Proposals in 20 minutes instead of 2 hours
Eliminating proposal-writing tedium and CRM data entry for a fast-moving consulting team
-75%
Proposal time
90 min → 20 min
0
CRM lag
Was 2+ weeks
3 weeks
Setup time
6-8 hrs
Hours saved / week
The problem
What they were dealing with
The principal was spending 6-8 hours a week drafting proposals — pulling from past examples in Google Drive, customizing for each prospect, formatting in Docs, exporting to PDF. Meeting notes from discovery calls lived in a personal Notion page, never made it into HubSpot, and deals frequently went stale because the CRM was always 2 weeks behind reality. The "we should hire someone for this" moment had been talked about for a year without action.
The build
How we built it
- 1
Indexed the proposal library
Read 30 past proposals to understand structure, voice, and the typical scope language used per service line. Built a content library the AI agent could draw from.
- 2
Built the AI proposal drafter
A Claude-powered agent that takes a brief (industry, scope, budget range, timeline) and produces a first-draft proposal in their voice and format. Outputs a Google Doc the principal can review and tweak in 10-15 minutes instead of 90.
- 3
Wired Calendar → HubSpot
A second automation watches the team's Google Calendar for meetings tagged "discovery" or "client". After each meeting, it fetches the meeting notes the consultant typed in their template, extracts action items + key info, and writes them into the HubSpot contact record.
- 4
Set up review safeguards
Proposals never auto-send — they always land as a draft in the principal's queue. CRM updates flag any conflicts (e.g. existing contact info that differs) for human review. The team stays in control; the system removes the typing.
Tools and integrations used
The outcome
What changed
Proposal drafting dropped from ~90 minutes to ~20 minutes per proposal. The principal now spends time refining and pricing strategically instead of formatting. HubSpot is always current — every meeting becomes a contact note within an hour. The ops manager stopped chasing consultants for status updates because the answer is already in the CRM.
Burning hours on proposals or stale CRM data?
If your team is doing similar work — drafting documents from templates, ferrying notes between tools, or manually keeping a CRM in sync with reality — this is exactly the kind of project we run. Book a free 30-minute consultation and we'll map out where AI fits and where simple automation is enough.
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