The evening before a proposal goes to a new client. The partner has read the deck and has one question: what's the one sentence? The team cuts the deck, separates the client's number from their own, and decides what to remove so the price fits the client's budget, without pretending the work costs less.
Right. This goes to Philip at nine tomorrow, so let's be quick. I've read it. It's a good deck, and it's forty pages long.
Thirty-eight, with the appendix.
That's very reassuring. Owen, if Philip reads one page, which page is it?
The summary, probably. Page two.
I read page two. It has six bullet points. What's the one sentence?
In consulting, this is the test for any document: can the reader repeat your idea in one sentence? If you can't write that sentence, the client won't be able to say it either. Judith asks for it before she discusses anything else.
The one sentence?
If Philip had to explain this to his board in one sentence, what would he say?
That we'll look at the three centres, compare their cost and performance, design options for the future, and build a plan to get there.
That's four sentences joined with commas.
It's also what every proposal says.
Exactly. Try again, Owen. Not what we'll do. What he gets.
Owen's first answer lists activities. Judith asks for the outcome. Clients buy answers, not work plans. "We'll analyse" describes your week; "you'll know" describes their result.
OK. In twelve weeks, he'll know how many centres he really needs, what that saves, and how to get there without losing customers.
Better. Much better. That goes at the top of page two, and the six bullets go.
All six?
Keep three if you need them. But the sentence comes first.
While we're on the deck. Page eight: "We are uniquely placed to support you on this journey."
That's standard.
That's the problem. Every firm writes it. What have we actually done that's like this?
The retailer last year. Two contact centres into one, in nine months.
And what happened to customer satisfaction?
It dropped for two months, then it recovered.
Then say that. Including the two months. It's more believable than "uniquely placed".
"Uniquely placed" appears in almost every proposal, so it says nothing. One real example, with a number and even a problem in it, is more convincing. Judith keeps the bad two months because they make the story believable.
Should we name the client?
No. They haven't agreed to that. "A UK retailer" is enough.
Next. Page five says "a potential saving of four million a year". Where does that come from?
From Philip. He said it on our first call. If everything moves to Leeds, he thinks it's about four million.
So it's his number, not ours.
Yes. But it's the number he wants to see.
I know. And if we find two and a half in twelve weeks, he'll remember who wrote four on page five.
A figure the client gave you is not a figure you have checked. If you put it in your own document without saying where it came from, it becomes your promise. Judith wants every number to carry its owner.
Can I add something? I did a quick check with their published figures. If there's a saving like that, most of it comes from closing Bristol and Glasgow and moving the work to Leeds. That part looks real.
How sure are you?
Not very. It's two days of work and an annual report. It's a hypothesis, not a finding.
Meera labels her own work honestly. A hypothesis is an idea you will test; a finding is something the evidence has shown. Saying which one you have protects you when the evidence later says something different.
What would change your mind?
If one of the smaller centres does something better than Leeds, something Leeds can't easily copy. I haven't seen any sign of that. But I've only looked at cost so far, not performance.
Good. Remember you said that. Owen, change page five. Write it like this: "The client's estimate is four million. Our first hypothesis is that most of it comes from consolidation. We'll test both."
It's less exciting.
It's more honest. And Philip has a finance director who'll read every word.
Fair. I'll change it tonight.
Now the difficult page. The fee.
Four workstreams, twelve weeks, four hundred and eighty thousand.
And what did Philip say about budget?
His exact words were "something around four hundred".
So we're eighty thousand over.
I thought we could bring the day rate down a little. Five per cent, maybe more.
No. If we cut the price and keep the work, we're telling him the first price wasn't real. We change what he buys, not what it costs.
Or we make it shorter. Ten weeks instead of twelve.
Then we do the same work faster, and worse. He pays less for a rushed answer. That isn't a better offer.
A discount for the same work suggests your first price had air in it, and invites the client to push again. Removing part of the work keeps the price honest: less work, lower fee. This is the basic rule of fee negotiation in consulting.
So we cut a workstream.
Which one?
Not the baseline. Everything depends on that. Not the options, they're the core. And the transition plan is what makes it real for them.
That leaves technology and telephony.
Eighty-five thousand. That gets us to three hundred and ninety-five.
Under four hundred. Meera, you're frowning.
The three centres use three different phone systems. If we don't look at them, the transition plan is built on their data, not ours. And if their data is wrong, the plan is wrong.
That's a fair point. What would you do?
Keep it in the proposal, but as an option, with its own price.
Meera is the most junior person in the room, and the decision is almost made. She states the risk in two sentences and, when asked, offers a solution. A risk with a proposal attached is much easier to accept than a risk alone.
I like that. Owen?
Agreed. And if they want it later, the price is already on paper.
Then we need one more page. What we're not doing.
Isn't that a bit negative for a proposal?
It's the most useful page in it. Every argument I've had with a client about scope started with something we never wrote down.
A list of what you will not do sounds negative, but it prevents the most common argument in a project: "I thought that was included." Being clear at the start is cheaper than negotiating in the middle.
OK. So: no technology and telephony assessment, unless they buy the option. No implementation. And no consultation with staff representatives. That's for their HR team.
Good. And the assumptions?
The big one is data. We need cost and performance data from all three centres in the first two weeks. If it comes late, everything moves.
Write that down exactly like that. "If the data arrives late, the plan moves with it."
Philip won't like reading that on day one.
He'll like it even less halfway through, when it isn't there. It's not a threat. It's how the work works.
"If the data arrives late, the plan moves with it" is written calmly, as a fact about how the work is done. If the client signs the proposal, they have accepted it. Later, a delay is no longer an excuse; it is something both sides agreed in advance.
Fine. Data in the first two weeks, in the assumptions.
Last thing on this page. The team.
Me and Meera full time. You one day a week.
Then write "one day a week". Don't write "senior oversight". He should know exactly how much of me he's getting.
And if he wants more of you?
Then he asks, and we talk about it. I'd rather he wasn't surprised by how little he sees me.
"Senior oversight" can mean anything, and the client will imagine the best version. "One day a week" sets a clear expectation. Promising less, and being exact, avoids disappointment later.
Let's read it back. Owen.
Page two: the one sentence, then three bullets. Page five: Philip's four million as his estimate, and our hypothesis next to it. Three workstreams for three hundred and ninety-five thousand. Technology and telephony as an option, at eighty-five. One page on what we're not doing. Data in the first two weeks.
And how many pages now?
Twenty-two.
Still long. But fine. Who sends it?
I do, at nine. And I'll call Philip at ten to check he's got it. Not to sell it.
Good. When he calls back, he'll push on the price. Don't answer on the phone. Thank him, and say we'll come back to him the next day.
Judith expects pressure on the price. Her advice: listen, thank him, and answer later. A fee decided quickly on the phone is usually a fee you regret. Taking a day shows you take the request seriously.
Do you want to be in the meeting with him?
Yes. But you lead. I'll only speak if it's about money or the relationship.
What if he asks for the telephony work for free?
He will. That's the next conversation. Tonight we just need a proposal we're happy to defend.
And a sentence he can repeat to his board.
That too.
Before you go. Anything I should have done differently?
Write the sentence first next time, then the deck. Tonight you wrote the deck first and then looked for the sentence.
Sentence first. Noted.
And Meera, the phone systems point was a good catch. Say things like that early. Don't wait until the decision is made.
I will.
Good. Send me the final version by eight, Owen. Then go home, both of you.
This meeting is between colleagues the night before a deadline, so the language is quick and direct: "That's four sentences joined with commas", "No", "Still long". Nobody is offended, because everyone is working on the same document. In front of the client next week, the same people will sound very different.