MoneyWatch

How To Write a Winning Sales Proposal

By Geoffrey James

Updated on: September 4, 2008 / 11:33 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

If your business model involves complex sales proposals, you know how difficult it can be to get the writing process started. Here's a trick from the uber-guru of proposals, Tom Sant, author of Persuasive Business Proposals.

Before you and your teams begin writing, conduct a brainstorming session, using the following questions as creative spurs:

What does the customer want to happen?
What does the customer believe that they need?
What is the customer's problem or issue?
Why is this problem important to them?
What parts of the business are affected by this problem?
What corporate goals are not being achieved?
How will they measure success (financially, technically, other)?
Which success measurement is most important to them?
What will we propose?
How will we do this work?
What proof can we offer that we are qualified and competent?
What is our value proposition?
How can we demonstrate that the value we propose to offer is credible?

As you work on these questions and flesh them out creatively, you'll build up the raw material that can transform your proposal into a document that will (at the very least) get you on the short list.

Then, when you actually write the proposal, follow the rules in the previous post "The Essential Sales Proposal Checklist" and avoid the errors described in the previous post "Ten Gaffes of Proposal Writing."