Consultants have a lot of their plates. To execute on their many jobs, they need the right tools.
We’ve spoken to many Venngage users who either run their own consulting business, or who work for a larger consulting firm. No matter the size of their team, virtually every consultant seemed to face the same problems:
- They need to communicate clearly with their clients, in a way that gets buy-in from management and C-levels
- They need to compile research, track progress on their projects, and show results
- They’re often working within tight budgets and time constraints
- They want to stand out from the competition and establish themselves as experts in their fields
- They need to score new clients while also juggling their current ones
If any of this sounds like you, this guide may have tools that can help.
In this guide, I’ll share 13 essential types of consulting templates to help solve those problems (and make your life a bit easier). I’ve also included tips for communicating with visuals, and design tips to make your reports, marketing collateral and client communications visually engaging AND effective.
9 consulting templates to make your life easier
Click to jump ahead:
- Consulting Proposal Templates
- Consulting Report Templates
- Research Consulting Templates
- Project Plan Templates
- Budget Proposal Templates
- Content Strategy Plan Templates
- Business Pitch Deck Templates
- Social Media Consulting Templates
- B2C Client Consulting Templates
1. Consulting Proposal Templates
Acquiring new clients is one of the biggest challenges many consultants face. You need to convince them that you are the right person to fix their problems. But I don’t need to tell you this, you’ve probably experienced it first-hand.
So let’s talk about how you can design a consulting proposal (also known as a business proposal) that turns leads into clients.
A consulting proposal acts as a sales pitch that you send to a potential client. In your consulting proposal, you typically include:
- An outline of how you will handle a specific project
- You experience and skills that make you the best fit for the job
- Your pricing terms and conditions
Because your consulting proposal needs to be persuasive, you need to think strategically about your proposal design. How does it reflect your brand voice? What visuals can you use to reinforce your credibility?
Here are some consulting proposal tips and templates to help you close those deals. Pick the template you like. You’ll enter our online drag and drop proposal maker tool where you can customize them to your liking–no design experience required!
Create an Eye-Catching Consulting Proposal Cover Page
First impressions matter, especially when you’re trying to land clients. Your consulting proposal should give the impression that you’re professional, reliable and knowledgeable. Easier said than done, right?
The cover page of your consulting proposal will tell your clients a bit about who you are and your approach to solving problems.
Organize Your Consulting Proposal Into Sections Using Blocks
As much as we would like to think that people read every word we write in a proposal, we know that isn’t true.
Because you will have a lot of information to cover in your consulting proposal, make sure that your pages are organized. You can do that by using blocks to lay out the different sections on your page.
Here’s an example of what that can look like:
This organizes the information into bite-sized sections, making it easier to scan the page. The icons in the top corner of each square also help illustrate the information.
Check out our job proposal templates and business proposal templates to get started.
Use Icons to Illustrate Ideas
Icons are the perfect little visuals to include in your reports. They’re compact and super useful.
There are a ton of ways you can use icons to improve your page designs. That’s because a basic rule of design is that eyes are drawn to wherever there is an image, bolded text or a block of color on a page.
That means you can use icons to draw your readers’ attention to important information. For example, look at how this page from a consulting proposal uses icons to highlight each deliverable:
You can also use icons to create custom illustrations (no need to hire a designer). This comes in handy when you want to design an eye-catching cover page. Or if you want to create an illustration to balance out the text on a page.
Want more tips for creating an irresistible consulting proposal? Read our in-depth consulting proposal guide. Also, check out our other consulting proposal templates.
2. Consulting Report Template
Typically, your clients will expect regular reporting on your findings, progress and budget spent. Guess where a sloppy report will get you.
Landing a new client is only the first step. You will also need to maintain their confidence in you throughout your time with them. Think of it like dressing up for a dinner date with your partner – it helps keep the romance alive.
There are a few different types of consulting reports that you will most likely need, depending on your niche. Two common types of reports are:
- project status reports
- competitor analysis reports
Let’s look at some examples of each one.
Project Status Reports
Project status reports are exactly what they sound like. They communicate what you’ve accomplished and what still needs to be done. They also help you flag and analyze any issues you’re facing. Project status reports are crucial for building and maintaining trust with your clients.
The length and detail of your project status report will depend on the amount of time you’re reporting on. For example, a quarterly report will probably contain a lot of information:
Meanwhile, a weekly project status report could be a quick one-page update:
You may also want to create a brief summary page for a presentation:
Competitor Analysis Reports
To make smart marketing and product decisions, it helps to scope out the competition. A comprehensive competitor analysis report will help you understand what kind of threat your competitors pose. It will also help you identify gaps in the market that you can go after.
Typically, a competitor analysis report includes:
- A product summary
- Competitor strengths and weaknesses
- Competitor strategies and objectives
- Outlook: is the marketing growing? Flat? Segmenting?
Your report should highlight important numbers like your competitors’ social media presence and site traffic. You can do this using bold text, color blocks and visuals like icons:
Read our guide for more information about how to write a competitor analysis report.
Vary Your Page Layouts
This is an important report design rule of thumb: vary your page layout to keep your readers engaged. Switch it up between two-column layouts, three column layouts, and horizontal-split pages.
Here’s an example of a consulting report that mixes up the page layout:
3. Research Consulting Templates
Research consulting templates are a practical way to simplify the process of presenting findings and recommendations to clients. They offer a clear, structured format that helps consultants organize complex information in a way that’s easy to understand. Whether it’s for different industries or research types, these templates can be tailored to fit specific needs, saving time and ensuring a consistent look. By incorporating visuals like charts and infographics, they make data more engaging and accessible, helping clients grasp insights faster and make informed decisions. In short, they help consultants work more efficiently and communicate more effectively.
Minimalistic and professional research proposal templates
This research proposal template presents a clean, professional layout that effectively highlights the title and key details of the study. The use of modern visuals and simple design elements enhances readability and makes it easy to focus on the main content. With My Brand Kit, you can just apply your brand colors, or try different color schemes from our pre-set color swatches.
On-brand, informative research proposals
This fully customizable template organizes complex experimental details in a clear and visually appealing format for easy comprehension.
4. Project Plan Templates
Before you embark on any project, you need a plan. You wouldn’t assemble IKEA furniture without reading the instructions first, right? (Pause for awkward throat clearing and shifty eyes.)
A project plan is an essential document for keeping a project on track. In a project plan, you identify:
- The scope of a project
- Project goals
- Project deliverables deliverables
- Project deadlines
- Key team members involved in the project
- Project budget and resources required
In a nutshell, your project plan should show the steps towards completing a process, how the steps are measurable and actionable, and the impact each step will have. This will give you credibility and help you build trust with your client.
Here are some tips for creating a project plan that clients can understand and get onboard with.
Use a Flexible Project Plan Template
Most project plans aren’t set in stone, especially if you’re using agile planning. They’re flexible documents that may need to be adjusted and added to along the way. That means that the project plan template you use should be easy to edit.
A simple but organized report design is ideal for this. Using simple color blocks to section your information on the page will make it easy to reorganize the page if needed.
Plot Your Project Timeline Visually
A timeline is the backbone of a project plan. Your project plan should clearly identify deadlines, and what is required to meet those deadlines. Generally, your project timeline should be broken down into smaller tasks with clearly defined deliverables.
There are few types of visuals you can use to visualize project timelines:
Gantt charts
A Gantt chart is probably the most popular type of project plan visual. Gantt charts are handy because they allow you to show different timelines running concurrently, with staggered start and end dates.
Want more gantt chart examples and templates? Check out our blog guide.
Timeline infographics
A timeline infographic is a versatile way to visualize milestones, steps in a process, and specific goals. For example, you could use a timeline to show an overview of your project deadlines:
We’ll talk about timeline infographics in more depth a bit later in this guide.
Mind maps
Mind maps show the relationships between parts of a whole. They’re a good way to break down the different components of a strategy.
Want more tips for creating a project plan? Read our project plan guide and check out our other project plan templates.
Marketing Plan Templates
Marketing plans are a type of project plan that focuses specifically on your marketing strategy.
Typically, a marketing plan will include:
- An overview of your business’s marketing and advertising goals
- A description of your business’s current marketing position
- A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed
- Key performance indicators you will be tracking
- A description of your business’s target market and customer needs
The scope of your marketing plan will depend on its purpose. For example, you could create a plan that encompasses an entire’s company’s marketing strategy:
Or you could simply focus on a specific channel like SEO or social media:
Visualize KPIs Using Charts and Icons
Consultants need a marketing plan with measurable, actionable KPIs. Visualizing these KPIs using charts or graphs will not only help clients understand your recommendations immediately but also help your marketing plan stand out. It’s an opportunity to help brand yourself.
The type of chart you use will depend on the data you’re visualizing, and what you want the goal of the chart to be. We’ve got a handy guide to picking charts that you can open for after you’re done this one.
Read our full guide to writing and creating a marketing plan. Click here for more marketing plan templates.
5. Budget Proposal Templates
Before diving into any project, you need to map out your finances. You wouldn’t start cooking a complicated recipe without checking if you have all the ingredients first, right? (Awkward pause, glancing at an empty fridge.)
- The overall project costs
- How funds will be distributed across tasks
- Resource needs and availability
- Plans for handling unforeseen expenses
- A timeline for spending
In short, a well-crafted budget proposal breaks down financial details into clear, actionable steps. This ensures transparency, builds your credibility, and helps you earn your client’s trust from the start.
6. Content Strategy Plan Templates
Before diving into content creation, you need a well-structured strategy. It’s like heading on a road trip without a map—sure, you might get somewhere, but it won’t be where you intended (cue the nervous chuckle).
A content strategy plan keeps your efforts aligned with your goals and audience needs. This plan should include:
- Your current brand positioning
- Key audience research and insights
- Competitor analysis and gaps
- Content inventory and audit
- Tools and resources for execution
- Detailed guidelines for consistent content creation
Essentially, a content strategy plan like the one from Skyline Consultants ensures that every piece of content is purposeful, drives engagement, and supports your long-term business goals. It keeps everything on track, organized, and makes sure you’re delivering value to your audience consistently. Here’s another example:
7. Business Pitch Deck Templates
If you want to get buy-in from your clients or business stakeholders for your business plan, your pitch needs to be convincing.
A pitch deck provides an overview of your business plan. But the mistake consultants can make is to try and pack as much information into a pitch deck as you would a business plan.
One of the tenets of persuasive presentation design is to not clutter your slides with too much text. You business pitch deck should be a tool to help you tell a compelling narrative that gets your audience excited to work with you. Design your slides to highlight the most important and convincing information.
Need to create a business plan too? Our online drag and drop tool is perfect even for design newbies.
Vary Your Slide Layouts to Keep Your Audience Engaged
We surveyed over 350 keynote speakers, asking them what challenges they faced with designing their slide deck. 42% said their biggest challenge was keeping their audience excited and engaged.
There are a handful of ways you can strategically design your pitch decks to keep your audience engaged.
One way to prevent presentation monotony is to vary your slide layouts (just like how you would vary your page layouts in a report). Alternate how you arrange the sections on your page. Switch up solid color background, split pages, and background photos.
Structure Your Pitch Deck to Answer a Problem
Another way to keep your client engaged is to hook them with a problem, then reveal the answer. This helps create a narrative for your audience to follow–hopefully, one that will get them invested in your business plan.
Take Inspiration From Famous Pitch Decks
If you’re not sure where to start, look at pitch deck examples from successful businesses. How did they set up the problem that their business solved? What types of numbers, quotes, and examples did they pick to include?
Then, look for ways to enhance the approach they took using visuals.
This pitch deck template reimagines Airbnb’s famous pitch deck:
Check out our in-depth guide to creating a business pitch deck.
8. Social Media Consulting Templates
Maintaining an active social media presence, and a well thought out SEO strategy, can play a big role in keeping your audience engaged. It’s also an important part of establishing thought leadership in your space.
Consultants can use social media to offer helpful tips, share client testimonials, celebrate holidays, and advertise events.
Not to mention, you can interact directly with your audience and show them who you are. Brand authenticity is more highly valued than ever.
This Social Media Marketing Proposal template provides a vibrant and organized layout that’s easy to follow. The cover page clearly presents the client and project details, while the subsequent pages outline key elements such as the Project Background, Goals & Objectives, and a detailed Timeframe. The inclusion of a Payment Schedule ensures transparency in project phases and milestones. The bold color scheme and simple design elements make it visually appealing, helping to communicate important information effectively. This template is perfect for presenting a structured marketing plan in a clear and professional way.
9. B2C Consulting Templates
Before embarking on a business growth plan, it’s important to have a well-outlined strategy. Think of it like setting a solid foundation before you start building—a clear path ensures success (cue confident smile).
A business growth proposal template keeps your objectives clear and actionable. It typically includes:
- An Executive Summary outlining the current problem and proposed solution.
- A list of Project Deliverables to track progress, like audits, strategy creation, and implementation.
- A SWOT Analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relevant to business expansion.
- Transparent Proposal Pricing to outline project costs, ensuring everyone is on the same page financially.
In essence, a business growth proposal template ensures you’re presenting a clear, organized plan to guide your client towards sustainable growth while tracking progress at every step. It’s the roadmap to helping businesses scale effectively and efficiently.
IMPORTANT: Brand Your Visuals
A big part of creating a recognizable consultant brand is using a cohesive visual style. That means using:
- consistent brand colors
- brand fonts
- your logo, of course
Once you’ve created a few branded templates, you can save time by reusing them. Just plug in new text and images, and adjust the page dimensions as needed.
Venngage’s Brand Kit makes it easy to apply to branding to any template you create. You can learn more about the Brand Kit here.
You’ve Got This.
Yes, your plate is full. But you can work smart. You can get more clients and deliver on your promises.
Equip yourself with the right consulting templates to help you build your brand and deliver on your promises. Once you’ve got your reporting and communications sorted, you can focus on the important part–getting to work and building strong relationships with your clients, partners and stakeholders.
Learn more about branding:
