Process Design | Proposal Design
Designing templates with minimal tech.
For years, VSC's proposal protocol consisted of lengthy, manually assembled email bodies, rows of hyperlinks, and limited consistency. Over the 2 years, I worked with the firm's CEO to revamp the entire process, including a visual pitch-deck template, a library of case studies (created in Google Slides - a platform the team is familiar with and can edit themselves), and an integrated CRM.
The updated process has since been used to pitch hundreds of leads, and secure millions in revenue.
Role
As business development lead, I conducted exploratory discussions with potential clients, and designed pitch decks to align with their particular needs.
I worked with the agency's CEO and Head of People to dial in the verbiage, presentation, and overall customer acquisition process over several years.
Tools
* I'll explain why below
Strategy and goals
To streamline this process and up-level the presentation, I designed a modular deck template that could be easily complied and customized to showcase the agency's services and experience across a range of industries and engagements.
Cutting the fluff
Content audit
I started by breaking down existing proposals into distinct sections, establishing a visual hierarchy for critical information, replacing excessive wording with graphic representations wherever possible, and redlining info that could be omitted entirely.
Creating a modular system
Template design
I then built out a library of slides and elements that could be used throughout the presentations. Over the following year, I continued to build and maintain a database of case studies that could be quickly swapped out from one deck to another to align with the potential client's industry and needs.
Feeling frugal? Use Google.
Using tech within reach
All of the assets and templates were created in Google Slides - a free platform that the entire agency was comfortable collaborating in.
This enabled the team's PR practitioners to easily contribute to case study content, eliminated version control risks, and meant that when I ultimately moved on from the agency, I left a robust proposal system behind.
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Early drafts
The earliest iterations of the pitch deck were fairly direct visual translations of the initial lengthy, verbose pitch emails - and matched the visual aesthetic of the agency at that time. Without a well-defined structure, the decks were inconsistent and time-consuming to create.
Refined services
As the agency's scope of services evolved, so did the pitch. Color coding helped delineate more diverse offerings and articulate nuanced pricing models. Linking highlight reels and embedding GIFs and enabled us to showcase the agency's nascent content work.
Gathering data
As we further formalized the BD process, I managed every lead through a CRM to better track where our pitch panned out, and where it fell flat. Using DocSend instead of emailing PDFs further improved our follow-up process by identifying who had viewed the proposal and when.
The impact
250+
Proposals created
$2.3M
Revenue captured
300
Estim. hours saved
