A business proposal is a tool used to gain new clients and should include an executive summary, market analysis, company situation analysis, solutions to problems, timelines, and budgets. The proposal should be focused on the reader and be clear, concise, and well-researched.
A business proposal is written in response to a request for proposal (RFP) and is a tool used to get more business from new clients. Writing a business proposal is about advertising a company’s capabilities and management team. While there is no correct way to write a business proposal, there are certain important pieces of information that must be included. This includes the executive summary, market analysis, company situation analysis, solutions to problems, timelines and budgets.
Proposal readers want a brief synopsis of the entire proposal right at the beginning. To write a business proposal effectively, the reader must be the focus. The executive summary condenses the content of the entire proposal into just a few pages – typically no more than five. The executive summary should also be written last to save time and energy on the part of a business proposal writer. The abstract can be divided into sections based on the content of the remainder of the proposal.
The market analysis discusses the potential customers the company will attract, their demographics, spending habits and as much information as can be associated with the market the business partnership will focus on. Offering a substantial amount of market information will show that the recipient of the business proposal will be working with a partner who knows what they are doing and is focused in the right direction. The proposal must prove that the buyer’s needs are understood. The business proposal must be centered on the understanding established in the market analysis.
The next section should analyze the situation of the company that requested the business proposal. Well-written RFPs explain to the audience the basis of the proposal’s need. The proposal should analyze and discuss these needs to make it obvious to readers that their needs are understood.
The next section should offer solutions to the problems in the analysis section. Give examples of successes, explaining why the examples are successful, and explain exactly how the readers’ needs will be met. The writer’s experience with the solution set should also be discussed in this section.
The timeline section should break the problem down into a series of solution milestones. Then solutions can be added to illustrate approximately how long each task will take to complete. Include concrete dates in the timeline section and make sure the dates are realistic. Dates that show too much time or too little time to accomplish a certain task will make proposal writers look inexperienced.
The final section can discuss the project budget and how much the proposed actions will cost. The numbers provided must be substantiated by the requester’s return on investment. Don’t try to provide an unrealistically high or low cost analysis. This is another opportunity to prove that the business proposal writer’s competency level is extremely high, not high. When you write a business proposal, don’t mention numbers; focus on strengths that can give the proposal recipient what they need.
In general, a well-written proposal will be clear and succinct, with correct grammar and spelling. It must be well researched. The proposal must be professionally packaged and include all relevant business contact information.
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