Proposal Writing + Free Proposal Templates

[Paper sales proposal is rapidly becoming an old fashioned thing in a connected and interactive world. It’s clear that sales proposal have evolved in many ways. Sales proposal files have been replaced by fancy proposal tools. You can also call it a technological leap.

Today’s selling world has become more competitive than ever before.
Buyers have become more sophisticated.
Now, the look and feel of your sales proposal is equally important as the content and quality of it. In this day and age, you can’t have a general sales proposal approach; they have to be cutting edge to dazzle your potential clients. It doesn’t have to be a crazy formal document, especially if you don’t need to present it to the bank or the investor

The time has come where you need to create a glamorous living sales proposal but also keeping the sales proposal checklist in mind that will shine and help you win the deal.
Read more about Why Interactive Sales Proposal Is the Next Big Thing?

What is a business proposal?

What is the format of the business proposal templates?

How long should a business proposal template be?

How does a business proposal template look like?

Get all your answers here- business proposal template

A strong, well-written project proposal can help your business thrive but a poorly-written proposal can send your qualified lead packing. Let’s face it, this is one document you don’t want to mess up. And for that, not only you need to know how to write a project proposal but you also need to learn about what really goes into a winning project proposal template
To read more about how a project proposal should look like in 2021

The only reason one writes a proposal is to persuade the customer or sponsor. 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.

There are two very important things you must know and apply to your proposal.

1.Customer cares only about its own needs
2.The customer has very limited time to go through all proposals, s/he may relook a given proposal further only if it makes the first impression right.
If you understand these two essential principles and apply them while writing your proposal, your proposal will help you win the contract/partnership/collaboration. We are happy to share tips to write a winning business proposal.

Let’s get rolling and look at a general structure your proposal should have.

1.Proposal Cover
2.Executive Summary
3.Introduction
4.The Problem Customer Trying to Solve
5.Your Solutions to Address Customer’s Need
6.Your Experience & Expertise
7.Next Step
8.Your Approach
9.Implementation Plan/Milestones
10.Pricing/Cost
11.About Company/Team
12.Case Studies/References

Here are quite a few hurdles in creating an impressive proposal. Remember, some of these challenges are similar to common mistakes proposal writers make. If I list-out all these challenges in Writing Sales Proposals and group them together, they would belong to one of the following

Proposal Writing – Time Challenge
Proposal Writing – Quality Challenge
Proposal Writing – Accountability Challenge
Proposal Writing – Customer Buy-In Challenge

And you will notice, these aspects/ challenges are interdependent; meaning, if sales team changes its focus on time, it affects quality; if it focuses too much on accountability then it can impact the time and customer buy-in, and so on.

If you are a company that provides project services to organizations, you can use this free example of a project proposal template to introduce your services to the next client. Use this persuasive proposal template to pitch your expertise, results-driven approach, and win more business.

We’ve put together all the elements that you’ll need in the template you just have to fill in the blacks and customize it as you feel right.

Business proposals are the necessary part of every sales process but they’re also the hardest documents to write. A strong, well-written proposal can help your business thrive but a poorly-written proposal can send your qualified lead packing. Let’s face it, this is one document you don’t want to mess up. And for that, not only you need to know how to write a proposal but you also need to learn about what really goes into a winning business proposal.

Use the following questions to get to know your client’s business after setting up a meet with your client on the phone or in person,

Why does your client need a website? (why do they want to change the one that they already have?)
What do they expect from the new website?
In what way are they expecting the new site to affect their business?
Do they expect to interact with the customers through their website? If yes then how?
Who are your top 3 competitors?
What makes you different from competitors?
Read more about How to Write a Web Design Proposal

A digital marketing proposal is a sales document used to win a prospect’s business. It includes all the information related to key deliverables and services and an overview of timelines and costs. This sales document mainly focuses on how your digital marketing services will help potential clients achieve their goals.

At a higher level your digital marketing proposal will generally include the following (discussed later):

Client testimonials or examples of case studies to build trust.
Agency’s background information to prove your worth.
Scope of services, realistic timelines, and costs
Value of your digital marketing services.

For more details checkout this- How to Write a Digital Marketing Proposal that Converts | Ultimate Guide

Here are a few tips when writing the Overview section:

Be brief
Don’t scare off your clients at the start with too many facts, you’ll get plenty of chances in your proposal further to clarify your SEO services. The key to your overview is to make every word count. Trim down all the fat and you’ll have a stronger and more convincing overview of your proposal.

Be clear
In some cases you’re sending proposals to such clients who might not have heard of SEO; that’s to ensure that your writing is effective and keep your recipient engaged be sure to avoid jargon and replace it with easy-to-understand terms and phrases.

Substitute every word
While writing the overview of your SEO proposal it’s good to write to an audience with a 9th-grade reading level. To do this, skim through your writing and hunt for words that could be harder to understand without a dictionary. Then replace such words with those that the average person would understand.

Read the full blog here - How to Write The Winning SEO Proposal – Ultimate Guide

When it comes to boosting the overall exposure of your brand, there is no form of marketing that shifts faster than social media marketing. Don’t believe me? Well, let me give you a practical example.

Go to your Facebook account and type any brand name that comes to your mind in the search bar. I bet you will find a Brand Page present.

Every major business requires a solid social media presence to connect and engage with their potential customers. Due to this, the hunt for good social media marketers is growing vastly.

So if you’re one of those social media marketers who want to win over your potential clients and show them how you can help them grow their brand with your influential social media marketing strategies, then you need to write a powerful social media marketing proposal.
Checkout Free Social Media Marketing Proposal Template

If you’ve ever spent hours to try perfecting a PPC proposal for your prospect, then I’m sure you are going to agree with me on this.

To write a great PPC proposal requires selling knowledge as well as psychological skills.

And the issue is that even after having a great set of PPC services to offer, a lack of insights into how the mind of your prospects works, stops you from moving ahead.

Even though the sales proposal is not really a secret ingredient to your recipe for success but the humble truth is, its an inevitable part of your sales process. When it comes to building a consulting business, you should be able to craft an effective consulting proposal.

Unfortunately, many consultants fail at this stage, they assume that they know what is best for their clients and what they are searching for. An effective consulting proposal is something that accurately reflects and addresses the client’s needs.

Its easier said than done right? But don’t worry- In this post, I’ll walk you through everything that is needed to write an effective consulting proposal, including:

What is a consulting proposal?
Who writes it?
Things that stop prospects from signing on your consulting proposal
Must have sections in a consulting proposal
Checkout Free Consulting Proposal Template

Have you ever spent hours and days working on a legal services proposal that ultimately didn’t turn into a business?

Now, imagine having a legal services proposal template that can help you convert.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to write an effective legal services proposal in a fraction of time and increase your close rate with it.

In this guide you’ll learn:

What is a legal services proposal
Why do clients ask for legal services proposal
When to send a proposal
What language should you use for creating a legal services proposal
How to structure a proposal

Writing a sales proposal is one of the most demanding parts of the marketing industry. It is where you can easily differentiate success and failure and can quickly make or break any sales deal. A single proposal writing mistake can ruin everything.

The very first thing you need to understand that a sales proposal is not just a document, it is that influential tool that is going to woo your prospective client.
Sales Proposal Checklist

If you/your team always struggle till the last moment of creating sales proposal to meet the deadline? You are not alone. It is not only an people issue but also the sales process which needs to be corrected. Simply because the process to create & review proposal has become so complex and demanding it always takes longer than expected.

Let’s break down the common proposal writing mistakes or the issues you and your team are facing in the process of creating proposals

If you have ever done business with medium or large business, you certainly know what is RFP. In the case of such companies, all major procurements are processed through Request For Proposal (RFP). Invited & interested vendors submit their responses as proposal. Typically initiator company receive ample responses to published RFP.

Processing all those proposals is a pretty time-consuming activity.
Read more about Sales Proposal Cover Letter Vs Executive Summary

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 detailed costing.
Read the full blog Difference Between RFI, RFQ and RFP

Because of the different timezones, making a sales call isn’t always practical in a global economy. For that purpose, email is the only tool on which almost every marketer relies.

When you’re sending emails to your clients, there are a number of minor details to remember, and those details can make or break your email campaign series of sending a sales pitch.

The very first thing I want to make clear is that you don’t have to be a master of the English language to write a great email. You just have to learn certain email etiquettes when writing so that your email appears more professional to your clients.
Here is the Email checklist for Sales Proposals

A project proposal creation is a kind of process that demands a well-developed approach and a thorough investigation before submitting the document to the prospective client

This article is written to highlight the challenges you and your sales team faces when developing a project proposal template and how you can overcome those challenges.

It’s easy to fall for the mistake of chasing each lead that comes your way as you aim to expand your business. But remember all prospects are not created equal.

And only after qualifying your potential lead, you’ll know whether it’s worth spending your time and energy on the process of proposal writing

How should I qualify my potential client?
By asking questions.

Questions help you seek the right information from the client. Below are the 3 main areas you should focus on when asking the questions.

Customer Profile
How much they score in your ideal client profile?
What kind of business are they running?
How large is their organization?
Do they match your ideal client geographical location?
Which tools/services have they used in the past to solve the problem they are currently facing?
Customer Needs
What they need and what results they are expecting to get?
How those results are going to affect their goals, their team, and their business?
Customer’s Decision-makers
How do they make buying decisions?
How many people are involved in their decision-making process?
How does their typical buying process look like?
How long do they usually take to buy any particular service/product?
write a project proposal that actually closes the deal

Maybe you already know why you should be using visuals/graphics/pictures in your project proposals but you don’t really know why Or maybe off lately you’ve been hearing a lot about how important it is to use visuals in your project proposals and you’ve been doing your research to find out more about it.

In either way, welcome to my blog post where I explain the role of visuals in your project proposal template

Challenge 1: Making requests

You have to keep requesting information from multiple teams in order to fill out the proposal.

Challenge 2: Too many versions of project proposals

Every single proposal ‘writer/contributor/reviewer’ involved in the process of proposal creation, continues creating his/her own version of the project proposal and because no one knows who is filling which particular portion of the proposal.

Challenge 3: No central library

Not having a central hub for standard marketing collateral such as logo, images, best-written piece/well crafted ‘About Us’, Why Us’ ‘pricing/investment’ and likewise branding stuff and every time you have to search through folders and email marketing tools.
Read the full article
Common Challenges Faced When Developing A Project Proposal Template

Working on a project proposal template? Here is a quick way to see if you’re in with a chance of winning the deal. Examine the current draft of your proposal with this 10-Step project proposal checklist

There are two very important things you must know and apply to your project proposal.

The prospective client is only concerned about his/her own needs.
The customer has very little time to get through all the proposals, s/he may reconsider a given proposal only if it makes a good first impression.
If you understand these two essential principles and apply them while writing your project proposal.

Now let’s get rolling and look at the Guidelines for Writing Project Proposal Template