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Comment it consulting agreement template

frequently i'm asked if i have a proposal template a proposal template that i'm willing to share and i do have a template and i am willing to share as a matter of fact every consultant should have a proposal template a template that they can use as a starting point when they get asked by a client for help this video is about the template or rather the sections that should be included in a proposal hello i'm laura burford and i'm here with another consulting insight if you're interested in tips techniques ideas to help you build and grow your own consulting business please consider subscribing to the channel the links below please click on it and if you click on the bell you'll be notified when the next video is available as you listen to this video if you find it helpful i'd appreciate if you could click the like button and as always if you have any questions or comments jot them down below in the comments section i promise i really do promise i respond to every comment that somebody posts before i start discussing the various sections of a proposal let me clarify something a proposal letter or a proposal document is the culmination of all your hard work and if you've done all the hard work your homework it is relatively easy to create what do i mean by all your hard work your hard work is the building of a relationship a relationship with a person who's interested in working with you they trust you all your hard work is getting to know them and they're getting to know you it's holding a discovery meeting or if you want to call it a strategy meeting to help you clarify what the client is looking for to get answers to questions so that you can come up with an approach and a price and then meeting with the client to hold what i call a consensus meeting a consensus meeting is discussing how you would go about helping them and talking importantly to come up with an approach that works for them as well as you you see you don't create the proposal letter or at least hand them that proposal letter or that proposal document until you've obtained consensus with that clarification behind us let's start talking about the sections of a proposal and to help you out i have provided you my proposal letter format template there's a link in the description section go download the template use the template as a starting point for you i use a letter format as my template for my proposals and i like using a letter format because it's easy for people to read and it's easy to quickly turn into a contract the sections that are in the proposal letter format are the same sections you're going to find in a lengthy document unless they have 40 50 or 60 page proposal i've created those long proposals and what i found out even though i was creating the lung proposals most of the time the only thing that key people were interested in was the summary section the summer section two or three pages that kind of recapped what they were going to get think of your proposal letter as that summary section and keep in mind you're not creating the proposal until you have obtained consensus agreement from the client that the approach is what they are interested in so this proposal letter format is two to three pages maybe five pages if it's getting longer than that it's probably two more this letter needless to say starts with an intro it starts with a thank you thank you for taking the time thank you for meeting thank you for the opportunity to provide this proposal an introduction that's where you start section one section one is background it's a situational assessment it's one or two paragraphs explaining what is the problem or the service that's needed the background is not about them it's about the problem how they need help they know who they are your job is to explain and articulate that you understand what is the problem what they need help with the second section desired outcome what are their goals what are they trying to achieve what are the pain points desired outcome i had mentioned earlier that you need to create your own template and i'm providing you a template to get started there are a number of times i take and i combine sections one and two background and desired outcome together in a proposal because it makes sense use the template as a starting point and modify it accordingly section three the objectives what are the objectives and success metrics for the project for the initiative these are determined by the economic buyer and as you went through the discovery meeting in your consensus meeting you made sure the two of you agreed on the objectives and the success metrics try to use the client's words as much as possible when you articulate the background the outcome and the objectives section 4 value this is an iffy section because you don't necessarily need it it is a must if you're using the value-based pricing model to determine your fee if you're not using the value-based pricing model to determine your fee you might want to include it but you don't need it in this section you explain the impact of the effort the initiative in the organization the value of the project the initiative or in the organization and you use this as a basis to justify your fee section five section five is the methodology your approach and you want to include three options the first option meets their expectations and is within their budget options two and three build on option one as you lay out each of the options you want to provide a short description of the methodology your approach but you want to keep your detail out of this you want to keep it out of the proposal letter keep in mind you've already talked to the client about the options this is not the first time they're saying section 6 is timing and you want to provide time estimates for each of the options you don't want to include start and end dates you want to use lapse time the reason you don't want to use start and end dates it's because this contract this proposal letter needs to be signed and it might take some time to get the letter signed and a contract in place section 7 accountability or responsibilities the client as well as the consultant each have responsibilities to ensure that the engagement this effort this project is successful and you want to make sure you agree so you need to outline at a high level what each person is responsible for for example you might expect the client to turn around documents within three days section eight cost your fees and you want to list the costs for each of the options option one option two and option three section nine terms and conditions this section is relatively straightforward because it ties to your standard operating procedures or policies your payment terms upon signing of this proposal letter 33 of the fee is due or maybe it's 50 or maybe it's 100 one thing is clear you want to try to get some of your money up front your expense reimbursement policy your cancellation policy section 10 this is a section you might not even need it's other this ties to industry specific needs section 11 the close and acceptance you were gracious when you started the letter and you want to be gracious as you end the letter and you want to include instructions instructions for the economic buyer to sign this proposal letter and turn it into a contract sign it by selecting one of the options and you also want to include instructions as to how to get in contact with you if they have any questions and you want to make sure you include some sort of statement that indicates when you will be getting back to it before i sign off let me mention a few other things that you might find helpful first when i talked about the sections i mentioned a value section if you don't know what i mean by value-based pricing there's a video on this channel that explains value-based pricing i'll add a link in the description section so you can find the video easily there are also some videos out on the channel that discuss the other pricing models that you might find helpful if you want more information about how to go about everything that you need to do before you even create this letter the discovery meeting your approach the pricing the consensus meeting how to ask the right questions during the discovery meeting i'll put a link down in the description section for a self-study program that's out on my website that's called engage and it's a bundle of self-study courses that walks through everything and provides more detail than i discussed here in this video about creating a proposal letter now if you found this video helpful and you would like additional videos like this please consider subscribing to my channel again down below there's a button so that you can subscribe and if you would like to be notified when the next video is available as always click the bell and if you like this video please click the like button until next time please take care