There is no denying that entrepreneurs have to learn many critical skills while launching a business and winning new clients. Writing a compelling and market-moving business proposal is one of the biggest skills!
Decoding Business Proposal:
A business proposal can easily make or break your chances of winning a client. It is a pitch that an individual or organization creates to target a specific project or job. Mostly used in a B2B sales setting, companies send out business proposals to prospective clients, highlighting their offerings and describing why they might be the most suitable for the job. It is an ideal business proposal that successfully persuades a prospective buyer into availing your services.
Entrepreneurs and brands can leverage a business proposal as the ultimate sales document or a condensed version of their unique solutions and offerings. Now, creating a winning business proposal warrants thoughtful planning. Not only must a business proposal cover all the details clearly, but it should also encompass an eye-catching design to get hold of audiences’ attention.
Before we jump to creating our first business proposal, let’s explore some of the most popular business proposals to understand what it takes to woo your audience!
Adidas:
Adidas came up with an amazing corporate strategy proposal that perfectly outlines the challenges, designates the action for its brands, and inspires the audience. The proposal showcases the company’s core values while injecting passion & confidence into each slide through distinctive branding & design aesthetics.
McDonald’s:
Have you ever seen a company’s products deeply blended into their business slides or templates? McDonald’s corporate relations template encapsulates bright, iconic red & yellow imagery that people can almost instantly relate with their products and the brand as a whole.
Airbnb:
Airbnb’s business pitch deck is one of the most popular references for entrepreneurs worldwide. Published in 2008, the slide deck has forever been communicating Airbnb’s culture, current brand style and elevating internal & external communications, successfully.
Now, what is common in all these proposals? They are all ubiquitously minimalistic! These proposals helped the brands win their audience without overwhelming them in any sorts.
Without further ado, let’s move ahead and talk about four out-of-the-box tips on how you can create captivating business proposals and ace more opportunities than ever:
Gather Essential Intel:
Often entrepreneurs bombard the client with business proposals without actually delving deep into their business and needs. One of the primary steps of creating a business proposal is to gather all the information on the client, including their objectives, budget estimates & other business information. Now, gathering the information is as simple as reaching the client directly or doing some market research.
Once you’ve all the information you’d need, then you may move ahead and identify the problem’s context, present the scope of work and provide accurate, feasible estimates. One should understand that a business proposal that doesn’t align with the client’s goals or present any discrepancy between their expectations and your offerings isn’t going to do any good. Hence, understand and gather info on the overall task, objectives, scope, potential budget & then pitch like a boss.
Use Professional Templates:
Once you’ve all the information ready, it is time we dive into an actual proposal document. One should understand that a business proposal must encompass a constant appeal and structure. Not only does it make it easy for stakeholders to locate critical elements quickly, but the uniformity of data engages clients as well. You may boost the engagement of your business proposals manifolds with the help of state-of-the-art PowerPoint themes and templates.
There is no denying that creating a highly interactive and great-looking business proposal or deck is a hassle for many. A ready-to-use business proposal template can provide you with added flexibility, ensure design consistency & uniformity, significantly reduce the rework and let you focus on content rather than design or layout. You can charm and inspire the audience with captivating design and initiate a call-to-action, all thanks to corporate-grade, meticulously designed templates.
Define The Timeline:
A business proposal is just a wish-list if it doesn’t provide a transparent picture of what is to happen by what time. Including a timeline in your business proposal is the best way to ensure the proposal’s success. The timeline breaks down the big tasks into bite-sized chunks, reassures the client of your accountability, and helps everybody achieve the desired goal in a step-by-step fashion.
While creating your online or offline business proposals, you can consider using reflective, well-crafted Google Slides templates for timeline needs. The timeline will help you showcase a firm image of the project’s goal, plot down critical elements of the project, determine big milestones, allocate resources & ensure delivery. A well-defined timeline aids the client to understand what is to be done on both sides to get the project kicked off.
Choose Visuals Over Text:
Do you know a human brain can easily recall over 65% of the information it sees even after three days? Visuals are one of the best ways to liven up the content. There is no denying that content makes the base of your pitch and is an equally essential part of the proposal. However, successful business proposals have a thoughtful mixture of minimalistic written content and data-driven visuals.
Visuals not only stick in the long-term memory of clients but also motivate learners and trigger emotions. You can consider using data-oriented charts, 3D diagrams, innovative shapes & infographics. Rather than overwhelming your client or audience with random words and numbers, you must transform the data into a meaningful form. A data dashboard is another popular visual that you may deploy in your proposal. These kinds of visuals help the clients understand the data, generate inferences and make a decision.
Wrapping It Up:
A well-thought and comprehensive business proposal can draw a line between a closed deal or a missed opportunity. Before you jump out to writing the proposal, put yourself in the client’s shoes, think about what makes you the best choice for the job while anticipating the questions that may arise.
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