Description
What Is a Business Proposal?
A business proposal is sent from a supplier to a potential client for the purpose of winning a specific project. It is a written document and it can either be requested by the client or sent unsolicited. Many service-based small businesses rely on proposals in order to sell their services and bring in new work.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What Is a Business Proposal?
- What Is a Business Proposal Letter?
What Is a Business Proposal?
The definition of a business proposal is a document in writing sent by a supplier to a potential client in hopes of winning a project.
At heart, it is a sales document that includes all the standard information found in similar documents like estimates, bids and quotes.
A well-written business proposal can often mean the difference between winning or losing a prospective client.
In this in-depth guide to creating business proposals, we show you how to close more deals, make more sales and crush your business goals.
What is a business proposal?
An effective business proposal is a document used by a B2B or business-facing company (this may not always be the case) where a seller aims to persuade a prospective buyer into buying their goods or services.
A business proposal outlines what your business does and what you can do for your client. It can be general like this business proposal example:
Or it can be more specific, like this business proposal template which focuses on proposing a project for the Newton Center Rail:
To design a business proposal that holds the client’s attention, identify their pain points. Then provide your buyer with the right solution to alleviate those frustrations.
What should you include in a business proposal?
A business proposal usually aims to answer the following questions:
- Who you are and what your company does
- The problem your buyer is facing
- The solution your company offers to alleviate the problem
- How your company will implement this solution effectively
- An estimate of resources (time, money, etc) required to implement the solution
You can see how this sample business proposal template covers the above points.
Notice how this proposal template addresses the same project like in one of the previous templates, but uses a completely different design style (more retro, while the previous business proposal template is more modern and minimalistic).
Business proposal format
You can remove or add more sections depending on the goal of your business proposal. Essential, your business proposal can follow this format:
- Title
- Table of contents
- Executive summary
- The problem statement
- The proposed solution
- Qualifications
- The timeline
- Pricing, billing and legal
- Terms and conditions
- The acceptance
What are the types of business proposals?
Generally, there are three types of business proposals:
1. Formally solicited
A formally solicited business proposal is made when you respond to an official request to write a business proposal.
In this scenario, you know all the requirements and have more (if not all) information about a prospective buyer. You simply need to write the business proposal for your buyer to evaluate so you can begin the sales process.
2. Informally solicited
Informally solicited business proposals are written when there isn’t an official request for a proposal. A prospective buyer is interested in your services and asks for a proposal so they can evaluate it.
An informally solicited proposal requires a lot more research from your end. These types of proposals are usually created out of informal conversations. They are not based on official requests which often contain more detail.
3. Unsolicited
Think of this as a marketing brochure or a cold email. Unsolicited business proposals will often take a generic, one-size-fits-all approach to business proposals. Unsolicited proposals lack any understanding of the buyer or their requirements.
But with additional market research, personalization and identifying customer pain points, you can propose a customized solution based on your buyer’s needs. This can be a very persuasive approach, such as in this business proposal example:
