A business proposal is much more than just telling a potential client about your services. It is an opportunity to show that you understand their business, their challenges and how you propose to help them achieve their goals.

A business proposal is often a vital step in closing a sale. It should be planned and given the time and attention it needs – if you loosely ‘throw something together’ it will show and your potential client will notice.

8 steps to include in a business proposal outline

At ActionCoach Liverpool, we have put the below steps together from a recent coaching session to give you a solid business proposal outline to follow:

  1. Begin with a greeting – it may seem obvious but it is often forgotten.  Use ‘Good morning / Good afternoon’ instead of ‘Dear…’ to make it more personable. A ‘Dear…’ letter can often be associated with bad news!
  2. Make it clear that you know what it is that THEY want. Show that you understand what they need and what they are looking for and refresh their mind with what it is that they are currently dissatisfied with.
  3. Build the dissatisfaction with their current circumstances. People will naturally move away from pain faster than moving towards pleasure. Be empathetic to their pain of the current situation.
  4. Cover the investment (the cost) as an introduction to your proposed solution. A good idea is to not make it bold to italic so that it stands out more because this draws attention to the cost and therefore making it more important than the solution. An example would be:
    “Based on what we have discussed, our solution is A at £X which will include… YZ”  
  5. The rest of the proposal then justifies the investment based on their needs. You need to justify their investment with the benefits of your solution and how it builds their vision and achieves their goals. Be sure to list the features and then the benefits of those features. If at all possible, try not to leave the ball in their court when it comes to making the next step. Be clear on what it is they need to do next and how to do it.
    For example:

    Avoid: If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
    Replace with: I will give you a call over the next couple of days once you have had chance to read the proposal and to go over the information.  If you can see the benefits of XYZ, I would like to book in a visit / meeting to discuss the next steps.

  6. Close the proposal a little differently to stand out.
  7. Don’t under value the use of a post script. Use a humble p.s to reinforce a key point.

Finally, be sure to have confidence in your proposal. Assume that the sale is already made and the proposal is just a confirmation of the details!

Let me know how you get on with your proposal conversions at lukekay@actioncoach.com