What a template is for
A template is the proposal you would write every time anyway, with the job-specific parts left as blanks. It is not a pitch you send unchanged. It is the scaffolding that means you start each draft at seventy percent instead of at an empty box.
Your account ships with two worked examples. Open one before you write your own—editing something real is faster and produces a better template than a blank page does.
Split the fixed from the variable
Before you write anything, sort your proposal into two piles. The fixed pile is everything that is true no matter who is reading: how you work, what you are good at, how you communicate, how you close. The variable pile is everything that comes from this job: the client's goal, the risk you spotted, the first steps you would take.
The fixed pile gets written out in full, in your own words, once. The variable pile becomes blanks. If you find yourself making something a blank that never really changes, move it back to fixed—every blank is a decision you pay for on every send.
- Fixed: your method, your proof, your availability, your close
- Variable: client name, project goal, the specific risk, your first steps
- If a blank has the same answer three sends running, it was never variable
How to write a blank
Write a blank as a snake_case name inside square brackets, like [client_name], [project_goal], or [step_1]. The name is not decoration—it is the instruction for what belongs there, so name it for the content, not the position.
Prefix a blank with optional: when the draft should simply drop it if the job does not supply it. [optional: clarifying_question] appears when there is a genuine question worth asking and disappears when there is not, which is better than a template that always asks something hollow.
- [client_name] — who you are writing to
- [project_goal] — the outcome they described, in their words
- [primary_risk] — the thing most likely to go wrong
- [step_1], [step_2], [step_3] — how you would actually start
- [optional: clarifying_question] — dropped when there is nothing real to ask
Keep it short enough to stay honest
Long templates degrade fastest. Every extra paragraph is another place where generic filler hides, and the reader is scanning, not studying. Two or three paragraphs plus your steps is usually the whole thing.
The opening carries most of the weight. Say what they want in their own language before you say anything about yourself, and the rest of the template gets read at all.
Test it against three real jobs
A template that reads well in isolation can fall apart on contact. Take three jobs you actually captured—ideally ones that are different from each other—and fill the blanks by hand.
If a blank has no sensible answer for one of them, the blank is asking for something the job does not supply. If a fixed paragraph has to be rewritten for one of them, it was not fixed. Adjust once, then leave it alone for a stretch of real sends before touching it again.
- Every blank has an answer for all three jobs
- No fixed paragraph needed rewriting
- You would send all three drafts with light edits, not heavy ones
Run more than one when the work splits
One template is enough while your work is one kind of work. When you notice you are heavily rewriting the same section every time for one category of job, that category has earned its own template rather than more blanks in the shared one.
Set the one you use most as your default. That is the template captures are drafted against, so it should be the one that needs the least editing, not the one you are proudest of.