Simple Steps To Create An Effective Business Proposal

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Want to learn how to craft effective business proposals that will help you close more sales?

That’s exactly what we are going to discuss today!

What is a Business Proposal?

A business proposal is a document that:

• Explain who you are.
• Outlines how you can help that sales prospect solve a specific problem.
• Provides pricing information that includes both the total cost of the project and a line item breakdown. 

Typically, business proposals are professionally designed A4-size booklets. They shouldn’t be confused with promotional pamphlets, though. What’s the difference?

Pamphlets are marketing assets. Their purpose is to promote your business by providing general information about your products and services.

Proposals are sales assets. Their purpose is to help you close sales by explaining to sales prospects how you can help them solve specific problems that they are struggling with. 

Each proposal needs to be custom-tailored for that particular sales prospect. Generally speaking, the more customized your proposal, the easier it will be to close the sale. 

Now, with all that out of the way, here are the ten steps that you need to follow if you want to create an effective business proposal…

Step #1: Do Customer Research

Ultimately, crafting an effective business proposal is a copywriting challenge.

And the better you understand your target audience, the better you will be at writing copy that converts.

That’s why if you want to write a persuasive business proposal, you need to start with customer research.

Clearly Define Your Dream Customers

First, you want to clearly define your dream customers.

Given that you are interested in learning how to write effective business proposals, we are going to assume that you are in the B2B space.

That means that your dream customers are going to be businesses. You want to define them using criteria such as the industry they are in, the number of employees they have, and their annual revenue.

Once you know who your dream customers are, it’s time to research how companies like that work, what are the problems that they tend to struggle with and what are the most popular solutions to those problems.

Identify the Decision-Makers

Second, you want to identify the decision-makers within those companies. Who has the authority to accept your business proposals?

These are the main people that you will need to persuade and the primary target audience of your proposals.

You want to understand the incentive structure that they are operating under, the challenges that they are dealing with on a daily basis, and how they see the specific problem that your product or service addresses.

Ideally, you should find a way to chat with people like that one-on-one so that you can better understand their perspective.

Consider going to industry events that these decision-makers attend and striking up casual conversions with them. Don’t try to sell them anything, just show interest in what they do, ask questions, and let them speak.

If that’s not possible, figure out where these decision-makers hang out online and observe the conversations happening there.

If you can’t access their hangout spaces, then go on LinkedIn and make a list of people who fit the decision-maker profile. Then, go through their social media, blogs, podcasts, etc. That might help you understand what matters the most to them.

Also, figure out what type of content these decision-makers consume and start consuming it yourself – follow the same thought leaders, listen to the same podcasts, read the same books, etc. That can give you some context as to what headspace they are in.

Identify the Stakeholders

Generally speaking, the larger the company, the more people are involved in purchase decisions.

You might need to first pass through one or more lower-level stakeholders in order to get it in front of the ultimate decision-maker.

These lower-level stakeholders are the secondary target audience of your business proposal so you need to research them as well.

Again, it’s best to talk to them one-on-one, but if that’s not possible, you can learn a lot from their online presence and the content that they consume.

Why is This So Complicated?

If you think all this sounds complicated, that’s because B2B sales are complicated.

Yes, you need to be able to convey how your product or service will help the company achieve its business goals.

But it’s not the company itself that is going to approve or reject your proposal, it’s the decision-maker who has their own motivations, challenges, and incentives.

Moreover, the motivations, challenges, and incentives of the decision-maker may not be the same as those of the lower-level stakeholders.

And you will have to persuade the stakeholders first in order to get the opportunity to present your proposal to the decision-maker.

Unfortunately, when you are selling to businesses, this complexity is unavoidable so you will need to learn how to navigate it. There’s just no way around it!

Step #2: Get Clear on the Value That You are Offering

You want to get clear on the value that you can offer to:

• Companies: How will your product or service help improve the company’s bottom line?
• Decision-makers: How will it make the decision-maker’s life better?
• Lower-level stakeholders: How will it make the stakeholders’ lives better?

In your proposal, you should lead with the value that you can offer to the company while also signaling the value that you can offer to the decision-maker.

As for the lower-level stakeholders, you need to make sure that they can understand your proposal and that forwarding it to the decision-maker will make them look good.

Step #3: Gather as Much Social Proof as You Possibly Can

Social proof is the evidence that other people trust you.

The more social proof you can present to sales prospects, the easier it will be to close sales.

Here are the three most powerful types of social proof:

Customer Testimonials

Always ask happy customers to leave you testimonials.

Ideally, these testimonials should include the customer’s photo, their full name, their job title, and the specific result that they got thanks to your product or service.

Obviously, before you start using someone’s testimonial on your website, marketing materials, and sales materials, you should show it to that customer to make sure that they are happy with it.

Also, note that for a testimonial to be effective, it needs to not only be real but also look real. Including identifying information about the customer helps with that, which is why we are recommending it.

If testimonials that you use include customers’ photos, full names, and job titles, potential customers can easily verify that these are real people by looking them up on LinkedIn.

They probably won’t do that but the fact that they could will nevertheless have a reassuring effect!

Customer Case Studies

Customer case studies are even better than testimonials because they explain how your product or service helped that customer get a specific result.

Of course, producing them requires a much larger time investment, both from you and from the customer.

Consequently, it’s probably best to only do case studies about the customers that got the most impressive results.

Ideally, you want to have at least one case study for each customer segment that you serve.

Endorsements From Well-Known People

Finally, if you can get an endorsement from a well-known person in your niche, that may also boost your credibility in the eyes of potential customers.

That person doesn’t have to be a celebrity. However, in order for this approach to work, they need to be someone that your potential customers recognize, respect, and look up to.

Consider reaching out to these well-known people and offering your products and services for free. Then, if they get good results, ask for a testimonial. If you get a testimonial, ask them if it would be okay to write up a case study.

Step #4: Make Sure That You do Everything Right in the Lead-Up to Submitting Your Business Proposal

Think about a marriage proposal.

Is it the proposal itself that is the determining factor in whether the woman says yes or no?

Or would it be fair to say that everything that happens before the proposal – the first interaction, the first date, the courtship – matters way more?

Well, it’s the same with business proposals. You need to do everything right in the lead-up to submitting your proposal if you want it to stand a chance of being accepted.

That includes presenting yourself in a professional manner, having a good reputation in your industry, leaving a great first impression, doing what you said you would do, being punctual, and so on.

Keep in mind that if you mess up in one of the earlier stages, you might not even get the opportunity to submit your business proposal, just like fumbling on the first date means that you won’t have an opportunity to make a marriage proposal.

Sure, your business proposal itself also matters, just like marriage proposals matter, but it’s not what’s most important!

Step #5: Research That Particular Sales Prospect

Before you reach out to a particular sales prospect, you want to research the company itself, the lower-level stakeholders and the decision-maker.

That will make everything easier, from the first interaction to writing the proposal to closing the sale.

Learning the basics of open-source intelligence – OSINT for short – can be super helpful here.

OSINT is the collection and analysis of data gathered from publicly available sources.

That might include the company’s website and its social media profiles, employee social media profiles, customer reviews, press coverage, public records, etc.

Here’s a 5-hour OSINT course that you can watch for free on YouTube:

Open-source intelligence can help you get a better picture of what’s going on at the company, what are its current challenges and what is on the minds of the people that you will need to persuade in order to close the sale.

Your research might also reveal that this company may not be a good sales prospect for your business: maybe it’s in a precarious financial situation, or in turmoil due to a recent change in leadership, or just signed a deal with one of your competitors.

In that case, you’ll be glad that you did your homework and didn’t waste time pursuing something that was extremely unlikely to work out!

Step #6: Create an Outline for Your Business Proposal

Once you are done researching that particular sales prospect, gather all the information that you are going to need and create an outline for your business proposal.

We recommend following this structure:

1. Cover page: It should explain what type of business proposal this is, who this proposal is for and who prepared it.
2. Table of contents: If you intend to submit your proposal in a digital format, make sure that the table of contents is clickable and can be used to navigate the document.
3. Executive summary: This is where you should summarize what your proposal is about: what is the problem, what is the solution, and why the customer should hire you.
4. Problem statement: Clearly define the problem that you are offering to solve with your product or service.
5. Solution statement: Explain how you intend to solve that problem with your product or service.
6. Methodology overview: Break down the step-by-step process that you are going to use to solve that problem.
7. Timeline with milestones: Provide the timeline for the project with concrete deliverables and deadlines for those deliverables.
8. Pricing information: Share the total cost of the project and break it down into specific line items.
9. Terms and conditions: Give an overview of your terms and conditions, most importantly what kind of payment schedule you expect.
10. Case studies: Provide at least one case study that demonstrates how you helped a similar company solve the same problem using the same methodology.

Each of these should be a separate page, so your proposal should be at least 10 pages long.

Also, business proposals sometimes include contracts but we recommend sending the contract separately after your proposal has been accepted.

Step #7: Write the Copy for Your Business Proposal

Look, we’ll be blunt:

The copy of most business proposals is terrible. Even junior copywriters would be embarrassed by it.

But that’s good news for you: it means that you can stand out from the competition by following basic copywriting principles!

Focus on Them

Here’s something that you need to understand about persuasion: no one cares about you, they only care about what you can do for them.

Everything in your business proposal should be written with the intention of helping the decision-makers see how they would benefit from buying your product or service.

So don’t ramble about how amazing you are, focus on what’s in it for them!

Provide Social Proof

Social proof tends to be underutilized in business proposals.

You want to showcase your most impressive social proof on the executive summary page: mention it in the copy and also display customer testimonials.

Then, at the end of your proposal, you want to feature at least one case study, but ideally, you should have three.

Also, if you can find a way to incorporate social proof into other pages, you should do that as well.

Remember, the more social proof you provide, the more persuasive your copy is going to be!

End With a Clear Call-to-Action

If the sales prospect decides to accept your business proposal and wants to move forward, what is the next step that you want them to take?

You should make that crystal clear by ending your proposal with a call to action.

For example, if you want them to schedule a call with you, you can provide a link to your appointment calendar and encourage them to book it.

Step #8: Design Your Business Proposal

Nowadays, companies expect professionally designed business proposals.

Fortunately, there are tons of beautiful templates out there that you can use. Consider checking out:

• Adobe’s business proposal templates
• Canva’s business proposal templates
• Visme’s business proposal templates

Also, if you want a custom business proposal design, you can find freelance graphic designers who specialize in that on Fiverr or UpWork!

Step #9: Submit Your Business Proposal

Once your proposal is done, submit it to your contact at the company.

Ask them to give you a timeframe within which you should expect to get a response and tell them that you are going to follow up by the end of it.

Also, add a “P.S.” section to your email with a link to your appointment calendar and tell them that if they have any questions after reading your proposal, you would be happy to get on a call and answer them.

Step #10: Make Sure to Follow Up!

Everyone is overwhelmed these days so your contact at the company might not find the time to read your proposal or they might simply forget about it altogether.

If you don’t hear from them within the timeframe that they provided, there’s no need to take it personally. Simply send them a follow-up email, just like you said you would. Keep following up every week until they respond.

If they say that they need more time, ask them for a timeframe and then follow up again at the end of it. Keep following up until you get a yes or no answer regarding your business proposal.

Also, add a P.S. section to all your follow-up emails and say something along the lines of “P.S. If you want me to stop following up – just let me know!”.

We learned this trick from LeadFuze’s founder Justin McGill. This P.S. section is like an unsubscribe link but for business emails. It enables you to be proactive about following up while also being respectful and giving the other person a way to opt out!

Want to Learn How to Write Copy That CONVERTS?

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If you can’t convey its value to your dream customers, you will lose out to competitors with inferior products and services but better copy. Sad but true.

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In fact, we would argue that it’s the single most important entrepreneurial skill.

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