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WHAT IS A BUSINESS PROPOSAL

THE RIGHT FORMAT FOR PROPOSALS

PROPOSAL BEST PRACTICES

The Right Format for an Easy-to-Sign

Proposal
Todd Spear
July 30, 2013

Choosing the right writing format for a business proposal can be quite
challenging. You have to get it right the first time, so it can be understandably

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in the correct format for optimal readability. Writing a business proposal is

also in editing, layout, and design as well as a fully-involved sales process,
on top of it all!

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nerve-wracking to try to put together a cohesive business proposal that is also

further complicated by the fact that it is an exercise not only in writing, but

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The format you choose can greatly affect how your reader interprets your
proposal. This means that you will want to give great consideration to all the
elements of your proposals format before tendering it to your prospective

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customer.
Your business depends on the effectiveness of your proposals, so the last
thing you want is to let bad format choices get in the way. Fortunately, there
are some best practices you can keep in mind when it comes to choosing a

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We have discussed writing winning proposals quite a bit around these parts
(to say the least!), covering various aspects of planning and proposal writing at
length. So this month, I thought we would take the business of writing to a

CATEGORIES

discussion on a deeper level, exploring the nuts and bolts of choosing the

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right form and style to win, again and again. While further exploring much of
what weve already perused in older posts, were honing in on some of the

Tracking Proposals and

Measuring Success

make-or-break elements of business writing.

After Sending
How to Write a Proposal

Heres what well cover:

Sales 101

Implementing a sales-friendly format in proposal writing

Business Proposals: Getting

Started

Layout and design format considerations

Features and Updates

Writing format for business proposals

Client Tales
Recipe Box

Implementing a sales-friendly format in

proposal writing

Proposal Templates and

Samples

Weve talked about it extensively before, but its always worth repeating that a

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General

business proposal is a sales tool before. With that in mind as you begin
writing, your proposal should adhere to the steps in the sales process. Every
sales interaction has distinct greeting, qualifying, offering, and closing phases,
and you likely already know that your proposal should generally follow those
steps from start to finish.

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The Wikipedia entry for proposal (business) says the following:

Business proposals are often a key step in the complex sales processi.e.,
whenever a buyer considers more than price in a purchase.
While that is true, we here at the Quote Roller HQ have a slightly different
take on the way a proposal relates to sales. We prefer to think that business
proposals should follow a writing format that mirrors the well-established
selling format, in addition to fitting within the complex sales process overall.
In this way, the business proposal writing both fits into your sales process, and
mirrors it.
You can put the sales process to work in writing your proposal, right down to
the sections of the proposal itself.
Consider the following as you plan your proposal writing:
First section: Greeting
Second section: Qualifying
Third section: Offering
Fourth section: Closing
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Take a look at one of our sample proposals and youre likely to notice that it
contains a separate section that addresses each part of the sales process
even if it doesnt appear to do so obviously, at first glance. A winning proposal
follows a writing format that compartmentalizes each step of the sales
process.
Theres nothing to be afraid of when it comes to choosing the sequence of
the sections in your proposal writing. If you know sales, you automatically
know the basic format for writing a winning business proposal. Its easy to
keep your proposal on-track, just by following the well-established sales
format in your proposal writing.

GIVE THE READER A CHANCE TO RESPOND

One thing youll want to do differently from most real-world sales processes is
to offer the customer an opportunity to respond directly to your business on
every page, and thus at every step in the sales process. Whether you opt for
a contact form, a simple hyper-linked button (connected to your email), or
allow them to annotate right there in your Quote Roller web-based proposal,
you want to give the reader the ability to ask a question on each page of your
proposal.
Think of landing pages on modern websites theres a way to get in contact
with the business on every page. Your business will benefit from adhering to
the same format in your proposal writing efforts, since the same logic applies
in any text-based sales process in the digital space. There is also support for
the idea that, in general, more landing pages equate to more sales.
The pages of your
proposal are not inbound
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landing pages, but there

are certain corollaries,
especially when it comes
to offering contact buttons
in-page. When you offer a
contact point on every page of your proposal, you open up your proposal to
more chances to be accepted. This keeps the sales process involved in the
proposal interactive, allowing for two-way communication.

Layout and design considerations

Speaking of free proposal templates, please note that weve got more than
35 sector-specific templates to help you get started in the right direction
when crafting proposals. If you check out our samples, youll start to see a
few trends emerge. While our various templates do not follow a rigid format
wedding planning is very different from construction, web design quite
different from cleaning services they all have a lot in common, while
adapting to suit various specific types of businesses.
Here are a few key points to consider during proposal writing:
10 -12 point fonts are used (plus larger headings)
Funky or non-standard fonts are avoided (if you decide to send it the old
school Word doc way, imagine if your client cant read it at all because they
dont have that font?)
Sub-heading are bolded
Each page has its own sub-title
Of course, do note that Quote Roller can automate all the textual formatting
for you, allowing you to focus on the actual sales message in your writing. Its
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like with your C.V./resume. Have you ever opened it on different computers
and you get irritated that the formatting you spent so much time on looks like
a disaster? If you send it as an online doc or PDF, it doesnt distort. You want
the same thing for your business proposals.

MAKE YOUR PROPOSAL DYNAMIC & MEMORABLE WITH

MULTIMEDIA FORMATTING
Proposal writing should follow a document-like design format, but that does
not mean that you cannot dress up your proposals, so long as you do so
tastefully.
One of the great things about writing and sharing proposals in a digital format
is that you can incorporate mixed media, like video and HTML, in interesting
and engaging ways. While its tempting to turn your proposal into a
multimedia extravaganza, a little restraint is probably the best recipe for
success.
If you would like to integrate mixed media into your proposal, keep the
following in mind:
Media should be supported by text
Media elements should be limited to one per section of the proposal
If your first page is a letter, dont use any media

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Mixed media can really fix up a drab proposal, but you dont want to ignore
the time-honored usefulness of images. Images are a great way to convey an
idea succinctly in a proposal. Here are some design considerations for use in
business proposals:
Support images with captions (ideally, action captions)
Choose images that are memorable humans use visuals to help them
remember
Favor relevant graphs and flowcharts over generic images (as in clip art)
If you use a third-party infographic, as we all do these days, be sure to give
credit where credit is due cite your sources
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If you work in some sort of creative field, use images or video wisely to
show off your work (A photo really says more than a thousand words of
boring proposal text.)
If you work in any type of service, a video testimonial from a satisfied
customer is a good way to offer your company credibility
And if you sell a something especially a pretty one feel free to
integrate the photos in with your pricing catalog
No matter what type of media you opt to add to your proposal, you want to
make sure it both supports and is supported by the message you are trying to
convey to your audience and the best way to do that is with thoughtful
formatting.

Writing format for business proposals

Weve touched on the topic of the sales writing format, itself, in the past, but
here are a few detailed ideas to help take your proposal writing to the next
level. Since every aspect of writing the proposal matters, right down to the
tone and verbiage used in writing the proposal, youll want to make sure
youre using a winning format when you write your next business proposal.

KEEP IT CONCISE
KISS is the writers code: Keep It
Simple, Stupid. A business
proposal is not place for longform prose. Concision trumps all
when it comes to writing
business proposals. For me, the
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friendly format has always been

Claude C. HopkinsScientific
Advertising, though there are
many other great resources out
there that tell much the same
story.
In short, as any great copy writer would tell you, writings intended to sell or
in our world, to get a deal signed should be free from superfluous language
and should speak directly to the actions you would like the customer to take.
The best format for your proposal, as Hopkins and others will tell you, is a
simple one which is able to be understood by as many readers as possible.
Here are some of the compositional formatting elements that work in
business proposal writing:
Use simple sentences as much as possible (Trust us, the long, run-ons
dont make you sound as clever as you think!)
Use clear language, avoiding allusions and figures of speech
Use short paragraphs, usually no more than three sentences
In addition to working well for sales, concise writing has the additional benefit
of being easier on the readers eyes, which is always a plus, as it guarantees
they will keep on reading.

ELIMINATE ALL PLATITUDES

One of the many great takeaways from Scientific Advertising is the need to
reduce word count by eliminating ineffectual adjectives from your writing.
One of my favorite passages in Hopkins book comes at the start of chapter
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seven, Be Specific:
Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from
a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, Best in the world,
Lowest price in existence, etc. are at best simply claiming the expected. But
superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They suggest looseness of
expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a careless truth. They lead readers to
discount all the statements that you make.
The biggest problem with the use of platitudes in the context of a sales
writing format, as Hopkins alludes to above, is that they compromise the
element of trust needed in business relationships. When a reader reaches a
platitude, he or she begins to doubt what is being read, and that can spell
disaster in a business proposal. You have to work hard to gain and retain trust
in your proposal writing, dont let platitudes destroy the trust youve worked
so hard to earn.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT (GRAMMATICAL) PERSON

One of the first choices you have to make when it comes to writing a
business proposal is that of grammatical person. Sorry to take you back to
composition class, but proposal writers should be aware that the concept of
grammatical person is described as the relationship between the speaker
and other participants. The rules of grammatical person help you to be able
to choose the appropriate personal pronoun in a given sentence. As you can
imagine, grammatical person is very important in writing a business proposal.
Grammatical person has an effect on the overall tone of a piece of writing.
The use of first and second grammatical person throughout a piece of writing
sets a conversational tone, which may very well be appropriate in some
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situations. Likewise, use of the third person tends to impart a formal tone for
the reader (the use of third person is often even called formal style as a
result). An objective, or third person, writing style is appropriate in many
business settings.
So how do you decide what format is appropriate to use in writing your
proposal? That depends loosely on a few factors, including the type of
business you are conducting and who your recipient is. Here are a few
pointers.

Reasons to use the first/second-person format:

Your business is just one person (such as a freelancer), not a team of
people
Your recipient is a single-person business
If a conversational tone fits your business overall strategy/culture/ethos
If your services offered are person-to-person (such as care giving, physical
therapy, etc.)
You have an established relationship with your recipient, even if an
organization
Reasons to use third-person format:
If the recipient is a government organization
If the recipient is a corporation, non-profit, or other large organization
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If you operate in one of the many business-to-business fields where

formality is generally expected
If you do not have an established relationship with the recipient (even if it is
just one person)
You may also find a reason to switch between grammatical persons within
your proposal writing. For example, if you choose to include a cover letter or
personal statement as the introductory page, you might use first/second
person throughout that page, but switch to the third person objective style for
the remaining pages in the proposal.
As a caveat to choosing the right grammatical person overall, note that the
rules for personal pronouns also help readers understand when a person is
being referred to versus when a business entity is being referenced. Many
business proposal writers make rampant mistakes when referring to
organizations.
For example, Microsoft is always gender neutral (it/its), whereas Bill Gates
always adopts the masculine personal pronouns (he, his, him) and can
function in pluralities of people (we/us/our/they/them/theirs). Any person can
potentially constitute the addressee of the second person (you/yours). This is
a detail that will greatly improve the overall readability of your proposal.

KEEP YOUR EYES (AND THEIRS) ON THE PRIZE

Okay, grammar lesson over, back to business.
You may be tempted to throw everything and the kitchen sink into your
proposal writing efforts, but the best advice is to keep the readers focused on
the ultimate prize of winning the bid.
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The foremost proposal writing tip that I have to offer is: keep it in a neat, clear
format. If you overload the proposal with anything, be it writing, images, or
media, you run the risk of having it read like a hot mess, for lack of a better
term.
Your proposal is meant to cause an actionable outcome (as is popular to say
these days), so it should follow a format that is shaped around resulting in a
buying action. If your proposal assumes a format that keeps your offer clear,
its benefit to the prospect, and makes it easy to be awarded, youve done
your job. Impart all the singularity of purpose you can to your proposal writing
and you will win more bids.

ARE YOU WRITING IN THE RIGHT FORMAT?

Writing anything can be an arduous process. Half the battle is found in
understanding the format you need to be working in. When it comes to
proposal writing, following a sales format is the first step. Compound that
sales format to a clear, concise, and grammatically correct writing format, and
you will have a recipe for success.
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