Turn discovery notes into a client proposal draft

A useful proposal draft connects each deliverable, amount, and dependency to something the agency has approved. This worked example shows that connection from discovery notes through a scope and pricing table. It also shows what should remain unresolved when the notes are incomplete.

Example status: Fictional, hand-authored reference example. The organizations, notes, and amounts below are invented solely for this demonstration. This is an editorial walkthrough, not a recorded AI workflow run or customer result. Product installation and behavioral validation remain pending.

How to turn discovery notes into a proposal

Confirm the client's objective and the decision the proposal must support.
Map requested deliverables to the agency's approved service catalog.
Resolve quantity conflicts and apply the supplied rates.
Build a delivery sequence around source assets, feedback, and approvals.
Review the scope, arithmetic, exclusions, and unresolved terms before sending.

If the notes are still missing deliverable quantities, budget categories, or an approval owner, start with the client brief checklist. The worked example below demonstrates the next stage with an explicit source register.

The job and the input boundary

In this scenario, Northline Studio is preparing a six-week campaign proposal for Cedar Desk, a fictional workspace company. The intended output is an editable proposal for the agency owner to check. Sending it to the client is a separate decision.

The input register treats the following records as supplied and approved within this fictional scenario. In a real engagement, the account lead must establish that approval from the actual source documents; a skill cannot establish it from a label alone.

Source	Supplied information	How the draft may use it
Discovery notes, D-01	Cedar Desk wants a campaign explaining its team workspace offer to operations managers at small businesses.	Describe the stated audience and communication objective.
Discovery notes, D-02	Client requests one campaign brief, one landing-page copy draft, six ad-copy variations, and one reporting template.	Build the deliverable list from these quantities.
Service catalog, S-01	A campaign brief includes objective, audience, key message, channels for review, and measurement questions. Landing-page work is copy only.	Define what is included without implying design, development, or execution.
Delivery constraints, C-01	Six-week sequence begins after written scope approval and receipt of required inputs. Client supplies product facts, brand rules, and current offer.	State a conditional sequence; do not invent a start date.
Delivery constraints, C-02	One consolidated revision round per deliverable is included. Client feedback is needed before dependent work proceeds.	Describe the review process and make timing dependencies visible.
Budget note, B-01	Client states an agency-fee ceiling of USD 4,500, excluding media spend. Tax treatment is not supplied.	Compare the service subtotal with the stated ceiling; leave tax unresolved.
Conflict note, D-03	One note says “six ads”; another says “six variations across two platforms.” The service catalog covers copy variations only.	Ask whether six means six total or six per platform. Price six total as an explicit draft assumption.

Supplied example rate card

These are fictional Northline Studio service rates, not LibSkills product prices or market benchmarks. All amounts are in USD.

Service	Unit	Unit rate	Requested quantity
Campaign brief	One brief	$800	1
Landing-page copy	One copy draft	$1,200	1
Ad-copy variation	One variation	$150	6, pending quantity clarification
Reporting template	One template	$500	1
Project coordination	One project	$600	1

The source packet does not include a performance baseline, lead target, named platform selection, implementation access, payment schedule, tax instruction, legal terms, or agreed calendar dates. Those gaps must survive into the draft.

Assemble the proposal in a fixed order

First, extract the client's objective and each requested deliverable. Next, match deliverables to the supplied service catalog and rate card. Surface conflicts before calculating. Then write the sequence around known dependencies. Finish with exclusions, open questions, and a reviewer checklist.

Do not silently turn an audience into a targeting configuration, an objective into a guarantee, or a proposed sequence into an agreed delivery date. A source may support the words “improve the explanation of the offer” without supporting “generate 100 leads.”

Worked proposal draft

Draft for internal review — Cedar Desk campaign preparation

Cedar Desk wants to explain its team workspace offer to operations managers at small businesses. Northline Studio proposes a six-week preparation project covering the campaign brief, landing-page copy, ad-copy variations, and a reporting template. These deliverables prepare the campaign for review. Campaign implementation and performance outcomes are outside this proposed scope.

Proposed scope

Deliverable	Included output	Review point
Campaign brief	One document covering the supplied objective, audience, proposed message, channels to confirm, and measurement questions.	Client confirms product facts, audience, message, and channel selection.
Landing-page copy	One copy draft based on the approved brief and supplied product facts.	Client checks factual accuracy and approves copy.
Ad-copy variations	Six total copy variations, with platform allocation awaiting confirmation.	Client confirms quantity and platforms before drafting begins.
Reporting template	One reusable template for recording agreed measures, observations, and next actions.	Client confirms the available data and definitions.
Project coordination	Coordination of this project's stated deliverables and review points.	One consolidated revision round per deliverable; additional work requires a separate scope decision.

Draft delivery sequence

Period	Planned work	Dependency
Week 1	Resolve open scope questions and prepare campaign brief.	Written scope approval; product facts, offer, and brand rules received.
Week 2	Review and revise the campaign brief.	Consolidated client feedback.
Weeks 3–4	Prepare and review landing-page copy and six total ad-copy variations.	Approved brief and confirmed variation count/platforms.
Week 5	Prepare the reporting template and incorporate the included revisions.	Agreed measurement definitions and client feedback.
Week 6	Final review and handover of approved documents.	Resolution of factual questions and outstanding approvals.

This sequence is a planning draft. Calendar dates and the impact of delayed feedback remain to be agreed.

Draft service subtotal

Item	Calculation	Amount
Campaign brief	1 × $800	$800
Landing-page copy	1 × $1,200	$1,200
Ad-copy variations	6 × $150	$900
Reporting template	1 × $500	$500
Project coordination	1 × $600	$600
Service subtotal	$800 + $1,200 + $900 + $500 + $600	$4,000

The service subtotal is $500 below the supplied $4,500 agency-fee ceiling. Media spend is excluded. Tax treatment is unresolved, so $4,000 must not be presented as a tax-inclusive total or final amount due. If the client confirms twelve variations, the extra six add $900: the revised service subtotal would be $4,900, which is $400 above the stated ceiling.

Exclusions and unresolved decisions

Design, development, ad-account setup, media buying, publishing, and ongoing campaign management are excluded. No lead volume, revenue, conversion, or time-saving guarantee is included.

Before release, confirm whether six variations means six total or six for each platform; identify the platforms; approve the product facts and brand rules; agree on measurement definitions; and resolve dates, tax treatment, payment terms, and contractual terms with the responsible people. This draft does not supply missing commercial or legal terms.

Review the draft against the sources

The checks below are proposed reviewer actions, not a completed independent review.

Check	What the reviewer should be able to establish
Scope traceability	Every deliverable maps to D-02 and S-01; no design or implementation service was added.
Quantity conflict	D-03 remains visible, and the six-total assumption appears beside the price and deliverable.
Arithmetic	Six variations cost $900; all five rows sum to $4,000; the remaining fee headroom is $500.
Change scenario	Twelve variations produce $4,900, not an unexplained increase or a silently absorbed charge.
Commitment boundary	Calendar dates and results are not promised; unresolved terms are explicit.
Approval readiness	Factual corrections and open decisions are resolved before anyone sends a proposal.

For example, a draft that says “six variations per platform for $4,000” fails the source check. Correct it to the explicit six-total assumption and retain the clarification question. A line promising “100 qualified leads” has no supporting input and should be removed, not softened into an unsupported estimate.

Common questions

What should an agency client proposal include?

For the workflow in this guide, include the stated objective, deliverables and quantities, exclusions, a conditional timeline, supplied rates and calculations, review arrangements, and unresolved decisions. Commercial terms must come from the agency's approved process and the actual engagement; this template does not establish them.

What if discovery notes disagree about scope?

Keep both source references, identify how the conflict changes the price or work, and ask for a decision. Here, six total variations and six per platform lead to different subtotals. Treating one interpretation as agreed would make the proposal misleading.

Can an AI workflow choose the agency's prices?

This workflow uses a supplied, approved rate card. If a required rate is absent, it remains unresolved. The Client Proposal Builder preview describes that input boundary and the planned review outputs.

Limitations and next step

This reference demonstrates structure and source discipline. It does not establish output quality, setup success, correction time, or compatibility for any AI product. No author or reviewer is presented as verified. A release evaluation would need retained inputs, actual outputs, host and model configuration, reviewer corrections, and dated results across more than this single case. See the quality methodology for the prototype's evidence boundaries.

Use the free Client Brief Completeness Check to identify gaps in a sanitized brief, then inspect the input and output contract for the Client Proposal Builder. For the next agency handover, the monthly client report example shows how supplied numbers become a cautious narrative.