Proposal template

SaaS sales proposal template

A SaaS proposal in seven short sections, from what the buyer told you at the demo to the rollout, one price for the first year and the next steps. For SaaS founders and sales reps writing a software sales proposal after a demo. Read it here or get it as a Word file and a PDF.

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Michael Koper
By Michael Koper, founder of Nusii Updated
The SaaS sales proposal template: the cover and the investment page with $8,556 for the first year and setup
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On this page
  1. What to include
  2. The template
  3. A filled-in example
  4. See it as your client will
  5. What to charge
  6. After you send it
  7. Word and PDF
  8. Questions

What should a SaaS proposal include?

A SaaS proposal should repeat what the buyer told you at the demo, the result you'll both measure, how their team gets live and what you need from them, proof from a customer like them, what's included (support, their data, the renewal), one price for the first year and the setup, and exactly how to say yes. The template below has a section for each.

  1. 1 Introduction
  2. 2 What we heard
  3. 3 How we'll get you live
  4. 4 Results for teams like yours
  5. 5 What's included
  6. 6 Investment
  7. 7 Next steps

The SaaS sales proposal template, section by section

Copy one section or the whole thing. Under each section: what it's for, and one thing we've learned from the proposals sent with Nusii.

[Yellow] you write [Green] Nusii fills in when you send it

1. Introduction

The whole deal in two sentences, and who you are. Your buyer forwards it to their boss, finance and IT, who weren't at the demo. Selling on your own? Write "I" instead of "we".

Hi [Client first name],

Thanks for your time at the demo on [date of your demo]. You told us that [the problem in one sentence, in the client's words, such as "customers wait two days for a reply, and nobody knows who answered what"].

In short: [your product] gives [your 12-person support team] [one place to answer every customer email], live in [three] weeks. You pay for the first year and a one-time setup. [If it isn't working for your team by day 60, you get the subscription back.]

[Your company] makes [help desk software for small support teams]. [About 400] teams use it every day, [such as two customers this client knows].

[Your name]
[Your role], [Your company]

Send it the day of the demo. Christian Asche, co-founder of the recruiting software company Coveto and a Nusii customer, says that after a demo "we have to be quick to create the contract and the customer has to be able to see it immediately, because if we take too long, people start thinking: 'do I need it really?'"

2. What we heard

Shows you listened at the demo, turns it into goals you can both check after go-live, and puts a number on what it's worth to them. Only you can write this one: replace the examples with your client's words.

Each goal below answers something you told us at the demo. If we got anything wrong, tell us before you accept and we'll fix it.

  • You said [customers wait up to two days for a first reply, and some emails get answered twice]. [Your product] will [give every email one owner, so nothing is answered twice or missed].
  • You said [your team leads spend Friday afternoons counting replies in a spreadsheet]. [Your product] will [send them reply times per person every Monday, with no spreadsheet].
  • You said [your team likes its 140 saved replies]. We'll [import all of them before go-live], so nobody retypes a thing.

Why not [the shared inbox, or the bigger tool you tried]: you told us [their reason, in their words, such as "we tried a bigger help desk last year and nobody used it after a month"].

What success looks like: [a result you can both check, such as "a first reply within four working hours on 9 of 10 emails by the end of month two"], measured in [the reports in your product].

What it's worth: you told us [double answers and the Friday spreadsheet cost your team about 8 hours a week]. At [$30] an hour that's about [$12,500] a year, more than the first year of [your product].

If nothing changes: [you hire a 13th person before the spring sale, and customers still wait two days].

Ask on the call why they don't keep what they have, or buy the bigger tool they looked at. Philip Morgan and Jonathan Stark, in their chapter of our 2015 book on proposals, call it talking your prospect out of hiring you. The answer is the reason to buy yours, in the buyer's own words, so it goes in the proposal.

3. How we'll get you live

The rollout in steps, so the buyer knows when their team is live and what you need from them. This is where software deals slip, so name the person on their side.

We set it up with you, so nobody on your team has to figure it out alone. Everyone switches over on one day, with us on hand.

  1. Week 1: kickoff and setup. A 45-minute call with [your support lead]. We connect [your support inbox], import [your last 12 months of emails and your saved replies] and turn on [sign-in with Google].
  2. Week 2: workflows and training. We set up [who gets which emails and your reply-time targets] and train [your two team leads] in [one 90-minute session]. They try it on [real emails] before anyone else does.
  3. Week 3: go live. [Your whole team] switches over on [a Monday], with us on [chat] all day.
  4. Day 30: check-in. We look at [reply times] with you and change what isn't working.
  5. Day 60: review. We check the result against what success looks like, above. [This is also the last day of your way out: see Investment.]

What we need from you: [your IT admin] to connect [the inbox] in week 1, [the export of your saved replies], and [two hours] from each team lead in week 2.

Timing: go-live in week [3] holds if [the inbox] is connected in week 1. If a date is fixed for you, such as [your spring sale], tell us and we'll plan back from it.

Philip Morgan and Jonathan Stark (our 2015 book) ask every proposal to spell out joint accountabilities: what you do and what the client does. In a rollout the client's part is small and often late: an admin who connects an inbox, an export, two hours of a team lead's time. Name the person and the week.

4. Results for teams like yours

Short proof for the people who weren't at the demo: a customer like them, what changed, and someone they can call.

  • [Customer], [kind of team, such as "a 15-person support team at an online store"]: [what changed, with a number, such as "first replies went from 30 hours to 3 within two months"].
  • [Customer], [kind of team]: [what changed].

"[A one-line quote from one of those customers.]" [Name, role, company]. [Name] at [Customer] has agreed to take a 15-minute call with you, if you'd like to hear it from them.

Proposals to a repeat client were accepted 62.6% of the time in Nusii, against 46.4% for a first proposal to a client, for the same 122 senders (July to September 2026). A new buyer hasn't seen you deliver yet: one customer like them, with a number and a name they can call, does more than a row of logos.

5. What's included

The plan, the setup and the support in plain words, what isn't included, what happens to their data and how renewal works. Finance and IT read this part, often without having seen the demo.

Included

  • [Your product] [Team plan] for [12] users: [the features that answer what we heard, such as one owner per email, saved replies and weekly reply-time reports]
  • Setup: connecting [your support inbox], importing [12 months of emails and your saved replies] and [sign-in with Google]
  • Training: [one 90-minute session for your team leads], plus [our help center and short videos for everyone else]
  • Support: [chat and email, weekdays 8am to 6pm Eastern], with an answer within [four working hours]

Not included

  • [Custom integrations, such as one with your order system. The API is included; building on it is yours or a partner's.]
  • [On-site training]
  • More users: [$49] a user a month for the rest of the year, added whenever you need them

Your data: [stored in the US, encrypted in transit and at rest]. You can export all of it [as CSV] at any time, and we delete it [30 days] after you leave. [Link your security page, SOC 2 report or data processing agreement here.]

Renewal: your plan renews on [the date a year after go-live] at the same price per user. We'll remind you [60] days before, and you can stop it by telling us [30] days before.

[Using an order form or a subscription agreement? Say so here, such as "Accepting this proposal also accepts our terms of service at yourcompany.com/terms."]

About a third of first views are on a phone (32.7%, July to September 2026). Link your security page, SOC 2 report or data processing agreement instead of pasting it in, and keep this section to what the buyer asked about.

6. Investment

One plan the client signs for: the first year and the one-time setup, with the way out written into the line. These are example prices; the table further down shows what SaaS deals cost.

[Your product] [Team plan], [12] users, first year

$7,056

[$49] a user a month, billed yearly in advance: [12] users × [$49] × 12 months. Renews yearly at the same price per user unless you tell us 30 days before. [If your team isn't using it the way we agreed by day 60, tell us and we'll refund the subscription in full. You pay only for the setup.]

Setup and training

$1,500

One-time: connecting [your inbox], importing [your emails and saved replies], [sign-in with Google] and training for [your team leads]. Invoiced with the first year.

Total: $8,556

Our 2015 book recommends three tiers and points to SaaS pricing pages as the model. In Nusii, proposals with client choices (tiers, add-ons) were accepted 40.3% of the time against 51.3% without, for the same 91 senders (July to September 2026). Send the plan you'd recommend after the demo, on its own.

7. Next steps

Tells the client exactly what to do to say yes, what happens next, and when you'll call. No expiry date, no "this price is only good until Friday".

  1. If this plan works for you, accept and sign this proposal.
  2. We'll send the invoice for the first year and the setup, and book your kickoff call for [a date in the next week].
  3. Before the kickoff, [your IT admin] gets an invite to connect [your support inbox].

Does [your finance or IT team] need anything first, such as [a security questionnaire or a vendor form]? Tell me who to send it to and I'll do it the same day.

I'll call you on [a day two working days from now] to answer any questions. Or go through it with me on a 20-minute call: [your booking link].

If you have a question before then, call me on [phone number] or reply to the email this proposal came with.

Marcus Blankenship, interviewed for our 2015 book, sends the proposal five minutes before a walkthrough call and ends the call by asking "What date can I expect to hear back?" Software companies' accepted proposals in Nusii got their yes in a median of 1.2 days (762 proposals, November 2025 to October 2026), so call within two working days.

A SaaS sales proposal example, filled in

Two sections of the template above with a buyer's words in the brackets, so you can see how it reads when it's done. Brightqueue and Copperpine Outfitters are made up, and so are their numbers.

Customers answered within four hours at Copperpine Outfitters by April

What we heard

  • You said customers wait up to two days for a first reply, and some emails get answered twice. Brightqueue will give every email one owner, so nothing is answered twice or missed.
  • You said your team leads spend Friday afternoons counting replies in a spreadsheet. Brightqueue will send them reply times per person every Monday, with no spreadsheet.
  • You said your team likes its 140 saved replies. We'll import all of them before go-live, so nobody retypes a thing.

Why not the bigger help desk you tried: you told us "we tried one last year and nobody used it after a month."

What success looks like: a first reply within four working hours on 9 of 10 emails by the end of month two, measured in Brightqueue's reports.

What it's worth: you told us double answers and the Friday spreadsheet cost your team about 8 hours a week. At $30 an hour that's about $12,500 a year, more than the first year of Brightqueue.

If nothing changes: you hire a 13th person before the spring sale, and customers still wait two days.

Investment

Brightqueue Team plan, 12 users, first year

$7,056

Setup and training

$1,500

Total: $8,556

See it as your client will

Every page of the PDF, printed by Nusii. Sent as a link, it's one scrolling page on any device: your client accepts with one button and signs with their name.

Page 1 of the SaaS sales proposal template Page 2 of the SaaS sales proposal template Page 3 of the SaaS sales proposal template Page 4 of the SaaS sales proposal template Page 5 of the SaaS sales proposal template Page 6 of the SaaS sales proposal template Page 7 of the SaaS sales proposal template
Open the live preview

The template in Nusii, the way your client will see it. It opens in a new tab.

What SaaS deals cost

What software companies charge, from the pages we could check ourselves. The template's example, $8,556 for the first year, is a small-business deal: 12 users at $49 a month, billed yearly, plus a one-time $1,500 setup, the same as HubSpot's required onboarding fee on its professional plan.

What Price
Annual contract, private SaaS companies $24,266 the median in the 2026 survey, down from $26,265 the year before SaaS Capital
Annual contract, SaaS companies with $3 to 5 million in yearly revenue $25,278 median SaaS Capital
Annual contract, SaaS companies with $10 to 20 million in yearly revenue $46,788 median; bigger companies sell bigger contracts SaaS Capital
Annual contract, bootstrapped SaaS companies $18,643 median for those over $1 million in yearly revenue, 2025 figures in the same report SaaS Capital
Required setup fee, a CRM's professional plan $1,500 one-time HubSpot Sales Hub Professional, on top of $90 to $100 a seat a month HubSpot
Required setup fee, the same CRM's enterprise plan $3,500 one-time HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise, from $150 a seat a month HubSpot

Sources: SaaS Capital, survey of over 1,000 private SaaS companies, August 2026; HubSpot, Sales Hub pricing page, November 2026. SaaS Capital's figures are medians of the average contract the companies reported. HubSpot's are its list prices, as one example of a setup fee charged on top of the seats.

How often proposals got a yes, by price

Proposals over $15,000 got a yes about a third of the time. Most proposals sent with Nusii are smaller than a SaaS company's average contract: the median was $3,399. From 1,713 proposals first sent with Nusii, July to September 2026.

Under $1,000
67.1%
$1,000 to $5,000
50.7%
$5,000 to $15,000
48.9%
$15,000 to $50,000
36.1%
Over $50,000
33.3%

Share accepted, by the total the client saw. Bigger proposals are bigger decisions, so this shows what happened, not that a lower price would win. Method: The State of Proposals 2026.

What happens after you send it

From 762 proposals software companies first sent with Nusii, November 2025 to October 2026; across all industries, 49.9% were accepted.

55.8%
were accepted
30 minutes
median time to the client's first look
1.2 days
median time to a yes
70.4%
of the yeses came within a week

Clients rarely say no. Of all proposals sent with Nusii from July to September 2026, 6.5% were rejected and 45.2% got no answer either way. Silence is the usual no, so a follow-up is worth sending.

SaaS companies alone are too few in our data to publish numbers of their own, so these are software and IT companies.

More numbers and the method: The State of Proposals 2026.

Get the Word and PDF files

The same template as a Word file you can edit (it opens in Google Docs too) and a PDF printed by Nusii. We'll email you both, plus a few emails with proposal tips. Unsubscribe any time.

Or send it with Nusii

This template is in the gallery of every Nusii account. Send it as a link: you get an email when your client opens it, and they accept and sign online, on any device.

Nusii is so much more than a proposal software! Nusii is our salesroom, which we always have open as an additional window (like Outlook) so that we can see and react to all customer activities.

Pia Tischer
Pia Tischer
Co-founder & CEO, Coveto

Great solution to quickly build attractive sales proposals. Support is rarely needed but if I have a question they respond immediately. We have been using Nusii for more than 6 years now.

Mark Herman
Mark Herman
Co-founder, sympl
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Questions about SaaS sales proposals

What is a SaaS sales proposal?

A document you send a buyer after a demo that sums up what they told you, how your software solves it, how their team gets live, what the first year costs and how to say yes. Finance and IT usually read it without having seen the demo, so it has to make sense on its own.

What should a SaaS proposal include?

What the buyer told you and the result you’ll both measure, the rollout and what you need from them, proof from a customer like them, what’s included (support, their data, the renewal), one price for the first year and the setup, and the next steps. The template on this page has a section for each.

How soon after the demo should I send the proposal?

The same day if you can. Software and IT companies’ proposals in Nusii got their first look in a median of 30 minutes, and 47.1% of their yeses came within a day (November 2025 to October 2026). The buyer decides while the demo is still fresh.

Should I offer three plans in the proposal?

Send the one plan you’d recommend after the demo. Your pricing page can show tiers; the proposal is where you make the call. In Nusii, proposals with client choices were accepted 40.3% of the time against 51.3% without, for the same 91 senders (July to September 2026).

Should the proposal offer monthly or annual billing?

One of them, the one you recommend. For a sales-led deal with a setup, annual billing is the usual choice and it’s what this template uses. If the buyer asked for monthly, price that instead, and write in the line how they can stop.

How do I price the first year?

Multiply the price per user (or whatever unit you charge by) by the users and 12 months, then add a one-time setup if you do the onboarding. This template’s example is 12 users at $49 a month plus a $1,500 setup, $8,556. SaaS Capital’s 2026 survey puts the median annual contract of private SaaS companies at $24,266.

Do I need a SaaS agreement as well?

Usually, yes: your terms of service or a subscription agreement. Keep the legal text out of the proposal, link it, and say that accepting the proposal accepts those terms. Have a lawyer check them once.

What if the buyer’s IT team sends a security questionnaire?

Expect it, and offer to fill it in the same day. Link your security page, SOC 2 report or data processing agreement in the proposal’s “What’s included”, and say where their data is stored and how they can export it.

Is this the same as a software development proposal?

No. A software development proposal is for building custom software for a client; this one is for selling your own product as a subscription. For a custom build, use our software development proposal template, linked at the end of this page.

Can my client accept and sign the proposal online?

Yes, if you send it as an online proposal. In Nusii, your client opens a link, accepts with one button and signs with their typed name, on any device, and you get an email when they do. The Word file and the PDF need signing the old way.

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