Proposals for business cold and warm
A business proposal is one or two pages from which a prospective client understands what you offer, what it costs and what to do next. We write cold proposals for a first contact and warm ones to send after a conversation. Below you'll find the structure, a full sample and templates you can use to put a proposal together yourself. If you don't have the time, we'll write it for you.
01 Definition
A business proposal is a document in which a company offers a specific recipient a product or a service on defined terms: a description, a price, timing and a next step. It differs from an advertising brochure in that it is addressed to a particular person or company and built on their task.
A proposal shortens the road from first contact to a conversation about a deal. It answers the recipient's three questions: what exactly are you offering, what does it cost, and why should I trust you. Without it, the same answers have to be repeated in emails and on the phone.
You need one in three situations: when you are the first to write to a potential client (a cold proposal), when they ask you to send the terms after a conversation (a warm proposal), and when you take part in a procurement or a bid where the form is set by the buyer.
Roholeva has written for business since 2008, and we also build and promote websites. So we look at a proposal more widely than a single document: we see how it fits your site, your cover email and what the salesperson does next.
02 Two kinds
Whether the person is waiting for your email decides everything: the length, the first sentence and how much detail to go into on price.
The recipient didn't ask for this message and decides in a few seconds whether to read on. So: one page, one offer and a headline about their task, not about your company.
The goal here is modest: to get a reply or agreement to a call. Selling a complex service from a first email is nearly impossible, and a good cold proposal doesn't try.
The client said "send me something by email". They already know who you are and want to see numbers: what exactly you offer, a calculation for their volumes, timelines, terms of cooperation.
That takes two pages. Such a proposal gets forwarded to a boss, so it has to be clear without your verbal explanations.
The manager you sent it to rarely decides alone. They forward the file to a director, an accountant, an engineer, and each looks for their own thing: the sum, the terms, the technical parameters. So a proposal gives each of those answers its own visible place instead of one solid block of text.
| Feature | Cold proposal | Warm proposal | Bid proposal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who the recipient is | Doesn't know you | Knows you and is waiting | A committee, rules are set |
| Length | 1 page | 1–2 pages | As the buyer requires |
| Goal | A reply or a call | A decision or questions | Compliance and price |
| Price | An order of magnitude or an example | A calculation for the client's volumes | As the form dictates |
| Tone | Short, about their business | Specific, businesslike | Formal |
03 Structure
You can write a proposal yourself with this scheme. It suits most proposals between companies. For a complex product the blocks expand, but the order stays.
| Block | What we write | Example | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Headline | What the recipient gets; the service, the condition, the price | "Coffee machine maintenance for offices of 20 or more people" | 1 line |
| 2. The client's situation | The recipient's task in their own words | "When the office coffee machine breaks, the whole floor knows within the hour" | 2–3 sentences |
| 3. The solution | What exactly you offer and how it works | "A technician cleans the machine monthly; if it breaks, we're there within 4 hours" | 3–5 sentences |
| 4. Price and terms | A sum or a calculation, what's included, timing | "$140 a month per machine, parts at list price" | up to half a page |
| 5. Proof | Facts that can be checked | "Since 2016; arrival time is written into the service terms" | 3–4 facts |
| 6. Next step | One action, a contact, a date | "Write to me by March 28 and a technician will inspect your machine" | 1–2 sentences |
| 7. Contacts and signature | Who, and how to reach them | Name, title, phone, email | 3 lines |
"Business proposal from Acme LLC" promises nothing. "Coffee machine maintenance for offices of 20 or more people" screens out the wrong people and stops the right ones.
→ one line
If the sum depends on volumes, give a calculation for a typical case. A proposal with no number at all gets set aside for later.
→ up to half a page
Whom to write to, by when, and what they get for it. A validity date on the proposal gives a reason not to put off the reply.
→ action, contact, date
04 Sample
A cold proposal from a service company to an office manager. The company, the people, the prices and the terms are invented for the example. In a real proposal your own figures stand there, and we check each of them with you.
Hello Irene,
When the office coffee machine breaks, the whole floor knows within the hour, and finding a technician falls to you. A service center usually keeps the machine for a week.
We maintain coffee machines in Dallas offices on a subscription. Once a month a technician cleans the machine and replaces the filter. If it breaks, he arrives within four working hours. If the repair takes longer than a day, we put in a loaner at no extra charge.
The subscription costs $140 a month per machine. Parts are paid separately at the price list attached to this email.
We've worked since 2016 and currently maintain 140 office machines from Saeco, Jura and De'Longhi. The technician's arrival time is written into the service terms: for every hour we are late, we take 5% off the monthly fee.
The first inspection is free. Write or call me by March 28: a technician will come, look over your machine and tell you what state it is in.
Helen Carter, Even Cup service
214 555 0100, helen@example.com
The headline names the service, the price and the main condition. Whoever has no coffee machine stops reading, and that's fine.
The second paragraph describes the office manager's trouble, not the company's history.
The price is in the text. The recipient doesn't have to call to see whether it fits the budget.
The promise is backed by a specific credit for lateness, not by the word "guaranteed".
The next step is free, simple and dated.
Opening. [Name], thank you for our conversation on [date]. As we agreed, here is our proposal for [the client's task in their words].
What you want to get. [2–3 points from your conversation: goal, scope, deadline].
What we offer. [A list of work or goods with quantities]. The result: [what the client will have at the end].
Calculation. A table: item, quantity, unit price, amount. The total. What is not included in the sum.
Timing. [Start], [stages], [completion].
Why us. [3 facts: years in business, similar jobs, terms that can be verified].
What next. The proposal is valid until [date]. To get started, write to [name, contact].
Fill the brackets with specifics from the conversation: it shows that you listened.
If you don't have one of the blocks, don't invent it. Shorten the proposal.
Read it aloud before sending. A sentence that is hard to say aloud is hard to read.
05 Industries
The structure is the same, but the emphasis differs. Below is what we bring forward in different industries. It is a guide, not a ready-made text.
| Industry | What matters to the recipient | What we bring forward | What we attach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Services (marketing, IT, consulting) | The result and a clear scope of work | Stages, what the client gets at each, timelines | A sample report or document |
| Supply of goods | Price, availability, logistics | A table of items, delivery times, minimum order | The price list as a separate file |
| Construction and renovation | The estimate, timing, responsibility | Scope of work by stage, materials included and not | Photos of finished jobs |
| Rentals (premises, equipment) | Terms, address or configuration | Price per period, what's included, renewal terms | Photos, a plan, technical data |
| Transport and logistics | Transit times and the cost of a route | Price per lane, timing, insurance | A list of destinations |
| Interior design, auto repair, salons | Examples and the price of typical jobs | A price list for popular services, a warranty | A portfolio or photos |
| Paid social, social media management, solo specialists | What will be done in a month and how the client will see it | Number of posts or campaigns, a report, the price of a package | A sample report |
If you sell to different industries, such as restaurants and offices, you need different proposals: they have different tasks and different arguments.
06 Format
The format depends on the recipient and the sum. Here is a comparison of the most common options.
| Format | When it fits | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text in the email | A short cold proposal | Opens without attachments | Little room for tables |
| PDF of 1–2 pages | A warm proposal, B2B | Looks the same everywhere | People are reluctant to open attachments from strangers |
| Word | When the client wants to edit | The calculation can be changed | Layout shifts |
| A deck | A complex product, a meeting | Room for diagrams | Slower to make, harder to forward |
| A page on a website | A personal proposal behind a link | Can be changed, and you can see it was opened | Needs a site or a landing page |
We write the text and give layout advice: what to put in the headline, which figures to highlight, where to place the calculation table. Your designer does the layout. A tidy page in brand colors where the headline and the price are visible beats a complicated infographic. If the proposal needs to grow into a separate page, that is landing page copy, and we build the site for it in the web development section.
07 The email
The best proposal does nothing if the email carrying it isn't opened. The subject line and the first two lines decide whether anyone reaches the attachment.
Business proposal from Even Cup
Office coffee machine maintenance: $140 a month
why: the old subject looks like a hundred others. The new one names the subject and the price, so someone who doesn't need a coffee machine deletes it in a second and someone who does opens it.
Good afternoon. Please find attached our business proposal. We look forward to cooperating with you. Kind regards, the company team.
Ivan, thanks for the call on Tuesday. Attached is the calculation for 4 machines: $560 a month. To have a technician inspect them this week, I need the address. The offer is valid until March 28. Helen.
why: the email remembers the conversation, names the sum and asks for one thing. Everyone who forwards it sees the substance at once.
A cover email of three or four sentences can be ordered together with the proposal as an email copywriting job. We also write sequences of several emails for cold outreach.
08 After sending
Replies to proposals come less often than the author expects: the recipient is busy and the email got buried. So after sending you need actions, not silent waiting.
| When | What you do | Example | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| After 2–3 days | A short email or message | "Checking that my email reached you. Any questions on the calculation?" | Find out it was read |
| After a week | A call, or a reminder of the validity date | "The offer is valid until March 28. Can we discuss it before then?" | Get an answer or a request for clarification |
| After 2 weeks | A new reason to write | A useful article, a new condition, an answer to a question | Remind without pressure |
| After a refusal | Thanks and a question about the reason | "Thank you for the answer. What was the deciding factor?" | Learn what to change |
If the answer is no, thank them politely and ask what influenced the decision. Those answers are the most useful input for the next proposal.
09 Other markets and bids
For the Ukrainian market. If you're entering Ukraine, a translated proposal rarely works. Local buyers expect a different order and a different tone: the price early, the terms stated plainly, and a clear note on who in the company answers questions. We write Ukrainian from scratch, as we do English, and adapt German and French from a finished text. Details are on the page for copywriting in other languages.
In English a proposal is called a business proposal or a sales proposal. An English-speaking reader expects a short summary at the very top (an executive summary), a clear calculation and a visible validity date. A proposal translated word for word from another language reads as foreign, so we write English from scratch.
For a formal bid the shape of the proposal is mostly set by the buyer in the tender documents: the set of documents, the price tables, the submission order. A free structure only harms there. Our job is to write the explanatory part: a description of the approach, experience, compliance with requirements, wording without padding. Submitting the documents through the procurement portal and checking compliance remain with the person responsible on your side.
Before a bid proposal we always ask for the buyer's documentation in full. What doesn't fit into it, we don't write.
10 AI
A neural network is good at building the frame of a proposal: block headings, wording for the opening, variants of an email subject line. For that it can serve as a draft, and we use it too at the preparation stage.
What it doesn't know: your price, your timelines, what exactly the client asked on the call, how you differ from the three competitors they have already approached. So a proposal generated from the prompt "write a business proposal" comes out even and looks like all the others. The recipient gets a dozen of those a week and recognizes them by the first paragraph.
With us, a writer produces the text from a conversation with your salesperson, and an editor checks every figure. We don't hand over machine-generated text as written by a person.
11 Building the proposal
Most of the time on a proposal goes to conversation, not to writing. At the brief we ask about deals: whom you sell to now, what those clients asked before signing, why the ones who didn't buy refused. It is best when the person who sells answers.
The text of the proposal in Google Docs and recommendations for your designer: what to put in the headline, which figures to highlight, where to place the calculation table. We don't do the layout ourselves.
When there is nobody to send it to. A proposal works together with a list of recipients and a person who calls afterward. A mailing to a purchased list with no calls at all mostly ends up in spam, however the text is written.
12 Mistakes
We see these mistakes in the proposals clients bring to the brief. Each one can be fixed in an hour. The companies and prices in the example are invented.
Our company was founded in 2010 and has since established itself as a reliable partner in the market. We offer you a wide range of services.
Putting together an estimate for an office renovation in Phoenix? We offer rough flooring, walls and electrics at $9 per sq ft, with a foreman visiting for an inspection this week.
why: the first lines were about the company and the reader skimmed past them. The new ones begin with the recipient's task, contain a price and propose a step.
13 About the price
A proposal costs more with us than with most providers, for a simple reason: we don't drop your details into a ready-made template. The price covers a brief that includes a conversation about deals, a review of your earlier proposals, text written by a writer and checked by an editor, a check of every figure and layout recommendations. A short proposal is harder than a long one: it has no room to hide a weak argument.
We don't promise that a proposal will bring a deal. The outcome depends on the recipient, the price and your work after sending. What we do promise is a proposal you won't be ashamed to show.
14 Prices
One proposal of one or two pages costs from $750 and is ready in 4 to 5 business days. If you need two versions, a cold one and a warm one, or proposals for different industries, we price the second after the brief, since part of the preparation is shared.
| Service | What's included | Turnaround | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business proposals | Brief, structure, copy, layout recommendations | 4–5 days | from $750 / proposal |
| Case studies | Interview, structure, copy, client sign-off | 5–7 days | from $700 / case study |
| Email copywriting | Subject line, preheader, body copy, call to action | 2–3 days | from $180 / email |
| Sales pages | Brief, structure built on the buyer's path, copy | 3–4 days | from $0.28 / word |
| Website and landing page copy | Brief, competitor review, wireframe, copy for every block | 5–7 days | from $1,200 / landing page |
15 Questions
It is a document of one or two pages in which a company offers the recipient a product or service with a description, price, timing and a next step. It is addressed to a particular person or company.
First find out the recipient's task. Then compose a headline, describe their situation, the offer with a price, the proof and the next step. You'll find the structure of seven blocks and two templates above.
A cold one needs a page, a warm one two. If it runs longer, the proposal has most often swallowed what belongs in attachments: the full price list, technical specifications, the company history. Better to attach those as separate files.
In a warm one, always: the client asked for exactly that. In a cold one, give at least an order of magnitude or a calculation for a typical case. A proposal with no price makes the person call, and few want to call an unfamiliar company.
A cold one goes to someone who hasn't heard of you: it is short and talks about their task. A warm one is written after a conversation: it is more detailed, with a calculation and timelines. See the comparison table above.
A PDF of one or two pages that opens fine on a phone. A short cold proposal can simply sit in the email body, since people are reluctant to open attachments from a stranger. If sending a link suits you better, the proposal can grow into a separate page.
Make the subject line specific: the subject and the price. Name the recipient's task in the first two lines. Add one step and a date. After a few days send a short reminder.
From $750 for a proposal of one or two pages. The price includes the brief, the structure, the text and layout advice. If you need two versions, we price the second after the brief.
You can, and the structure above is there precisely for that. The difficulty is usually not the writing but the outside view: an owner finds it hard to cut what they're proud of but the client doesn't care about. If you write it yourself, show the draft to someone outside your industry and ask what they understood.
A cold one can go to companies of one type, changing the greeting and one or two sentences about the client's situation. If you sell to different industries, you need different proposals.
English and Ukrainian are written from scratch. For bids we write the explanatory part within the buyer's requirements, while submitting the documents through the procurement system remains with the person responsible on your side.
No, we write the text and give layout advice. Your designer does the layout. A tidy page in brand colors where the headline and the price are visible beats a complicated infographic.
Yes. A proposal brief often contains prices, margins and client names, so we don't pass this data to third parties and don't use it in our own examples.
16 Related
Get a quote
Two sentences are enough: what the product is and what you need — copy, a website or marketing. We reply within one business day.