Whether you are starting a new business, or want more clients for your old brand, a business proposal is necessary. It is one way you can tell clients about your business, and how it can solve problems that they are facing in their business.
A business proposal bridges the gap between your future clients and you. It tells your clients what business proposition you have, what value it holds for them, and so on. In all, it convinces the other party or person or organization to get into business with you.
A business proposal is usually of two types- unsolicited and solicited. An unsolicited business proposal is the one that you make and approach a business whether they ask or not. The point is simple, it helps you get more business. A solicited business proposal is the one that a prospective ask from you.
Thus, the importance of a business proposal is unmatched. It is the first impression of how well your business understands the needs of the prospects, and so on.
But not everyone can write a proposal that shows their business in the best light. That is why in this blog, we will explore some tips.
Here are 6 tips that you can use to write an effective business proposal.
1. Know the business
The first thing you need to do is to prepare for creating the proposal. That means you need to understand the business for whom you are proposing. Understand:
- Who will decide on the business?
- What problems are they facing?
- What resources do they want & what they already have?
- Know about their industry and their background
- What solutions are they looking for?
Knowing answers to all these questions are important because you don’t want to send out a generic proposal. You need to send a proposal that are tailor-made to the business you are looking to work with.
Know your competitors
The other business will consider your proposal with tons of other proposals. So, knowing what your competitors might offer is an intelligent way to ensure your proposal works.
Know why
Ask yourself why the client should choose your business? What can you offer to them that can make their business the best? Don’t tell positive points of your business, but tell them how can you effectively help them get better.
2. Work on proposal’s title
The title of your proposal is important. It should summarize in one line what the document is all about. Keep it short, but snappy and crisp. You can write the title at the end of your proposal too when you have outlined the proposal.
Also, the title page must have your business name, client name, and the proposal name along with the date of submission.
3. Executive summary
Your proposal needs an executive summary because some prospect might be busy to read the whole proposal. Thus, in your summary, add all the key details of your proposal.
It needs to be clear and concise and must include information that the proposal already has. Don’t include anything new, and highlight how you are planning to solve the client’s problem.
4. Including a table of content is important
A table of content is necessary as it tells the client what they can expect in the proposal. They can directly jump to the page which holds the details they are looking for if they are busy.
Also, if you are sending an electronic proposal, link the content titles to the page number.
5. Use a professional template
You can design a business proposal well using an online template. Canva offers tons of templates that can help you design your business proposal within minutes. You can customize and add text to it as per your preferences.
6. Outlining the scope of the project is important
The scope refers to the summary of who is doing the task, features, delivery time, and so on. Use this page to mention things like:
- Who is responsible for completing the project, and answering customer questions if there are problems?
- What solutions you have, what they will cost, and what resources you will need?
- Where will you deliver and do the work?
- When payments are due when the project will start commencing, and so on?
- Why are the solutions you mentioned are the best?
- How you will deploy the project, how will you provide reports, and so on?
These six tips can help write a strong business proposal.