How to speed up sales proposals without losing control of your prices

BOTrento Team30 September 20266 min read

Where proposals really lose time

Writing the proposal itself rarely takes long. The time goes elsewhere:

• Hunting for current prices. The price list lives in one spreadsheet, discounts in a salesperson's head, and availability in another system.
• Copying an old proposal. Fast but risky: the document keeps another client's name, an outdated price or a condition that no longer applies.
• Waiting for approval. The proposal sits there because the manager is in a meeting and nobody knows whether it even needs approval.
• Filling in missing details. The salesperson only discovers a missing date or scope while pricing the job.

Fix these points and your proposals get faster without anyone working faster. Gathering the details is really part of handling the enquiry, which we cover in how to handle sales enquiries without losing any.

Step 1: one source of current prices

Every business that sends proposals needs one place that holds valid prices. That can be the price list in your accounting system, your CRM or a shared spreadsheet. What matters is that:

• there is exactly one current version,
• it is clear who changes prices and when,
• every item has a unit and states whether the price excludes VAT,
• exceptions and special prices for regular clients are written down, not just remembered.

Without this step there's no point automating anything. Automation on top of an outdated price list just sends out wrong proposals faster.

Step 2: a template instead of copying an old proposal

A template ensures every proposal has the same structure and nothing important is missing. A structure that works:

1. A summary of the client's need in their words, in one or two sentences.
2. Scope — what is included and what is not.
3. Price per item, stated excluding VAT, with options if relevant.
4. Dates and terms — how long the proposal is valid, deposit, cancellation, scope changes.
5. Next step — what the client should do if they agree, and by when.

Pay the most attention to the last point. A proposal without a next step leaves the client to work out the process alone, which slows both sides down.

Step 3: approvals that don't slow things down

Approvals are necessary, but they don't have to hold up every proposal. A few simple rules are enough:

• A standard proposal based on the price list and template goes straight to the client; the salesperson is responsible for it.
• An exception (a discount beyond the rules, an unusual scope, non-standard payment terms) goes to a named approver.
• The approver has a deputy, so proposals don't wait for one person to come back from holiday.

That way only the proposals that genuinely need a second look reach the approver, and managers can focus on exceptions instead of routine.

How to tell whether proposals have really got faster

Without measuring, it's easy to introduce a change and still not know a month later whether it helped. You don't need complex reporting. A few simple indicators are enough, ideally tracked for a week before the change and then continuously:

• Time from enquiry to proposal sent — how many working days pass between an enquiry arriving and the proposal going out.
• Proposals returned with questions — how often clients ask about something that should have been in the proposal (scope, validity, exclusions).
• Exceptions sent for approval — how many proposals had to wait for approval, and for how long.
• Proposals with a scheduled follow-up — how many sent proposals have a next-contact date in your records.

These are process metrics: they show how well proposal preparation works, not how many deals you'll win. That's deliberate. The number of deals also depends on price, competition and seasonality, while the speed and completeness of your proposals are fully in your hands.

If time to proposal is falling and clients ask fewer follow-up questions, the approach is working. If the numbers don't move, check which of the three steps (price list, template, approvals) isn't being followed in practice.

Where AI helps and what stays with people

Once you have a valid price list and a template, AI can take a lot of work off your plate. It can pull the requirements out of an enquiry, match them to items in your price list, flag missing information and prepare a first draft of both the proposal and the cover email. The salesperson then checks, adjusts and sends it.

That's exactly the kind of work BOTrento Chief of Staff is built for. It works inside your existing systems, prepares drafts for your approval and never sends anything on its own. The process demo shows the path from enquiry to draft proposal.

The AI runs on your own API keys, so you pay the model provider directly and keep full visibility of costs. See the API keys guide for how it works.

Checklist before you send a proposal

Print this list or paste it into your template. It takes a moment and saves awkward explanations later:

• Are the client's name and company correct?
• Do the prices match the current price list, and is it clear they exclude VAT?
• Is the scope clear, including what is not included?
• Does the delivery date fit the availability of people and equipment?
• Is the validity of the proposal stated?
• Does the proposal need an exception approved, and has it been?
• Is there a clear next step in both the proposal and the email?
• Is the follow-up date recorded?

If you'd like to try this process with AI support on one type of proposal, see the pilot terms on the pricing page.