Writing Effective Proposals
Whether the proposal is in response to a buyer’s request for proposals (REP) or generated to complement and strengthen a sales presentation, it is essential that the proposal be correctly written and convey the required information in an attractive manner. Tom Sant, an author and consultant who works with many Fortune 100 companies, gives these reasons why proposals may fail:
1. Customer does not know the seller.
2. Proposal does not follow the specified format.
3. Executive summary does not address customer needs.
4. Proposal uses the seller’s (not the customer’s) company jargon.
5. Writing is flat and technical and without passion.
6. Generic material contains another customer’s name.
7. Proposal is not convincing.
8. Proposal contains glaring grammatical errors.
9. Proposal does not address key decision criteria.
10. Proposal does not build a persuasive value proposition.
Clearly, developing a quality proposal takes time and effort. However, the process of writing an effective proposal can be simplified by breaking the proposal down into its primary and distinct parts. The five parts common to most proposals are an executive summary, a needs and benefits analysis, a company description, the pricing and sales agreement, and the suggested action and timeline.
Executive Summary
This summary precedes the full proposal and serves two critical functions. First, it should succinctly and clearly demonstrate the salesperson’s understanding of the customer’s needs and the relevance of the proposed solution. An effective summary will spell out the customer’s problems, the nature of the proposed solution, and the resulting benefits to the customer. A second function of the summary is to build a desire to read the full proposal. This is important as many key members of the organization often read little more than the information provided in the summary. a question commonly asked by new salespeople refers to the length of the executive summary. A good rule of thumb is that an