Image Consulting Proposal Template
A proposal is not a price list with a covering note. It answers the question the client actually asked, in their words, and then explains what you would do about it. The ones that lose usually described the consultant instead.
See the coursesEverything on this page is yours to copy and adapt. The courses cover the decisions behind it: what to charge, what to promise, and what to put in writing.
What yours needs to cover
- ✓ The problem, in the client's own words, so they can tell you understood the brief
- ✓ What you propose to do about it, in stages, with what each stage produces
- ✓ Timing, and what you need from them for it to happen
- ✓ Price, with the options separated so a yes is possible without a whole yes
- ✓ Why you, kept short and evidenced rather than adjectival
- ✓ What happens next, as one clear instruction
How to use it
- Write the problem section first, quoting the inquiry back before you offer anything.
- Give two or three options rather than one number, since a single price is a yes-or-no.
- Put the price after the value and before the credentials, where it is still being read.
- Send it within two working days, and follow up once.
Start with their problem, not your biography
The opening paragraph should repeat back what the client told you on the discovery call, as closely to their own words as you can. "You have a new role leading client meetings and your current wardrobe was built for a back-office job" shows you listened. A paragraph about your training and your passion for style does not, and it is usually the first thing a reader skips.
If the inquiry was vague, the proposal is where you make it specific. Name the outcome you are working toward in one sentence, and check it is something the client would recognize as theirs.
Laying out the work in stages
Break the work into stages and say what each one produces. A private engagement might run color analysis, then a wardrobe audit, then a shopping trip, each ending in something the client keeps. A corporate engagement might run a briefing with the buyer, a workshop for a team, then optional one-to-one sessions.
Staging lets you offer options. The first stage alone, the first two, or all three, each with its own price, gives the client a way to say yes to part of it. A single all-or-nothing figure turns the decision into a yes-or-no, and no is the easier answer.
Private and corporate versions
A private client needs one page. They are the only decision maker and they will read it on a phone. A corporate buyer usually needs two or three pages, because the person you met has to pass it to somebody who controls the budget, and that person needs the business outcome, the dates, the day rate and the invoicing terms without having been on the call.
In both versions keep "why you" short and factual: the relevant training you have completed, the kind of work you have done before, and nothing you cannot support.
Close every proposal with one instruction about what happens next, such as replying with the chosen option so a deposit invoice can follow. A proposal that ends on a warm sentence and no instruction leaves the client unsure how to say yes, and an unsure client usually puts the decision off until the need has passed.
A filled-in example
| Her words | I need to look like I belong in the room before my first board presentation |
|---|---|
| Outcome | Four reliable outfits for client-facing days, built mostly from what she owns |
| Option one | Color analysis with palette card and report, $285 |
| Option two | Color analysis plus wardrobe audit with gap list, $725 |
| Option three | Both, plus a half-day shopping trip to a written brief, quoted at $1,050 |
| Timing | Complete within three weeks, before the presentation date |
| Next step | Reply with the option you prefer and a deposit invoice follows the same day |
Mistakes to avoid
- Opening with credentials. The reader wants to know you understood them. Lead with their problem in their words and keep your background to a short paragraph near the end.
- One price, no options. A single figure forces a yes-or-no decision. Offer two or three staged options so part of the work can be agreed.
- Hiding the price. A proposal that asks the client to call for pricing slows everything down and reads as evasive. Put the numbers on the page.
- Never following up. Proposals get buried. Send one polite follow-up a few days later, and then leave the decision with the client.
Image Consulting Proposal Template FAQs
How long should a proposal be?
A private client needs one page. A corporate buyer usually needs two or three, because more than one person has to read it and somebody has to justify it internally.
Should I put the price in the proposal?
Always. A proposal without a price makes the client ask, which puts the whole conversation back a week and reads as evasive.
What if they ask for a discount?
Change the scope rather than the rate. Discounting the same work teaches the client the first number was invented, which is covered properly in Unit 6.
More document guides
Get every template, plus the training
Ten documents, one course that covers the thinking behind all of them, from the first quote to the contract you hand a commercial client.
Choose your course