Drafting proposals

In a small business the quote or proposal usually gets written by one person, and even when a request comes in it slips behind other work and does not get touched for days. In the meantime a faster competitor takes the deal. Replying to a lead within 5 minutes gives 21 times the odds of qualifying it versus 30 minutes. Yet most B2B companies do not respond until about 42 hours later.

A request like this, handled like this.

We gather the work as it actually arrives, and record what each step is judged against.

Collect the ask and context

Pull the original inquiry, past conversation and deal history, clues on customer size, industry, and budget, and the requested deadline onto one page.

Judgment Draft quality is proportional to how much customer context you attach. Are three or more concrete facts specific to this customer captured?
Build scope and price options

Structure the request into a base plus higher and lower options (good, better, best), with each option's inclusions, exclusions, quantity, and unit price in a table.

Judgment Options leave room to negotiate better than a single price. But price only as a draft within company policy. The final discount and margin are a person's decision.
Draft the proposal

Generate a draft with a cover, summary, problem statement, solution, scope, price, timeline, and next steps in the company tone.

Judgment The bar is whether the customer understands what, for how much, and by when in one scroll. The conclusion has to show up first in the summary.
Send the instant first reply and stage the draft

Right after intake, send a first reply along the lines of proposal in progress, coming today, and put the finished draft in the approval queue.

Judgment Speed is where it is won. An immediate receipt reply and a fast draft beat a perfect proposal.
Schedule the follow-ups

If there is no response after sending, schedule follow-up drafts at set intervals (plus 2 days, plus 5, plus 10).

Judgment 80% of deals need five or more follow-ups. Send once and stop is the most common leak, so build follow-up in by default.

If the info is thin, confirm first instead of a firm quote

We settle the exceptions that actually come up before they do. When a rule doesn't fit, we don't force it through. It goes to a person, with the evidence.

Exception A thin inquiry (just how much?)

Instead of an instant quote, reply with short questions on size and scope plus a rough range only. A firm quote with no basis comes back to bite you.

Exception A nonstandard or large request (out-of-policy discount, special scope)

Build the draft but mark it price not final, needs discussion, and escalate to a person.

Exception A stalled proposal (long no-response)

Follow up from a new angle (a case study, a time-limited condition, a reduced option), not a nag. Resending the same document works poorly.

Price, contract, and the final proposal are seen by a person

Anything touching money, contracts, personal data, or the brand is drafted and no further. It sends only after a person approves.

The final price, discount, and margin

It hits profit directly, so a person controls the policy limits.
Contract terms, delivery, and response target commitments

This is where a performance obligation arises.
Approving a special or nonstandard scope

It sets a precedent and carries risk.
The full final proposal that goes to the customer

It is the final responsibility for brand and factual accuracy.
The tone and frequency of follow-ups

Over-following actually harms the relationship.

How you know it worked

How fast we got the first reply out

Conversion effect of response speed

Firms that responded within an hour were about 7 times as likely to qualify the lead (Harvard Business Review, 2011)

This is the basis for putting first-reply speed ahead of proposal polish.

First-responder share of deals

Measure the relationship between response order and won deals in the customer pipeline. Why a proposal that is a few days late loses.

Number of follow-ups

In a 2011 audit of 2,241 U.S. companies, the average first response to a web inquiry was 42 hours (Harvard Business Review, 2011)

Measure follow-up count and first-response time in the customer pipeline. Sending once and stopping is the biggest leak.

There is less that a person has to hold on to.

Once the scattered checks and repeat replies are drafted and sorted, your staff can spend the day on review and exceptions, and you look only at the decisions that matter.

Get an assessment

Today

Checks pile up on a person.

You start every proposal from a blank page, and writing one takes a whole day.

With Velros running it

The work arrives ready to go.

It gathers the requirements and builds the structure and a draft first, so the person in charge just reviews and fills in the gaps.

Proposal preparation lead time Number of reused past cases Draft-to-send conversion rate

What people ask before they hand this over

The things people actually check first about Drafting proposals.

If AI writes the draft, will it look like a generic template?

The template feel comes when customer context is empty. Put this customer's own facts (size, products already in use, specific pain points) into the summary and problem statement and it reads as our story. A person only reviews that context accuracy and the price.

If it fills in the price automatically, could it accidentally go out too low?

Price is drafted only within the company policy range, and confirming discount and margin is always a person-approved item. Out-of-policy requests are marked not final and do not auto-send.

What to sort out next

Review request campaign

Review request campaign can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.

Send rate

Repeat-visit and repeat-purchase outreach

Repeat-visit and repeat-purchase outreach can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.

Human review time

Daily operations report

Daily operations report can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.

See every workflow

Inquiries, bookings, quotes, order updates. You can compare the work that keeps a person busy, side by side.

We start with the work that keeps a person tied up.

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