How do I create a proposal?

Drafting a proposal to participate in a PERSUIT request is very straightforward.

After clearing conflicts and agreeing to participate, you'll see the Proposal section at the top of the request. 

Click the Create New Proposal button to be directed to the Draft Proposal screen.

There are typically three sections to fill out, although this can vary depending on the request type:

1. Proposal Summary
2. Pricing
3. Questions

Proposal Summary

This can act as a cover letter to your proposal and can include anything that you think is helpful for the client to know. Such as information about your professional relationship with the client, your overall strategic approach, or even a summary of high-level assumptions.

You can also Attach Files relevant to your proposal, although please bear in mind the structure of the client's request, and that they may prefer to read and process this information within a dedicated field in the Pricing or Questions sections.

Pricing

Use the Pricing section to provide fees for the matter. This can include the overall total price, phase, and/or activity level, depending on the client's chosen pricing structure. In PERSUIT, phase-level fees are called "items" and within each phase there can be "sub-items".

Depending on the matter, the overall price field can be either a manual Total Price field (to allow for greater flexibility) or Comparison Value (which leverages auto-sum functionality). See this article for more information on the differences.

This example uses Total Price:

This example uses Comparison Value:

For the total price, items, and sub-items, the client's pricing preference (i.e. fixed fee, capped fee, budget estimate, etc.) is shown.

Firms may choose to deviate from the client's fee preference by clicking on the Pricing dropdown menu, if the client has not locked this type.

Firms can also add their own sub-items within a phase/item. This provides granularity on the cost drivers within the scope of work.

If a firm will not or cannot provide pricing for an item for any reason, they can toggle the Excluded from Scope button.

Questions

The nature of the Questions section varies depending on the matter and the client. This is your opportunity to showcase qualitative strengths like your skill, team, experience and strategy.

Submitting the Proposal

Once you've filled out all three sections, you can Submit your proposal.

The Submit button lives in two places: the top right of the navigation bar and the bottom right of the drafting page. You'll need to confirm the action by clicking Submit again in the popup.

You'll find the newly submitted proposal under the Proposals section of the request.

If you would like to withdraw your proposal for whatever reason, please see this article for instructions.