Proposal Writing
What is a business proposal?
It’s a key document for presenting your client’s obstacles and then giving a pitch on how your service/product can improve their business and help them build the brand.
Business proposals are mostly used by agencies, freelancers, consultants, designers, marketers to show their prospects what they can offer along with the cost if the prospect decides to go ahead with them
Why do you need a business proposal?
When a company or a business owner requires help in resolving a particular business concern, they request prospective sellers submit a business proposal for the business in question, so that they can compare your proposition, your approach to their issue with their overall budget, and find the right fit among a number of options.
In simple words, business proposals let your prospects know your existence and help them get what they want.
Challenges of Managing Business Proposals
If you/your team always struggle till the last moment of creating a business proposal to meet the deadline? You are not alone. Here are the common challenges salespeople face while managing business proposals,
- You have to keep requesting information to be filled in the proposal from different teams
- Every involved proposal ‘writer/contributor/reviewer’, keeps creating his/her own version of the proposal and no one has an idea about who is filling which specific section of the proposal.
- You do not have a central place for standard marketing collateral
- You have to pour 7, 10, 12 hours of work to assemble a single proposal.
Tips To Write a Winning Proposal
Your proposal should help the customer to make the decision in your favor, it should influence the customer and convince him/her to invite you for the further process. Here’s a general structure your business proposal should have,
- Proposal cover
- Executive summary
- The problem customer trying to solve
- Your approach
- Your experience and expertise
- Details about milestones
- Pricing/cost
- Case study/testimonial
- Agreement
Common Mistakes Proposal Writers Make
Your business proposal is the formal presentation of your company, your product/services, the clients you serve. But beyond all these communications, you must know that client is evaluating whether you are the right firm/vendor to work with?
Yet, we see many instances where sales professionals make common proposal writing mistakes which cost the business tremendously.
- Writing proposals without thoroughly qualifying the prospects
- No executive summary in the business proposals
- Keeping it all static and not engaging
- Not keeping it brief and to the point
Business Proposal Writing Checklist
Writing a business proposal is one of the most demanding parts of the marketing industry. A single proposal writing mistake can ruin everything.
So before you assemble it, make sure you use this business proposal checklist:
- Customer pain points
- Your approach
- Timeline to deliver the solution
- Pricing options
- Statement of work
- Customer references/case study
- Online signature
The Difference Between RFI, RFQ, and RFP
The three main documents under the RFx’s family are,
- RFI (Request for Information): When an organization is collecting information
- RFQ (Request for Quote): When an organization is seeking detailed cost of service/product.
- RFP (Request for Proposal): When an organization is seeking solution options with a detailed costing.
