How To Write A Winning Business Proposal: The Complete Guide

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How To Write A Business Proposal: The Complete Guide
How To Write A Business Proposal: The Complete Guide | Image Source: nwdc.co.za

Writing and submitting a winning business proposal is the most important step to securing any contract with an organisation. This document when prepared right, can either elevate your business or keep it in its position. And as such, just as knowing how to write a business plan is crucial for every entrepreneur, learning how to write a business proposal is equally one of the most important business writing skills you’ll have to learn.

If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to write a winning business proposal that will hardly get rejected by any organisation, here is how to write a business proposal in Nigeria or anywhere else around the world:

See Also: How To Write A Business Plan: Step By Step Guide

 

Step 1: Carefully Study The Requirements Of The Request For Proposal

Sometimes you may be required to submit a proposal because of a contract bid that is ongoing. Other times, you may be requested to submit a business proposal because you’re trying to seek some form of sponsorship or the likes from an institution.

Whichever is the case, the first step is to carefully study the Request For Proposal (RFP) to ensure you completely understand what is requested of you, before you proceed to write your business proposal.

If for example, you don’t meet the minimum requirements or can’t deliver under a certain budget stipulated, you’re better off not submitting a proposal, as you most certainly will not get picked.

 

Step 2: Ask All The Questions You Need:

After meeting the requirements, get as much information as possible about the nature of the business proposal. Ask former companies that may have executed contracts or competed for a similar contract in the organisation. Check with an insider to know the best way to outline your business proposal for readership, and ensure you’re not going to be entirely off and unrealistic when stipulating what you intend to achieve for the organisation.

Some questions you should ask are:

  • Why are they outsourcing the service?
  • Is there a fixed budget for this project?
  • What do they want to achieve with the project?
  • How have they previously tried to execute this themselves and what results did they get?
  • When do they want this project to be completed?
  • What will be the criteria for evaluating the business proposals?
  • Do they have any concerns?

Then ask yourself:

  • Can I really solve this problem?
  • How can my company execute this?
  • How can I present my company as the real solution to their problems?

See Also: How to Choose A Business Plan Consultant

 

Step 3: Outline the Scope Of The Project:

Next, outline every step the project will take. Carefully study every angle it is going to come in from and what how you intend to execute it. At this stage, strong project management skills will come in handy. Some things you need to cover are the “who, what, where, how, when, and why.”

  • Who: Who will manage the project? Who will do the required work? Who will answer to the customer if a problem arises?
  • What:  What is required to execute the project? What must be delivered? What are the customer’s expectations? How much will it cost? What will be needed to do it all?
  • Where: Where should the job be done? Where should the completed projected be delivered?
  • When: When do we start? When will key metrics be made known? When will the job be complete? When should the payment(s) be made?
  • How: How will the project be executed? How will it be properly managed? How will the customer be satisfied? How will risks be controlled? How long will the project take? How does the customer benefit from the project?
  • Why: Why are we using the approaches we’ve chosen? Why is the customer going with us?

 

Step 4: Prepare To Deliver The Most Value

After answering every valid question and mapping out the project outline, the next step is to prepare yourself, organisation, and team, to deliver the best value, and also show how it will be done. This stage is very important as the value added will determine if the client will go with you or choose the next party.

See Also: How To Do Market Research For Any Business Idea

 

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Step 5: Write Your Business Proposal

Now that you’ve understood the clients needs and are prepared to deliver more value that anyone else, you can now proceed to write your winning business proposal.

Here are the categories detailing how to write a business proposal:

1). Introduction:

Here you introduce your company in details. You should highlight your mission statement and what sets your company apart from the rest. You should also determine the length of this section based on the nature of the proposed contract. If it’s a very short-term contract of say, one day, the introduction could be short and precise, but if it’s a business relationship that is to last for many years, you should then put in your all and show how your brand will stand out from the competition.

2). Executive Summary

This highly important part of your business proposal must be treated with top importance. In this section, you should show why your business is the right one for the job and highlight key takeaway points that will not only show how valuable your brand is for their organisation, but also drives a message that will make them think twice about skipping your company.

3). Insert Table Of Contents

If your business proposal is going to be long and contain a lot of contents, creating a table of contents for it is a go. But it is generally advisable to always prepare short business proposals that hit the nail on the head by driving the points directly.

4). Write The body

After introducing your business and getting the readers hooked on your business proposal, the next step is to write the body of the proposal. Here, you’ll answer all the questions that were well answered earlier on in the scope of the project. You’ll also talk about deliverables, pricing, your clients, previously executed projects, and a lot more to show how the job can be carried out and delivered on time.

In this section, you should also state exactly what you can deliver based on the project specifications and what you will not. Ensure to highlight that some form of modifications or complete changes may incur extra charges for the client.

5). Conclusion

Here is the point you make your final sales pitch. You have to make the reader remember how much value your business is bringing to the table and why they must go with you. You should re-highlight the outstanding projects that you have previously executed and have a call-to-action that would make the client want to either learn more about your business or act immediately.

6). Appendix

Although optional, in this section you can include certifications and awards your company has received, your resumés, customer testimonials, some graph projections, and other things that could not directly fit into the body of the business proposal.

See Also: 10+ Legal Requirements For An Import And Export Business in Nigeria

 

Step 6: Submit Your Business Proposal And Follow Up

Your job never ends after submitting your business proposal. Rather, it is only just getting started. To get your proposal approved, you’d need to follow up with calls and also make yourself available to answer questions. You can also try to reach out to key employees in the organisations to know the status of your business proposal, so they may help you do follow ups, which could invariably increase your chances of being successful.

 

Quick Tip!

Writing a bank and investor ready professional business plan and proposal can be challenging. If you want a professional and affordable business plan and proposal service, StartupTipsDaily’s MBA standard professional business plan and proposal writing service is perfect for your business.

All you have to do is request an understanding of your proposed business model or project, and you’d have a professional MBA standard business plan or proposal ready for you in anywhere from 5 to 14 days. You can click here to get started with using StartupTipsDaily’s professional business plan and proposal writing service to create the perfect business plan or proposal that’d get accepted anywhere.

 

What are your thoughts on this article about how to write a business proposal in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Africa, or everywhere else around the world? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

 

Stan Edom
Stan Edom
I'm an entrepreneur with expertise in supply chain management, international trade, small business development, e-commerce, internet startups, renewable energy, and agriculture. I'm also a network engineer, I.T security expert, and computer programmer. In my spare time when I'm not working out at the gym, I try to solve problems people face in their everyday lives with whatever means necessary.

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71 Comments

  1. Good evening Mr Stan Edom. I am always pleased whenever I read your post on entrepreneurship. I am Ekpo Emmanuel Igoche a prospective entrepreneur. I need your support on writing of letters for fund raising to embark on a business plan I have. I also applied for the AYEEN 2017. I’ll be grateful if you inbox me so we’ll talk more

  2. his i think that mail address gonna be useful to me as way, i also registered for AYEEN 2017. i all be need your assistance too.

  3. this is great !with lot of encourangement from progresive minded people like stanley;i believe our country will surely rule the world soon,

  4. Hi Stan… really enjoyed your on writing a business plan… I am actually writing one at the moment… would really love to have more insight… would appreciate a chat with you… thanks..

  5. Good day Mr Stan! I’m impressed with ur business idea so far these country need more of you.
    Pls am requested to write a business proposer I need ur assistance to guide me through thanks in anticipation.Abdullahi

  6. Good morning Mr Stan Edom. I need your help really. I’m being called upon to come write a proposal for an advert firm that will be organising road shows and sales for a bigger company in different parts of the country. The accommodation, feeding and transportation of the sales representatives are to be included. pls how do I go about it sir?. It is to be submitted on Tuesday.
    Thanks sir.

  7. I’m a young graduate of Food science. Please I need your guide to write a business proposal for a small scale production of juice or sachet water

  9. Mr Stan I’m a problem on writing a business proposal to someone that wants to assist me to start up a business

  11. Good job you are doing. That bring said,i intend starting up an industrial cleaning service and someone i spoke with for funding requested i write a proposal on it which to include informations such as scope,start up capital,expected income etc. please i need an advice on how the proposal. Thanks in anticipation

  12. Hi Mr Stan.. I really appreciate your help to your numerous readers all over the world by explaining and making us understand what business proposal is really all about. I will appreciate it if you can help me out directly by putting me through on how to write a business proposal to a client in an oil and gas sector. Thank you

  15. please very urgent , I need a business proposal , they want to give me a grant of 5M , they have disburse to my friends I applied with, I only need BUSINESS PROPOSAL on farming , poultry, please help me write one , I will pay you. the proposal is needed tomorrow 19th April 2018 08136146240

  16. Hi Stan, great job you’re doing here. my name is nanbal and my company builds apps, we just completed a project and i’m about writing a proposal to some companies that would need our app with no request for proposal(RFP). please can give me some insight?
    Thanks.

  21. I want to have some of proposal to a building construction company if you can send it to me through my email address thanks.

  22. Mr Stan thanks for a great job Well-done, I need your special support on how to write empowerment business proposal that contains business support and equipment, which I am to submit on Thursday, kindly guide me. Thanks God bless you.

  23. Hi Stan Edom, need a business proposal to submit in a week time, can’t do this alone.. Please need ur assistance, will really appreciate.. Thanks

  24. Hi Stan Edom. You are doing remarkably well in guiding us through this. Thank you very much. I will send you a mail shortly as regards a Proposal I want to write, in fact many. I run a business, and so need help to take it to the next level. Thanks.

  27. Good day sir, I wholeheartedly appreciate your good job please I will need your support to write a business proposal, I will send u a mail right away

  28. Mr stan, tanx for being dir always. Pls I would need ur assistanc on
    how to write empowerment business
    proposal that contains business
    support and equipment, which I am to
    submit on tuesday, pls kindly guide me. Thank you sir and God bless.

  30. Gosh. I read all this? I really dislike reading but sir Stan made me love this. Thanks Sir.
    I’ll also send a message to the email address above. But are all these things for free?

  31. hello sir, am victor imooje, am one of your fans, i need assistance from you regarding a sample for grant business proposal plan, am currently working on one but am short of ideas.
    thanks

  33. Hello Mr Stan. Thanks for the insight on how to write proposal. Pls, can u enlighten me by giving few examples on call to action you talked about. Thanks

  36. Am really impressed with this business idea.
    Please Mr Stan I wanna know more on how to write a business plan, because I wanna start my own transportation business soon…and I want people to invest in the business, so I need your advise please.
    Thank you.

  39. Good evening sir I read your article of resent and I need your help by developing a business plan thanks God blessed.

  42. I found your article informative and full of help in writing business proposal. More wisdom..Thank you

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