Among one of the important things about a brand, product, service, and/or business, is how we create the proposals to make them reach the public, either by promoting or selling them. A proposal must have it all since it will contain all the information that the user has to ask and/or need regarding your brand, product, service, and/or business. The theory is easy, but putting it into practice is more complicated, which is why I have prepared this post with the 10 basic elements that every great proposal must have. I hope you like it.
1- Explain in detail what you want to do
When starting to write a business proposal, we must not be stingy with words, since it must contain everything that the client has to ask or have any doubts about. This does not mean that they are going to detail each step to the extreme, but with a good summary of what you are presenting to the client, in this way not only will the client be able to understand you better, but they will know how you are going to carry out everything, thus demonstrating your capacity and credibility.
2- Define the essential point of the proposal
Every client likes to know what they are going to get from a proposal presented, which is why you must define the essential point of yours well. In this way, the client will know what makes you different from the others and why they should choose you instead of someone else. With this, you must specify to the client how you are going to comply with what is proposed and what things you are not going to do. In more marketing terms, this would be the part where you put the strategies for your client.
3- Highlight your personality
The proposal that you are going to create must have your stamp of personality and originality that distinguishes you from other brands. I use the colors, typography, design, etc., that make your brand unique. Do not be afraid to be a little daring and want to make a fun proposal, as long as it is understandable and objective to what you want to achieve with the client.
4- Lean on the visual
When you start to make your proposal, do not base it only on text, since it does not attract attention at all and is boring. Use visual resources, whether they are images or videos that help you generate better content for your proposal and thus show them in a different way how excited you are to work with your potential client.
5- Take two steps forward
Design each of your different proposals according to the client. Avoid at all costs the typical monotonous proposal of a lifetime; get inspired by each different proposal. Remember that the purpose of all this is to focus on the client's goals, not ours. So don't worry about spending more time on a personalized proposal, because in the end, it will have been worth all the hours in the world.
6- Highlight the key elements and benefits
In each of the explanations that you give in your proposal, remember to be direct and simple, that is, visually demonstrate to your client the key elements that your brand has and what benefits they will obtain from it. I love the option to summarize the entire proposal in a single slide with a graph.
7- Avoid extreme formality
Don't try to appear overly educated by using fancy and unusual words that your customer probably won't understand. Any type of public must be able to understand and follow the main objectives that you propose in the proposal. Be direct, simple, and personable. If you want to use complex terms add a legend.
8- Easy contact
Make sure that the information about your brand is visible in some part of the proposal, be it your address, email, telephone, or some social network. Most customers want to know a little more about the brand before jumping into the business. (I recommend you put your information in the first pages of the proposal and in the final).
9- Be critical and professional
When you want to sell something, printing is the most important thing. That is why I recommend you check the proposal for spelling errors over and over again, have a clean design, and make sure everything is perfectly understood.
10- Have calls to action (CTA)
Demonstrate to your clients in a simple way the next steps they will be about to take, in order to work with you. This way, you have a better chance of converting them into a customer. Within your calls to action, you can include the option of locating prospects days after receiving the proposal to solve their doubts.