You just happened to start a business with a great idea and now you are looking to secure potential customers. To do so, you will need to draft a business proposal that appropriately elaborates on different aspects of your business and those that will be of interest to your target customers. To be precise, a business proposal is a formal document that a company formulates and provides to a potential customer to secure a deal. In contrast to other business documents that may interest investors, a business proposal is aimed at finding new customers.

Types of Business Proposals

Business proposals usually fall into two different categories. Each of these can be used depending on the situation in which you are dealing with your client. Also picking one over the other can also impact the amount of detail you put into your business proposal.

The aim of an unsolicited business proposal is to approach potential customers even if they are not the ones who initiate it. Here you are not very clear about your clients and their interests. These proposals typically include your business details on a very generic level, i.e., one template for all clients. You can also call them cold emails or marketing brochures.

This type of proposal is initiated by the client and they request your business profile. In this scenario, your client requests the contents of your business proposal and you are fully aware of the demands of your client. Hence, your business proposal will be very precise as per the requirements.

What makes an effective business proposal?

It is important to take the time and put in the effort to draft a compelling and effective business proposal that will not only be attractive to your audience but also help you close the deal. Additionally, you need to consider the broader goals of your organization, the problems you are trying to solve, and the solutions that you come up with. The audience will be able to see that your company has realistic ambitions and appropriate targets to achieve. Here are a few things you need to include in your business proposal.

The title page is the cover of your entire proposal and you should pay extra attention to putting together a well-elaborated title page. You can mention the name of your company, your client’s name, proposal dates, and some other basic information. Additionally, it should be aesthetically pleasing while at the same time not too eccentric.

Just like with any other document, the table of content of your business proposal must also incorporate all major headings and highlights of the document, allowing readers to easily access it. Further, if your document will be accessed via any digital medium then you must also link the contents to their relevant headings.

If you are presenting any solution as a product or service, you are obviously planning to charge for it. Those charges should also be included in your proposal. However, you should be very careful while deciding the charges as you don’t want to overcharge or undercharge. You should also clearly state that you are not including any hidden charges, as this can negatively impact both your clients and end buyers.

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It is very critical to close up nicely after covering all the necessary details. Here you can briefly review all the points that you covered in the document. You can also add your contact information and availability so that interested clients can contact you. Remember your goal is to sign up the client so your final words matter a lot.

Assuming the deal sailed through and your client signed up for your business, you will be looking for a legal way to get their approval. An appropriate way would be to add a space for their signature or official stamp. Moreover, it shows a sign of commitment between stakeholders, making them accountable for their actions.