About Partnership & Proposal Letters

A partnership letter is a sales letter wearing a suit. It exists to make a busy decision-maker say yes to a thirty-minute conversation, not to close the deal in writing. The templates in this section are short on purpose — under three hundred words for the cold versions — and front-loaded with the value to the recipient rather than a description of the sender. The reader's first question is always "why should I care?" and the second is "why should I care now?" If both answers are buried in the third paragraph, the letter is filed unread. Use these templates as a starting structure and then rewrite the opening for the specific company, the specific person, and the specific moment. Generic partnership letters are routinely sent to spam folders by junior staff who never forward them up.

For more on how to write a letter in this category — the conventions, the pitfalls, and the specific rules of tone that apply — see our full Partnership & Proposal Letters writing guide.