There is no better feeling in business than winning new business. If you've experienced something like the above scenario before then congratulations! Hopefully we can help you experience it more often. If you haven't then you have come to the right place. We'll be showing you how to write a business proposal - a winning business proposal.
Why is a business proposal so important?
A business proposal is the key business document that you need to become an expert at when looking to grow your business.
Proposal writing is a critical business development skill that can reinforce and confirm to your potential customers decision the to give you their business. But, be careful! It can also destroy it.
Let's be clear. A business proposal alone does not win you business. You still need to convince the customer as to why you are the one for the job. Sometimes this involves face to face meetings, phone calls, demonstrations, presentations and many other sales methods. However, a business proposal is generally the one document that brings all your hard work together for serious consideration by your customer. It's the document that the other decision makers that you might not get to sit in front of will use to form their impressions of you and your business. Therefore it's critical you treat proposal writing with the importance it deserves.
How to write a business proposal: Where to start?
The most important task you can do when writing a business proposal is to carefully plan and craft the structure and content of your proposal to be clearly focused before you sit down and actually start writing. The single biggest mistake people make when writing a business proposal is to dive in and just go through the motions - hoping that you've hit the mark without really thinking about what the person who will be reading the proposal and what he or she wants. Big Mistake people!
It's the reader stupid!
First things first. Do you know who will be reading your proposal? If not, stop. Go find out. Then come back to this article. Pure and simple - never ever produce a business proposal without being 100% sure that you know who is going to read it, question it and ultimately judge it. Who you are writing a proposal for should be the Number 1 consideration before you structure your proposal. It's crucial that your proposal is written in a language that your reader will easily understand. Don't make any assumptions about your customers understanding of technical or industry specific jargon. This can be fatal. In your eyes you may have put together a proposal that demonstrates your in-depth knowledge of the problem you propose to solve for your customer. The reader however might not be familiar with the terminology you use which will ultimately frustrate them and this will not bode well for a positive outcome to your proposal. It's always useful to include a glossary of terms with your proposal so your customer can easily find out what you're talking about if they get lost.
The again, they might be VERY technical and they might be looking for you to say something very specific in your proposal for you to win the business. Use your intuition to determine who you are writing for. If all else fails, ask the customer! If you've done your job properly you'll already have determined this by the time you sit down to start writing the business proposal.
How to write a business proposal: Plan to get to the point quickly
So now you know who you are presenting your proposal to, what's next? Planning. The simple act of planning what you will include in your business proposal will save you hours upon hours in producing the final end product AND it will deliver you a far more effective, focused document.
I've developed a simple system for breaking down the daunting prospect of writing a business proposal that has proven to work time and time again. Think of it more as a systematic process that you should follow with all your proposal writing. It can be summarised as follows:
Step 1 - Customer Research
Step 1 is the most important step of all. We've started this article with a detailed account of what you should be doing before you actually start writing a proposal. This list drills a little deeper.
- The Reader
- Who will be reading your proposal?
- What problem(s) am I trying to solve for this customer?
- What are their primary decision making criteria?
- Price?
- Quality?
- Timeframe?
- Experience?
- Are they technical
- Do they have specific things they want me to include in my proposal?
- How do I guide the reader to making a decision?
- The Company
- Who are they?
- Do we have similar clients? Is there any potential conflict of interest?
- Who are their competitors?
- How do I speak their language?
- What products do they sell?
- What are the industry buzz words and commonly accepted terms that I need to be aware of?
So now we get stuck into the planning process. This is where the logistics of your proposal are addressed. Don't underestimate how much time this can take!
- Proposal Prequalification
- Do I have any specific constraints or document formats that I need to consider?
- How will I deliver the proposal?
- Via email?
- Via hard copy? (If so, how many copies and do I post it or do I need a courier?)
- Do I have a deadline?
- Is this a formal RFP (Request for Proposal) response (we'll be coming back to those in a LOT more detail in the future)
- What resources do I need to assist me complete the proposal?
- Do I need to get technical assistance to answer/solve specific customer requirements
- Do I need to partner with another supplier as part of my proposal to the customer?
- What will my main proposal document look like?
- Should it be written in word? If so, do I know if they're using the same version as me?
- Should it be delivered in PDF format?
- Are there accompanying assets such as samples, demos etc. I need to deliver with the proposal?
- Proposal Structure
- We're just about ready to get stuck into the actual document structure at this stage. Next time around, we are going to dedicate a whole article to this step as it's a process in itself! For now, I highly recommend you re-read Steps 1 and 2 as they are without doubt the most important things you can do to produce a brilliant proposal.
- For now, here's a sneak peek at our proposal structure:
- Executive Summary - write this at the start - with a clear focus then go back at the end and re-write
- About Us - depends on the decision maker
- Our proposal
- Summary
- Steps/Phases you propose
- Deliverables
- Additional/optional extras
- Summary
- Timeframe and Costs
- Project Plan
- Next Steps
- Additional Infomation
- Case Studies
- Testimonials/References
ACTION POINTS
- know your customer - know them better than themselves! website research, google them, talk to your colleagues, visit industry forums
- know your decision maker - are they technical/marketing/finance
- make sure you know about anything which will influence the structure of your proposal - get planning!
If you are looking for some very very good off the shelf proposal templates, I highly recommend these ones. They're certainly not going to give you the perfect proposal quick fix - nothing can substitute the benefits of a carefully planned and executed proposal written from scratch, but they do provide a great starting point for ensuring you include all the important stuff in your proposals! Check them out and see what you think.
