Bender Engineering
The job is filed and the proposal drafted before anyone opens the email.
Overview
A mechanical engineering firm in Truckee where I started as a HERS rater apprentice and later ran marketing. Every proposal request arrived by email with plans attached and was typed by hand into four documents. Seven proposals were waiting in the queue when the build started.
The problem
Each proposal meant a tracking-sheet row, a client folder, a job folder, a Word template and a terms document, all filled by hand from the same email. The firm’s best engineer was spending his week on paperwork instead of engineering.
Process
- 01
Pointed an agent at the proposals inbox to read each request and its attached plans
- 02
Had it add the job to the tracking sheet and create the client and job folders in the places the team already uses
- 03
Drafted the proposal from the firm’s own Word templates, with past proposals to similar clients as precedent
- 04
Shipped the first version on a private server with n8n; rebuilt the second in Claude Code inside Microsoft 365
- 05
Trained the team on Claude inside Microsoft 365 so they can extend it without me
Solution
An agent that watches the inbox, files the job and drafts the proposal. A person reviews every draft, and the owner sends it. The earlier marketing work, 12 landing pages that grew the firm’s traffic 5x, is what first put me in the room.
Results
About six hours of proposal-writing time back every week. Live in the business today. The owner’s words: “From the first call I had with Marc, I could tell I was working with someone who knows what he’s doing.”