Types of Business Proposals and How to Write Them
Business proposals can streamline your B2B business. Writing a business proposal is a kind of art, but you can learn its basics to provide a decent piece. To get more B2B customers, you need to make well-composed business proposals that can evoke interest in your prospects. Here we explain how to do it. Let’s get some insights on how to make state-of-the-art business research proposals to boost your B2B sales.
What Is a Business Proposal?
Before we start to dive deeper into the issue, let’s identify what a business proposal is and consider its types. A business proposal is a document that a company composes to explain the purpose of a future business agreement. A business proposal briefly explains the benefits of your product or service aiming at sales generation.
Types of Business Proposals
The types of business proposals depend on whether you solicited them with your B2B customers or not. For example, you attended an exhibition and met several business owners that were interested in buying your product/service. You explained the benefits of your product/service and your potential customer asked you to send him/her a business proposal to provide more information. This type is called an informally solicited proposal.
Business proposals can be formally solicited when your potential customer sends you an official email requesting your business proposal. This is used in communication among large corporations. Smaller companies tend to use less formal approaches.
The third type of business proposal refers to unsolicited proposals. This type is tied to communication with cold contracts. These contain general information about the company and its product/service. It differs from other types by the lack of understanding of buyer’s needs and requirements. Unsolicited business proposals can be improved with the help of additional market research and their pain points identification, which can help make them more persuasive than any generic unsolicited proposals.
Items to be Included in Your Business Proposal
Items you may wish to include in your business proposal may vary but a good tone would be to follow the classical approach. This involves:
- Your company representation;
- Your potential buyers’ problems;
- The solution offered;
- The solution implementation;
- The description of the resources necessary to implement this solution.
This will help make your business more comprehensive.
Key Components of Business Proposals
Before getting down to writing your proposal, you need to scrutinize its components. As a rule, a well-composed business proposal includes the following:
- Title;
- Problem statement;
- A solution your firm offers;
- Qualifications;
- Timelines;
- Price;
- Billing procedures;
- Legal requirements;
- Other terms and conditions.
This is not a universal structure for any business proposal. The structure of each may vary but these are most commonly used.
How to Start Business Proposals?
Pay attention to the title. It’s essential to make a catchy title to attract your readers’ attention. Also, include your company name along with the one you’re sending your proposal to and the date of submission. This will help better track the progress of each proposal sent.
Best Practices in Writing State-of-the-Art Business Proposals
If you’re new to writing business proposals, you can use this plan as a guide:
- Outline – helps concentrate on the main points of your business proposal. This is the necessary step to ensure you included all the items you wanted;
- Include visual data, diagrams, charts, etc. to make your proposal more appealing. In such a way your potential customers can better understand your offering as many people perceive images better than text;
- Add testimonials;
- Use videos to enhance your proposal as it’s a powerful tool of modern marketing. In your video, explain all the possible parts of the text that may be confusing for your customers or lead to miscommunication;
- Add CTA – adding relevant CTA is a must because it serves as a guide for your prospects to complete the purchasing process;
- Use add-on opportunities to motivate your customers to spend more money if it was expected. Your clients may need some additional products/services but don’t realize it until you make a proposal;
- Make it urgent – this is a necessary step to limit the time for thinking. This could help speed up the decision-making process;
- Use simple words and expressions – it’s important to be succinct and specific;
- Address their possible objections in advance – think well and draft a response. Try to do as much as you can to avoid any friction;
- Outline the benefits of cooperation with your company;
- Check for mistakes before sending your business proposal – don’t forget to check the spelling and grammar of your proposal to look more professional in your potential customer’s eyes.
Writing business proposals is easy. You can use this guide to learn how to do it and then work out your own style based on your own experience because each business is unique and requires an individual approach.
