ELTU 2012 Business Communication I

MODULE 3B BUSINESS PROPOSALS

COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE
OBJECTIVES
To learn the generic structure, layout, and visual appeal of business proposals

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

identify the key sections of a business proposal: situation, objectives, methods,

qualifications, benefits, financial projections, and executive summary
produce a proposal that follows good format and layout design principles and has
visual appeal
prepare a short informal proposal following the generic structure

RECOMMENDED READING
Freed, Richard C., Shervin Freed, and Joseph D. Romano. Writing winning business
proposals: your guide to landing the client, making the sale, persuading the boss. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1995.
Bovee, Courtland, and John Thill. Excellence in Business Communication. 10th ed. Boston:
Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012.

GENERIC STRUCTURE

OF

PROPOSALS

The seamless argument in your proposal is organized in a generic structure which often
contains the following sections:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Title Page
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Situation: The problem or opportunity
Objectives: Measurable targets or goals to be achieved by responding to the

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problem or opportunity
6. Methods: How you are going to achieve the objectives
7. Qualifications: Credentials (qualifications and experience)
8. Financial Projections The financial data on which you are basing your
projections
9. Benefits: The benefits or value to the reader: the value proposition
10. Supporting documents and sources

WRITING KEY CONTENT SECTIONS

S I T U AT I O N

AND

OBJECTIVES SECTION

In this section you demonstrate how knowledgeable and competent, as well as sensitive,
you are regarding your customers industry, problem, or opportunity.
What is the current situation, and what is its history?
What are the external and internal factors and the triggering event(s) leading
to the problem or opportunity?
What is the overriding problem or opportunity and the effects if the problem
is not solved or the opportunity is not realized?
If there were past attempts to solve the problem or realize the opportunity,
what went wrong, and what pitfalls need to be avoided?
What are the objectives of the project in concrete and measurable terms?
Describe the market you would like to enter: Who are your competitors?
Where do you fit? How much market share can you capture and when?

TA S K 1 : I D E N T I F Y I N G

AN

E F F E C T I V E S I T U AT I O N S E C T I O N

Examine the following paragraph which describes the situation/ problem of a client and
the objectives of the proposed project. Is it effectively or ineffectively written? What
problems can you identify and what suggestions for improvement can you make?
Discuss in small groups and then try to compose a more effective message,
demonstrating your knowledge of the situation, clarity and confidence in stating the
objectives, and writing skills to appeal to readers.
The revenue of your company (Durable Electronics) was HK$10 billion in 2011, and the
annual increase in profits was 12%. Although the company has experienced soaring
distributing costs, Durable Electronics has continued to gain market share against major
suppliers of electronic products. Despite the success, there are obvious problems and
future concerns such as a change in customer profile and demand. We are here to help
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you increase profitability, produce sought-after goods, and maintain market share. i
Problems in the paragraph above:

Rewrite of the paragraph above:

METHODS SECTION
How do you describe your product or service? How will you provide/produce this?
How is your product/service different from others?
What is your marketing plan?
What are your groups/companys strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats (SWOT)?
What other options did you consider and why did you not select those?

Q U A L I F I C AT I O N S S E C T I O N
This section is similar to how you tailored your resume and cover letter to a given
company, in that rather than giving generic qualifications and focusing on yourself,
you are targeting qualifications specific to this situation and focusing on the customer.
What specific skills, experiences, and successes does your team have that solves
this problem or addresses this opportunity?
Why is your group/solution the best?
How do you/your solution stand out from the rest of the competitors/competing
options?
What are your competitors weak points? What are your specific strengths?

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TA S K 2 : W R I T I N G

Q U A L I F I C AT I O N S S E C T I O N

Imagine that you work for a company, in the marketing department. Your team has
decided to propose establishing a travel agency Golden Age that focuses on retirees
here in Hong Kong, designing customized itineraries, managing all of the bookings, and
providing travel device rental (SIM cards, cell phones, adapters, etc.).
What type of company would already have some sort of strategic advantage to
beginning this type of business?
Would you propose a partner company as well, that might have some sort of
complementary strategic advantage, or would you propose to just have your
company develop this product or service?
Within the company context, who is the team and what are their backgrounds that
make them qualified to manage this new product/service?
Use your answers to these questions and any other relevant information to write a
qualifications paragraph here.

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FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS SECTION

As this is an English language course, this section will primarily be concerned with
effective communication. Still, having sound financial logic for your project is essential
for having a persuasive proposal. You do not need to perform detailed or sophisticated
financial analyses: rather, you can analyze and project your results on a more general
scale. For our purposes you should have a profit and loss statement, based on numbers
rooted in reality.
For example, if you are proposing a bike sharing system, you should perform a quick
search for the cost of buying bikes, buying and implementing a payment system,
staffing for bike maintenance, purchasing insurance, developing a website, marketing
the product, etc. Producing perfectly accurate numbers is not the goal here. Instead,
your goal is to show that you have accounted for reasonably large expenses and
performed some research into costs and revenues, so you know if your plan is
profitable. These should be in an attractive format that highlights the key points. A
balance sheet and cash flow statement are not necessary.

TA S K 3 : W R I T I N G

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS SECTION

For the following table that shows the profit and loss for a company, describe the
revenue section.

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Note:
Currency is Hong Kong Dollar
Brackets indicate negative value

BENEFITS SECTION
Benefits are discussed throughout the proposal, but you will want to gather them at the
end as your conclusion to form a powerful and persuasive summary: a value-laden
conclusion to your proposal.
Example
The company anticipates continuing profitable operations into the foreseeable
future, with no plans to exit this market.
As discussed throughout this plan, the firm plans to increase its presence in the
market, capturing growth opportunities in emerging markets.

E X E C U T I V E S U M M A RY S E C T I O N
The executive summary is not a summary of all the other sections. Rather, the executive
summary focuses on:
1) the problem necessitating the proposal
2) your suggested solution, highlighting key aspects
3) the measurable benefits derived when your proposal suggestions are
implemented
Remember to write the executive summary for the broadest audience possible, so that it
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is understandable and free of technical terms. Use graphic and design elements
(explained in the next section) to further your appeal. Lastly, use the linking function to
link to other parts of your proposal to help readers find details easily. Although placed
at the end in this description, the Executive Summary comes first in the proposal. Some
experts recommend writing the executive summary last; others recommend writing it
first.

F O R M AT , L AY O U T ,

AND

VISUAL APPEAL

As mentioned earlier, few people read any proposal in its entirety. Instead, most
people skim, starting with the executive summary. If the executive summary captures
readers attention, only then will they proceed to look deeper into the document, often
skimming through headings, looking at tables and charts, and only diving in to read
deeply at certain points. Because of this typical reader behavior, format your proposals
so they are easy to skim.
To make your document easy to skim have lots of white space with bold headings and
subheadings. These headings will ensure that your readers can find the information
they want and skip other sections. Keep the headings of your executive summary and
key content sections such as Situation purely navigational, but consider using
informative headings for subheadings. Rather than having Cost Considerations, use Why
Our Costs are Highest in Our Class and How to Lower Them. Do not use these informative
headings in Responses for Proposals (RFPs) where the format is often set.
To make your document more visually appealing and highlight certain points, in
addition to the guidelines above, also use:
side bars and text boxes (insert<textbox)
call-outs (insert<textbox)
graphics (including tables and charts)

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Source: http://www.technicalcommunicationcenter.com/2011/02/24/how-to-add-astylish-sidebar-text-box-to-a-ms-word-2007-or-word-2010-document/

Source: http://www.whitepapercompany.com/blog/?p=2034
Other formatting conventions are single spacing, serif fonts for text (headings can be a
different sans serif font), and numbered pages.
Serif fonts are fonts like Times New Roman or Garamond that have the small
horizontal lines at the bottom of letters. These lines act as a line and guide the readers
eye along the text for less eye strain. Arial, Verdana and Helvetica are examples of sans
serif texts. Remember this advice for documents, and note that it will be the opposite for
PowerPoints.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif

T A S K 4 : F O R M AT

AND

L AY O U T : A N A L Y S I S

OF FORMAL PROPOSALS

1 . What differences do you notice in terms of formatting and layout?

2 . Which one would you rather read? _____ Why?

KEY SECTIONS

OF AN

I NF ORM AL (S HO RT) PRO PO SAL

The content discussed in this module may be applied to both informal (short) and
formal (longer) proposals. To better prepare you for the in-class writing task (writing a
short proposal), however, the following looks into the structure of informal proposals
which are typically used to win smaller projects. They contain the following key
sections:
Introduction
The introduction briefly explains the reason for the proposal. To pique interest or grab
attention, include a key selling point such as low costs or quick results, a solution to a
serious problem, or a significant benefit.

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Background and Goals

The background discusses the problem and the goal or objective of the proposed work
or project. Your job is to persuade the reader that you have a thorough understanding
of the problem. If the proposal is a response to an RFP (request for proposal), then use
similar language.
Proposal/Implementation Plan
This section focuses on the proposed solution. It should provide specific information
such as methods, products, and work to be delivered about what you will do to
benefit the reader or your company.
Depending on the project, this section might also discuss how the project will be
managed and how progress will be assessed as well as a schedule of activities and
deliverables.

TASK 5: WRITING

A PROPOSED PLAN

Your boss has asked your team to write a proposal on the best way to cut costs (any
cost!) in the office. Work in a small group and come up with some solutions to cut costs
and draft your implementation plan.
To help you achieve the goal of cutting costs in the office, we propose the following
plan:__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________ _________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Qualifications
The project staffs expertise is also a key selling point. Therefore, the proposal should
contain a section that discusses the skills and experience of project leaders/participants
and other pertinent personnel.
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Also mention special facilities, equipment, or technology that will be used to create
desired results.
Budget
Cost is always an important consideration. So the proposal should include a carefully
prepared budget. A budget may be stated as a total sum or include detailed line items.
A thorough analysis of the project can help you create the most appropriate budget. In
some cases the reader may request a particular kind of budget or fee structure.
Authorization and Benefits
Short informal proposals often end with a request for approval or authorization. The
closing should also remind the reader of key benefits and motivate action. Although
benefits are discussed throughout the proposal, you will want to gather them at the end
as your conclusion to form a powerful and persuasive summary. The closing is your
final chance of making sure your proposal says what you mean for it to. Research
shows it to have a strong and lasting impression on its reader.

TASK 6: WRITING

THE

AUTHORIZATION

SECTION

Now write the authorization section of the proposal from the previous task,
summarizing the benefits and making the response easy for the reader.

Whether a proposal is a 200-page formal proposal with several sections or an informal

2-page, letter/memo proposal, it should contain a professional tone and address the
prospective clients problems, needs and/or specifications.

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TASK 7:
PROPOSAL

CREATING

AN

OUTLINE

PLAN

FOR

AN

INFORMAL

In a small group, read the following scenario and discuss the content for preparing a
short proposal by completing the outline plan below.
Scenario:
Hopeluck Company is a curtain-making company in Hong Kong and its business has
been gradually increasing in recent years. Tiger Woo is the manager of the Human
Resources Department of the company. In view of the lack of staff, especially those who
are highly skilled in curtain making and fitting (possibly 2 different types of positions),
Tiger wishes to propose to senior management to employ more staff. Create an outline
plan with your group mates.
Background section
Present situation

The problem

Objectives section
The desired situation
and outcomes

The solution

Methods section
Implementation
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Qualifications
Budget (overall cost)
Benefits section
Proposals major
selling points
Readers/Buyers
benefits

TASK 8: WRITING

OUT THE

INFORMAL PROPOSAL (OPTIONAL)

Now that you have an outline plan, draft the informal proposal for Tiger. You can
conduct some quick research online for necessary details for the proposal. Be prepared
to present your proposal to the rest of the class!

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ENDNOTES
i Richard C. Freed, Shervin Freed, and Joseph D. Romano, Writing winning business
proposals: your guide to landing the client, making the sale, persuading the boss, (New
York: McGraw-Hill), 1995.

SOURCES
Dun

&

Bradstreet.

"Tips

on

Formatting

Your

Business

Plan."

http://www.allbusiness.com/business-planning-structures/businessplans/4057778-1.html, accessed May 2014.

Freed, Richard, C. Shervin Freed, and Joseph D. Romano. Writing winning business
proposals: your guide to landing the client, making the sale, persuading the boss. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.
Sample Marketing Plan (free download)

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