Writing a Business Proposal
As NEWORKers/Portfolio workers, from time to time you are required to either
- tender for work
- prepare documentation on how a task that is offered might be completed.
This may be sought as part of an consortium applying for a contract or directly to a principal or prospective employer.
In the preparing of the Proposal Document, remember that you are not being paid by the client (or prospective client) for the preparation of it. This is an overhead that needs to be recovered in the carrying out of the actual work. Consider whether the client's expectations of the proposal document - its writing, printing and presentation - are reasonable for the anticipated financial return when your proposal is accepted.
While many tender documents will include a format to be followed in submitting the same, a proposal document is much more left to the person writing it. There are however common matters that have to be considered, addressed and documented.
Preparation for Writing a Proposal
Know the audience.
Put yourself in the client's shoes as soon as work starts on the proposal. Find out who is going to read the proposal document. If you do not know who will read your document, how do you know what metaphors to use, or what language to speak? How do you create a work that resonates with the audience? When you ask this question don't tell yourself the answer you want to hear: experts -- people like yourself -- will read their proposal. And if we assume that our proposals will always -- and only -- be read by experts, we miss more than half our audience. Remember the first reader may be the boss's PA.
People with varying degrees of education, expertise and very diverse backgrounds will read our proposals in organisations.
After identifying "who will read," consider an even tougher question: how will readers wade through the documentation? Will it be easy for them to read and understand? Will they have to find every other word in the dictionary? Will they call a specialist in the field to request special tutoring? Will they return to college to get another degree? Or will they read your proposal with interest and ease, nod their head in agreement with you, and shout a mental yes! At your important points?
Your entire proposal should be conceived, written and presented as if a member of the client's staff were making a case to their senior management.
Keep it organised.
A proposal needs to answer six questions:
- who (personnel) - client references, team resumes and even your history,
- what (project description),
- when (time-frame),
- where (location),
- why (need),
- how (methodology), and
- how much (budget).
When you are finished with preparing the proposal, overall, it should answer a seventh question:
If the answer to so what is not implicit, then be explicit. Tell your reader why your proposal should be chosen above any others.
Teach your reader what you know.
A proposal is a teaching document. In the proposal, the writer teaches the principal about the subject. In the process of teaching, the NEWORKer/Portfolio Worker (you) persuades the principal to support your idea by giving you the the task or job to complete their project. When we assume our readers are experts, we cheat as teachers. In our proposal, we must teach our readers about our expertise and practices, and we must instil in them our passion for our subject. How do we use a proposal to teach?
Keep it simple!
If a typical undergraduate would not understand an idea, explain it. Pay attention to sentence structure. If the idea is complicated, the sentences should be short and the vocabulary, simple. Short sentences are eight to ten words long. Generally, if your sentences are more than fifteen or twenty words, you can make two sentences. If a sentence is more than twenty-five words, you might actually have a paragraph.
Keep it readable.
Complexity impairs a proposal s readability. Strong, declarative sentences are easiest to read. Ideally, we should be able to understand your entire story by reading the first sentence of every paragraph. Your readers are as busy, overworked, and stressed as you are. If the proposal is tough to read, the reader stops paying attention. If necessary, use your word processing software's grammar program to determine grade-level and readability. If your proposal is more difficult to read than the IRD instructions, you've got a problem. If your proposal is comparable to a Hemingway short story, you're in good company. Remember, most people read comfortably at the 12-13 year level. This applies to your readers, too, especially if they must read a large volume of material under a deadline.
Cut the jargon.
Many people writing proposals will fall on the sword for their jargon.A word not commonly used is a word not commonly understood. There are elements of jargon that have entered the common vocabulary that are understood: user-friendly, cost-effective, and UFO, for example. It is okay to use these -- judiciously.
Make your writing interesting and concise.
Some common prepositional compounds take two to five words to express what we could say in one word, or leave out altogether. Learn the English language. Many times, the problem with proposals lies not in the repetition of ideas, but in the overuse of adverbs and the writer s dependence upon passive verbs.
Our language has interesting words culled from the world's languages. Many of these words are verbs. Verbs show action. Proposal readers like action. Active verbs carry the action for us. When you read your proposal, try circling the word that. If that appears in every sentence, or every other sentence, you can tighten up your narrative -- and make it shorter, simpler, and sweeter -- by reworking those sentences.
Compare the amount of "we'" and "you" used. If "we" outnumbers "you," start again.
A good proposal is easy to read. It teaches the reader about the subject and communicates your passion and interest. It answers the question so what? and when it works, the reader feels the writer's enthusiasm and accepts the writer's theories and position. When we explain clearly and concisely what we do, and what we want to do, the contract follows.
Ask for it.
Use the cover letter to discuss the relationship and ask for the work. Ask for it in the cover letter, ask for it in the Executive Summary, and ask for it when you deliver or present the proposal. Being passive doesn't work. You have to ask.
Title
Never title your proposal "Proposal." That doesn't say anything clients can't figure out themselves. (Would you ever title a book "Book"?) Instead, write a title that states a benefit to the client.
Focus on your clients' business needs or mission objectives first.
Mirror what you have heard from them before offering a solution. That addresses what they care about the most, and it shows you've listened and considered their interests and are not offering a canned approach. Avoid lengthy corporate histories. Nobody's interested!
Executive summary
Include an Executive Summary. It should be a precise recap of the proposal, including pricing.
Keep your proposal as short as possible.
It's always tempting to throw in anything and everything that might be of interest, but in reality the decision makers won't read it. At best, they'll skim through your document. A short proposal is likely to be looked at first, which means all others will be judged in comparison to it. That's an advantage if you've done a good job. Highlight your key points. Note the comment about skimming in the previous tip: Executives skim. You can make your document more "skimmable" by highlighting the main ideas. Use bullets, headings and subheadings, boldface type, color, borders, graphics, and anything else that will make your key points jump off the page.
Quantify your benefits and payback.
Show the decision maker how much he or she will save, or how much more productive the organisation will be. A convincing calculation of your client's return on investment is more compelling than a slogan or cliché.
Prioritise your uniqueness factors or competitive advantages.
Think about what you have to offer and select a few qualities, prioritized in terms of what your client cares about. If possible, tie them to the ROI you're demonstrating.
Ghost the competition.
If you know who you are competing against, raise issues in your proposal that strike at their weak points. Don't disparage them or mention them by name. But if you know their work is susceptible, make a big deal about the importance of that area being your strength - but be honest.
Cover, summary, money
Despite all the work you spent on a proposal, it's likely that only three elements will be read initially: cover letter, executive summary and pricing.
Review
Conduct a post-mortem: Win or lose, find out why.
Ten Reasons Proposals are unsuccessful:
In preparing your proposal, be aware of the reasons why so many proposals are unsuccessful and avoid the pitfalls.
- Too many errors in the proposal (this organisation doesn t pay attention to details).
- Proposal documents were submitted late, or did not include all the required information.
- There is no apparent commitment and enthusiasm on your part.
- Proposal establishes no clear link between idea, need, and what was asked for: why are you doing this?
- The ideas are great, but the proposal's goals are undefined (no focus).
- The goals are defined, but they are so broad it cannot be done.
- You have not shown that you can work with others involved in the overall project We don t want to adopt you.
- Too much money. (We cannot afford to take you on you.)
- Don t understand the budget rationale (also too much money).
- You don't do that sort of work or the client doesn t do that sort of thing.
Format
So, how might this proposal document look? There is no definitive answer to this. The Proposal document does need to reflect your personality, it does need to stand out from the rest, it does need to be all or most of those things mentioned above, but it does need to be your document.
Front cover
In your corporate style stating the prospects name and the project your proposal is for.
Table of contents
Automatically regenerated when you print!
Executive summary
This summarises who you are, what you will do, how much it will costs and how long it will take. It is always written last.
Project structure
Describe how you intend to structure and resource the project. For example, show the break down of phases and the resources that you will use for each.
Project timeline
Give your best estimate for start and finish dates.
Costs
A separate section showing rates, costs and any conditions/assumptions attached to them. For example, costs shown are exclusive of GST etc.
Issues
Highlight any criticality in the project. For example, web site designers can be significantly held up waiting on graphical content from clients. If this could impact your timeline then state it clearly in the proposal.
Exceptions
What does this proposal exclude? For example, if the RFP does not mention site hosting, clearly state that you haven't included it here. This could be missing because the client has their own web server or because they assumed you would provide it.
Company profile
Describe your company and it's history. Tailor this to the proposal. For example, if you've been developing databases for ten years or been in advertising for twenty years, that's great. But it's not that relevant to web site design.
Personal profiles
Introduce the people you intend to use on the project. Do this by way of a focused paragraph or two. As a rule I don't include complete resumes here, if the client wants more they will ask.
Tom Law
TEL Portfolio
17 September 2003
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