The Digital Agency Growth Podcast Turn Proposals Into a Q4 Growth Engine: How Agencies Can Unlock Upsells & Faster Closes
Sep 3, 2025
In this enlightening discussion, Joe Ardeeser, founder of Smart Pricing Table and a former digital agency owner, shares valuable insights on transforming proposals into a powerful growth engine for agencies. He highlights the dangers of vague or overly detailed proposals and offers a straightforward framework for integrating upsells. Joe emphasizes the importance of clarity and transparency in building trust with decision-makers and reveals strategies for tackling common proposal challenges, ensuring agencies finish Q4 on a strong note.
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Modularize Services With Line Items
- Break services into clear reusable line items with defined deliverables and limits to prevent scope creep.
- Offer related upsells after limitations so clients can expand without derailing the core scope.
Use A Repeatable Line-Item Template
- Use a simple structure for each line item: a summary sentence, a bulleted 'work included' list, then limitations and upsells.
- This structure clarifies expectations and makes proposals reusable and faster to create.
Balance Clarity And Flexibility
- Proposals should be clear enough to show scope but flexible enough to avoid friction from over-prescription.
- The goal is to capture the spirit and size of work so small extras don't derail the project.
