By reeves 
Was your business overlooked by a prospect despite promising capabilities and achievements? It’s quite possible that your business proposal wasn’t good enough. A well-written business proposal can be the difference between winning a lucrative contract or losing a high-value prospect. When so much relies on this piece of document, you cannot afford to make mistakes.
Whether you are drafting a proposal for the first time or your past attempts haven’t been successful, here are some important things to keep in mind.
Catchy Introduction
A catchy introduction is necessary to grab the reader’s attention. It’s quite possible that prospects have to go through several business proposals and don’t have the time to read each one from start to finish. Including a captivating hook in your introduction is necessary to ensure your proposal isn’t tossed aside.
Solution-Focused Approach
When writing business proposals, you will likely mention your organization’s past projects, capabilities, and achievements. But how does any of this help the prospect? Rather than just talking about yourself, put the spotlight on your prospect. Your focus should be on convincing prospects that your products or services can solve their problems.
Back Your Claims
Your business proposal is making all these claims about high-quality services, but how will your prospect trust your claims? Getting certified by reputable institutions and mentioning client testimonials are a few ways to inspire confidence. Make sure you attach valid documents as proof.
Clear Pricing
Pricing is perhaps the trickiest part of writing a business proposal, especially if the prospect hasn’t specified a budget. Take your time to calculate your costs and come up with clear pricing. Don’t make the mistake of underpricing yourself, you don’t want to promise something you can’t deliver. On the other hand, overpricing your services can be equally disastrous.
Highlight Qualifications
Now that you have mentioned what you have to offer, you need to present social proof to seal the deal. This is where qualifications come into the picture. Whether you have worked in the industry for decades or your business has won top awards, don’t hesitate to highlight your achievements and experience. Social proof goes a long way when it comes to impressing prospects.
Stick To Relevant Details
Understandably, you may want to include every single detail that can potentially persuade prospects. However, adding irrelevant details doesn’t help. Instead of making your business proposal unnecessarily long, we suggest sticking to relevant and useful information.
Presentation
The visual presentation makes a world of difference in the readability of your proposal. From a poor choice of font to lack of formatting, there are several factors that can make your proposal difficult to comprehend. We urge you to carefully select fonts and utilize various formatting tools. Instead of heavy blocks of text, use bullet points to make your proposal easily scannable. If you are planning to send a paper proposal, get high-quality stationery.
Include Multimedia
At times, text alone isn’t sufficient to explain complex concepts. That’s why graphs, illustrations, and other graphics come in handy for effective communication. Reading long text can also be time-consuming and monotonous. Adding visual content also makes your proposal stand out.
CTA
You went above and beyond to put together a compelling proposal that caught the eye of your prospect. You’ve come this far, so don’t ruin your chances by forgetting a powerful call to action. Do you want the prospect to give you a call? Do you want them to schedule a meeting with your company? It’s your responsibility to inform the readers about the next step by including a CTA.
The Bottom Line
It’s no secret that a business proposal plays a key role in standing out from the competition. If you lack the writing skills or time, it would be best to involve professional copywriters.