Three questions to ask before you write another proposal...

These may seem obvious but you'd be surprised how often they're not asked.

1) What budget have you put aside for this project?

Never ever leave a qualifying conversation without getting a number from the client. This is a mandatory. You cannot move forward towards a proposal without a clear picture of the client's budget. If they won't play ball, you put a range in front of them and ask them how they feel about it.
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2) What's the timeline?

If there's no deadline there's potentially very little intent from the client to move forward. Another question you might ask, "is this must-have or nice-to-have". We're trying to get to the bottom of whether the client is really serious about taking action.
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And then there's my favourite question -

3) It's three years from now, we're having coffee, what's happened to make you happy?

This is a magic question and there's so much I could say about it. What it does is move the client from their immediate tactical needs to thinking about something much bigger and interesting. The answer to this question might just unlock a brilliant opportunity for you.
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There are of course many more, but make sure you put these on the priority list next time you're talking to a potential client for the first time.