How To Write a Business Proposal and Other Marketing Documents. Lanette Inc. Zavala
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How To Write a Business Proposal and Other Marketing Documents
by
Lanette Zavala
Copyright 2012 Lanette Zavala,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1070-8
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Introduction
Writing a business proposal starts a major project that delivers revenue for your company and bears its overhead expenses. Carrying that proposal out to the last step successfully finishes the project. To say that preparing and writing a business proposal before implementing it requires hard work would certainly be cliché. Realistically, of course, “hard work” accurately describes business proposal writing and the tasks that surround it. When there is a request for a business proposal by a prospective client, what lies ahead is more than just the opportunity to generate new business.
My parents, who have been entrepreneurs since 1977, have pointed out that sometimes an entrepreneur or executive has to work during hours when everyone else might be asleep. (Of course, that possible mindset of an achiever does not negate maintaining adequate rest for clear thinking.) What their statement does affirm – based on their own successes, hardships, and even some failures within Corporate America – is this: Effective enterprise within sales management far exceeds routine tasks contained within normal business hours and mere procedural activity.
Well-planned hours are spent developing and innovatively re-developing the tools that are keys to maintaining an industrious workload within your company’s production department. These essential tools, to which I’m referring, precede a good business proposal. They are the same tools that establish your business: well-defined services or products within a resourceful business plan, a recurrent market that demands what you’re selling, and a solid marketing strategy.
How you spend your time before, during, and after the development of a business proposal can determine your sales activities. The sales activities of a profitable company are so ongoing that they constantly keep your production and administrative departments busy. So, as the necessary fuel for such activity, business proposal writing is not just another job task. Good business proposals, which reflect upfront the actual objective of your business, are core ingredients to the entire operation of your own company or to the client-based accounts that you manage.
Allowing A Well-Drafted Proposal To Speak In Advance For You
As does a business marketing portfolio, a proposal details every angle that you would discuss in an oral presentation if you were given the time and opportunity. Initially, the benefits that your company offers are more important to you than they are to a prospect who has no full knowledge of your credentials. Conveying the value of your knowledge and expertise can not only be a challenge when drafting an effective proposal but also when delivering it into the right hands. Therefore, utilize electronic communication to send a well-drafted presentation of your proposal in any slide show format while you also make it available in an attractive tangible form.
There is reason to believe that, in today’s society, the younger generation of managers and decision-makers often demonstrate less interest in interfacing with others in business than did the managers in older generations. Because we live in an age where emails, text messaging, and tweeting dominate communication, the last millennial business world has drastically adjusted. With this type of adjustment that has shaven the routine methods of person-to-person and even phone correspondence, companies everywhere have found very time-efficient ways to assign more tasks to a single person who has little personal interaction on the job.
As a result of this quantum leap that we have taken from “old-school” business, there is rarely opportunity and sufficient time to present a thorough sales presentation. At this point in our electronically savvy age, a well-drafted proposal fits the purpose of most salespeople. But does it fit the schedule of most busy prospective clients?
Once brochures and portfolios have been reviewed and a door has been opened to present what your company can do as a supplier, a business proposal can potentially speak in advance for a salesperson as well as point out pertinent details that may be unspoken during a presentation on valuable time. (This does not suggest that an aggressive, outspoken salesperson can no longer be as effective as in the days when electronic communication didn’t distract or replace person-to-person correspondence. What may be more effective is initially utilizing written presentations – sometimes sent electronically – to ensure vocal follow-up.)
If your business proposal can capture the interest of your prospect, it can further open doors for follow-up discussions. As you may know, one common routine of a buyer or procurement manager is to review a business document from their prospective vendor and request more specifics as follow-up. It certainly can give you opportunity to communicate more with your target.
Highlights Of The Following Chapters
Before a business proposal is written, effective actions must be implemented. These actions strategically lead up to the opportunity to write it. Then, after the business proposal is written, every method of follow-up increases in importance because, if a deal is terminated, all time and money spent up to that point has been wasted.
Although this book begins with “Open The Door To A Proposal With A Business Marketing Portfolio”, the step-one action toward writing a business proposal can practically start at the point of revisiting your company’s or department’s marketing plan – sometimes. (In order to tailor an introductory sales presentation of your business, marketing research is effective when getting familiar with the practice of your prospective clients and pinpointing their specific needs.)
Before working on the business proposal, perform or ask yourself the following:
1. Research your target market – your prospect and their customers.
A. What is your prospect’s line of business?
B. Who are your prospect’s customers?
C. How can they use your product or services as a necessity for their success?
D. What are their specific needs? How can your company accommodate those needs in a way that would set you apart from other potential suppliers or providers?
2. Plan a procedure for corrective actions should unexpected problems occur during the proposed contract period. This plan neither has to be verbalized nor written to the client if it is not discussed. However, there are ways of writing a business proposal for a supplier’s failures during a contract period.
3. Finally, treat a business proposal as a vital prop for building small business and as enhancement for a sales department in a large corporation. With this objective, apply strategy and quality control to every bit of information that you provide in documents (like business letters, marketing portfolios, and even mere emails) leading up to a business proposal.
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