Turning a custom-everything engineering firm into three offers clients can buy
Every proposal was a bespoke project, every price a negotiation. We studied three years of delivery data and built three fixed-scope offers that made the firm easier to buy from and easier to run.
- Client
- 120-person software engineering services firm
- Sector
- Engineering services
- Location
- Lahore & Islamabad, selling to the Gulf and UK
- Year
- 2024
- Duration
- 14 weeks
- Scope
- Offer design, Pricing, Proposal system
i. The situation
The firm had a strong delivery reputation and a weak commercial engine. Each new client started with a two-week scoping exercise, a custom estimate and a round of negotiation. Senior engineers spent a surprising share of their time writing proposals that did not close.
Margins varied wildly by project, and nobody could say with confidence which kinds of work were actually profitable.
ii. What we did
- 01
Read three years of project history
We classified 140 past projects by entry point, scope, team shape, overrun and margin. Three repeatable patterns accounted for most of the profitable work.
- 02
Designed three fixed-scope entry offers
A two-week Discovery Sprint, a four-week Platform Audit and a Dedicated Pod with a defined ramp. Each had a fixed price or price band, a clear deliverable and a natural next step.
- 03
Priced from value and delivery reality
Anchored each offer to the cost of the problem it solved, then pressure-tested the price against the delivery data so the team would not be selling at a loss.
- 04
Replaced the proposal process
Modular proposal templates, a one-page offer sheet per service and a short internal playbook for when to stay custom.
iii. What changed
- ~⅓
- Share of new bookings through the three offersNine months after launch.
- 3 days
- Typical proposal turnaround, down from around two weeks
- 2 of 3
- Discovery Sprints converting to a longer engagement
iv. In retrospect
Productising was less about packaging and more about agreement. The hardest work was getting delivery and sales leads to commit to what the firm would do, and to what it would not.