A business proposal is the initial step to get the project off the ground. You may have wonderful ideas in your mind but how to gain the interest of your target audience is the key. Here we outline how to craft a compelling business proposal to keep your objectives on track.

The first thing you must keep in mind that all communication in the proposal is persuasion. The goal of the content is to influence the decision maker’s mind. Instead of emphasising what you try to carry out, you may insert more inputs about what they care about.

As mentioned, proposal is not about you, it is about them. You probably dislike people who only talk about themselves without considering your situation. Keep your profiles in short and sophisticated, people nowadays tend not to have time or interest to read 10 pages about your portfolio.

Therefore, ‘sell the benefits’ is the simple and straight forward concept. Identifying the problem or need and focusing on the solutions is much better than bluffing how great your company is. ‘So What?’ test is one of the most effective measurements. Pretending you are the intended audience and answering your own statement.

For example, ‘Our firm has been in this industry for 30 years and is always leading our competitors’. ‘So What?’ result is probably be ‘Ohhh ok.’. On the other hand, ‘Using the lessons learned from the 30 years of experience in interior design, we ensure our design is technically matching your requirements, constructible, cost effective and most importantly to avoid unnecessary mistakes.’. This statement is likely to get a MERIT.

Some people might fall into the trap of writing long-winded proposals. Keep is as brief, but not briefer neither over detailed. Using bullet points, graphs and charts can save a lot of needless words. Please bear in mind we have to spoon-feed the information wisely to audience in a pleasant way.

Last but not least, we have to be extremely specific in order to convince your audience that you are the best choice. Try not to communicate with vague and weasel words. People tend to opt the more confident and result-orientated party (of course you must be capable). Good luck and may all your proposals turn into successful businesses.

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