Writing a proposal that is irresistible
Writing a proposal shouldn’t be as hard as it is. After all, you’re given a
boilerplate for your response when you receive a “Request for Proposal.” The
problem is that most people write a proposal from the perspective that they’re
explaining what their company can do for the client. Instead, they should be
writing a proposal explaining how the client’s problems will be solved with
their company’s solutions. The key is the perspective. The client doesn’t care
about your company; they care about their problems.
Always focus on client’s needs when you write a proposal
For as important a proposal is to getting business in the business world, it
doesn’t really receive as much attention when one is working on their business
education. I think what happens is that often people
teaching business don’t necessarily do business themselves. It’s probably been a
long time, if ever, that they’ve written a proposal in order to win business to
pay the rent.
When writing proposals, stick with the following components:
• Executive Summary (summarizes in one page, the entire proposal)
• Background. Succinctly demonstrate your understanding of the client’s problem
that they want solved.
• Body. Cover what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, how long it’s
going to take, and roughly how much it’s going to cost
• Conclusion. In this part of your proposal, you explain the benefits to the
client of going with your solution. This part of the proposal is also often
referred to as the recommendation section.
When you write your proposal, make sure you don’t do two things:
• Don’t make incorrect assumptions. If you don’t know when you’re writing the
proposal, stop and ask the client for more direction.
• Don’t get so detailed with your solution that you’re giving your client a
solution for free in your written proposal.
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