internal business proposal format

3. State the problem or need.

This is where you share a summary of the issue impacting the potential client. This is your opportunity to show them you understand their needs and the problem they need help solving.

In the example above, I included several signals to showcase my expertise – that I've been in the photography biz for 10 years, that I've worked with over 500 clients, and that I've been featured a number of publications. 

As you approach this section, focus on presenting yourself as an authority. Consider leveraging tools like:

• Case studies
• Client testimonials
• Relevant awards
• Industry accreditations

6. Include pricing options.

Pricing is where things can get a bit tricky, as you don't want to under or over-price your product.

The pricing section of your proposal could include:

• A detailed pricing breakdown, including packages, tiers, and add-ons or optional services
• How product features and benefits align with pricing choices
• Pricing for different needs and budgets
• How your pricing compares with competitors
• An FAQ section to respond to anticipated objections and explain your pricing strategy

7. Summarize with a conclusion.

After sharing the above information, simplify it all into one final section.

• First, briefly summarize the proposal. Be sure to share your qualifications and why you’d serve as the best choice.
• Then, to prompt further conversation, confirm your availability to go over the next steps.
• At the end of the proposal, the goal is to have the client ready to work with you. So, be sure to offer your contact information for easy follow-up.

In need of some inspiration before you begin writing? Here are example business proposal templates from popular business proposal software companies you can use to help create your proposal.

1. HubSpot's Free Business Plan Templates

Download these Templates

We know how crucial a great business proposal is to your and your client’s success. That's why we've compiled 2 Free Business Proposal Templates for you to use and customize for any of your projects.

You'll gain access to a concise, one-page template (pictured above), as well as a longer template for you to refine your plan and proposal.

Download the templates now to get started on building your proposal.

What We Like

The one-page template is clear, straightforward, and easy to read — without skipping on the key elements of a business proposal. This format is especially useful for busy clients who appreciate brevity and clarity.

2. Web Design Proposal

With advertising on social networks projected to reach $82.23 billion dollars in 2025 , it's in your business's best interest to have a plan for growing your client's social media presence.

To help you in that effort, the information in this social media marketing proposal includes an executive summary to help introduce your high-level ideas, an assessment of the client’s company to show your diligence, and a breakdown of billing to show how your company charges for posting, content creation, and analytics.

This template includes all the bells and whistles of a social media proposal packaged in a fun yet professional design. It also includes helpful writing instructions under each section.

8. Content Marketing Proposal

Business proposal templates are helpful places to get started, but what should your business proposal look like when it's complete? This template should inspire you.

When pitching your content marketing services to clients, this template can help you organize your ideas. While it walks you through initial objectives and how to communicate your prospected results, one of the most helpful parts of this template is the pricing ideas it gives you when charging for your services.

In the business template example below, Social Portal Consulting (SPC) pitches a marketing proposal to Graphic Bean. At first sight, this proposal appeals to the creative. I recommend going a step forward and designing the layout in your or your client’s brand colors.

Besides the design, the social media icons quickly tell the prospect what platforms Social Portal is pitching. Because we see Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest icons, the client instantly knows that this proposal doesn’t include LinkedIn, YouTube, or other platforms.

While maintaining its design, this example outlines Social Portal Consulting’s plans efficiently. It begins by providing insight into Graphic Bean and its goals before elaborating on how SPC can leverage its expertise to help them achieve them.

This business proposal template includes an easy-to-follow timeframe for goals and objectives while keeping the client abreast of how payment will happen across the project.

Overall, this is an excellent example of how to combine the elements of social media marketing into a creative and concise business proposal. Finally, we'll leave you with some business proposal ideas to get you started on your own.

• Start with an outline.
• Keep it simple.
• Stay on brand.
• Quality control.
• Include data and visuals.
• Add social proof.
• Use a call-to-action.
• Create a sense of urgency.
• Make the decision for them.
• Incorporate video into your proposal.
• Include up-sell and add-on opportunities.
• Clarify your terms and conditions.
• Include a space for signatures to document agreement.
• Create a table of contents.

1. Start with an outline.

If you want to produce a thoughtful, effective business proposal, you need to have some idea of what you're hoping to achieve with it.

Before I dive into writing a proposal, I always outline the major sections of the proposal that I want to include. That way, I can stay focused and make sure my message stays intact as I write.

Use these free business proposal templates to make sure that your outline includes everything you need.

2. Keep it simple.

Ultimately, there's no definitive blueprint for how long a business proposal has to be. Yours should be however long it takes to convey the information you want to get across.

That said, I'm a firm believer in quality over quantity, especially when it comes to business proposals. Keep your sentences short and simple, and avoid including too much business jargon.

You want anyone who picks up your proposal to make sense of it. So, be straightforward and don't get too fancy. Aim for substance over flash.

3. Stay on brand.

Don't be afraid to let your company's personality shine through in your proposal. Stay true to your brand and show the client what sets you apart from your competitors.

4. Quality control.

I've made it a habit to add an editing/QA step in my writing process. During this step, I do a quick spelling and grammar check before hitting send.

So, as you draft your proposal, and after checking for the basics, keep scanning this document until it's just right.

Check to make sure your proposal:

• Meets client needs and expectations
• Highlights your value proposition
• Is well-structured and easy to read or skim
• Complies with legal, ethical, and regulatory requirements
• Looks professional and engaging

5. Include data and visuals.

You want your business proposal to capture your prospect's attention and help set you apart from any other ones they might have received. One of the best ways to do that is to include hard, quantitative data that helps stress the value of your business.

Use relevant, compelling figures that highlight what you have to offer. This can establish authority and make your proposal more convincing. It also helps to include visuals such as charts and graphs to enhance your proposal.

6. Add social proof.

From my experience, you can only be so convincing when you're personally talking up how great your business is — which is why adding social proof is key to establishing credibility.

At the end of the day, prospects are skeptical. They may not take you at your word. But they'll likely trust peers and fellow customers. That's why including elements like customer quotes and testimonials can go a long way.

7. Use a call-to-action.

I've learned that the best proposal in the world can only take you so far if you don't clearly define the next steps. That's why you have to make sure the reader knows what to do after reading your proposal.

A clear call-to-action is the best way to get there.

Define and highlight exactly what they should do to act on the interest your proposal has generated. Without that guidance, you might leave your reader in limbo.

HubSpot customers : Use this CTA builder to create powerful customized CTAs.

8. Create a sense of urgency.

No one wants to feel as if they missed out on a great opportunity. From my experience, prospect tend to drag their feet and put off making a decision if there isn't a sense of urgency.

So, as you create your business proposal, your goal should be to add a degree of urgency. When prospective clients read your business proposal they should feel that the best time to sign up for your service is now .

One way I accomplish this is by stating short and long-term goals for their business. They'll have to wait for the long-term goals, but I make the short-term goals so enticing that they'll be ready to begin a collaboration.

9. Make the decision for them.

Craft your copy in a way that seems like saying "no" to the proposal would be stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. Your offer should go above and beyond their expectations. Do everything in your power to remove friction and objections along the way.

10. Incorporate video into your proposal.

If you're creating an online proposal using document file formats like PDF, add multimedia elements. This will enhance the proposal experience, make your document richer, and keep them engaged.

Try adding a video at the beginning as an intro to your proposal. Or, put a video in the project breakdown to verbally discuss some of the more confusing parts.

Extras like this can make an impression. This tip works especially well with prospects who are visual or auditory communicators.

Pro tip : HubSpot Video makes it easy to record and embed video into a website or email for a big proposal boost.

11. Include up-sell and add-on opportunities.

They say you won't receive unless you ask. And readers won't explore the upper tiers of your solutions if you don't give them the opportunity.

So, share some upsells and add-ons about your business that they can act on. Call out a specific pain point and how this extra can add value.

With this step, balance is important. Show them everything your business has to offer without overwhelming your recipient.

12. Clarify your terms and conditions.

Your business proposal should include details on your project timeline and payment schedule. This summary is basically what you and the client agree to if they accept your proposal.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Articles / How to Write an Internal Company Project Proposal /

How to Write an Internal Company Project Proposal

Did you know? Proposal Packs are designed for writing internal company project proposals with pre-written templates, samples, graphic design options and automation software.

Proposals aren't limited to selling products and services or landing grants. Many people have great new ideas for the companies they work for and they have to present their ideas to upper management. To get your project approved or to receive the budget and support you need, you will have to convince others in your organization. To do that requires a detailed project proposal.

Never written one? No worries. You probably already know most of what you need to put in the proposal, and the writing process itself doesn't have to be daunting.

That's because, regardless of the industry, the goals and structure for any internal company project proposal are essentially the same: 1) introduce yourself, 2) highlight the project information, 3) describe the costs, and 4) persuade your management that you are the perfect choice for the project and can be trusted to deliver on your promises. You can also speed up the proposal writing process by using pre-designed templates and studying sample project proposals.

The most important idea to keep in mind is that the goal of any proposal is to convince the person reading it to give you what you want. You're not likely to achieve that by writing your proposal from your point of view, describing only your needs. You have to put yourself in the other person's shoes. In this case, you need to convince your boss (and possibly higher management) to sign off on your proposal and actively support your project.

To persuade them, you must demonstrate that not only can you be trusted to deliver, but that your proposed project will serve the company’s best interest. It's never a good idea to simply ask for funding for a project. You need to convince your immediate boss or manager that this project will make them look good as well. Remember, your project may require the active support of others in your organization who will be putting their reputations on the line.

Your proposal will be tailored to a specific situation and need. But keep in mind that different people or layers of management will be interested in different topics and you need to cover all of them. This means you should gather enough information about the project to create a customized proposal that will address the requirements and concerns of all these different parties.

Now, getting back to the basic order described above, start your proposal with a Cover Letter that includes a brief personal introduction and all your relevant contact information so anyone involved can easily contact you for more details. Next, create a Title Page with the title of your specific proposal (for example, "Cost Saving Supply Chain Optimization," “Expanding into Overseas Markets,” “Creating a Records Management System,” “Replacement of the Legacy Accounting Software,” or "Introducing Job Share Positions" ).

A company project proposal will probably be long and detailed, so you'll add a Table of Contents. This is where Proposal Kit shines, because the number of pre-written topics you have access to is extensive and detailed enough to cover just about any specialized project proposal. Each Proposal Kit template is a topic that will be listed as a chapter in your Table of Contents. You may not be able to compile a Table of Contents until you have written the body of your proposal, but keep in mind that this is where your TOC belongs, right after the title page.

Following this introduction, write the section that succinctly describes the project needs, goals, and objectives. In company proposals, this is your Executive Summary, which is basically a list of your most important points. It is important to remember that your proposal is likely to be read by different individuals within your company. A high-level executive decision maker may read only the Executive Summary, leaving the details to be read by others.

Outline all the details of the project. This is where you expand on the Executive Summary with topics like Needs Analysis, Goals and Objectives, SWOT Analysis, Project Background, and other details that explain the existing problem or opportunity.

Each company project proposal will vary dramatically from the next, because there are countless projects that could be proposed for specialized situations. This is where the extensive library of Proposal Kit pre-written topics will be most useful. There are thousands of topics included in Proposal Kit that will help you describe every project detail. There's not enough space to list them all here; the following names indicate only a few of the more commonly used topics.

If you need to talk about general project information, use topics such as Project Initiation, Project Plan, Project Methods, Project Process Summary, and so on.

To describe distribution issues, use topics such as Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain, Distribution, Routes, Local, Regional, National, Imports, Exports, and Sourcing and Fulfillment.

For personnel issues, you can use topics like Key Positions, Project Management, Supervision, Outsourcing, etc.

If you need to describe physical resources, you'll want topics such as Resources, Assets, Equipment, Hardware and Software, Resource Allocation, and Installation Schedule.

For property issues, include topics like Site Planning, Facilities, Location Analysis, Infrastructure, and Operating Environment.

To discuss automation issues, use Capacity, Engineering, Manufacturing, Production Plan, Production Schedule, and Scalability topic pages.

For automation or process improvement proposals use topics such as Efficiency, Automation, Optimization, Return on Investment, Cost/Benefit Analysis, Productivity Improvement, Streamlining and Process Management.

Any project has costs associated with it, so you will have to include topics that cover the financial issues. Add pages with titles like Project Cost Summary, Budget, Return on Investment, Cost/Benefit Analysis, and so on.

Follow up the proposal details with your call to action, summary, and evaluation topics such as Project Summary, Expected Results, Evaluation, Acceptance Criteria, and Recommendations.

And finally, for very detailed or technical projects you may have to add appendix information. Add topics such as Schematics, Documentation, Diagrams, Definitions, and Studies, just to name a few.

Your specific business will determine the specialized topics and pages you need to include in your project proposal. The size and scope of the project will determine how many topics and how much detail will be required. Your project proposal may be only 3 pages or more than 30 pages long.

Here are some related samples included in every Proposal Pack

• Commercial Office Real Estate Lease Proposal
• Process Improvement Sample Proposal
• Job Share Position Sample Proposal
• Manufacturing Process Improvement Sample Proposal
• Feasibility Study Sample
• Electronic Medical Record System Sample Proposal
• Patenting New Technology Sample Proposal
• New Sales Office Sample Proposal
• Ranching Supply Sample Proposal

Here are some related templates:

• Artwork Purchasing Proposal
• Asset Tracking and Management Project Proposal
• Business Case Document
• Business Continuity Services Proposal
• Business Management Proposal
• Business Model Change Planning Rolling Shutdowns Proposal
• Business Strategy Change and Implementation Proposal
• Corporate Restructuring Proposal
• Customer Service Improvement Proposal
• Downsizing Company Cost Savings Proposal
• Due Diligence Project Proposal
• Emergency Preparation Project Proposal
• Equipment or Machinery Systems Upgrade Proposal

When proposing an internal company project, not only do you need to look good, but you need to make sure your boss looks good, too. To gain the support of management, you need to convince them that you will deliver on your promises. The more solid your proposal is, the more support you may get. Show that you understand every aspect of the project. Consider adding topics such as Project Oversight, Assumptions, Risk Analysis, Contingency Planning, Disaster Recovery Plan, Security Plan, Coordination, and Accountability.

So there you have it: all the basic steps for creating your proposal. Now for the finishing touches. After you have finalized all the words and data in your proposal, spend a bit of time making it visually appealing. Add your company logo, choose different fonts or use custom bullets, or consider using colored page borders. Don't go overboard, though; you want to match the style of your proposal to the style of your business without distracting from the message. Learn how to effectively select colors for a winning business proposal.

Don't send your proposal to management before you spell-check and proof every page. If possible, have someone outside of the project do the final proofreading pass. It's too easy to miss mistakes in familiar information.

Finally, print the proposal or save it as a PDF file. In the modern business world, it's common to email PDF files, but keep in mind that a printed proposal is sometimes preferable. Make your printed copies easy to flip through, and annotate and tab the critical areas and highlights. In a larger project, you may also be sharing editable Word versions using collaboration software. Use the system most commonly used within your organization to deliver the final proposal.

You can see now how the content of each internal company business proposal will vary widely because of the variety of businesses and types of projects. Your proposal content will be different from anyone else's. But you can also see that all internal project proposals will have similar formats and will follow the same basic structure.

To speed up the proposal writing process, you can use the pre-designed templates in Proposal Pack . They contain easy-to-understand instructions and suggestions and examples that will guide you to provide appropriate content. The product includes many sample project proposals, too; these can give you a head start on creating your own proposal.

How to Write an Internal Company Proposal

This video shows how to use Proposal Kit to write an internal company proposal. This type of proposal is typically used to pitch a project, a new service, new product, define a new business strategy, etc. to someone higher up in your company, to another department, etc.

Using our professional quality proposal and contract packages, wizards, and support documents to develop your proposals, business plans, and other business documents will give you a comprehensive final document that will present you and your organization as a highly professional alternative that instantly inspires trust.

It will provide you with the inside track.You can order and instantly download the Proposal Kit that best suits your needs.

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How to Write an Internal Proposal

by Jane Smith

Published on 16 Jul 2019

The proposals that staff members and consultants submit to your company provide its lifeblood, whether you run a for-profit business or not. The main categories of proposals include solicited or unsolicited, formal or informal, and internal or external. Although each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, the internal proposal usually results in lower costs for investment, interpretation and implementation than a solicited external proposal.

Internal proposals often retain much of the formality of a solicited, external proposal. But one advantage of an internal proposal arises from the fact that the person writing the proposal and the intended recipient share common experiences and have a similar understanding of industry terms. A second, more important advantage is trust.

It Is a Matter of Trust

No one can ever overestimate the importance of trust in a potential business deal. Your team leaders, floor managers and supervisors already know that they can trust you. They see you working every day: arriving on time, assisting a lagging teammate or helping cover the floor when team leaders cannot do so.

Quite often, external, unsolicited proposals make so many exaggerated claims that they wind up sounding ridiculous. Such proposals only see their way to the CEO's desk if his administrative assistant thinks he needs a good belly laugh.

Internal proposals break through that initial skepticism to at least get the first reading. The CEO queries HR and discovers that you have sound judgment. As a matter of record, HR identified you as a necessary member of the company succession plan the day they hired you. In short, your internal proposal already has a willing eye and ear.

What Is a Proposal Letter?

A proposal letter consists of identifying a problem, proposing a solution and providing evidence that implementing the proposal will achieve its goal. Common goals include to make a task easier, improve the efficiency of a process, increase workforce effectiveness or save the company time, money or aggravation. Saving the company from aggravation may sound frivolous, but everything from government fines to potential lawsuits can reduce profit margins, slow down production due to more rigorous inspections or even result in jail time for improprieties.

In its initial stages, the letter follows a simple proposal format. When you ask, "What is a proposal letter?" you should already know that even in a paperless office, you do not send your proposal as an email. You create a formal letter and save it to whichever cloud storage option your company favors. Begin the document as you would when sending any other formal correspondence: with the heading.

Using Formal Style

Just as you would in a formal, external letter to a business, use a left-justified, block-style heading and body. Use your name and job title, along with your department name, instead of the name of your business and your company mailing address. Skip a line and write the date, using a month/day/year format for your American corporate office or a day/month/year format for any overseas offices.

Skip another line and write your recipient's name and job title along with their department name. Follow that by stating the problem, from the mundane: "We need an ice machine in the employee break room," to more serious concerns, such as, "Suggested modifications to our current 'active shooter' training module for new staff members."

Who Should Write an Internal Proposal?

While anyone can write an internal proposal, not everyone should. The person who first recognizes the existence of a problem sets the process in motion by expressing the need for solutions. Avoid the temptation to view this person as an instigator or a complainer. Putting a problem into words allows coworkers and supervisors an opportunity to evaluate the situation and decide whether to ignore the issue, seek other employment or join the instigator and generate potential solutions. If you hold that supervisory position and you notice that turnover has gotten out of hand, take note. If you notice that fewer applicants interview with you after every new job posting, swallow your pride. Create a beautiful certificate thanking the invaluable employee whose diligence exposed the need for a solutions team. And most importantly, start selecting candidates for a solutions team.

Your newly-minted solutions team should substitute griping and low morale with a sense of purpose and something to prove. The team will bring the solutions from their impromptu brainstorming session to your desk. All you have to do? Decide which three scenarios to CC to your direct supervisor.

If you are on the solutions team side of the coin, each solution your team generates should ideally consist of 140 characters or less, just like a classic Tweet — or for old-school problem-solvers, as if writing a three-line want ad in a town newspaper. State the potential solution in clear, jargon-free language that does not require a master's degree in English literature or a Ph.D. in contract law to read and understand.

Writing Effective Internal Business Proposals

Among the many sources for a simple proposal format or an external proposal sample are universities, grant review panels, business magazines and trade journals. Not only will you find an endless supply of ready-made templates, but you will discover numerous helpful videos as well. Take the time to watch them and read their transcripts, when available. These videos include discussions of quality issues, such as the need to include a section in your proposal on the steps the team took to ensure full inclusion of diverse viewpoints. In addition, the professional discussions the videos contain cite everything from the ideal number of team members for a brainstorming session to how to avoid locking the department into a never-ending feasibility study.

The mistaken belief that perfection outranks choosing a course of action leads many companies to fail. Thus, it is more important to put your ideas out there than to sit on them waiting for them to feel like they hae matured beyond faultlessness. Every good suggestion helps the company grow, and hopefully earns you recognition.

Researching All Pitfalls

While many businesses appear to play chicken with rules and regulations, research all of the potential pitfalls in every new proposal, even your own. Run it past the company legal team. Reach out to the IRS and the Federal Exchange Commission, as well as the Chamber of Commerce and the local planning board. Meet both the letter and the spirit of any pertinent legislation — it is just good business.

Check for Errors

Examine every word, sentence and paragraph of the entire proposal. Look for missing punctuation, or copy-pasted boilerplate and non-inclusive language. Make the proposal the best piece of writing it can be. Check for its completeness and ensure that implementing the recommendations will be feasible and not lead to any unintended consequences.

How will you know when your proposal should pass muster? Treat it like a dissertation. Whether you have ever defended your own or you have simply absorbed the steps of the process, treat every proposal you submit like a masterpiece. Pick over every word, and look for misspellings, poor grammar and weak phrasing.

Creating an Exit Strategy

No matter how well-intended, every new policy results in unplanned consequences. Include extensive documentation detailing any potential negative effects of any new policy on the recruitment and retention of new employees. Consider creating something that meets the needs of every employee, from the CEO to the assistant janitor. Include the possibility of using stock options and 401(k) matches or on-site daycare services and gym memberships to offset any drawbacks. In short, every benefit under the sun should hit the negotiating table, including paid leave for new parents and adult caregivers alike.

Get Everyone On Board

If you do not include all stakeholders in the entire process, from framing the problem to anticipating any unintended consequences on the rank and file, your business risks excessive employee turnover. Encourage those employees who gripe the loudest to put their complaints in writing, alongside three solutions they wish to implement. Task the complainers with creating and administering formal surveys to gauge the popularity and feasibility of each solution with current employees and customers. Have this survey squad seek three cost estimates for any workspace retrofits, necessary training hours or the recruiting and onboarding of new employees. Include estimates for lost work time due to the learning curve.

" id="revise-and-refine " class="title"> Revise and Refine

No solution fits every situation. Once the new policy rolls out, hold open comment sessions. Provide suggestion boxes for the shy and filter the volume from those who have no hesitation or embarrassment with sharing their opinions loudly. Make sensible adjustments and renew the feedback-seeking sessions. Keep making tweaks and maintain transparency throughout the entire process. The boost to company productivity and profitability makes the entire process worth every ounce of effort.

8 Steps to Write a Useful Internal Business Plan

Noah Parsons

7 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

One of the best uses for a business plan is as an internal management tool to help you run your business. Now, this doesn’t mean that you need to write a full business plan that you’d traditionally use to pursue funding or pitch to investors. 

Instead, you can stick with a simple internal business plan model that keeps your document lean and easy to communicate. 

• What is an internal business plan?

An internal business plan keeps your team in sync with your business strategy, sets financial goals and budgets, and helps you track business performance so you can manage your business better. It’s a document that can easily be distributed across multiple communications channels, encourages employee engagement, and leans into uncovering issues and competitive advantages for your business.

To simplify the planning process, I recommend using a growth planning method to create an internal business plan. This method focuses on creating simpler, shorter business plans that are designed to function as internal communications plans. 

Growth plans are useful tools for internal business planning because they’re shorter, easier to update, and focused on succinctly describing your business strategy and financial goals. Think of it as a more robust and expansive executive summary that is meant to be analyzed, updated, and referenced consistently. 

What is the difference between an internal and external business plan?

An internal business plan is a tool that is built to serve you and make your business easier to manage. It’s the most effective business plan for internal analysis and should be the focal point for regular strategy sessions. Internal business plans are also frequently used to quickly explore new business ideas to determine if they are viable. 

The audience for an internal business plan is typically your business partners and employees. It is usually not shared beyond the close circle of people who are involved in your business on a day-to-day basis. With the limited audience and the focus on business strategy and management, internal business plans are typically less formal. They don’t include much of what is included in an external business plan. 

External business plans, on the other hand, are used to present your business to people outside of your organization. They are typically part of the fundraising process and are used to communicate your business strategies and your team to lenders and investors. External business plans are also used when you are buying or selling a business.

Because of the focus on educating outsiders about your business, external business plans usually include more detailed information about the team behind the business, the business history, and milestones that have been achieved. The format is also more formal and typically a little longer than an internal business plan.

• What is the internal purpose of a business plan?

Within your business, an internal business plan is used to define your business strategy, define who your ideal customers are, outline a more detailed marketing plan, and set your revenue goals and expense budgets.

Business planning is often associated with fundraising and startups, but there’s a lot of value for existing businesses to create a simple internal business plan:

Define your business strategy

A solid business strategy is key to a successful business. Defining your strategy also helps you maintain focus as you grow. Opportunities are always presenting themselves and as a business owner, you need to know what your strategy is and determine if an opportunity fits with your strategy or not. 

There are also times when you may want to shift your strategy, but this should be done thoughtfully. With a defined business strategy, you’ll have the guidance you need to steer your business in the right direction.

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Bring everyone up to speed

Especially as your team grows, it’s important that everyone works towards the same goal. It can be easy for different people to have different visions of where your business is going. These different visions can make your business less efficient as people work towards disparate goals. 

A good internal business plan keeps everyone aligned and can encourage more consistent and valuable employee communication. In many ways, it should be the document that helps define your internal communications strategy and even your company culture. After all, if you have a clear vision that you can easily convey, the easier it will be to engage and grow your business.

Focus on forecasts and performance

One of the most important management tools at your disposal is a budget and forecast. An internal business plan should always include a forecast that sets revenue goals for your business as well as budgets to guide spending. These forecasts and budgets should be reviewed on a regular basis, at least monthly, and refined as you go based on how your business is performing.

• How to write an internal business plan

Internal business plans are simple and direct. Ditch the long paragraphs and lengthy explanations and instead focus on simple bulleted lists and short sentences. Remember, the plan is for you, so make it a tool that you’ll use and update on a regular basis. Long documents are rarely updated while simple, one-page business plans are easy to keep current and use.

Here’s what to include in your internal business plan:

1. Value proposition

This is a one-sentence summary of your business. What value do you provide and to whom do you provide it? You can use this section to share your mission statement – it’s a reminder to your team about the overarching purpose of your business.

2. The problem and your solution

It’s often easy to describe the products and services you offer. However, the most important part of this section is defining the problem that you solve for your customers. A strong definition of the problems you help your customers solve will keep you focused as you explore new revenue opportunities.

3. Target market and the competition

As important as defining your customers’ problems is to define who your target customers are. This helps ensure that marketing campaigns are focused and that your team knows who you are trying to reach. You should also track the alternatives that your customers might consider and why they might choose a competitor over you.

4. Sales channels and marketing activities

Your internal business plan should define how you sell your products and services and what marketing channels you’ll use to reach your customers. If you’re expanding into new markets, your internal business plan can help you guide that activity.

6. Financial projections

At the very least, you’ll want to forecast sales and set expense budgets to guide your team. Beyond that, cash flow forecasts provide crucial insights into if and when you should consider raising additional funding or opening a line of credit to support business growth. 

7. Milestones

Milestones define key goals and objectives for your team. This isn’t about setting day-to-day tasks but setting a few key goals for the upcoming months. You’ll keep your team focused on the most important objectives by setting milestones.

8. Your team

If your team isn’t growing, you can skip this section for internal business planning. But, if a key part of your business strategy is to hire and add important team members, identify your key team growth areas.

• Make use of your internal plan

Are you ready to write a business plan? Download our One-Page Plan Template to start building your own internal business plan. This framework will help you produce a simple, one-page business plan that will outline your strategy and key milestones.

From there, build out your financial forecasts and budgets. Start with a sales forecast and expense budget so you can generate a complete profit & loss statement. Ideally, you should also create a cash flow forecast.

Now it’s time to put your plan to use. Start a regular plan review process with a monthly plan review meeting. Go over your strategy and compare your sales forecast and expense budget to your actual results.

During your monthly review, you can tweak your strategy and update your revenue goals to reflect what is actually happening in your business. You can also adjust expense budgets based on actual spending and changing revenue goals. If you find yourself needing a more robust tool to help with this analysis, you may want to check out LivePlan’s reporting and forecasting features .

The key to good internal planning is to keep it lightweight and nimble. A good internal plan is the tool you need to bring together smart strategic management and fiscal responsibility so you can grow your business. Still not convinced? Check out these key reasons why writing a business plan is worth your time .

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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Blog Business How to Write Business Proposal (Examples + Free Templates)

How to Write Business Proposal (Examples + Free Templates)

Written by: Aditya Sheth Jan 25, 2024

The great Mark Cuban once said, “Sales cure all.” If a business doesn’t sell, it doesn’t make money and by extension the business fails. That’s why you need to write business proposals .

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 — all by using easy-to-edit professional business proposal templates .

Here’s what this guide will cover (click to jump ahead):

What is a business proposal, what are the components of a business proposal.

• How to write a business proposal step by step

What should you include in a business proposal?

What are the types of business proposals, more business proposal examples + writing and design tips.

• FAQs about business proposals

Looking for a shortcut? Watch this quick video for an overview of everything to include in your business proposal:

A business proposal is a document designed to outline a business plan to convince potential client, investor or partner to engage in a business agreement with you or your company. It’s basically a sales pitch in writing to persuade potential clients to show them benefits of working with you or your company for their business success.

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:

Or this business proposal sample, which presents a plan for a social media strategy and campaign:

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.

Working on a new project? These project proposal examples might come in handy for you.

The components of a business proposal can change depending on the field, company size and client needs. While details may differ, strong proposals typically introduce your company, explain the problem, offer a solution and its benefits, highlight your team’s skills, and outline timeline, cost and next steps.

How to write a business proposal step by step

Before you start creating your business proposal template, you need to understand the business proposal format. At a high level, your effective business proposal should include the following:

• Create a compelling business proposal title
• Build a table of contents
• Craft the executive summary
• Write a detailed problem statement
• Propose your solutions
• Showcase your team’s expertise
• Create a realistic timeline
• Present your payment structure
• Specify the terms and conditions
• Receiving the decision

Below, you can see business proposal examples that demonstrate how to include these 10 sections.

1. Create a compelling business proposal title

A compelling title could mean the difference between someone reading your proposal or ignoring it in favor of a competitor’s . 

What makes a good title page? Here are the essential elements to include: 

• Your name along with your company’s name
• The name of the prospect (or their business) 
• The date you’re submitting the proposal

The gray business consulting proposal template above contains all the details a prospect would want to know. The title also offers a strong tangible benefit to the prospective buyer. Honestly, “Who doesn’t want to grow their business?”

2. Build a table of contents

The table of contents is a fundamental part of every winning business proposal template. It makes your proposal scannable and easy to read.

The people you will be pitching to are usually C-level executives. These are busy people who don’t have time to read your entire proposal in one go.

That’s why most of the business proposal examples in this list include a table of contents.

Adding a table of contents to your document makes it easy for them to go through it at their own pace. They can also skim through parts of the proposal that they deem more important. You can see how this abstract business proposal template uses the table of contents:

You can also make your business proposal template easier to navigate by adding hyperlinks to the document, particularly in the table of contents. This way your clients can jump to specific sections without having to scroll through the entire document. Ensuring your business plan format follows a clear structure can greatly enhance readability and comprehension for potential investors or partners.

It’s easy to add hyperlinks in the Venngage editor. Select the text you’d like to turn into a link, then click the link icon in the top bar. From there, select the page you want to link to! Then download your completed design as an Interactive PDF .

3. Craft the executive summary

The executive summary is a staple in all kinds of annual reports , leadership development plan , project plans and even marketing plans . It is a concise summary of the entire contents of your document. In other words, write a business proposal outline that is easy to glance over and that highlights your value proposition.

The goals of your executive summary are:

• Introduce your company to your buyer
• Provide an overview of your company goals
• Showcase your company’s milestones, overall vision and future plans
• Include any other relevant details

This gray business proposal example has a detailed yet short executive summary including some social proof in the form of clients they’ve worked with:

Take note of how precise this business proposal example is. You want to keep your executive summary concise and clear from the get-go. This sets the right tone for the rest of your proposal. It also gives your buyer a reason to continue reading your proposal.

Crafting an executive summary and keeping it concise and compelling can be challenging. but you can use an AI summarizer online to generate an executive summary. Such tools are trained on relevant AI models that can extract core points from a given text. You can get such a point either in bullet form or in abstract summary form.

Pro Tip: Try to write an executive summary such that, even if your prospective client doesn’t read the entire proposal (with a good executive summary, they most likely will), they should have a clear idea about what your company does and how you can help them.

4. Write a detailed problem statement

The point of writing a business proposal is to solve a buyer’s problem. Your goal is to outline the problem statement as clearly as possible. This develops a sense of urgency in your prospect. They will want to find a solution to the problem. And you have that solution.

 A well-defined problem statement does two things: 

• It shows the prospect you have done your homework instead of sending a generic pitch
• It creates an opportunity for you to point out a problem your prospect might not be aware they had in the first place. 

This bold business proposal template above clearly outlines the problem at hand and also offers a ray of hope i.e. how you can solve your prospect’s problem. This brings me to… 

5. P ropose your solutions

The good stuff. In the proposed solution section, you show how you can alleviate your prospective buyer’s pain points. This can fit onto the problem statement section but if you have a comprehensive solution or prefer to elaborate on the details, a separate section is a good idea.

Spare no details regarding the solution you will provide. When you write a business proposal, explain how you plan to deliver the solution. Include an estimated timeline of when they can expect your solution and other relevant details.

For inspiration, look at how this business proposal template quickly and succinctly outlines the project plan, deliverables and metrics :

6. Showcase your team’s expertise

At this point, the prospect you’re pitching your solution to likes what they’re reading. But they may not trust you to deliver on your promises. Why is this?

It’s because they don’t know you. Your job is to convince them that you can fix their problem. This section is important because it acts as social proof. You can highlight what your company does best and how qualified your team is when you write a business proposal for a potential client.

This free business proposal template showcases the company’s accolades, client testimonials, relevant case studies, and industry awards. You can also include other forms of social proof to establish yourself as a credible business. This makes it that much more likely that they will say yes!

Pro Tip: Attaching in-depth case studies of your work is a great way to build trust with a potential client by showcasing how you’ve solved similar problems for other clients in the past. Our case study examples post can show you how to do just that.

7. Create a realistic timeline

To further demonstrate just how prepared you are, it’s important to outline the next steps you will take should your buyer decide to work with you.

Provide a timeline of how and when you will complete all your deliverables. You can do this by designing a  flow chart . Or add a  roadmap  with deadlines. Pitching a long-term project? A timeline infographic would be a better fit.

If you look at this abstract business proposal template below, even something as simple as a table can do the trick.

The timeline is not always set in stone, rather it’s an estimation. The goal is to clarify any questions your potential client might have about how you will deliver for the underlying B2B sales process.

8. Present your payment and terms

On this page, you can outline your fees, payment schedule, invoice payment terms , as well as legal aspects involved in this deal. You can even use the  Excel Invoice Template  to create professional-looking invoices (including brand logo and other elements) and add them to this page.

The key to good pricing is to provide your buyer with options. A  pricing comparison table can help with this. You want to give your client some room to work with. Make sure you’re not scaring off your client with a high price, nor undervaluing yourself. 

Breaking up your pricing in stages is another great way to make sure your potential client knows what he’s paying for. Look at how this simple business proposal template does this:

The legal aspects can slot right into the terms and conditions section. Alternatively, you can add them to the signature section of the proposal to keep things simple.

9. Specify the terms and conditions

Summarize everything you have promised to deliver so far. Include what you expect from your prospective buyer in return.   Add the overall project timeline from start to end, as well as payment methods and payment schedule, incorporating these details into an online digital project management tool. This way, both of you will be clear on what is being agreed on.

This step is very important as it outlines all the legal aspects of the deal. That is why the terms and conditions section of your proposal needs to be as clear as possible.

I recommend consulting a lawyer or your legal team when working on this section of the business proposal. If you’re a business veteran and understand the legalities of your business, you can use the same terms and conditions across all your proposals.

10. Receiving the decision

The final step of this whole process. Your client has read your business proposal and they want to buy what you have to offer.

Add a small section at the end of your proposal to get the necessary signatures. This way, you and your client can sign the proposal and the partnership becomes official.

Be sure to also include your contact information in your business proposal template. It acts as a gentle prompt to your client to contact you in case they have any questions. A professional way of doig that would be to include an e-business card with your contact details, email i.d and any other social links you want to share. You can go through this article for the best digital business cards .

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).

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:

Now that you know how to write a business proposal, let’s look at how you can optimize your proposal to deliver results!

Below you’ll find some winning business proposal templates and examples to get you started. I’ve also included some design tips to keep in mind when you’re creating your next business proposal: 

1. Know your audience 

If you have some clarity on who your ideal buyer is — their pain points, their budget, deadlines, among other things — you’ve already won half the battle.

If you are a business that helps clients with everything from running giveaways or helping grow their blog , identify which customers to pitch. This is a sure-shot way to close the deal.

Mapping user personas  for your ideal buyer can help bring some clarity. It will also help you position your business proposal correctly. This improves the chance of your buyer moving your business proposal to the “Yes!” pile.

2. Put your brand front and center

If your company follows certain brand guidelines, incorporate them in your business proposal templates. Consider how business proposal examples like the one below highlight brand identity :

From the color palettes to the company logos , everything follows their brand guidelines. The result: a business proposal that’s consistent across the board.

Pro Tip: Switching this template to match your brand assets is actually pretty easy. Venngage’s My Brand Kit feature allows you to import your color palettes, logos as well as font choices. Any Venngage template can now be your template.

You can also consider this sample business proposal template:

App design companies sure do know their design. They did a phenomenal job keeping their brand colors consistent while opting for a black design. This unique color scheme also makes their white logo prominent throughout the proposal.

3. Try less text, more visuals

Have you ever read a proposal and thought to yourself, “Wow, this is all text and has no images, I love it!”? Yeah, me neither.

The free business proposal template below is a perfect example of the “less is more” principle. It does a phenomenal job of communicating what it needs to. By substituting some of the text with icons and visuals, you get a clean business proposal that’s much more scannable.

Want to keep things strictly professional? Instead of icons, you can always add your team’s headshots. This shows your buyer exactly who they’ll be working with.  

Check out this formal business proposal format for some inspiration:

4. Switch up your business proposal designs

It doesn’t hurt to go above and beyond once in a while. Jazz up your business proposal template with some extra colors. This helps make your business proposal more engaging. It also helps your buyers retain information faster.

The business proposal example alternates between black, white and grey backgrounds. It still manages to maintain consistency in its branding . Just switching up your backgrounds once in a while can also bring in some variety to an otherwise standard business proposal.

This SEO business proposal sample proves that it’s possible to switch up the colors in every other page. But it still maintains the same color scheme across the entire proposal just like a professionally designed website : 

Pro Tip: Not a color expert? Our guide on picking colors can help you pick the right color scheme for your proposals.

FAQ about business proposals

What is the purpose of a business proposal.

A business proposal aims to streamline the B2B sales process (which is often complex ) between you as a seller and a buyer.

It does this by serving the dual purpose of acting as a source of information. The proposal also acts as a sales pitch aimed at convincing your buyer why they should buy what you have to offer.

What are the best practices for business proposal design?

• Do a thorough spell-check. The goal of your business proposal is to convince your buyer why you’re the perfect person for the job. A proposal with typos or grammatical errors communicates the opposite. A thorough spell-check before you send your proposal is a must.
• Keep things clear and readable: Clarity is an important aspect that you have to ensure in your business proposal. If you want your proposal to hit home and make an impact on the buyer, you have to write it in an understandable way. To keep things clear and readable, there are a couple of things that you can do. You can, for one, take care to use easy wording and segmented sentences from the get-go. You can also try paraphrasing the hard parts of your proposal once you are done writing it.
• Let your brand shine. As discussed before, writing a business proposal is all about knowing your ideal buyer and focusing on their pain points. But that doesn’t mean your business proposal template has to be boring. Demonstrate how different you are compared to other companies. You can do this through your brand guidelines , by using more visuals, switching up your proposal design or showing off your personality in your writing . 
• Create a business proposal PDF. Downloading your business proposal in PDF format allows you to attach other collaterals with your business proposal. These can include a company explainer video or case studies showcasing the work done with past clients. Also, who doesn’t love saving paper?

How long should your business proposal be? 

The length depends on the scope of the work as well as the complexity of the project. Here is a one-page business proposal template:

Can your business proposal template really be one page? Yes, as long as you understand who your buyer is and their pain points. You should also have the ability to communicate everything your ideal buyer needs to know about your business in a succinct manner.

Or if you’re feeling adventurous how about just two pages? Often, clients prefer if you go straight to the point and avoid all the fluff.

For example, this green modern marketing proposal template wastes no time in getting down to brass tacks:

Need more inspiration? Check out this blog on the 5 marketing proposal examples that’ll help elevate your business.

There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to deciding how many pages you should include in your business proposal template. And at the end of the day, “the only rules are the ones you set for yourself”.

At the end of the day, writing winning business proposals that sell is all about you understanding your buyer, their potential pain points and positioning yourself as someone who can alleviate those pain points. 

Now that you know how to write compelling business proposals, what are you waiting for?

Take action and start creating your own business proposals to close more deals and grow your business today!

More business communications templates + writing tips you might be interested in…

• 31 Consulting Proposal Templates to Close Deals
• 20+ Professional Business Letterhead Templates + Branding Tips
• How to Write a White Paper [Tips & Templates]

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How To Write an Internal Proposal (With Definition and Example)

Proposals are often seen as a necessity in the workplace when it comes to complex projects or initiatives that require a lot of resources, planning, and time. One of the most important types of proposals is the internal proposal, which is sent to an employer or higher authority within the same organization. Internal proposals typically focus on the organization itself, such as changes to current processes or systems, introducing new projects, and requesting additional resources. As such, it is important to understand how to craft an effective internal proposal that accurately and professionally presents the proposed idea. In this blog post, we will demonstrate an example of an internal proposal and explain the different elements that make up a successful proposal. We will also provide tips and advice on how to write an internal proposal that stands out from the rest.By reading this post, you will gain a better understanding of what an internal proposal should look like and how to compose one that is compelling and effective.

Elements for an internal proposal

Many of the components in an external proposal are also present in internal proposals. These comprise an introduction, background information, project advantages, a description of the work and its outcomes, methods, schedules, and financial information. These sections ought to contain all the data your managers and coworkers require to make a decision about your project. To let the recipient know who you are and what the proposal is, you can also attach a cover letter, cover memo, or introductory email.

The introduction should state that it is a proposal, summarize the proposal, and include one or two sentences to entice the reader to continue reading. Explain why you are advocating a change and what issue you hope to address in the background section. The justification for your proposal and how it will benefit your employer should be presented in the benefits section. The outline should detail what you’ll do and the expected outcomes.

The method section will include the most information about how you intend to accomplish your objective and resolve the issue. The timeline for your project will be displayed in the schedule section. The costs section should outline any associated expenses, the projected number of project-related hours, any additional employees you want to bring on board, and any materials you might require. If you have information that you don’t feel belongs in any other section of your proposal, you may decide to include addenda.

What is an internal proposal?

A type of proposal used to promote a project inside your organization is an internal proposal. When people think of proposals, they frequently envision external ones that are sent to another organization in order to secure work. Proposals, however, can also be utilized internally to explain a concept and how your business might benefit from it. Since you all work for the same company, some elements of an external proposal are not necessary in an internal proposal.

Reasons for writing an internal proposal

Writing an internal proposal can be done for a variety of reasons, but the most frequent one is that you see something that could be improved within your organization. This could be a procedure, a teaching technique, a structural modification, or a personnel adjustment. You might deliver your proposal to a department that oversees the area where you are proposing a change, depending on the size and structure of your company.

How to write an internal proposal

Here are the steps for writing an internal proposal:

1. Develop your idea

You should consider your idea and how you will implement it before writing your proposal. You must conduct research, develop a plan for how it will operate, and comprehend how it can benefit your company before you can explain how you will carry it out. By taking the time to comprehend the details, you can identify potential problems earlier and avoid submitting a plan to management that isn’t fully formed.

2. Create your hook

Your proposal’s introduction and background should come first so that the audience is well-informed about why your idea is important and how it can solve a problem. One sentence that will positively impact the audience and make them understand why your plan is necessary and significant should be included in the introduction. The background then describes the present circumstance, which you want to update to address a concern.

3. Explain how you will execute your project

The benefits and description sections should explain how and why your plan will benefit the company. These sections are more about demonstrating your ability to make a change and how that change will benefit your employer and coworkers because later sections will go into more detail. The project’s results and how things will function once it has been implemented should be the main topics of the description section.

4. Go into detail

You should describe the details of your plan’s execution in the final sections, which include the method, schedule, and costs sections. Avoid making promises that you don’t feel confident you can keep by being as realistic as you can. Don’t, for instance, promise to complete a project in three months if you feel it will likely take more like six months. Unexpected events might interfere with your plans, but at least try to be realistic at the start of the project and plan for potential delays.

5. Draft your cover document

You may require a cover letter, cover memo, or cover email depending on the formality of your workplace and your proposal. You can ask your manager or coworkers for recommendations if you are unsure of what is best for your company. Your cover letter should explain that you’ve included a proposal for the recipient to consider and that it’s meant to solve a problem. If your proposal contains a lot of detail, your cover document can be short.

Example of an internal proposal

Here is an example of an internal proposal:

introduction

While working to improve our company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion, we have had difficulty finding diverse candidates to fill positions at all levels. I propose that we implement a two-phase software integration strategy, starting with software that will examine our job postings for language that might be problematic for marginalized groups and a resume tool that will strip out identifying information. By eliminating language that could signal bias to candidates and language that could influence hiring managers to act based on an internal bias when reviewing resumes, these two types of software can increase the diversity of our hiring pool.

Since a few years ago, especially in the past year, our company has increased its efforts in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Although we have made some progress, there are still some things we could do better. Particularly, we are having trouble finding diverse candidates to hire who could improve our company culture and bring fresh perspectives to the workplace. Although the need for improvement has been widely discussed, actual changes seem to be taking a while to manifest.

Utilizing these two kinds of software in our hiring process has many advantages. The diversity text analyzer can assist us in eliminating any appearance of prejudice toward candidates and assist us in attracting a more diverse pool of applicants for all positions. It can be helpful to have a software program analyze our listings for these terms because many common phrases or terms may have different implications for various groups of people. This is especially true considering how difficult it would be for one person to understand every term that might be offensive.

The resume generator would eliminate any trace of a candidate’s identity aside from their experience and skills, which are, of course, the most crucial components of any resume being evaluated. We can eliminate the temptation for hiring managers and our HR department to use their biases against candidates as we work to challenge implicit bias within our organization. Additionally, it can assist us in ensuring that, based on our knowledge of their qualifications and experience, we are truly interviewing the top candidates for every position.

Description

We expect to hire more diverse candidates once we’ve integrated these two software programs into our hiring procedure. Although we will need to keep working to make sure that our workplace is welcoming and inclusive for these candidates, adding more diverse employees can also help with that.

For all open or upcoming job postings, we will implement the diversity text analyzer in phase one. HR staff would review all job description documents using the text analyzer after the most urgent job listings were updated to make sure the established content is complete. In this manner, we should be able to use the records we already have to list them on future job listings. If any changes or adjustments are required, any analysis would be completed more quickly.

Phase two will see the implementation of the resume tool for all applications made for any position at our business. Before reviewing resumes, scheduling initial interviews, and providing hiring managers with the same resumes for any candidates under consideration, HR personnel will use this tool. For the foreseeable future, HR and hiring managers at our company will continue to use this tool.

Phase zero would take about a month as we investigate and assess the various programs and strategies accessible for these two goals. This will enable us to make sure we select the best software possible for our needs.

Phase one would begin as soon as our software selections were approved. Depending on the workload of the employees involved, the process of reviewing our current job listings and existing job descriptions should take about three months.

Phase two would begin roughly a month after phase one so that HR would have time to review the most recent job listings before beginning phase two. Phase two’s initial implementation would last two months and come to an end around the same time as phase one. However, as was previously stated, these tools are intended for continuous use.

The cost of purchasing the company’s essential software would be the biggest expense. Early estimates indicate that could cost up to $20,000 annually. Before choosing one, we will undoubtedly conduct thorough research to make sure we are getting the best deal. I anticipate researching the appropriate software for about 10 hours as the HR manager, and instructing the entire HR staff on how to use it. I anticipate that our entire staff will need to put in about 400 hours of work during the first four months of the implementation.

Internal Proposal

How do you start an internal proposal?

• Purpose. Start with a succinct justification for why you are composing the proposal.
• Problem. Show that there is a problem by demonstrating its significance to your boss and the business.
• Solution. Describe the change you want approved. …
• Conclusion. Make this section short-no more than two paragraphs.

What are the types of internal proposal?

• A proposal to a person inside your organization (a company, a government agency, etc.) ) is an internal proposal.
• Unsolicited vs. solicited: A solicited proposal is one that was requested by the recipient.

What is the difference between internal and external proposal?

Proposals may be either external or internal. An internal proposal is created for consumption within your organization, whereas an external proposal is written for an audience outside of it.

What are the 3 main types of proposals?

• Formally solicited.
• Informally solicited.
• Unsolicited.

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How to Write a Business Proposal (Examples & Templates)

A complete guide to writing business proposals that land deals. Easy-to-follow steps, actionable examples, and insider tips from sales pros.

John McTale

11 minute read

Not a fan of writing business proposals? Few people are. After all, it puts you in quite a vulnerable position. You need to convince prospects to pick you and make them understand why you’re the perfect fit for their needs.

This guide will show you a simple step-by-step process you can follow to ace every business proposal you create. Plus, for every section of your proposal, you’ll get sample content you can take as a point of reference and use to score more deals.

First, see a business proposal example created with Storydoc:

Interactive

Static, plain-text proposals are a relic of the past. With Storydoc, you’ll get engaging, interactive proposals looking better than anything you’ve ever created. Rise above your competitors and give your customers a proposal they will be proud to show their boss.

What is a business proposal ?

A business proposal is a formal document devised by a company and delivered to a prospect with the purpose of securing a contractual agreement between the two parties. A good business proposal shows to your potential clients why your offer is the most beneficial to them. Before we dig deeper, if you just need a quick checklist, here it is. To learn more about a specific section just click on a desired item in the interactive table of contents and we’ll take you right there.

Here's how to write a business proposal:

Now, let’s go through each step and see some examples.

1. Create a title page

Starting with the basics. The title page of your business proposal needs to feel professional and inviting. Most importantly, though, make it feel as personal as possible. Include:

• The name of your business
• The subject matter of your proposal
• Your prospect’s name and job title
• Your prospect’s company logo
• Submission date

Business proposal title page example:

Jane Atkins ABC Company Inbound Marketing Proposal for Acme Corp

Submitted to: John Random, VP Growth Submitted on: May 5, 2023

Using your client’s logo is virtually a must. But you kick your title page up a notch by applying other elements of their branding, too: think colors, master visuals, and overall vibe. They will notice and appreciate it. These unique business name ideas will make you stand out from the crowd - your business name matters.

2. Include an interactive table of contents

One of the keys to success in business communication is setting up expectations and then meeting them. A table of contents achieves just that: you tell your readers exactly what they’ll find in your proposal. If you’re sending your proposal electronically, make the ToC clickable, with jump-to links to appropriate chapters of your proposal. It will make navigating through the document so much easier (much like we did with this piece, you're welcome!).

Speaking of electronic versions… Do your best to prevent your prospects from printing out your proposal. A 2020 study found that once someone prints your proposal, your chances of landing the deal shrink by 84%!

Sample table of contents:

Executive Summary

Assessment and Project Overview

Methodology - SEO Audit - Internal Linking Optimization - Digital PR Assets - Digital PR Outreach

Qualifications and Testimonials

Terms and Conditions

Agreement and Rollout Process

3. Write a compelling executive summary

As the name implies, an executive summary is a section that, well, summarizes the whole document. In business proposals, your executive summary should contain the essence of your value proposition: explain why you’re submitting the proposal, what makes your product or services relevant to the client’s specific needs, and how you’re going to tackle their problems. The key thing to remember? Don’t mistake an executive summary for an introduction. The summary is basically a shortened version of your whole proposal. Its purpose is to provide a busy reader ( who could be your prospect ’s boss, the titular executive) with an overview of your offer, clear enough for them to not have to read the proposal in full. If you want to learn more about writing executive summaries, specifically, see our dedicated guide: Executive Summary—Examples and Definition

Sample executive summary for a business proposal:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This proposal outlines a detailed plan of action aimed at maximizing the profits of Acme Corp by boosting the inbound organic traffic to your e-commerce store. As your company displays a very high on-site conversion rate and the online traffic you generate is highly monetizable, the best strategy for maximizing your revenue is boosting your SEO performance. Acme Corp is lagging behind its key competitors in most of the search performance metrics: domain rating, backlink quality , and, as a result, organic traffic. Applying basic SEO maintenance will result in a dramatic increase of relevant monthly visitors to your site, contributing to a substantial increase in revenue. In the second phase of the project, our team will enhance your online presence and earn high-quality backlinks through a data-driven digital PR campaign, further improving your domain rating and the consequent search engine rankings for the highest-converting keywords and phrases.

While executive summaries come at the beginning of business proposals, write this section last. Create the rest of your proposal beforehand, then “skim the cream:” compile the key bits into the summary.

4. Identify the problem and propose a solution

Here’s where the big guns come in. If you’ve managed to get them interested enough to reach this part, you’re halfway there. It doesn’t mean it gets easier at this point. Quite the contrary— This section, usually called “Assessment,” or “Project Overview,” is the meat and potatoes of your proposal. You need to make sure it tastes like Black Angus fillet mignon with gratin dauphinoise. Here are a few tips for making it powerful and convincing to your prospects:

• Focus on the grander scheme of things here. Paint a big picture, plant an idea: it’s not the time to get to the nitty-gritty yet.
• B2B buyers can smell generic from miles away. Do your best to customize this part to the exact needs of your customer, never use a copy-pastable template.
• Make it about them. Instead of “selling” your product or services, focus on the tangible business result they’ll get out of this. ROI is the most direct, hard-hitting metric after all.
• Don’t overuse jargon or highly technical terms. You’re communicating with a human, not an algorithm.
• It’s okay to use your sales deck as a point of reference. It’s what got them interested in the first place, so do rely on the same main message.

Sample project overview in a business proposal:

ASSESSMENT AND PROJECT OVERVIEW Acme Corp is currently looking for ways to bring more inbound traffic to the company website. As an e-commerce business with competitively priced, high-quality performance clothing, any traffic you generate is highly monetizable. Your current traffic sources mostly constitute direct (15%), AdWords (40%), and display ads (18%). Organic traffic acquisition has been heavily underperforming for your site. At the same time, both your key competitors, DoeSports and GreenWay, bring in twice as much organic traffic as you do through paid sources (via Ahrefs, and SimilarWeb analysis). This shows that SEO efforts can be highly profitable in your industry. Your e-commerce store suffers from a few easy-to-fix SEO issues that we will address immediately:

• Poor-quality backlinks from spam sites, low SEO health score, and irrelevant anchor text in internal links.
• Fixing these issues alone will boost your SERP positions by 5–10 places for highest-volume keywords, amounting to 5,000–8,000 more unique visitors per month.
• Considering your extremely high average conversion rate of 3% and an average conversion value of $75, those efforts will increase monthly revenue by at least $11,250.

Furthermore, in comparison to your competitors, AcmeCorp has a poor domain rating: 49, compared to 66 of DoeSports and 70 of GreenWay, indicating fewer relevant backlinks and weaker referring domains. Our team will acquire relevant, high-quality backlinks from key industry publications through digital PR and outreach campaigns based on unique data-driven studies. This will result in:

• A significant boost in your domain rating, directly contributing to all major search engines rankings.
• A projected boost in traffic to your website of further 12,000 visitors per month.
• Enhanced brand visibility.

Even at the stage of the deal where you send the proposal, don’t assume your customer understands what they’re buying and why they need it. You still need to get your sales message across: let your prospects understand the value attached to your price tag.

5. Explain your methodology

If the executive summary of a business proposal is the why , and the project overview, the what , here’s the part where you describe how . If you’ve nailed the previous sections, your prospect knows that your solutions are relevant to their problems and has a bird’s eye view of expected outcomes. It’s time to explain your methods for achieving what you promise to deliver. List all the deliverables they can expect from the project or service, together with a timetable and a list of dependencies detailing the deadlines or frequency of delivering specific items or milestones. How granular you are in this part largely depends on the duration of collaboration you’re discussing, and many other project-specific details.

Example #1:

If you’re writing an event video proposal, you’ll want to explain what the client can expect:

• Before the event (consulting your needs and ideal outcomes, auditing the venue, setting up lighting, and so on),
• During the event (how many videographers on site, exact timetable, total shooting time),
• After the event (post-production, sound and music, additional editing, total length of video material delivered).

Example #2:

If, on the other hand, your proposal refers to long-term marketing consulting contract, the description of your methodology will be more general:

• Month 1: identifying and fixing technical SEO issues (anchor text, internal linking, backlink quality).
• Month 2: auditing the site content and optimizing existing URLs for search engine performance using an SEO rank tracker tool .
• Month 3: automating the funnel, running A/B tests on form pages.

And so on… Let’s have a look at what it might look like in practice.

Business proposal sample—methodology:

METHODOLOGY

• Disavowing links from low-reputation websites
• Fixing critical issues on existing URLs
• Improving site speed
• Fixing errors in robots.txt
• Optimizing meta titles and meta descriptions
• Fixing errors in HTML tags

Internal Linking Optimization

• Identifying internal linking opportunities
• Creating SEO-friendly anchor text combinations
• Removing links to 404 URLs

Digital PR Assets

• Running unique surveys via OnePoll
• Creating data-driven content relevant to the audiences of industry online publications
• Creating shareable infographics depicting the findings of the study

Digital PR Outreach

• Identifying key leads in relevant industry websites
• Email outreach to our database of relevant contacts
• Passive link building via Google AdWords

6. Back up your proposal with proof of qualifications

Your business proposal might be visionary so far. Still, if it’s not credible, it will get you nowhere. The client might love your ideas. They might be beyond excited to see them come to life. But— They don’t know you. And remember the old saying: “Trust everybody, but always cut the cards.” (Yes, it’s a euphemism for “Trust no one, ever.”) How do you make them trust you? Show them you’ve done it before and you succeeded. Again, and again. List verifiable, measurable achievements you or your company can boast about and pepper those with social proof. See a few examples:

• Customer case studies,
• Testimonials,
• Certifications,
• Industry awards,
• Years of experience,
• Media mentions.

The ideal composition of those will depend on the type of project and the industry: If you’re a photographer, your client won’t care too much about the awards you might have gotten or what The New Yorker wrote about your solo show. They’ll want to review your portfolio to see if that’s the vibe they're into and hear from your past clients to check if you’re not a pain to work with. If, in turn, you’re writing a marketing business proposal, your best bet will be to emphasize examples of your past campaigns together with detailed key metrics you boosted for your clients. Writing a proposal in an informal tone? You can add a short “About Us” section. Introduce team members who would be working on the project and explain what makes them the best professionals available on the market for solving the particular problem in question.

7. Outline your pricing options

This is where things get rather technical. On the face of it, the pricing section seems fairly obvious. They might be in love with your solutions, but they don’t yet know if they can afford you. Pricing is a tricky part on your end, though. You don’t want to scare off your lead with a sky-high estimate; at the same time, you don’t want to undersell yourself. The best option is to go for an interactive pricing page where every type of service or activity has a separate price tag to it and your clients can easily select a package that suits their needs and meets their budget—ideally, the total price should get automatically calculated. Alternately, you can use an estimate generator , which is an effective tool for automatically calculating cost forecasts based on various criteria and input data. This tool is both affordable and consumes little computing resources, so you can get it along with the best laptop for the money in the $300-$500 range. If you don’t have such an option at hand, create a very specific pricing table that clearly identifies each item or service, as well as the billing period. Here’s a practical example.

Sample pricing for a business proposal:

Remember, your goal is to make them comfortable with the pricing. Make them understand that your offer is not a cost but an investment worth every penny. A great way to achieve this is adding a live ROI calculator. It’s a perfect reminder of why they’re reading the proposal in the first place: to find a solution that will help them increase the revenue.

Below, you can see a sample ROI calculator created with our presentation maker tool :

Interactive ROI calculator example

8. Finish with terms and conditions + contractual agreement

Here’s a bad dream— The client loved your proposal, you’re midway through the project, and, all of a sudden, they’re refusing to make a second payment on your account. “We agreed on 30% upfront, and a full payment upon completion.” You know that’s not what you agreed on. Or do you? A proper business proposal comes with a detailed set of terms and conditions, together with contractual agreement at the bottom, helping both parties involved avoid any misunderstandings. In the terms and conditions, describe the timeline of the project, payment terms and schedule, cancellation policy (if applicable), and possible pre-agreement amendments to the proposal itself.

Sample terms and conditions for a business proposal:

TERMS AND CONDITIONS Timeline Start date: June 1, 2023 End date: July 31, 2023 Total payment due: $11,150 40% of the total payment is due upon signing. 100% of the total payment is due upon project completion. After the final payment, any elements of text, graphics, photos, or other creative work created by ABC Company for Acme Corp are owned by Acme Corp. ABC Company retains the right to showcase their creative work done for Acme Corp as examples in their portfolio. Prior to signing the contractual agreement, elements of this proposal might be amended in cooperation with Jane Atkins, ABC Company.

At the bottom of your document, include a legal agreement clause and a space for signatures. Make it easy for them to make a decision without additional documents. Adding a date and signature space in a business proposal will help you close the deal faster. For maximum convenience, you’ll want electronic signatures enabled.

Sample agreement clause for a business proposal:

If you agree to the terms of this inbound marketing proposal, please sign in the field below. Your signature indicates that you enter into a contractual agreement with ABC Company that commences on the date signed below. [ date ] [ signature ] John Random, Acme Corp

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And that’s a wrap…

I hope this step-by-step overview of business proposal writing has straightened out any queries or doubts you might have had. For the final word, here are a few extra tips to keep in mind before you hit “send.”

Business proposal tips:

• Start with an outline.
• Never reuse old proposals.
• Use hard numbers whenever possible.
• Don’t shy away from your brand.
• Make next steps obvious.
• Re-read, proofread and edit.

Thanks for reading. Keeping my fingers crossed for your proposal!

Hi, I'm John, Editor-in-chief at Storydoc. As a content marketer and digital writer specializing in B2B SaaS, my main goal is to provide you with up-to-date tips for effective business storytelling and equip you with all the right tools to enable your sales efforts.

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Sales | How To

How to Write a Business Proposal (+ Template & Examples)

Published February 27, 2023

Published Feb 27, 2023

REVIEWED BY: Jess Pingrey

WRITTEN BY: Bianca Caballero

This article is part of a larger series on Sales Management .

Free Business Proposal Template

• 1 Determine Sales Proposal Requirements
• 2 Gather Necessary Information
• 3 Design Your Proposed Solution
• 4 Calculate Pricing
• 5 Draft Your Proposal
• 6 Edit Your Proposal Draft
• 7 Send Your Proposal
• 8 Follow Up With Your Recipient
• 9 Best Practices in Writing Sales Proposals
• 10 Bottom Line

A business proposal is a document sent to a prospective client that outlines a firm’s product or service offerings. It also explains how you will provide a solution, the cost, timeline, and qualifying information, such as your background and prior work experience. In this article, we outline eight steps for how to create a business proposal, offer a free proposal template, and provide best practices for writing proposals.

Creating a sales proposal can feel tedious, especially if you’re drafting it from scratch each time. We’ve created a free template that you can use as a resource for your sales proposal.

FILE TO DOWNLOAD OR INTEGRATE

Free Sales Business Proposal Template

Thank you for downloading!

💡 Quick Tip:

Use ClickUp for free to see your entire sales funnel in one place.

• ✓ Free forever, unlimited users
• ✓ Manage all leads, emails and tasks
• ✓ Create presentations, lead forms, and contracts
• ✓ Professional workspace templates

After you’ve downloaded our free template above, you can now customize it according to your business needs as you follow the steps to writing a proposal below:

1. Determine Sales Proposal Requirements

The first step in learning how to write a business proposal is knowing what needs to be included. Government agencies, public universities, and large corporations typically use requests for proposals (RFPs). These are formal solicitation requests for products or services in which the requirements are normally laid out line by line and must be followed precisely.

If you are writing a proposal for a potential customer undergoing your unique sales process , include things a decision-maker would like to see. For instance, pricing, timelines, and the proposed solution regarding quantities and the mode of product or service delivery are critical purchasing factors enclosed in the document.

Pro tip: ClickUp is a free-forever project management tool that helps teams:

• Create professional proposals
• Collaborate with shared tasks and team chat
• Assign tasks to teammates

Visit ClickUp

ClickUp project management board (Source: ClickUp )

2. Gather Necessary Information

Gathering essential information and materials for your proposal can be complex because each potential client may want different details. This could demand other personnel to get involved in pulling the documents and information needed. For instance, some may only request the price and proposed solution, while others will ask for your background story, client reference lists, and work samples to show you’re qualified.

While learning how to write a proposal for business purposes, you may have to dig around your file database for company information, employee biographies, marketing materials, and pricing sheets. Keeping all resources needed for a proposal in one place makes this process easier. Use customer relationship management (CRM) systems to track your proposal progress and acquire what’s needed to draft it in one place.

Pro tip: HubSpot is a popular CRM platform that lets you monitor opportunities using sales pipelines and store documents—all in one system. You can utilize the Sales Documents feature to store, share, and customize templates and materials you’ll need for your proposals.

HubSpot’s deals and opportunities pipeline (Source: HubSpot )

HubSpot’s Sales Documents library (Source: HubSpot )

3. Design Your Proposed Solution

Your proposed solution involves the processes, materials, product quantities, and personnel required to fulfill the offerings or address your customer’s problem statement. Additionally, it should be included in the scope of work section in the proposal. For businesses that only provide a product, such as equipment for a manufacturing plant, this step could be as easy as knowing the quantity and having a logistics plan for delivery and installment.

For more service-based businesses, such as business consultants or content development services, there will likely be more steps and deliverables to complete the work. Regardless of your business, you can use the five W’s and an H methodology to construct a proposed solution that addresses your prospect’s primary pain points:

• Who: Who will be involved, do the work, manage, and be a point of contact for the prospect?
• What: What solutions or products will be delivered, and what resources, processes, or technology will be used?
• Where: Where will work be done or delivered to?
• When: When will the work start and be completed, what are the key milestones throughout the project, and when is each deliverable expected to occur?
• Why: Why did you choose this particular solution for this customer’s needs?
• How: How will work be done, managed, and checked for high quality and customer satisfaction?

For example, a business-to-business (B2B) content writing business might be trying to address a statement of needs issued by a client: “We would like to express thought leadership on the topic of the Zero Trust Cybersecurity Framework.” In this case, the business could use the solution in this business proposal example:

The objective of this business proposal is to demonstrate how ABC Writing Agency can promote the thought leadership of Cybersecurity Corp. for the Zero Trust Security Model. We believe the best course of action is to research and copyright a branded e-book (roughly 4,000 words) regarding Zero Trust Security, the details of the solution, its benefits, and the modern-day security challenges it solves (what) with the final product completed in August 2022. (when) The e-book will use your logo and branding scheme to convey your personal grasp on the subject and thought leadership using a series of direct quotes and statistical callouts. (why)

To ensure high-quality work and client satisfaction, we will begin with an initial call to construct a detailed outline discussing the sections, style guides, tone, and to retrieve direct quotes. Following an initial draft, multiple rounds of edits will take place between Cybersecurity Corp. and ABC Writing Agency to develop a final draft. (how)

The project will be led by our senior editor, Collin Buchanan, and content manager, Jake Cunningham, who comes from the world of cybersecurity. Our team will utilize and manage freelancers experienced in writing e-books on technical topics to research and copyright the asset. (who) All work will be completed by us virtually and delivered via Google Docs. (where)

4. Calculate Pricing

Once you know how you’ll provide your product or service, the next step in writing a proposal is formulating the costs to specify in the document’s pricing section. This is one of the toughest steps because of all the factors that need to be considered, such as product cost and other expenses. That’s why it is critical to accurately communicate your costs to avoid losing a deal for overcharging—or worse—winning a deal with significantly underestimated costs.

As you price everything, you can either do a flat fee, hourly rate, per-unit charge, or some combination of the three. Sometimes, it’s best to work backward by establishing your desired probability first in the form of a percent like 20% profit or a flat dollar amount such as $10,000 above the work cost.

For example, you want to make a 20% profit on the work for an equipment installation job for a manufacturing business, and you’re pricing using a flat fee. You’ve itemized the costs as the following:

• 1 x $80,000 manufacturing equipment = $80,000
• 3 installation/delivery employees x 5 hours x $32 per hour = $480 wages
• $480 employee wages x 7% employer payroll tax = $33.6 payroll tax
• $480 employee wages x 20% benefits and workers’ compensation = $96 benefits and compensation
• $200 for the delivery truck and gas = $200 for delivery costs

When you add all the itemized expenses, the total cost for this installation job will be around $80,809. To get the total, you need to charge this customer to meet your desired profitability, and multiply it by 20% to get $16,162. Add that to your total cost ($80,809 + $16,162), and $96,971 is the flat fee you will charge for the installation job.

Pro tip: Struggling to visualize your pricing process? Try using these seven free estimate templates . Designed for various business types, these templates allow you to outline and itemize the costs of providing work to share with your customers to help win more deals easily.

5. Draft Your Proposal

Now that you know your proposal requirements, have gathered the necessary information, determined the proposed solution, and calculated pricing, you are ready to draft the document. Following along with our free template, your draft will consist of the following elements:

The title page leans more toward showing the professionalism of your business than providing information. There should be a specific title establishing the purpose, such as “ABC Writing Agency Proposal for Cybersecurity Corp. to Promote Thought Leadership on Zero Trust Security.”

Also, be sure to indicate who the proposal was prepared for in terms of the decision-making person and their company name. Add your logo to the front and the contact information for the primary point of contact for your business so they can contact you with further questions.

Table of Contents

Use a table of contents to break down each part of the proposal for business so they can easily navigate through it. Because of the digital age we live in, we recommend linking your table of contents electronically to each associated section. That way, those reading your proposal can go to any part of the document by clicking on the table of contents.

Executive Summary

The executive summary takes everything in your proposal and compresses it into one paragraph. Essentially, if a reader reads this section, they should be able to grasp the general idea of your solution. Here’s a business proposal example using the content writing example above:

With over 10 years of experience in writing high-quality marketing assets, we are eager to assist Cybersecurity Corp in its endeavor to promote thought leadership on Zero Trust Security. We plan to achieve this by writing a comprehensive e-book using engaging copy, stat callouts, and direct quotes from your leaders to help associate the security framework with your brand.

Company Background

Here’s your time to talk about your inception story, mission statement , founding purpose, and company history. You can also provide biographies and professional pictures of your company founders, leaders, and key personnel that might be involved in the work you provide.

This is also the time to express your unique selling proposition . In other words, addressing the question “why choose us” over competitors. Lastly, if you’ve had any recognition or won any company awards, this is the section to highlight those successes.

Scope of Work

This section correlates with creating your proposed solution in step three as you present it in an actionable business plan. Describe the work that will be completed and the tangible deliverables associated with it.

In this small business proposal example, we see how a content writing business might construct a scope of work:

We will provide content writing services to create predetermined marketing assets for Cybersecurity Corp. This includes researching online data for usable information, interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs) for additional insights and quotes, copywriting drafts, inserting callouts, and making edits per revision requests made by Cybersecurity Corp. Deliverables for the scope of work above include:

• 1 x outline developed by ABC Writing Agency and approved by Cybersecurity Corp.
• 1 x drafted e-book (max. 4,000 words) delivered by Google Doc

No matter how long your scope of work is, it’s crucial to avoid industry or technical jargon that the general audience may not understand. Take the time to review the scope of work and translate any statements that may be misunderstood or confusing.

Be sure to indicate how long you expect it to take to complete the entire scope of work. It’s also a good idea to provide estimates for each milestone or individual deliverable you set. Whenever possible, present the information visually to help your reader absorb it better. Below is a sales proposal timeline example for a sales consulting business and its milestones.

Pricing or Price Estimate

For this section, take the price calculation you did in step four and present it to the potential customer. While you should itemize it to show where the price comes from, avoid adding your desired profitability, as that should be private to your business. Make sure it’s clear as to how each item is priced, whether that be hourly, per unit, or a flat fee.

This section should also be used to explain payment expectations, e.g., when invoices must be paid by, how much money is required upfront vs after work is completed, refund policy, and if other billable expenses can be included automatically or require client approval.

Be upfront with your estimate if you don’t know how many units you’ll need or how many hours it will take to accomplish your business offering. Provide an explanation and an estimated range.

Conclusion, Terms & Appendix

The final sections should include additional information that could be useful to your prospective client. A conclusion should express your gratitude for the opportunity and explain the next steps to move forward. Terms (or terms and conditions) can be added in a proposal or in the service agreement to cover legal aspects of a working contract, like contract dispute policies, confidentiality, rules on subcontracting, etc.

The appendix is optional but would utilize visuals or supplemental documents to enrich your proposal. For instance, you might include links to sample work, a client reference list, or a catalog of options for materials or software vendors from which the client can choose.

6. Edit Your Proposal Draft

Once you have completed the first draft of your proposal, run it by multiple departments to ensure it is comprehensive and accurate. Some things to consider as you review it for potential revisions:

• Has strong readability: The proposal uses appropriate style, tone, and structured sentences to create a clean flow of information understood by the specific reader.
• Avoids grammar and technical errors: The proposal avoids punctuation, spelling, or other errors related to proper writing mechanics.
• Addresses requirements: The proposal contains all the information and sections required to meet the reader’s or customer’s needs and objectives.

Use editing tools such as Grammarly to evaluate your business proposal writing for enhanced quality. Grammarly lets users upload text into a system to check for grammar and spelling mistakes as well as for engagement and readability of content. There’s also a plagiarism check feature to evaluate the text to billions of pages online. You can even adjust style preferences when subscribing to Grammarly Business to ensure it meets all your goals.

Grammarly Business’ in-line writing suggestion (Source: Grammarly Business )

Pro tip: Use graphic design tools like Canva to give your sales proposal the professional touch it needs. Canva is a user-friendly platform with thousands of free templates for presentations, marketing materials, social media posts, and proposals for business. Users of all design skill levels can easily turn regular copies into visual masterpieces.

Canva’s sales proposal templates (Source: Canva )

7. Send Your Proposal

Now that your proposal is drafted, edited, and has the aesthetics it needs, it’s time to send the document for review. More formal submissions for RFPs may require that you submit them in person, electronically, or both, so review those provisions carefully before sending them in.

Some sales plans incorporate unsolicited proposals to new leads to present problems they didn’t know existed with viable solutions they could offer. In these cases, they use the proposal to get their foot in the door and create sales opportunities.

When taking this course of action, it’s important to add context to the unsolicited proposal. For instance, in a sales email , briefly introduce yourself, your business, and what services you provide. Furthermore, indicate why you wanted to send a proposal to them specifically and let them know they can reach out if they wish to discuss it further.

8. Follow Up With Your Recipient

Even after you send a proposal, the process is not over. Make time to follow up to confirm the contact received the proposal and see if they have any questions. Because of the proposals’ details, there are usually other clarification steps in the procurement process, such as interviews, client meetings , or sales presentations before work begins.

We recommend using a customer relationship management (CRM) system with task management capabilities to ensure sales reps don’t forget to reach out to a prospect after a proposal is initially sent. A CRM like Pipedrive lets you design and assign tasks to team members from within a project. You can also create projects that are linked to open or won deals.

Pipedrive’s project and task management feature (Source: Pipedrive )

Best Practices in Writing Sales Proposals

Now that you know the steps in how to write a business proposal, there are a few tips you can practice and maintain to produce thoughtful and effective proposals.

Keep It Simple

When learning how to make a business proposal, remember to write short, simple sentences. While there is no strict rule on the business proposal format or length, make sure it is straightforward and easy to understand. Avoid loading it with too much business jargon and fancy words. Instead, strike the sweet spot between conveying essential information and ensuring anyone who reads it can understand it.

Outline Major Sections & Pertinent Information

The first thing to do when learning how to do a business proposal is to outline all the major sections of your document. This should also include all the pertinent information that you want to get across. The business proposal outline will help you stay focused on the main points of the document and keep your ideas from drifting away.

Add Data & Visuals

Capture your prospect’s attention by including quantitative data and figures highlighting your offerings and the value of your company. For example, you can show your month-on-month sales trends as proof of your stellar performance. Adding visual elements like charts and graphs can also help make your proposal more engaging.

Increase Credibility With Social Proof

Assert your company’s credibility. Many prospects won’t readily believe your claims about your business and are most likely to trust the word of their own peers and other customers. To help build your credibility and gain their trust, include social proof, such as reviews and testimonials from your own customers.

Use a Call to Action (CTA)

After the prospect reads your proposal, direct them to the next step. Use a call to action with a verb that defines what they should do to act on their interest in your proposal. Examples of CTAs are “Subscribe today” or “Download this guide now.” You can also use a CTA with a no-obligation statement like “Sign up, it’s free” for prospects who perceive risks in taking action.

Another excellent idea when adding CTAs is to create a sense of urgency to make your prospect feel that now is the best time to subscribe to your service. Some people are motivated to do something right away for fear of missing out (FOMO). That said, phrases like “Limited-time offer” and “On sale now for 20% off” can trigger action from prospects.

Stay True to Your Brand

Each company has a different brand voice and personality. Staying true to your business brand is a great way to stand out among your competitors. For instance, if your company sells baby clothes, it is best to use language that parents with babies can relate to, like “cute and cuddly” or “snug and comfy.” Use a more formal tone of voice in your proposal if you are selling office wear.

Bottom Line

Many business owners and sales managers would like to standardize their proposal-writing system. However, it can be tricky to address the unique needs of every solicited and unsolicited opportunity to get the correct information in order and present their proposed solutions. Our how-to sales proposal examples and free template will help you streamline your bidding process to win more deals.

About the Author

Find Bianca On LinkedIn

Bianca Caballero

Bianca Caballero is a subject matter expert at Fit Small Business who covers Sales and Customer service topics. Prior to working at FSB, she was in field sales and territory management. When she launched her career as a writer, she worked with companies from the US, Australia, and China. At present, she uses her 12+ years of writing experience to provide FSB readers with the best answers to their questions.

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Chapter 13: Business Proposals

Venecia Williams

Learning Objectives

• Describe the basic elements of a business proposal
• Discuss the main goals of a business proposal
• Identify effective strategies to use in a business proposal

Business proposals are documents designed to make a persuasive appeal to the audience to achieve a defined outcome, often proposing a solution to a problem. Much like a report, with several common elements and persuasive speech, a business proposal makes the case for your product or service. In order to be successful in business and industry, you should be familiar with the business proposal.

Let’s say you work in a health care setting. What types of products or services might be put out to bid? If your organization is going to expand and needs to construct a new wing, it will probably be put out to bid. Everything from office furniture to bedpans could potentially be put out to bid, specifying a quantity, quality, and time of delivery required. Janitorial services may also be bid on each year, as well as food services, and even maintenance. Using the power of bidding to lower contract costs for goods and services is common practice.

Effective business proposals are built around a great idea or solution. While you may be able to present your normal product, service, or solution in an interesting way, you want your document and its solution to stand out against the background of competing proposals. What makes your idea different or unique? How can you better meet the needs of the company than other vendors? What makes you so special? With the competitive nature of business proposals, your aim is to make your proposal stand out and ultimately win the contract.

Planning a Proposal

To begin planning a proposal, remember the basic definition: a proposal is an offer or bid to do a certain project for someone. Proposals may contain other elements—technical background, recommendations, results of surveys, information about feasibility, and so on. But the difference with a proposal is that it asks the audience to approve, fund, or grant permission to do the proposed project. If you plan to be a consultant or run your own business, written proposals may be one of your most important tools for bringing in business. And, if you work for a government agency, nonprofit organization, or a large corporation, the proposal can be a valuable tool for initiating projects that benefit the organization or you the employee/proposer (and usually both).

A proposal should contain information that would enable the audience of that proposal to decide whether to approve the project, to approve or hire you to do the work or both. To write a successful proposal, put yourself in the place of your audience and think about what sorts of information that person would need to feel confident having you do the project.

It’s easy to get confused about proposals. Imagine that you have a terrific idea for installing some new technology where you work and you write up a document explaining how it works and why it’s so great, showing the benefits, and then end by urging management to go for it. Is that a proposal? No, at least not in this context. It’s more like a feasibility report, which studies the merits of a project and then recommends for or against it. Now, all it would take to make this document a proposal would be to add elements that ask management for approval for you to go ahead with the project. Certainly, some proposals must sell the projects they offer to do, but in all cases, proposals must sell the writer (or the writer’s organization) as the one to do the project.

Persuasion- Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Proposals are built on the three elements of persuasion: ethos, pathos and logos. A proposal’s ethos refers to credibility, pathos to passion and enthusiasm, and logos to logic or reason. All three elements are integral parts of your business proposal that require your attention. Who are you and why should they do business with you? Your credibility may be unknown to the potential client and it is your job to reference previous clients, demonstrate order fulfillment, and clearly show that your product or service is offered by a credible organization. By association, if your organization is credible the product or service is often thought to be more credible.

In the same way, if you are not enthusiastic about the product or service, why should the potential client get excited? How does your solution stand out in the marketplace? Why should they consider you? Why should they continue reading? Passion and enthusiasm are not only communicated through “!” exclamation points. Your thorough understanding, and your demonstration of that understanding, communicates dedication and interest.

Each assertion requires substantiation, each point clear support. It is not enough to make baseless claims about your product or service; you have to show why the claims you make are true, relevant, and support your central assertion that your product or service is right for this client. Make sure you have sources to support your points. Be detailed and specific.

Types of Proposals

Consider the situations in which proposals occur. A company may send out a public announcement requesting proposals for a specific project. This public announcement—called a request for proposals (RFP)—could be issued through newspapers, trade journals, Chamber of Commerce channels, or individual letters. Firms or individuals interested in the project would then write proposals in which they summarize their qualifications, project schedules and costs, and discuss their approach to the project. The recipient of all these proposals would then evaluate them, select the best candidate, and then prepare a contract.

But proposals come about much less formally. Imagine that you are interested in doing a project at work (for example, investigating the merits of bringing in some new technology to increase productivity). Imagine that you visited with your supervisor and tried to convince her of this. She might respond by saying, “Write me a proposal and I’ll present it to upper management.” As you can see from these examples, proposals can be divided into several categories:

• Solicited or unsolicited. Proposals are solicited or unsolicited. A solicited proposal is one in which the recipient has requested the proposal. Typically, a company will send out requests for proposals (RFPs) through the mail or publish them in some news source. But proposals can be solicited on a very local level: for example, you could be explaining to your boss how great it would be to install a new technology in the office; your boss might get interested and ask you to write up a proposal to do a formal study of the idea. Unsolicited  proposals are those in which the recipient has not requested proposals. With unsolicited proposals, you sometimes must convince the recipient that a problem or need exists before you can begin the main part of the proposal.
• Internal or externa l. Proposals can be internal or external. A proposal to someone within your organization (a business, a government agency, etc.) is an  internal  proposal. With internal proposals, you may not have to include certain sections (such as qualifications) or as much information in them. An  external  proposal is one written from one separate, independent organization or individual to another such entity. The typical example is the independent consultant proposing to do a project for another firm.
• Informal or formal. Another type of proposal is informal or formal.  An informal proposal is a short document, only a few pages long, normally in the format of a memo or letter and includes fewer sections than a formal proposal. Informal proposals generally include six sections: introduction, background, plan, staffing, budget and authorization (Guffey et al., 2019). Formal proposals are longer, more complex documents, and in addition to the six sections from the informal report, they include many of the other sections found in a typical report: a letter of transmittal, title page, table of contents, list of figures, executive summary , and additional information in the appendices . They may also include a copy of the RFR.

Common Sections in Proposals

You can be creative in many aspects of the business proposal but follow the traditional categories. Businesses expect to see information in a specific order, much like a résumé or even a letter. Each aspect of your proposal has its place and it is to your advantage to respect that tradition and use the categories effectively to highlight your product or service. Every category is an opportunity to sell and should reinforce your credibility, your passion, and the reason your solution is simply the best. Keep in mind that the sections included in your proposal are based on the type of proposal and the audience’s needs. Figure 13.1 highlights some of the common sections found in a proposal. Figure 13.1 provides an example of a proposal.

Copy of RFP

Include a copy of the RFP you are responding to when submitting a proposal. A company undertaking a major project may send out different RFPs for different parts of the project, so it is best to include the RFP to identify which issue you are planning to address.

Letter of Transmittal

As with a formal report, include a letter of transmittal which should briefly identify the issue you are aiming to solve and the benefits of your proposed plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary provides a summary of the proposal and highlights the main aspects of the proposal. If some information seems repetitive, remember that business reports are not always read in the order written.

Write a title that clearly and accurately describes your proposal. Include the name of the organization the proposal is for, the RPF number and the date. The title page should also have the name of the author(s) and the author’s organization.

Table of Contents

The table of contents enables the reader to quickly find the desired sections in your report. Format this page the way you would format the table of contents in a formal report.

List of Figures and Tables

Include a list of figures and tables if your report contains numerous illustrations, diagrams and charts.

Introduction

Plan the introduction to your proposal carefully. Make sure it does the following things (but not necessarily in this order) that apply to your particular proposal:

• Indicate that the document to follow is a proposal.
• Refer to some previous contact with the recipient of the proposal or to your source of information about the project.
• Find one brief motivating statement that will encourage the recipient to read on and to consider doing the project (if it’s an unsolicited or competitive proposal) and to give you the contract to do the project.
• Give an overview of the contents of the proposal.

Background on the Problem, Opportunity, or Situation

Often occurring just after the introduction, the background section discusses what has brought about the need for the project—what problem, what opportunity there is for improving things, what the basic situation is. It’s true that the audience of the proposal may know the problem very well, in which case this section might not be needed. Writing the background section still might be useful, however, in demonstrating your particular view of the problem. And, if the proposal is unsolicited, a background section is almost a requirement as you will need to convince the audience that the problem or opportunity exists and that it should be addressed.

Benefits and Feasibility of the Proposed Project

Most proposals discuss the advantages or benefits of doing the proposed project. This acts as an argument in favour of approving the project. Also, some proposals discuss the likelihood of the project’s success. In the unsolicited proposal, this section is particularly important as you are trying to “sell” the audience on the project.

When writing the plan, you want to explain how you’ll go about doing the proposed work. This acts as an additional persuasive element; it shows the audience you have a sound, well-thought-out approach to the project. Also, it serves as the other form of background some proposals need. Remember that the background section (the one discussed above) focuses on the problem or need that brings about the proposal. However, in this section, you discuss the background relating to the procedures or technology you plan to use in the proposed work. Once again, this gives you the proposal writer a chance to show that you know what you are talking about and to build confidence in the audience. Give enough information in your plan to secure the contract, but don’t include all the specifics (Guffey et al., 2019).

Most proposals contain a section that shows not only the projected completion date but also key milestones for the project. If you are doing a large project spreading over many months, the timeline would also show dates on which you would deliver progress reports. And if you can’t cite specific dates, cite amounts of time for each phase of the project.

Qualifications

Most proposals contain a summary of the proposing individual’s or organization’s qualifications to do the proposed work. It’s like a mini-resume contained in the proposal. The proposal audience uses it to decide whether you are suited for the project. Therefore, this section lists work experience, similar projects, references, training, and education that shows familiarity with the project.

Budget and Resources

Most proposals also contain a section detailing the costs of the project, whether internal or external. With external projects, you may need to list your hourly rates, projected hours, costs of equipment and supplies, and so forth, and then calculate the total cost of the complete project. Internal projects of course are not free, but you should still list the project costs: for example, you can list hours you will need to complete the project, equipment and supplies you’ll be using, and assistance from other people in the organization.

Conclusions

The final paragraph or section of the proposal should bring readers back to a focus on the positive aspects of the project. In the final section, you can end by urging them to get in touch to work out the details of the project, to remind them of the benefits of doing the project, and reiterate the reasons your organization is the right choice for the project.

Special project-specific sections

Remember that the preceding sections are typical or common in written proposals, not absolute requirements. Think about the following questions:

• What else might your audience need to understand the nature and scope of the project?
• What else might your audience need to understand the benefits arising from the project?
• What other information might your readers need to be convinced to allow you to do the project?
• What else do they need to see in order to approve the project?

Format of Proposals

A professional document is a base requirement. If it is less than professional, you can count on its prompt dismissal. There should be no errors in spelling or grammar, and all information should be concise, accurate, and clearly referenced when appropriate. Information that pertains to credibility should be easy to find and clearly relevant, including contact information. If the document exists in a hard copy form, it should be printed on a letterhead. If the document is submitted in an electronic form, it should be in a file format that presents your document as you intended. Word processing files may have their formatting changed or adjusted based on factors you cannot control—like screen size—and information can shift out of place, making it difficult to understand. In this case, a portable document format (PDF)—a format for electronic documents—may be used to preserve content location and avoid any inadvertent format changes when it is displayed.

Effective persuasive proposals are often brief, even limited to one page. “The one-page proposal has been one of the keys to my business success, and it can be invaluable to you too. Few decision-makers can ever afford to read more than one page when deciding if they are interested in a deal or not. This is even more true for people of a different culture or language,” said Adnan Khashoggi, a successful multi-billionaire (Riley, 2002). Clear and concise proposals serve the audience well and limit the range of information to prevent confusion.

You have the following options for the format and packaging of your proposal. It does not matter which you use as long as you use the memorandum format for internal proposals and the business-letter format for external proposals.

• Cover letter or memo with separate proposal :  In this format, you write a brief “cover” letter or memo and attach the proposal proper after it. The cover letter or memo briefly announces that a proposal follows and outlines the contents of it. In fact, the contents of the cover letter or memo are pretty much the same as the introduction (discussed in the previous section). Notice, however, that the introduction to the proposal proper that follows the cover letter or memo repeats much of what preceded. This is because the letter or memo may get detached from the proposal or the recipient may not even bother to look at the letter or memo and just dive right into the proposal itself.
• Consolidated business-letter or memo proposal: In this format, you consolidate the entire proposal with a standard business letter or memo. You include headings and other special formatting elements as if it were a report. This consolidated memo format is illustrated in the left portion of Figure 13.2.

Figure 13.2 | Consolidated vs Letter Memo

Revision Checklist for Proposals

As you reread and revise your proposal, watch out for problems such as the following:

• Make sure you use the right format. Remember, the memo format is for internal proposals; the business-letter format is for proposals written from one external organization to another.
• Write a good introduction.
• Make sure to identify exactly what you are proposing to do.
• Make sure that a report—a written document—is somehow involved in the project you are proposing to do.
• Make sure the sections are in a logical, natural order. For example, don’t present the audience with schedules and costs before you’ve gotten them interested in the project.
• Break out the costs section into specifics; include hourly rates and other such details. Don’t just include the final cost.
• For internal projects, don’t omit the section on costs and qualifications: there will be costs, just not direct ones. For example, how much time will you need, will there be printing, binding costs? Include your qualifications if you think your proposal will go to somebody in the organization who doesn’t know you.
• Watch out for generating technobabble. Yes, some of your proposal readers may know the technical side of your project—but others may not. Challenge yourself to bring difficult technical concepts down to a level that non-specialists can understand.
• Proofread and revise for grammar, mechanics and style.

An effective business proposal informs and persuades efficiently. It features many of the common elements of a report, but its emphasis on persuasion guides the overall presentation. Writing effective business proposals is a skill every business writer needs. Plan your proposal well and only include the sections necessary to both inform and persuade your audience. Remember that though you are offering a solution to a problem, your main intention is to sell your service.

End of Chapter Activities

13a. thinking about the content.

What are your key takeaways from this chapter? What is something you have learned or something you would like to add from your experience?

13b. Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever written a proposal? If yes, what were the sections you included?
• Search for an RFP (request for proposal) or similar call to bid, and post it to your class. Compare the results with your classmates, focusing on what is required to apply or bid.
• Identify a product or service you would like to produce or offer. List three companies that you would like to sell your product or service to and learn more about them. Post your findings, making the link between your product or service and company needs. You may find the Web site on creating a business plan ( https://www.scu.edu/mobi/business-courses/starting-a-business/session-2-the-business-plan/#3 ) useful when completing this exercise.

13c. Applying chapter concepts to a situation

Proposing a new software

Nate was recently hired at the Green Grocers Supermarket as a part-time cashier. He only does the evening shifts as he has classes in the day time and wants to avoid having any conflicts in his schedule. A part of his daily duties includes balancing the cash register drawer at the end of his shift. When his colleagues do the evening shift, they have to complete this task as well.

The owner of the supermarket is concerned as she notices that the cashiers are struggling to balance the drawer some evenings. She tries to resolve this issue as inaccurate information is affecting the reliability of the record-keeping process.

Nate is aware of a free software that the cashiers can use to complete their cash register balancing task. This software can save time, eliminate human error and store worksheets digitally instead of having the team file hard copies each day. He shares this idea with his boss who tells him to submit it as a written proposal instead.

Write an executive summary outlining what Nate’s proposal to his boss will include. 

13d. Writing Activity

Watch this video from TED.com on Dance vs. PowerPoint, a modest proposal . Summarize the video. What do you think of this idea of using dance instead of a “boring” PowerPoint? Would it work in a business setting, why or why not?

Attribution

This chapter contains information from Business Communication for Success  which is adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA) in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. This adapted edition is produced by the  University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing  through the  eLearning Support Initiative ,  Business Communication For Everyone  (c) 2019 by Arley Cruthers and is licensed under a  Creative Commons-Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license , and Online Technical Writing by David McMurrey and is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

Guffey, M. E., Loewy, D., & Almonte, R. (2019). Essentials of Business Communication, Eighth Edition . Toronto, ON: Nelson Education /Cengage Learning.

Riley, P. G. (2002).  The one-page proposal: How to get your business pitch onto one persuasive page  (p. 2). New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Chapter 13: Business Proposals Copyright © 2020 by Venecia Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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