Consulting Proposal Template (Free Word Download) with Example

A consulting proposal is the document you send after the discovery call. It shows the client you understood the problem and says what you will do about it and what it costs. It should confirm what you already discussed, so nothing in it comes as a surprise. Below is a free consulting proposal template you can copy or download as a Word file, with notes on each section, three ways to present the price and the follow-up emails to send.

The template is written for independent consultants and small consultancies selling to business clients. In the UK the same document is often called a consultancy proposal, and the template works under that name too.

Send Dovio’s notetaker to the discovery call and it records and writes up the call, so your proposal notes are ready. Try Dovio free. It’s a 14-day free trial, no card required.

Download the consulting proposal template

The template below is the full proposal. Copy the text or download it as a Word file. Fill in the fields in square brackets, and in the investment section keep the pricing option that fits and delete the rest.

How to fill in each section

Write the proposal in the order of the template, except for the summary, which you write last. The examples below follow one made-up engagement, so you can see how the sections connect. An operations consultant is proposing to help a group of five dental clinics cut missed appointments.

1. Summary

The client may read only this paragraph before deciding whether to read the rest, and the person who signs may not have been on the call. Say what they want, what you propose, by when and for how much, in one short paragraph.

Example: “Brightside Dental wants fewer missed appointments across its five clinics. Today missed slots leave chairs empty most weeks, and the front desk spends hours rebooking. We propose a review of booking and reminder routines in all five clinics, followed by a new routine tested in two of them, over ten weeks. The investment is [amount], excluding sales tax.”

2. Where you are today

This is where the client checks that you listened. Retell what they said in the discovery call, in their words. Cover the problem, what they have already tried and why it matters now. If they gave you a number, use it. If you are writing this from memory a week later, it shows, so write it from your call notes.

3. Objectives

Two or three objectives, each with a way to tell it has been reached. A decision counts just as much as a number. “The management team has chosen one reminder routine for all clinics by [date]” is an objective you can deliver. If a result depends on things you do not control, write the objective as the part you will deliver.

4. Approach

Split the work into phases, and for each one say what you do and who from the client is involved. The client is buying your method as much as the result, so name the steps. Keep it to what they need to understand and agree to. The detail can go in the agreement’s statement of work later.

5. Scope and deliverables

The most important section after the price. List every deliverable with its format, the number of revision rounds and the check-in calls. Then list what is not included. The “not included” list heads off scope arguments later, because the client has already read and agreed to it.

Example, not included: “Changes to the booking software itself, staff training beyond one session per clinic, and work for the group’s two new clinics opening in the spring.”

6. Timeline and milestones

Give each milestone a date and a deliverable. Say that the timeline starts when the client accepts and the items in section 7 are in place, so a slow start on their side does not become your delay.

7. What we need from you

List the access, the decision-maker and the feedback times you need. It’s easy to leave out, but it’s what protects your timeline.

8. Assumptions

Write down what the price depends on, such as how many locations, people, interviews or products the work covers, and what state the client’s data is in. If one turns out to be wrong, you have a clear reason to revisit the price, agreed in advance.

9. Investment

Present the price as what the client gets for it, next to the scope. The next section covers how to choose between a fixed fee, an hourly or daily rate and a retainer, and when to offer options.

10. Why us

Keep it short and specific to this project. One comparable engagement, described in two sentences with the client’s permission, does more than a page of credentials. Name the people who will actually do the work.

11. Next steps

Say exactly how the client accepts, what happens next and how long the proposal is valid. A proposal without a date and a next step tends to sit in an inbox.

Fixed fee, hourly or retainer: how to present the price

The pricing model decides who carries the risk if the work takes longer than planned. Choose the model before you set a number, then describe it in section 9.

Offer options when the client’s budget is unclear. Two or three levels, each adding something to the one before, shift the question from whether to buy to which level. Make the difference between the levels a difference in what they get, such as more clinics, more interviews or support during the rollout, and keep your price for each level fixed.

Set your own rate from your own numbers. Rates for consultants vary too much by field, country and experience for a benchmark to help. Start from what the work is worth to the client and the time you expect to spend, and check the price against the scope once it is written.

Write the payment terms in the same section. Say when you invoice, how many days the client has to pay, and whether part is due on acceptance. For a retainer, the detail on unused hours and extra work belongs in a retainer agreement.

Proposal or agreement?

A proposal and an agreement do different jobs, and it helps to keep them apart in your head even if you send them together.

There are two common ways to handle this. Send the proposal, and when the client accepts, send a consulting agreement with the scope and price copied across. Or add your terms to the proposal so the client signs one document. The first keeps the proposal short and readable. The second saves a round of signatures. If you do the second, write the terms out in full in the proposal, and have a lawyer look at them once before you use them for real.

Before you send it

Read the proposal once as the client, with this list next to it.

1. Names and titles. The client’s company name, the contact’s name and the person who signs are all spelled the way they write them.
2. Price against scope. Every deliverable in section 5 is covered by the price in section 9, and nothing priced is missing from the scope.
3. The “not included” list. It names the things the client might reasonably expect.
4. Dates. The milestones are realistic, and the valid-until date is written on the first page and in section 11.
5. The next step. The client knows how to accept and what happens after.
6. The follow-up date. You have agreed with the client when you will talk about it.

Sending the proposal and following up

Keep the email that goes with the proposal short. Say what it’s based on and name the date you’ll talk.

If the agreed day passes without an answer, follow up once. Keep it short and give them an easy way to reply.

Follow up a second time shortly before the valid-until date, and ask directly whether the project is still on. If the answer is no, ask what would have made it a yes. For the email to send right after the discovery call, plus six more, see follow-up email after a meeting.

When the client says yes

Reply the same day. Confirm the option they chose, the proposal number and the start date, so you agree on which version applies. Then send the agreement for signature, with the scope and price copied from the proposal, and book the kickoff. If the client asks for changes first, send a new version with a new number and date, and leave the one they already have as it was.

Consultancy proposal template for the UK

The template works as a consultancy proposal in the UK with a few small edits.

• Set the currency fields to GBP and write VAT where the template says sales tax or VAT.
• Change licenses to licences in section 5 if you prefer UK spelling.
• If you add your terms to the proposal, use the governing law you choose, for example England and Wales, the same way the consulting agreement template does.

From discovery call to signed agreement in Dovio

A good proposal is mostly written in the discovery call. The problem in the client’s words, their goal, the budget and who decides all come from that conversation, and they are the first things lost when notes are rushed. Dovio is an EU-hosted AI CRM for small businesses where the AI does the follow-up work, and that work starts with the call.

When you send Dovio’s notetaker to the call, or turn on a rule for it to join your external meetings, it records and transcribes the call. Tell the client first and make sure they agree to the recording. Afterward the summary lands in Dovio in the language the meeting was held in, with suggested tasks and a follow-up email saved as a draft you can edit and send. You can draft sections 2 and 3 from that summary. With Ask Dovio you can search your recorded meetings and ask what the client said about timing or budget instead of scrolling through the transcript.

From there a deal shows where the proposal stands. Create it for the client’s company, with the contact person and the value, and move it through your pipeline. You can rename the stages and add your own, such as Proposal sent. Add a task with a due date for the follow-up call, so it is on your list before the valid-until date.

When the client says yes, you send the agreement from Dovio too. Set up your consulting agreement once as a contract template with a price table. Before you send it, fill the table from your product library with the price you proposed. When you send it, the client’s company and contact details fill in from the CRM. The client signs through a link in their email, and you can see whether the client has opened, started, signed or declined it. A signing request expires 28 days after you send it, and you see the expiry date on the contract. The deals page shows how the pipeline works, and the contracts page shows the agreement from template to signature.

Summary

A consulting proposal works when it confirms what the client already told you and makes saying yes easy. Write their situation in their words and put the price next to a scope that says what is not included. End with a valid-until date and a next step, and send the agreement the day the client says yes.

Frequently asked questions