’ by adding unverified facts, dates, guarantees, case studies or commitments.
Compare the draft with the source notes line by line. A named person must approve it before it reaches a customer. You can use the toolkit without AI: the editable Word templates and guided builders remain the main working assets. The time-boxed workflow is a drafting discipline, not a promise that every proposal can be completed in thirty minutes.
Choose a proposal template that you can actually reuse
A Word proposal template should have editable text, stable tables and headings that survive normal expansion. Keep an untouched master and save a customer-specific copy. Delete guidance and unused options before exporting a reviewed customer version. Recheck pagination after adding scope or evidence; a clean blank template is not proof that a longer completed proposal will fit unchanged.
Microsoft offers general business proposal templates, and many free documents can give you a starting layout. Business Fix 016 is for buyers who also need the working process: the full and lighter Word proposals, problem and scope builders, readiness and send checks, approved-pricing layout, cover and follow-up emails, an optional AI prompt and an Excel tracker. Buy it when that repeatable workflow is the missing part, not simply because you need another attractive cover.