How to write a consultancy proposal after a first meeting

To write a consultancy proposal quickly after a first meeting, split the job in two. The thinking is the scope, the approach and the fee; the assembly is everything else on the page. Write the meeting up the same day under fixed headings, decide the scope and the fee in a short sitting, and have the rest put together from your template, your rate card and your nearest past proposals. The first part is short and only a partner can do it. The second part is what takes the evening.

Why do proposals go out late?

A first meeting ends with "send me something". From that moment the prospect is comparing you with whoever else they met that week, and the partner who took the meeting is back on a client's site the next morning. So the proposal waits for a free evening, and it is written from memory when that evening comes.

From first meeting to proposal sent: the eight steps

1. Write up the meeting. The problem in the client's own words, who decides, who else is affected, the date that matters to them, what they said about budget, and what they would count as success. Today the partner does this late or not at all.

2. Decide whether to propose. The partner decides whether it is your kind of work and whether you can staff it.

3. Shape the work. Set the scope, what is out of scope, the approach in phases and what the client will have at the end of each. This is the partner's thinking, and it is the part that wins the work.

4. Find the nearest past proposals. Two or three for similar work, with the relevant experience, the team biographies and the standard terms. Today this is a search through SharePoint and old emails.

5. Price it. Days by grade against the rate card, and the basis on which expenses are recharged. The partner sets it.

6. Assemble the document. Into the template, with the client's name and wording throughout. Copied proposals carry the last client's name and last year's rates with them, so this step includes hunting for both.

7. Check and send. The partner reads every page and sends it.

8. Follow up and record. A date to follow up, the opportunity logged in the CRM, and on a yes, the engagement letter before anyone starts.

Public sector work keeps the order of these steps and changes the document. If you are a supplier on a framework such as the Management Consultancy Framework Four, which has ten lots and runs to 28 July 2027, further competition is the standard route to market, so the "proposal" is a response to the buyer's own questions, in their format, by their deadline. The assembly is heavier and the judgement is the same.

Which steps can an AI worker take on?

An AI worker is given one job. You approve its specification and a named person checks its work. In this job the steps that fit are 1, 4, 6 and 8.

• It can draft the meeting note under your headings from the partner's rough notes, or from a transcript where you and the prospect agreed to record, and mark anything unclear as a question.

• It can find the nearest past proposals and pull the experience, biographies and terms that apply.

• It can assemble the draft proposal in your template from the scope the partner has set and the rate card, with a list at the top of every open point and every line it could not fill from what you gave it.

• It can prepare the engagement letter from your template once the client says yes, log the opportunity, and remind the partner when the follow-up date arrives. The same pattern applies after every later meeting, as meeting follow-up and notes.

What waits for a partner, and why?

The partner decides whether to propose at all. The scope, the approach and the fee stay with the partner, because they are the advice in miniature and the client is judging you on them. So does any discount or change to your terms. The final wording and the sending are also the partner's, because a proposal commits the firm, and nothing goes to a prospect until a named person has approved it. The follow-up call stays with the partner too. It is a conversation about the client's problem, and it is the one the client wanted.

What should you have ready before you start?

• One note format for first meetings. The six headings in step 1 will do.

• A rate card that is written down. If the rates live in a partner's head, every proposal waits for that partner.

• One folder of past proposals, named by client, type of work and year, with the ones you won marked.

• Current biographies and experience summaries, one per person and per kind of work, kept apart from any single proposal.

• The template and standard terms, with the expenses clause you want to use.

• A pre-send checklist: client name, dates, rates, team, terms.

Time the next proposal in two parts

Write the next first meeting up on the day, under the six headings, before you open the template. Put the last ten proposals in one folder. Write the rate card down. Then time the next proposal in its two parts. If the assembly took several times as long as the thinking, the assembly is why it went out late, and it is the part that does not need a partner.

The firm's wider arithmetic is in our article on scaling a management consultancy without hiring, and the other jobs a partner carries between client days are on our page for management consultancies.

When a consultancy partner sits down to write, an AI worker would have the draft ready, and the scope, the fee and the sending would remain the partner's. How many proposals are waiting for a partner's free evening? Talk to our agent.