Regardless of your experience with proposal writing, putting together a proposal can always feel a bit overwhelming. That’s because creating a winning proposal is both an art and a science. Whether you’re competing for a major contract or seeking new business opportunities, your proposal’s quality can make or break your chances.
Although there will always be competition when it comes to winning a client through your proposal, there are ways you can improve your chances of standing out from the rest.
In this blog, we’ll provide you with 33 actionable insights to help you refine your proposal writing skills. Our proposal tips are designed to help professional proposal writers create persuasive, compelling proposals that stand out and win more business.
From tips to help you before you start writing and tips for professional proposal writers to tips to help you improve your proposal writing process and tips on using AI for proposal writing, we have you covered.
Prior to Writing Your Proposal
Before diving into the specifics of crafting your proposal, it’s essential to set the groundwork effectively. This preparatory phase is not just about organizing your thoughts but also about aligning your objectives with the expectations outlined in the Request for Proposal (RFP).
Here’s what you should do before writing your proposal:
Conduct In-Depth Research
Identifying relevant information, data, and resources is crucial for crafting a compelling project proposal. Prior to writing your proposal, thoroughly review the Request for Proposal (RFP) to understand the formatting requirements, submission guidelines, and key insights about the client.
Ask yourself:
- What are the customer’s biggest pain points?
- What do the key decision-makers care about most?
- Why is your solution the best choice, and where does your competition fall short?
Answering these questions helps you personalize the proposal to the client’s needs. For example, if the client is focused on ease of adoption, emphasize your training and support services in your win themes.
To further tailor your proposal, research the client’s business and industry. Review their website and marketing materials, conduct a SWOT analysis, and study industry trends and best practices.
This comprehensive understanding will help you craft a proposal that stands out and addresses the client’s unique needs and challenges.
Plan and Outline Your Document
Before you start writing, carefully plan your document to ensure a clear and logical flow. Define your purpose, audience, scope, and structure. Knowing why you are writing, who you are writing for, what you are writing about, and how you will organize your information is crucial.
Organize your proposal to follow a clear and logical structure. If the RFP mandates an outline, use it to your advantage. Include headlines and images to highlight your ability to communicate value within the required format.
Additionally, utilize tools such as mind maps, outlines, or templates to brainstorm, organize, and prioritize your ideas. These tools can help you identify gaps or issues that need to be addressed and ensure that your proposal is comprehensive and well-structured.
This process allows you to create a roadmap that guides your writing process, making it easier to convey your message effectively and persuasively.
Define Goals and Objectives
Clearly defining the project’s objectives is crucial for a successful proposal. Start by asking: What do you aim to achieve? Why is it important?
Use the SMART goals framework:
- Specific: Clearly define what you want to accomplish.
- Measurable: Identify how you will measure success.
- Achievable: Ensure the goals are realistic and attainable.
- Relevant: Align objectives with broader business goals.
- Timely: Set a clear timeline for achieving these goals.
Clearly stated objectives provide direction and improve the chances of project success.
Align With Key Stakeholders
Writing a proposal isn’t just about showcasing how you’ll reach your goals and objectives; it’s about understanding and addressing the needs and expectations of all stakeholders involved in the decision-making process.
Stakeholders can be internal or external, direct or indirect, supportive or resistant, and each group holds interest, influence, or power over the outcome of your proposal.
To write a proposal that meets all stakeholders’ needs, follow these steps before you start writing:
1. Identify Stakeholders: Determine who has an interest or influence in your project. This includes both direct and indirect stakeholders.
2. Understand Needs: Engage with stakeholders to understand their expectations, concerns, and what they hope to achieve from the project.
3. Define Deliverables: Clearly outline what you will produce at the end of your project, such as a product, program, or technology upgrade. By providing a clear vision of your project’s deliverables, you help stakeholders visualize its outcome and value.
Understanding and addressing stakeholder needs enhances the clarity and effectiveness of your proposal and increases the likelihood of winning business by demonstrating a comprehensive and thoughtful approach.
Proposal Writing Tips
Now that you’re ready to start writing your proposal, you may be wondering how to write an effective proposal. Let’s take a look at some proposal writing tips to help you increase your chances of landing that client.
Highlight the Benefits and Value
To craft a compelling proposal, focus on the benefits and value your solution provides to the client.
To begin, explain how each key feature of your solution directly addresses the client’s needs, such as eliminating frustrating delays and enhancing efficiency. Highlight the impact of your solution rather than delving into technical details, helping the client see why your solution is a worthwhile investment.
Additionally, paint a clear picture of how your solution will solve the client’s problems, improve their situation, and contribute to their success. Focus on the major benefits that matter most to the client, such as reduced costs, lower risks, improved quality, increased efficiency, and expedited timelines. Ensure these benefits align with what the client truly cares about.
Start by identifying the client’s key concerns. For each issue, highlight the solution features that address these concerns and articulate the quantified benefits the client will receive. This approach shows why your solution matters and how it specifically meets their needs.
Furthermore, use strong theme statements, proof points, and feature/benefit tables to emphasize benefits. Ensure that the articulation of benefits is woven throughout the narrative, consistently reinforcing the value your solution brings.
Be Clear and Concise
When writing proposals, it’s crucial to use clear, straightforward language and avoid jargon or technical terms that the client may not be familiar with.
Keeping your proposal concise and to the point ensures the reader understands your message efficiently and interprets it accurately. This approach not only amplifies your persuasive tactics but also makes readers more receptive to your solution.
To keep your writing clear and concise, organize your proposal with a clear and logical structure. If the solicitation mandates an outline, use it to your advantage.
Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and tables to break down complex information and guide the reader through your proposal. This makes it easier to read and understand.
You should also use familiar language to describe your solution and spell out acronyms to ensure clarity.
Additionally, showcase your value proposition using strong action verbs. Create clear and concise sentences that make it easy for the reader. In technical proposal writing, if you must use jargon, make sure to define technical terms or industry acronyms within the proposal for the reader’s clarity.
Use active voice to make your writing more direct, confident, and engaging. Active voice sentences are typically shorter and more straightforward than passive ones, improving readability and helping readers grasp your message quickly.
Whether you’re bound by a page limit or a reviewer’s attention span, make the most of the space available. Break information into smaller, digestible pieces using short paragraphs, bullet points, or an outline structure. This prevents readers’ eyes from glazing over and keeps them engaged.
Keep It Simple
Relevant to being clear and concise, you should also keep it simple. For proposal writing, simple is best. Consider the impact of dense, jargon-filled writing that is difficult to understand and retain.
Strengthen your writing by cutting down on unnecessary wordiness. Concise writing makes your response clearer and easier to read. Replace redundant phrases like “basic necessities” with “necessities.”
Additionally, use simple, precise words instead of complicated phrases. For example, replace “in light of the fact” with “because” to make your writing clearer and more direct.
Moreover, direct language keeps your reader engaged, which is crucial when reviewers may need to read dozens of similar proposals.
Cutting unnecessary words, avoiding jargon, and using plain language make your writing more accessible and your ideas easier to understand and remember. This approach helps reviewers quickly grasp your value proposition and share it with others.
Simple, clear language also promotes clarity and transparency, which increases the reader’s trust. For agencies unfamiliar with your organization, establishing your integrity is key. Focusing on clear and concise language, not only makes your proposal more readable but also more persuasive.
Use Persuasive Writing
Speaking of making your proposal persuasive, persuasive writing differentiates your proposal from the rest.
Here’s how you can practice persuasive writing:
- Focus on Benefits: Shift the conversation from features to benefits. Show how your solution addresses the client’s needs and provides tangible benefits, building a more compelling case for your solution.
- Guide the Readers: Frame your proposal to position the reader as the hero of the story. Injecting a touch of emotion can breathe life into your writing. Share stories of overcoming challenges to evoke feelings that motivate readers to take action.
- Use Repetition and Rephrasing: Strategically repeat and rephrase key points throughout your proposal. This creates a structure and rhythm that readers appreciate, emphasizing important topics and making them more memorable.
- Logical and Emotional Appeals: Use both rational and emotional persuasion techniques. Incorporate facts, third-party endorsements, proof of results, and case studies to appeal to logic. For emotional appeals, show how your solution helps achieve their dreams and eliminates their fears and frustrations.
These techniques help you create a persuasive and memorable proposal that stands out from the competition and resonates with the decision-makers.
Write With Empathy
Empathy is crucial in crafting winning proposals, as it helps you connect with readers on a deeper level by stepping into their shoes and discussing the project from their perspective.
To humanize your proposal, allow readers to relate to you emotionally. This builds trust and reminds readers that decisions are made by people, not just data. This also shows you write your proposal with the client top of mind and that you’re invested in their success.
Additionally, show that you understand the client’s challenges and frustrations. Empathize with their emotional concerns and demonstrate awareness of the pressure they are under. This creates trust and positions you as someone who can alleviate their worries.
You can also convey excitement about the project using positive language. Use “we” statements to create a sense of shared experience and goals. This personal approach communicates genuine interest in their project.
However, don’t forget to shift the focus back to the client when necessary by changing sentences from “we” or “our” to “you” or “your.” This simple shift can make your proposal more empathetic and client-centered.
Furthermore, you can leverage storytelling by identifying the main elements: hero (the customer), villain (their pain point), goal (their objective), and challenges (obstacles you help them overcome). This approach focuses on the customer and their goals, showing that a happy ending is achievable.
To help with storytelling, incorporate stories from your experience or expertise to speak to the reader’s aspirations. Show them how you will help them reach their dreams and beat their fears.
A simple key secret is to write professionally but as if you are helping a friend. Show that you feel their pain and understand their perspective, showing how genuinely invested you are in their success.
Use Active Voice
Strengthen your writing by switching from passive voice to active voice. Passive voice can hide who is performing the action and make your writing wordier and harder to follow. Active voice, on the other hand, places the subject first, making your sentences more straightforward and concise.
For example, if you’re using passive voice, you would say “The proposal was written by our team,” but if you’re using active voice, you would say “Our team wrote the proposal.”
Here are some benefits of using active voice:
- Clarity: Active voice clearly shows who is performing the action.
- Conciseness: Active sentences are usually shorter and more to the point.
- Persuasiveness: Active voice is more dynamic, confident, and persuasive.
- Responsibility: Active voice accepts responsibility for the action, creating a stronger connection with your reader.
Proposals written in strong, clear language, such as active voice are more effective. Don’t forget, our goal is to win business and convince the readers that our solution is the best choice and we are certain of it.
By consistently using active voice, your proposal will be more engaging and easier to understand, making it more likely to persuade and win over decision-makers.
Quantify the Impact
Quantifying the impact of your proposal strengthens your argument and enhances credibility. Highlight outcomes like time savings or increased output using data or case studies to show how you have helped similar clients overcome challenges.
For every feature in your proposal, ask yourself, “What is the biggest benefit and why does it matter to the client?” This ensures your proposal remains focused on delivering tangible value.
Moreover, avoid unsubstantiated claims, which can undermine your credibility. Instead of using vague terms like “high,” “numerous,” or “highly reliable,” use specific metrics.
For example, instead of saying “Our solution offers high productivity,” quantify it as “Our solution increases productivity by 25%, saving clients an average of 10 hours per week.”
Remember to back up your claims with relevant evidence. Use data, statistics, benchmarks, and quotes to showcase measurable value. This differentiates you as a trusted partner with a proven track record.
Quantifying results in this way will make your proposal more compelling and easier for evaluators to validate.
Explain “Why” Your Solution Is the Best
Understanding “why” your solution is the best choice keeps your proposal focused and compelling. You should always make sure the client understands why each piece of content you provide matters, whether it’s text, a graphic, or an image. If it needs to be clarified, explain it.
If you can’t explain why something is important, it likely isn’t, and you should cut it from your proposal.
To effectively explain why your solution is the best, focus on impact. From the customer’s perspective, they want to know why your solution matters. Demonstrate that you understand the impact of your actions and how they provide tangible benefits to the client.
Make your proposal easy to follow, clear, and cohesive. Your message should be concise and focused on the customer’s needs. Speak to their “why”—the value you bring to the partnership and why you are the right partner for them.
Moreover, bad proposal writing often only describes the company or offering without explaining the rationale behind it. Customers want to understand why you do things a certain way and the benefits it brings them. When you read an RFP, don’t just describe your approach—explain why you’ve chosen it and how it benefits the client.
Always explaining the “why,” helps make your proposal more engaging and persuasive, helping the client see the value and importance of your solution.
Maintain Consistent Tone and Style
Establishing a consistent tone and style is essential for creating persuasive proposals.
Start by outlining the appropriate tone you want in your proposal by providing a clear description of how your voice should sound. Whether it’s professional, friendly, simple, or concise, ensure it aligns with your brand and resonates with your audience.
However, a major struggle for many is maintaining a single style that supports an overall theme. This is especially challenging when delivering complex information concisely and digestibly.
Therefore, it’s important to ensure that all sections of your proposal contribute to a cohesive message in a singular style. This unified approach makes your proposal more effective and impactful.
Moreover, establish the general style guide your company should use and provide any in-house guidelines that might drift from the standard. This helps maintain consistency and clarity throughout your document.
Lastly, if you use AI tools, experiment with them to get inspiration on improving your proposals. Specify the style you wish to apply, the information to add, and the benefits to emphasize. These tools can provide valuable ideas and help you refine your writing.
Customize Your Proposal to the Audience
To create compelling proposals, avoid relying on stale boilerplate content. Boilerplate content refers to pre-written, standardized text that is commonly used in multiple documents or proposals.
It is designed to save time and ensure consistency across various documents by providing a starting point that can be customized as needed for specific proposals or clients.
While boilerplate content is useful for efficiency, it must be regularly updated and tailored to each unique situation to remain relevant and effective.
Periodically reviewing your proposals helps identify and update outdated or inaccurate information, as using irrelevant content can damage your credibility and lead to missed opportunities.
Start by assessing whether the content accurately reflects your current approach, services, and focus. Check for outdated statistics, case studies, or references, and ensure the language is clear, concise, and free of jargon.
Once you’ve found outdated content, update it to reflect your current practices. This includes researching new statistics or case studies, rewording content to align with your latest approach, or deleting unnecessary information.
Customizing your content for each specific proposal is crucial. Show the client that you understand their unique needs by using their language and terminology, and addressing their specific concerns and challenges directly.
Boilerplate content can be a useful starting point but should be tailored to speak to the unique pain points of each customer. This ensures your proposals are fresh, relevant, and effective in communicating your message.
Clients don’t want generic proposals; they want to know how you will customize your services for them. By putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and personalizing your proposals, you demonstrate a commitment to meeting their specific needs and significantly increase your chances of winning their business.
Write Engaging Headers
Good proposal writers know that headings are crucial for structuring a proposal, acting as signposts to help evaluators find information quickly. However, great proposal writers understand that headings can also be powerful statements that emphasize your win themes.
Therefore, you should clearly organize your proposal with headings that help evaluators quickly find key information.
Consider the difference between a vague heading like “Our Solution” and a more descriptive one like “Stronger Security for Your Peace of Mind.” The latter is more compelling.
To make your headings impactful, read through them and ask yourself whether they:
- Communicate a key benefit or pain point
- Entice the evaluator to read more
- Capture the main points of the body text
If your answer is “no” to any of these, your headers need tweaking.
In cases where RFPs have strict heading requirements, channel your creativity into the first sentence of each paragraph instead. Make sure the key points are immediately clear.
Focus on adding more details, incorporating stats and figures where possible. Make your headings actionable by starting with a verb or adding power words to evoke emotion.
This approach not only makes your proposal easier to navigate but also ensures your key messages are communicated effectively, increasing your chances of success.
However, if you’re struggling to find the words, you can use AI tools for brainstorming. Paste a section of your proposal into an AI tool, like ChatGPT, and ask it to generate five different headlines, or start with a basic headline and ask it to make it more powerful.
Use Strong Hooks While Writing Your Proposal
Capture the reader’s attention with strong openings and closings in your proposals. Start with a hook that highlights your value proposition, such as a surprising statistic or a bold statement. For example, “Imagine reducing your operational costs by 30% within six months.”
Moreover, each section should include a strong summary and transition to the next part. For example, “By implementing our solution, you’ll streamline processes and achieve significant cost savings. Next, we explore the features that make this possible.”
Lastly, ensure each opening and closing ties back to your main value proposition, creating a persuasive and cohesive narrative. Using strong hooks throughout will make your proposals more engaging and persuasive, increasing your chances of success.
Advanced Tips for Professional Proposal Writers
If you’re a more experienced proposal writer and are looking for advanced proposal tips to help you improve your proposal writing, here are bonus tips you can apply to make your proposal writing process more efficient and help your proposal stand out:
Focus on the Customer
When writing proposals, teams often emphasize their qualifications and solutions, detailing how great they are and the superior services they provide. However, this approach is not customer-focused.
Instead, proposals should center on how your solution meets the customer’s needs and the benefits they will receive. To make your proposals more customer-focused, make sure you check off the following:
- Speak the Customer’s Language: Use the terminology from the RFP and align your language with the customer’s.
- Prioritize the Customer: Focus on the customer’s needs and goals rather than your company’s achievements.
- Emphasize the Customer’s Name: Mention the customer’s name more frequently than your own to reinforce their importance.
- Address Key Issues: Write to the customer’s key concerns and articulate the benefits they will receive from your solution.
Avoid filling your proposal with general marketing information about your company.
Proposal Expert Insight:
“Different mediums serve different messages. Unlike a general brochure or your website, which is designed to appeal to a large audience, proposals are unique to one client. It’s kind of like buying a car – the dealership website shows all their offerings, but once you’re on the lot the sale is tailored to the specific features and options you’re looking for. This personalized conversation, just for you, is exactly what a proposal should be for your client.”
— Rachelle Ray, Proposal Management Consultant, RMR Consulting.
Instead, concentrate on the customer’s goals, demonstrating how your company will help them achieve these goals and addressing the challenges they face today. The more your proposal focuses on the customer, the more likely they are to respond positively.
To create a customer-focused proposal, ask yourself, “What does the customer want out of this section?” and deliver precisely that.
Moreover, when reading a proposal, evaluators are on a mission to find specific answers that help them decide whether to choose your solution over competitors. Therefore, anticipate their questions and address them directly.
Proposal Expert Insight:
“A proposal is kind of like a handshake – it sets the tone for the rest of the relationship. You want a strong, confident handshake. In proposals, that confidence comes from clearly understanding what the client needs and showing them a direct path to attaining it.”
— Rachelle Ray, Proposal Management Consultant, RMR Consulting.
Understand the Client’s Pain Points
To write a winning proposal, empathize with your client’s struggles and frame their pain points as challenges that need solutions. This approach positions you as a partner who understands their issues and can offer relief.
Demonstrate that you comprehend the client’s frustrations and the pressures they face. This builds trust and rapport, showing that you are invested in alleviating their stress and anxiety.
Moreover, describe how your solution will remove their headaches, make their job easier, streamline operations, and save time. This allows you to resonate with readers, showcasing your ability to solve their problems effectively.
Empathizing with the client’s pain points and framing your proposal around their needs means you create a compelling narrative that positions you as a reliable and understanding partner. This approach not only enhances your proposal’s clarity but also increases its persuasive power.
Proposal Expert Insight:
“So many proposals tell but don’t show. Don’t just tell the client you understand the importance of value engineering and leave them to fill in the gaps. Show them that your value engineering process is designed to make recommendations to work within their budget without sacrificing design intent.”
— Rachelle Ray, Proposal Management Consultant, RMR Consulting.
Leverage Past Proposals
“Don’t reinvent the wheel” is a valuable principle when writing proposals. While each proposal should be tailored to the specific project, reusing universally applicable text, such as a company bio or examples of past work, is both efficient and effective.
This approach not only saves time but also ensures a consistent tone across your proposals. Consistency helps clients become familiar with your organization and demonstrates reliability, which is particularly important when responding to multiple RFPs.
Creating a template as a starting point for all responses can be immensely helpful. One of the foundational principles of a well-structured proposal is to adhere to a consistent template.
| Hand-picked related content: If you’re an engineering professional struggling with finding the right engineering proposal template, check out our Free Engineering Proposal Template and while you’re at it, read our blog on Engineering Proposals for 12 proposal writing tips tailored to engineering proposals. |
Maintaining a repository of winning proposals is another smart strategy. By keeping track of successful proposals, you can draw inspiration and replicate elements that have proven effective. This repository serves as a valuable resource, enabling you to quickly reference and adapt strong content for new proposals.
Leveraging past proposals and maintaining a template and repository of successful submissions not only streamlines the proposal-writing process but also enhances the quality and consistency of your responses. This strategy allows you to focus more on customization and high-impact areas, ultimately increasing your chances of winning new business.
Proposal Expert Insight:
“If you’re building a new template or looking to revamp your old one, inventory your “best of the best” proposals. Take the most effective, impactful elements of those proposals and use them to start building your new template.
This not only streamlines the proposal writing process but also ensures a unified tone throughout the document, conveying a professional image and building trust with potential clients or stakeholders.
The template should include all the necessary formatting and standard sections, allowing you to focus on the more important and higher-level aspects of each proposal.
While developing this template may take some initial effort and coordination across your team, it is well worth the investment.”
— Rachelle Ray, Proposal Management Consultant, RMR Consulting.
Use Software to Increase Efficiency
Implementing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system tailored to your industry can significantly enhance your RFP win rate. In fact, teams that use software for their RFP processes have an average 45% proposal win rate.
DAM software helps organize, store, find, use, and share digital assets such as images, documents, templates, and other content, making it easier to maintain consistency and streamline the creation of proposals.
However, if you have access to a DAM solution specific to your industry, it will offer industry-specific integrations and important features, making processes more streamlined and effective. According to OpenAsset’s AEC Industry Outlook Survey, nearly 74% of survey respondents said they plan to implement new technologies to help overcome key challenges faced in the industry.
Using DAM allows your team to quickly access and reuse approved content, ensure brand consistency, and collaborate more effectively. This leads to increased efficiency, reduced time spent searching for assets, and a more cohesive, professional proposal.
| Hand-picked related content: If you’re not sure which digital asset management software is for you and meets your businesses needs, read our detailed DAM Software Buyer’s Guide to learn how you should be comparing digital asset management software. |
Use Data Visualization and Other Visual Aids
Incorporating data visualization, such as graphics, and visual aids in your proposals can significantly enhance their clarity and impact. To maximize the effectiveness of your graphics:
- Use Clear Titles and Captions: Each graphic should have a strong title and an action caption that summarizes the key takeaway, including major features and resulting customer benefits—quantified if possible.
- Ensure Relevance and Accuracy: Visual aids should be directly related to your content, accurate, and easy to understand. Properly label, caption, and reference each visual aid.
- Variety of Visuals: Use a mix of diagrams, charts, photos, and illustrations to highlight key points and showcase your firm’s expertise. This variety leads to a more engaging and easier-to-understand proposal.
- Differentiate Your Proposal: Visuals can help differentiate your proposal from the competition by illustrating your unique capabilities and making your document stand out.
- Simplicity and Quality: Keep graphics simple, high-quality, and visually appealing. Avoid clutter and overly complex visuals that might confuse the reader.
- Enhance Readability: Incorporate graphics, callouts, tables, bullet points, and headings to make your proposal easy to scan. Use short words, sentences, and paragraphs where possible.
When used correctly, proposal graphics and visuals are compelling, easy to understand, and help communicate your message more effectively than words alone. They enable evaluators to quickly grasp data, understand processes, and identify patterns or opportunities.
Proposal Expert Insight:
“Graphics are visual aids to help communicate important information. Avoid adding an infographic or a “pretty” picture for the sake of how it looks on the page. Instead, assess your text and identify content that could be better conveyed or emphasized using visual elements.”
— Rachelle Ray, Proposal Management Consultant, RMR Consulting.
Improving Your Proposal Writing Process
Improve your proposal writing process even further with the following tips:
Use the RFP to Create a Checklist
Professional RFP writers should use a reliable RFP checklist template to help guarantee coherent proposals. From introduction to conclusion, a systematically organized flow of information makes it easier for readers to follow and understand your message.
Structuring your proposal to follow the RFP’s flow makes it easier for reviewers to evaluate whether you’ve met the requested criteria and shows your commitment to quality.
Moreover, consistency in formatting, style, and content presentation can set you apart from competitors, demonstrating attention to detail and professionalism.
However, every RFP is different, and so should every proposal. A one-size-fits-all approach can disqualify you from consideration, signaling to reviewers that you didn’t take the time to understand their specific needs.
Use the RFP to identify key questions and priorities, creating a tailored checklist for writing, reviewing, and editing your proposal. Study the RFP and create a comprehensive list of all requirements, forms, and documents needed for your submission.
Imagine you’ve worked tirelessly on a proposal for a major project your company has been eyeing for months. After submitting it with confidence, you receive a rejection email because a crucial document was missing. This is where a checklist becomes invaluable. By starting the proposal process with a checklist, you ensure that nothing important is overlooked.
A checklist not only helps you avoid submitting an incomplete proposal but also keeps you organized and on track throughout the development process. Checking off each item as you go provides peace of mind that you’re not missing anything critical.
Collaborate Effectively with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Writing proposals is rarely a one-person task. It often involves contributions from many subject matter experts (SMEs), which can sometimes result in a disjointed final product.
Imagine working on a proposal for a major construction project with a tight deadline. Your team of SMEs, busy with other responsibilities, contributes sections without specific guidance. This lack of direction results in a proposal that lacks flow and coherence, with some information being contradictory or incomplete.
As a result, your proposal is rejected. To avoid this, provide SMEs with clear guidelines:
- Clear Instructions: Identify key sections of the RFP relevant to each SME’s expertise and provide clear instructions on how their contributions should fit within the proposal.
- Proposal Messaging: Ensure SMEs understand the key win themes so they can align their responses with the overarching message.
- Brand Voice Guidelines: Define the appropriate tone for your proposal. Offer a clear description of how your brand voice should sound to maintain consistency.
- Writing Style: Specify the style guide your organization follows and provide any in-house guidelines that may deviate from the standard.
- Level of Detail: Set parameters for the depth and length of responses to avoid some sections being overly detailed while others are too superficial.
Effective collaboration with SMEs not only makes the most of their limited time and expertise but also strengthens your proposal, increasing your chances of winning the contract. Taking the extra time to guide your SMEs will pay off by creating a more efficient and effective proposal development process.
Set and Meet Deadlines
RFPs often come with tight deadlines, and missing them means your submission won’t be reviewed. That’s why good time management is crucial for proposal writers.
Here are some tips to help you write high-quality proposals under time pressure:
- Remove Distractions: Turn off your phone, mute notifications, and sign out of email. Focus solely on writing until you hit your goal.
- Block Time for Writing: According to Parkinson’s Law, tasks expand to fill the time allotted. Set strict, reasonable goals like “Finish sections 1-5 before lunch” or “Complete first draft in X hours.”
- Focus on Hard Tasks: Tackle the hardest tasks first, often writing the first draft. Do this when you have the most energy, such as first thing in the morning.
- Choose Progress Over Perfection: Perfectionism can waste time. Focus on getting words on the page during the initial stages, and refine your writing closer to the deadline.
Moreover, to avoid delays within your team, set firm deadlines and hold team members accountable. Make sure everyone understands the importance of these deadlines and the consequences of missing them.
By setting and enforcing firm deadlines, you ensure the proposal is completed on time and to a high standard, increasing your chances of winning the project. Treat internal deadlines with the same importance as the final submission deadline to keep your proposal development process on track.
Don’t Forget to Take a Writing Break
While it’s important to meet deadlines, it’s just as important to protect your mental health and know when to walk away and take a break when necessary.
Writing proposals can be intense, and it’s easy to miss errors when you’re too immersed in the work. Taking breaks is crucial. Stepping away for an hour, an afternoon, or even a day helps you return with fresh eyes, making it easier to spot mistakes and improve the quality of your work.
This practice not only enhances your proposal but also prevents careless errors that could undermine your credibility. Regular breaks ensure you stay sharp and focused, and produce your best work.
Edit and Proofread Your Proposal
A proposal full of typos and grammatical errors can undermine your credibility. That’s why you should plan time for self-proofing and have another person review your document.
Revising involves improving content, structure, and logic to ensure your document meets audience needs. Proofreading focuses on correcting grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting. Both are essential for quality and readability.
Familiarity can make it difficult to spot mistakes. For this reason, having someone who isn’t involved in the proposal process review your work can help catch errors and provide fresh insights.
However, make sure to choose a reviewer who understands the proposal process to ensure useful feedback. This second set of eyes can identify confusing, vague, or missing information, just as a reviewer would.
Moreover, after reading your proposal, the reader should have a clear understanding of the RFP requirements, how your organization can meet those needs, and why you’re the best candidate. Therefore, feedback from a proofreader can help fill gaps and strengthen your proposal.
Tips to Improve Your Proposal Writing With AI
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) in proposal writing is crucial for boosting efficiency, accuracy, and quality. AI tools can analyze large volumes of data, identify trends, and generate compelling content tailored to your audience.
Embracing AI technologies allows you to save time, reduce errors, and increase your chances of success in competitive proposal environments. Here’s how:
Dictate Your Proposal
AI tools are revolutionizing the way we write proposals, offering innovative solutions to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. One such tool is AI-driven voice recognition, which allows you to dictate content and speed up the writing process.
AI voice recognition tools enable you to dictate your thoughts directly into text, significantly speeding up the writing process. This method is especially useful for quickly capturing ideas without the need for typing, allowing you to focus more on the content and less on the mechanics of writing.
Additionally, dictating your proposal can help maintain a natural, conversational tone, making your writing more engaging and easier to read. It allows you to convey your ideas as you would in a discussion, which can be particularly effective in proposals where clarity and persuasiveness are key.
What AI tools offer voice recognition? Popular AI-driven voice recognition tools like Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Google Docs Voice Typing, and Otter.ai can transform your spoken words into written text quickly and accurately. These tools help to dictate content and speed up your proposal writing process.
Use AI to Conduct a Sentiment Analysis
Another way AI tools can help the proposal writing process is through sentiment analysis. This means that with the right AI tools, such as Brand24, MonkeyLearn, and Sprout Social, you can significantly enhance the quality of your proposal by analyzing tone and sentiment.
Such AI tools can analyze the sentiment of your writing, ensuring that your proposal conveys the desired emotions and tone. This helps in making your proposal more persuasive and appealing to the readers.
Many AI tools allow customization to tailor the output to your needs. Define your preferred settings, such as tone of voice, writing style, and formatting standards, to ensure the AI-generated content aligns with your brand and goals.
Based on your preferences, AI writing assistants can suggest improvements in sentence structure, tone, and style, to help ensure that your writing is engaging, professional, and aligned with your intended message.
Moreover, AI sentiment analysis can identify and correct negative or unintended tones, helping to maintain a positive and persuasive proposal. This technology can also highlight areas where the tone may be inconsistent or not aligned with your objectives.
Check Your Grammar and Style
AI tools are invaluable for minimizing errors in proposal writing. They aid in meticulous proofreading and editing, ensuring your proposal is accurate and polished.
For example, free AI-powered tools like Grammarly and Hemingway quickly identify grammar and spelling mistakes, and other errors while matching brand guidelines, reducing the risk of submitting a flawed proposal.
Moreover, AI writing assistants enhance the overall quality of your proposal by providing real-time suggestions, grammar corrections, and help with sentence structure. These AI checks improve the readability, coherence, and professionalism of your proposals.
Conduct Data Analysis for Your Proposal
AI can analyze vast amounts of data to identify trends, patterns, and insights, making your proposals more compelling and data-driven.
Data analysis tools search through large datasets to highlight relevant trends, ensuring your proposal is current and impactful. For example, AI can reveal market shifts that support your proposal’s strategy.
Using AI-driven insights ensures your proposals are grounded in solid data, enhancing their credibility and persuasiveness. AI can also provide detailed analysis of client needs or past project performances to improve your argument.
Moreover, artificial intelligence uncovers critical insights by recognizing patterns that might be missed manually. This helps in identifying potential opportunities or risks relevant to the proposal.
Create Visuals and Images
Incorporating visuals and images into your proposals significantly enhances their visual appeal, capturing the attention of the reader and making your proposals more memorable. AI tools can help create engaging infographics, graphs, and other visual aids to present your data effectively.
AI can analyze and enhance the visual elements of your proposals, such as layout, graphics, and formatting, ensuring they are both appealing and professional. Tools like Picsart, Midjourney, and DALL·E can assist in generating high-quality visuals quickly.
AI tools can produce infographics and graphs that clearly convey complex information. While AI-generated visuals are highly effective, note that these tools currently have limitations, such as difficulty in accurately incorporating text into images.
Score Your Proposal
Request for proposal (RFP) scoring, also known as proposal scoring, involves assigning numerical values to each RFP response. This method supports the proposal evaluation process by offering a data-based approach to ensure fair and unbiased vendor selection.
While AI can help clients evaluate proposals using AI-powered scoring and feedback, it can also help the writer evaluate the quality of proposals before submission.
AI can emphasize the criteria used for proposal evaluation, including technical expertise, cost, schedule, and past performance. By understanding these factors, you can tailor your proposal to meet the specific requirements and expectations of evaluators, increasing the likelihood of success.
Optimize Your Proposal Design and Format
Find out how to make your next proposal look as good as it sounds with these top 5 InDesign techniques your proposal needs now from proposal design expert, Julie Shaffer, CPSM, Founder of Shaffer Creative:
If you use InDesign for your proposal creation process, you can streamline document design and creation by implementing DAM software that integrates directly with InDesign. For example, OpenAsset, which integrates with InDesign, allows for seamless workflows between InDesign and OpenAsset to help you create better documents and proposals quicker than ever.
Specifically, the drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to add images to InDesign documents. That means no broken links! The plugin also automatically saves and preserves all image links—so you can build documents with images stored in the cloud.
Moreover, this integration allows makes it easy to push images and project information from OpenAsset into InDesign documents using custom templates and store InDesign documents in OpenAsset for improved collaboration.
With InDesign and OpenAsset, anyone in your firm can create professionally designed marketing materials in just a few clicks, and strengthen your brand with custom InDesign brand templates.
Win More Business With OpenAsset
We hope the proposal tips mentioned in this article will make your proposal writing process more efficient and effective while helping you land more clients.
If you’re a professional in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, responding to RFPs is part of your daily tasks. Therefore, you need a tool that can deliver, such as a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. Specifically, you need a DAM tool tailored to the AEC industry, like OpenAsset.
With OpenAsset it’s simple: Centralize AEC assets. Create more proposals. Win more business. OpenAsset’s Digital Asset Management platform makes AEC proposals simpler, faster, and more successful. That’s why 99% of our customers renew.
How does OpenAsset do this? OpenAsset helps streamline the proposal creation process by organizing and managing digital assets such as images, project documents, and templates. This ensures easy access to high-quality visuals and relevant content, reducing the time spent searching for materials.
With OpenAsset, AEC firms can maintain consistency, enhance the visual appeal of their proposals, and present a professional, cohesive narrative that resonates with clients, ultimately increasing their chances of securing new projects. Ready to win more business?
