Million Dollar Consulting Proposals: How to Write a Proposal That's Accepted Every Time

by Alan Weiss

Bestselling author of Million Dollar Consulting shares the secrets of writing winning proposals Intended for consultants, speakers, and other professional services providers, Million Dollar Consulting® Proposals ends forever the time-consuming and often frustrating process of writing a consulting proposal. It begins with the basics―defining these proposals and why they are necessary―and coaches you through the entire proposal process. In this book, you'll learn how to establish outcome-based business objectives and maximize your success and commensurate fees. From bestselling author Alan Weiss, Million Dollar Consulting Proposals delivers step-by-step guidance on the essential element in creating a million dollar consultancy. Alan Weiss's expert guidance can lead your consulting business to unprecedented success, and it all starts with a million dollar proposal.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2011

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Alan Weiss is an American entrepreneur, author, and public speaker

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been doing proposals wrong.

This is a witty, concise (although Weiss does repeat himself. A lot), guide to the proper use of proposals in securing consulting business. Highly recommended for anyone in the biz of selling their services.

[Alejandro Sanoja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book by Alan Weiss. If you are a solo-consultant, or a professional selling services, you MUST check this book to take your proposals to the next level.

Even experienced consultants will get a lot of value from the books because of how detailed the book is.

Some of my highlights:

"The client is best served by a fast improvement or resolution, not a slow one. But time-based billing rewards sloth and lethargy. Billing by the hour or day is intrinsically unethical."

"This proposal is intended solely for Name Here, position here and company here, and is for the exclusive purpose of creating a partnership between their company and your company for the project described herein. It may not be distributed or shared with others without our approval."

"It is unfair for you to market my abilities and approaches, and I can't allow you to be in such an awkward position."

[Mohammed Almahfoudh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great read if you are based in North America or west Europe . However, it is outdated in some sence on emphasizing paper-base communication. If you are starting or running a human resources consulting and or services practice it is not tailored for you though it is helpful in establishing client relationship and conceptual agreements. It is good for sole-consulting or individual freelancers.

[Elizabeth Rider · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m never one to not finish a book, but it was extremely tempting to not finish this one! The author did not seem to have much care for people, but rather cared more about his own bottom line. I found the examples and suggestions he gave throughout the book cold and disheartening. There were a few good verbiage suggestions, however, that we’ll implement.

[David Mansaray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great. If you need to write proposals then this book is for you. I will refer back to it often. I didn't give it five stars because I think it was a little repetitve and it could have been much shorter.

[Christiana Corraspe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winning Proposals

Very interesting. quite informative, to the point, practical and applied knowledge that any consultant worth their salt needs to know and apply to their business for best results.

[Mohamed ElMeligy · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب رائع بكل ما تحمله الكلمة من معنى..أعجبتني جدا التوجيهات التي به ، و ما أعجبني أكثر انه يعتمد على الخبرات الشخصية للمؤلف و التي كوّن منها ماذة هذا الكتاب

[Jim Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent

Some compelling discussion. Not all was applicable to my business, but much of it was. Worthy of a dead for sure.

[Juan Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book with great tips and guidelines. You just have to read past the author’s god complex.

I will definitely be using his proposal and retainer templates and structure.

[Audrey-Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent livre, un must pour affiner vos propositions afin qu'elles soient acceptées à tout coup. C'est hyper concret et accessible, beaucoup de trucs à mettre en place rapidement.

[Chris Munson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Million Dollar Consulting Proposals Weiss continues the work outlined in Million Dollar Consulting (a bible for solo practitioners). This book provides an in-depth analysis around what constitutes a good consulting proposal. This book is simple to follow and provides an extremely useful framework around writing short, to-the-point proposals that outline the scope of the project, critical success factors, fee options, etc. The truly innovative thing about his outlined proposals is that he purposely avoids all of the legalese that could trap your potential engagement in your client's legal process, but still outlines exactly what is to be done and what each party is responsible for. The book also reviews some of his more important consulting principles such as value-based fees, retainers, conceptual agreement, identifying the real buyer, money-back guarantees, etc. Definitely required reading if you are a solo practitioner looking to improve your proposal acceptance rate.

[Peyton Stafford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book clarified my thinking about exactly what a proposal is. The author describes it as a brief, written summary of an agreement that a consultant and a buyer have already reached. It does not include a resume, a team description, references or other material that would have already been provided, if appropriate. It also helped me understand that giving a proposal to a non-buyer, i.e., to a HR person, a secretary, an information-gatherer, is futile.

I highly recommend this for anyone who does work based on value added to a customer or client, rather than on an hourly or deliverables basis.

[Jamie Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taken it with a little pinch of salt, this book lays out a solid approach for creating consulting proposals. You'll need to translate the methods into your own circumstances (you probably aren't billing 100k projects yet) and Alan's trademark aggressive stance won't suit everyone. Alan's background is in management consulting so again you'll need to think about how to structure your engagements.

Those quibbles aside, I like the approach of gaining a trusted relationship first, agreeing in principle on the project, and only then creating a proposal to formalise and clarify the existing agreements. The intentional lack of legal boilerplate is also refreshing.

[Jeni · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was fine, but it wasn't what I was looking for. This book is all about consulting with a little about proposals, when what I wanted to learn about was proposals. The RFP chapter, which I thought would be relevant to my work, ended up being all about how they suck as they are usually poorly written by people who are pretty low level and you should avoid them, which I already knew.

[Curtismchale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book if you want to learn about writing consulting proposals. A bunch of it is applicable to writing proposals for developers/designers but may only be truly useful if you're writing proposals of at least 15k (as the low option). Under that it gets hard to differentiate your options.

[Andrea James · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a concise book with clear examples of the essentials of a proposal - not just writing one but when not to write a proposal and how to follow up as well.

[Devorah Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book for anyone that has any proposal type of work to do. A lot of good concise information useful info and guidance. Especially the first half of the book. Recommended.

[Mark Melendez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for anyone who writes their own contracts.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent guide for writing proposals, providing real-life examples and pitfalls to avoid.