Ensure your proposals stand out with these key rules. From using client-focused design elements to maintaining consistency in format and branding, these tips will help you create professional and personalized proposals that leave a lasting impression.
Add a photo of the client on your proposal cover to make your proposal memorable.
A strong header and footer will make the client sure that document is from your company in any page he is looking at.
Use a table to summarize the major features of the project. Columns that are needed are:
- Required
- Desired
- Option A ==(Recommended)==
- Option B
A proposal Word template means that anyone in the company will be able to easily create a new proposal for a client following the standards. It can literally cut the time of proposal development in half.
"Commercial in Confidence" information is to be made known to anyone that the proposal in a confidential document. Competing companies are never to be given another company's information in regard to performance specifications or any aspects of pricing, quotation, tender, bid, nor any other commercial or proprietary information.
Before any document goes to a client a test please for the document is to be completed. The first test is the technical test please. When that is passed the Design test please is to be completed.
The necessary amount of time should be allocated. If there is a time limitation, the manager will inform which parts should be checked in prior.
At SSW, our proposals are to be divided into 3 parts:
- The white section: This is the document information.
- The yellow section: The actual proposal, where all the information for the client can be found
- The red section: This is the SSW section and contains a brief presentation of our company and appendices. Please note that this section is not as relevant to client and therefore comes last
It's very important to make clear which part of your proposal is relevant for the client or not. Adding the client logo in the pages related to their company is a good way to do this.
The use of many different fonts in the same document is unprofessional. At SSW, we use Open Sans as the standard font.
It is important that the documents you provide are branded appropriately. This is not just the document's formatting, but the Title of the document and the File Name as well.
- Do you have a cover page with client's photo?
- Do you have a strong header and footer?
- Do you have a table summarizing the major features and options?
- Do you have a proposal template?
- Do you include "Commercial in confidence" in your proposal?
- Do you perform a thorough check on documents before they go to the client?
- Do you talk about the client first and about your company in the end?
- Do you to put the client logo on the pages that are about the client's project only?
- Do you use a consistent font for the whole document?
- Do you use branding in the filename?
- Do you use PDF instead of Word?
- Do you use photos of your employees to make the document more personal?
- Do you use images in your proposals?