Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts

Laying a Solid Foundation

Winning proposals have their roots in good sales and marketing. I have never believed that a proposal by itself was likely to win business if there was no prior relationship, no effective positioning or branding, no information gathering to provide insight into the opportunity. As a result, there are numerous pre-proposal activities that must be carried out long before you begin to work on the proposal.

However, sometimes you will have an RFP thrown on your desk, or a salesperson will call up and say, “Can you put together sort of a standard proposal for me?” Naturally, these are always terrific opportunities, can’t miss, gotta go for it, just do the proposal and the rest will be easy.

Right. In my experience and based ...