What makes a good proposal template?

Good business proposal templates are few and far between. In my commercial experience I've seen some god awful excuses for business proposals land on my desk.

Here is a quick list of the 5 most important elements to an exceptional proposal.

5.) Keep it short - Unless you've got a formal tender response document, don't give in to the urge to create reams and reams of what you think to be important text. Your potential customer is busy and you will lose their attention pretty quickly if you stray away from your core proposal.
4.) Pictures paint a thousand words - it's a cliche but as with all cliches it's right 99% percent of the time. Use imagery to illustrate your proposal whenever you can.
3.) Attention to detail - DON'T make spelling mistakes - ever!
2.) Simple, plain language - don't try to overcomplicate things. People often fall victim to trying to make things sound more complicated than they actually are
1.) Don't sell - inform and explain. Seasoned proposal readers will know when someone is talking crap to them in a proposal. Don't promise the sun, moon and stars. State what you will do, how you will do it and what the outcome will be. People already know what they want. They just want you to tell them how you will deliver it!

If you're really stuck and looking for a good set of example business proposal templates, head on over to Proposal Kit and purchase their excellent proposal templates. They're a great way to you up and running in no time.

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Business Proposal Templates: How long should your proposal be?

This is a question I'm often asked
"How long should our proposal be?"

The simple and short answer would be "How long is a piece of string"

But then again, we're not smart arses here so we'll explore this in a little more detail :)

It's about Quality not Quantity

You've got to remember the most important principles of winning proposal templates

They are all focused on quality. (NOTE: Actually number 5 was "Keep it short" so I guess that could also be the answer to the question posed in this post. Nonetheless, short is still quite ambiguous so we'll proceed!)

Quality proposals, even 2 or 3 page proposals will always win over 20 or 30 page proposals that don't focus on what you will deliver for your customer.

A few simple steps to winning business proposal templates
We're in the middle of putting the finishing touches to a tried and tested process for delivering proposals that will give you the best chance of winning the business every time. If you don't win, you can be confident that you gave it your best shot and won't have any regrets.

For today, I'll give you the 50,000 feet view of what we will be covering:

1. Start with the end in mind - I'd be lying if I told you we came up with that expression. It's borrowed from one of our favourite books of all time - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Before you start typing up your proposal, give careful consideration to what you want the reader to do once they've finished reading it. We'll get into a lot of detail on this and how to become the mind of the reader.
2. Lay it all out - You wouldn't get a builder to just start building your dream home without any plans or blueprints would you? I expect NO! So why should a proposal template be any different? Poor document structure is one of the most common crimes in poor business proposals.
3. Tackle the tough stuff first - What unique value will you deliver for the customer? If you strip away many proposal documents, there are normally only a few pages of real "gold" where the customer sometimes has to struggle to find the value you promise them. By tackling these things first, you will remain focused on the ultimate end game. We'll teach you how to tackle the tough stuff and start making it second nature to you in your daily proposal writing
4. Bring it all together - This is when we get technical and ensure the literary quality of your document is up to scratch.
   
5. Signed, sealed and delivered - You're done! We teach you how to start the closing process from the minute you submit your proposal.

As you can see, the scope of quality business proposal templates is very broad! We'll be getting stuck into these topics in the very near future so stay tuned for more!

Happy proposal writing!

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What makes a good proposal template?

Good business proposal templates are few and far between. In my commercial experience I've seen some god awful excuses for business proposals land on my desk.

Here is a quick list of the 5 most important elements to an exceptional proposal.

5.) Keep it short - Un;ess you've got a formal tender response document, don't give in to the urge to create reams and reams of what you think to be important text. Your potential customer is busy and you will lose their attention pretty quickly if you stray away from your core proposal.
4.) Pictures paint a thousand words - it's a cliche but as with all cliches it's right 99% percent of the time. Use imagery to illustrate your proposal whenever you can.
3.) Attention to detail - DON'T make spelling mistakes - ever!
2.) Simple, plain language - don't try to overcomplicate things. People often fall victim to trying to make things sound more complicated than they actually are
1.) Don't sell - inform and explain. Seasoned proposal readers will know when someone is talking crap to them in a proposal. Don't promise the sun, moon and stars. State what you will do, how you will do it and what the outcome will be. People already know what they want. They just want you to tell them how you will deliver it!