When a potential client asks us for a standardised package or a rates sheet they can plug into a comparison matrix, we understand why. Procurement has its process, and speed matters. But we’ve never been able to respond that way, and the reason is pretty straightforward: a proposal written before we understand your business is essentially a guess dressed up in a document.
The problem with off-the-shelf proposals isn’t just that they’re lazy. It’s that they’re built around the agency’s service structure, not the client’s actual challenge. You end up paying for a solution that was designed for someone else’s problem, repackaged with your logo on the brief.
We work backwards from your business, not forwards from our packages
Before we put anything on paper, we spend time understanding what’s actually going on. What does your category look like right now? Who are you up against, and what are they doing well or badly? What have you tried before, and where did it fall short? These aren’t just warm-up questions. The answers directly shape what we recommend and how we structure the engagement.
A consumer brand trying to break into a saturated retail space has fundamentally different needs from a B2B company building credibility in a nic
he professional market. If we put the same proposal in front of both, we’re not doing our job. The analysis phase is where we figure out which problems are actually worth solving and in what order.
The proposal itself is a reflection of how we work
We approach a proposal the same way we approach a project: by actually thinking it through. That means looking at your competitive landscape, getting a sense of your audience’s behaviour, and being honest about what’s realistic within your timeline and budget. If something we’d normally recommend doesn’t make sense for where you are right now, we’ll say so.
This takes longer than filling in a template. It’s supposed to. Because the output is a strategy built around your specific situation, not a menu of services with a cover page.
The team you meet is the team that does the work
This is something clients who’ve worked with larger agencies tend to notice immediately: the pitch team and the delivery team are often two completely different groups of people. Senior strategists close the deal, then hand it over. The continuity breaks, and so does the quality.
At LOKi, the people who build the proposal are the people who execute it. That matters because there’s no translation layer, no knowledge lost in handoff, and no mismatch between what was promised and what gets built.
What this means practically
When we engage with you before a proposal, the questions we ask aren’t small talk. We’re trying to understand your business well enough to recommend something that will actually move the needle for you. That process might feel slower upfront, but it’s what makes the work land better downstream.
If you’re after a quick quote to fit a procurement template, we’re probably not the right fit. But if you want a proposal built around what your business actually needs right now, that’s exactly what we’re here for.