by Sharon Brook

Created on: May 12, 2009

When you sit down to write a business proposal, there are a few key elements that you should pay careful attention to. Plenty of thought and organization needs to be spent on preparing your document, or presentation. Remember, you are writing a proposal, which means that whatever you decide to include within the presentation must be convincing enough to get a yes answer. You need to take on the mentality that you won't take no for an answer, and will do whatever it takes to be successful.

The Executive Summary is the main idea section of your proposal. In most standard business proposals, the executive summary portion is the introduction to the presentation. The executive summary should contain the following elements- your mission statement, objective, and basis for importance of what you're offering. Please note that your executive summary is, in essence, the meat and potatoes of the presentation- the bulk of your proposal, that is. You can view it as a proposal, within a proposal.

In order to attract the attention of your audience, you need to first address a particular problem or issue pertaining to your client. Once you've gained enough interest on your subject, you can now- introduce yourself or the company that you represent, share background and experience information, and pitch the company's main goals and mission statement. Next, you are going to clarify the uniqueness of your company and/or product, and how they (your audience) will benefit from it.

Depending on what prompted the meeting, you need to pick a vibe to feed off of in order to pitch to your audience. If you were contacted to present your proposal, you have the seller's advantage of getting the response that you desire. However, your job would be more difficult in convincing your target audience if you had to arrange for this presentation. In which this case, you will need to work twice as hard to get your point across to your listeners.

The secret to a winning proposal is to have all the right information to present. Vital information such as: statistics, advantages over your competition, longevity, benefits, warranties or upgrades, leading technological aspects, etc. The main point is to captivate your listening audience, and to encourage active participation into your presentation. To increase acceptance, your best strategy is to highlight the uniqueness and innovative quality of your product or service. Great points worth highlighting are: pricing, necessity, durability, longevity/lifespan, endorsers/supporters, and originality.

Even if your product or service doesn't have enough strength to back it up, you (the presenter of the proposal) should have enough qualifications to sell it. For example, you are promoting a prototype for a new dental implant being introduced to the market for the first time. Obviously, your company hired you to promote their product because you've got the experience for reaching out to the right target markets. Never mind all of the red tape and obstacles that you have to go through, you've got enough experience to know that this product/service is endorsable and marketable.

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