The IGNITE Podcast with Josh Stone
Jul 13, 2026 · 11 min · 10 segments
Most consultancy owners think sending out a stack of fee proposals is their best shot at winning work. But if you're just hitting send and hoping for the best, you're leaving an enormous amount of…
Josh StoneHost
So first things first, Big idea one, stop hiding behind your proposals, get into the room.
So the single biggest mistake consultancy owners make with BD is they believe like a well-written proposal does all the selling for them, when really the proposal is just the paperwork that follows from a relationship that's already been really well established.
Most consultancy owners are sending proposals into this void of their clients or potential clients' email inbox.
They spend hours on the scope, the pricing, the formatting, and then they just sit there and they quietly wait.
The consultancy owners with the highest conversion rates, they aren't writing better proposals.
So what happens is like a proposal gets sent cold with no prior relationship, no conversation, no context.
A proposal sent after a face-to-face meeting though, that's a confirmation of a conversation that's already happened.
So high performers in our boardroom community, like they actively look for ways and a reason or any excuse to get in front of their client before they submit their proposal.
They might ask a question about scope or they might ask, you know, you wanna catch up on site, like a quick coffee, just to make sure they've understood the brief properly.
Because getting in the room with your client lets you learn things that you'd never find out in that brief that you get sent in the first place.
Who else is bidding? How many people are you up against? What's really driving the decision? What went wrong last time? And what the client actually cares about most? Okay, so here are five scripts that you can use right now to get into the room with your client.
I just have a couple of questions about the scope that I wanna make sure I've got right.
Would you mind if I grab a quick coffee with you to run through them? Number two, hey, I'm a little stuck on scope item X.
Can we jump on a call or catch up briefly just so I can make sure we're aligned before I put the numbers together? Number three, I want to make sure our proposal actually reflects what you need, not just what's in the brief.
Would you be open to a quick 20 minute catch up in your office just so I can ask you a few quick questions? Number four, I've worked on a few similar projects to this one and think there's a smarter way to approach the scope.
Are you free for a coffee this week? And number five, before I get too far into this, I'd love to understand a bit more about where you want to take this project.
Do you have 20 minutes for a quick chat? Now, every one of those scripts has the same goal.
It creates a genuine, low pressure reason to have a human conversation before the proposal goes in.
So first things first, Big idea one, stop hiding behind your proposals, get into the room.
So the single biggest mistake consultancy owners make with BD is they believe like a well-written proposal does all the selling for them, when really the proposal is just the paperwork that follows from a relationship that's already been really well established.
Most consultancy owners are sending proposals into this void of their clients or potential clients' email inbox.
They spend hours on the scope, the pricing, the formatting, and then they just sit there and they quietly wait.
The consultancy owners with the highest conversion rates, they aren't writing better proposals.
So what happens is like a proposal gets sent cold with no prior relationship, no conversation, no context.
A proposal sent after a face-to-face meeting though, that's a confirmation of a conversation that's already happened.
So high performers in our boardroom community, like they actively look for ways and a reason or any excuse to get in front of their client before they submit their proposal.
They might ask a question about scope or they might ask, you know, you wanna catch up on site, like a quick coffee, just to make sure they've understood the brief properly.
Because getting in the room with your client lets you learn things that you'd never find out in that brief that you get sent in the first place.
Who else is bidding? How many people are you up against? What's really driving the decision? What went wrong last time? And what the client actually cares about most? Okay, so here are five scripts that you can use right now to get into the room with your client.
I just have a couple of questions about the scope that I wanna make sure I've got right.
Would you mind if I grab a quick coffee with you to run through them? Number two, hey, I'm a little stuck on scope item X.
Can we jump on a call or catch up briefly just so I can make sure we're aligned before I put the numbers together? Number three, I want to make sure our proposal actually reflects what you need, not just what's in the brief.
Would you be open to a quick 20 minute catch up in your office just so I can ask you a few quick questions? Number four, I've worked on a few similar projects to this one and think there's a smarter way to approach the scope.
Are you free for a coffee this week? And number five, before I get too far into this, I'd love to understand a bit more about where you want to take this project.
Do you have 20 minutes for a quick chat? Now, every one of those scripts has the same goal.
It creates a genuine, low pressure reason to have a human conversation before the proposal goes in.
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