A business proposal is one of the most effective ways to convey to your clients how they can profit and what you can do for their business. Essentially, it’s an overview of what you can offer your clients and defines how you can help them attain their business goals. If your proposal is sound, it will certainly pique the interest of your clients, as well as convince them to form a partnership with you to fulfill their business needs.
A proposal can also be used to highlight your expertise, abilities, and professional experiences. However it can also, if drafted poorly, ruin your chances of securing business from reputable customers. A business proposal that’s crafted solely to sing the praises of your company is one that is destined fail. While it’s fine to mention positive things about yourself and your company, you must not forget to focus on the needs of the client. When writing a business proposal, you need to take several factors into account before approving the final draft.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common proposal mistakes that business owners make that cause them to lose heavily in the bargaining process:
Do Not Ignore the Competition
Competition is fierce. You can’t afford to take risks when it comes to claiming your share of the market. There are others who sell the same type of products or services and will do everything in their power to ensure they retain their customer base and market share. Making the claim that “our products/services are so good that we don’t have any competitors” will give the impression that you are over-confident and underestimate the power of your rivals. Who would like to do business with someone who barely understands his business environment?
Make sure that you avoid making such broad claims. The goal is to maintain the reader’s attention which will prompt them to read further.
Boasting About Incredibly High Financial Growth
Projecting that you have made phenomenal progress in recent times or inflating your sales figures won’t take you too far if you are new to the market and attempting to make a name for your business. Be realistic! Potential customers are shrewd. False claims and unrealistic projections will cast a disappointing shadow on your company. Be realistic. Clients love to work with steadily growing companies.
If you are unsure of how to proceed, consult a financial expert who can offer guidance and assist you in working out a realistic proposal.
Making Tall Claims about Market Share
This is something a lot of business owners love to do: exaggerate their success. You may lose instead of winning clients if you say “we are proud to say that we have a huge customer base of billions of customers.” This will destroy the purpose of writing the proposal, as your clients may be forced to believe that you already have more than you can handle.
Instead, your emphasis should be more on serving one or two niches effectively and understanding the needs of your clients.
Lack of Visual Appeal
Your proposal will appear mundane and boring if it lacks interesting images, graphs, and tables. They not only enhance the visual appeal of your proposal, but also help your clients to comprehend the text easily. However, in doing so, you want your vision to remain clear – unnecessary images may distract and confuse readers.
In some cases, it may be prudent for you to include a picture of your team or some clients that your business has serviced. This may help put a “face” on the proposal and make it more personal and appealing. But whenever you add images or pictures, they should add value to the proposal and the client. Don’t add images just for the sake of them being there.
To add to the visual appeal of your proposal, consider hiring a graphic designer.
Failing To Edit
Meticulous editing is an absolute necessity. Failing to do so properly will ensure that your proposal will head straight to the dreaded circular file. Make sure that the document is properly formatted and free of all typographical and grammatical errors. Sentence structure and font selection is also a must when it comes to writing flawless business proposals.
If you avoid making the mistakes mentioned above, then you are sure to compose a winning business proposal that gets the results you want.
