The 2 Most Neglected Parts of a Proposal

Proposals are a lot of work.

Whether you’re responding to an RFP or client request or offering up one on your own, they can gobble up hours of your time.

And although a well-written proposal is no guarantee of winning, a poorly written one makes it a lot harder to win.

By poorly written, I’m not just referring to grammar. Problems include being:

• too confusing
• too similar-looking to competitors
• too vendor-focused, and
• too much boilerplate.

Yet, even if your proposal is dogged by one of these issues, you can still stand out by spending more time in two areas where your competitors may not be putting much effort in.

The Executive Summary 

This is the only section that some executives will read. So, it should be your best, most concise, and most persuasive writing.

In one or two pages you need to clearly articulate the problem(s) and impact that the C-level executives who’ll read it care about.

Follow that with a summary of your proposed solution, benefits (both measurable & soft), risks/concerns, and how you’ll address them.

Why bring up risks or concerns that they have or that you have?

To align with an executive’s thought process in decision making.

End with asking for the business.

Your goal is to write this section not as a vendor but as if you were a trusted executive in their organization trying to get a project approved.

Once the executive summary has been written, it should be edited at least 3 times. It’s that important.

The Proposal Title 

How much do book titles and cover design impact book sales?

How about subject lines in email open rates?

Or using headlines on slides or white papers instead of simple titles?

They matter.

So, spend time on converting the title of your proposal into a headline.

Grab their attention by putting the key benefit or result they’ll experience by acquiring your solution.

For example, here’s a title:

“LaBarbera Group’s Negotiating Class Proposal for XYZ Company”.

Here’s a headline:

“LaBarbera Group’s Proposal to Help XYZ Negotiate More Profitable Contracts”.

Here's a better headline:

“LaBarbera Group’s Proposal to Help XYZ  Negotiate More Profitable Contracts (While Protecting Client Relationships)”.

Say you’re an executive with three proposals on your desk.

Two are titled and one is headlined.

Which one catches your eye?

And causes you to open it and immediately read which section?

Your well-written executive summary!

Have fun with this and let me know how it worked out for you.