Set Up a Claude Project as Your Pricing and Proposal Assistant

If you don't already have one, this takes two minutes.

1. Go to claude.ai and click Sign up
2. Use your work email so the account is tied to the agency, not a personal address
3. Verify your email and log in

What you should see: A chat window with a message box at the bottom and a sidebar on the left. Troubleshooting: If the signup form rejects your email, try a different browser or clear cookies for the site first.

Projects keep a set of instructions and documents separate from your regular chats, so proposal work never gets mixed up with anything else you use Claude for.

1. Look for Projects in the left sidebar
2. Click New Project (sometimes shown as a plus icon)
3. Name it something specific, like "Proposals and Pricing," not just "Work"

What you should see: A blank project page with options to set instructions and add content. Troubleshooting: If you don't see a Projects option, you may be on an older interface layout. Check your account or workspace settings for a "Projects" or "Workspaces" toggle.

This is the system prompt every proposal draft will follow.

1. Click Set Instructions (sometimes labeled "Edit instructions")
2. Describe your agency in a few sentences: services you sell, typical client size, and general tone (formal, casual, technical)
3. Describe how you structure a proposal: sections you always include (scope, deliverables, timeline, pricing, what's out of scope), and how you name pricing tiers if you use them
4. Save

What you should see: Your instructions saved and visible whenever you reopen the project. Troubleshooting: Keep this to a few short paragraphs. Long instructions don't improve accuracy. They just crowd out space better spent on real proposal examples.

1. Click Add Content or the upload icon inside the project
2. Upload five or six of your strongest past proposals or SOWs
3. Upload your pricing sheet or a document describing your rate structure
4. Upload one or two service descriptions if you keep them written up separately

What you should see: A list of uploaded files in the project's knowledge panel. Troubleshooting: If a file won't upload, check the format. PDFs, Word docs, and plain text all work reliably. Scanned image-only PDFs sometimes fail to extract text, so retype or re-export those first.

Confidential data caution: Past proposals often name the client, their budget, and internal numbers you quoted them. Before uploading, strip client names and swap in a placeholder like "Client A," and leave out anything covered by an NDA with that account. Your own pricing framework is fine to upload since it's your document, not a client's.

1. Open a new chat inside the project so the project's instructions and knowledge stay active
2. Describe a new deal: service, rough scope, timeline, and any special requirements
3. Ask Claude to draft a proposal using your standard structure and pricing approach

What you should see: A full draft with sections matching what you described in your instructions, referencing pricing logic similar to your uploaded rate sheet. Troubleshooting: If the draft ignores your pricing structure, confirm the rate sheet actually uploaded (check the knowledge panel) and name it directly in your prompt: "use the pricing tiers from the rate sheet I uploaded."