Proposal (business)

These types of proposals are made when a private firm, government agency, or association negotiates to supply a service or product to a single company and when a company has excellent credibility and a track record of achievements. The standard format for this type of proposal consists of information about a specific product, including the price and delivery schedules. Some advantages to this include not having to have resources to win a contract and the firm or client knows what time the work will be coming.

Internal proposals

Internal proposals are ideas or projects that are presented to whoever holds the position of top management in a company. These types of proposals can be written by a particular individual, group, department, or division of a particular company. One example of this is when the manager of a product line writes a proposal suggesting that the company should robotize the production process. Some advantages to this includes easier communication, knowing the client's needs and making fast decisions. Some advantages to this may include competition from other companies and the loss of management champions.[3]

Unsolicited proposals are marketing brochures. They are always generic, with no direct connection between customer needs or specified requirements. Vendors use them to introduce a product or service to a prospective customer. They are often used as "leave-behinds" at the end of initial meetings with or customers or "give-aways" at trade shows or other public meetings. They are not designed to close a sale, just introduce the possibility of a sale.[4]

1. Requirements Matrix, which matches customer requirements with the paragraph and page numbers of where those requirements are addressed in the proposal
2. Executive Summary, which outlines the primary benefits of the vendor's solutions to the customer's requirements
3. Technical Volume, which demonstrates how each requirement will be met
4. Management Volume, which describes how the program will be managed
5. Cost Volume, which provides all costing data, as well as implementation plans and schedules[1]

1. A description of the seller's capabilities or products
2. A discussion of key issues
3. A description of the buyer's specifications and how they will be met
4. The cost of the offering
5. A schedule for delivery of the products or services
6. Proof of prior experience i.e. Testimonials from previous customers, Descriptions of previous projects[2]

Proposal management is an inherently collaborative process. It often consists of the following basic roles and responsibilities:

• Creator – responsible for creating and editing content.
• Editor – responsible for tuning the content message and the style of delivery, including translation and localization.
• Publisher – responsible for releasing the content for use.
• Administrator – responsible for managing access permissions to documents and files, usually accomplished by assigning access rights to user groups or roles.
• Consumer or viewer – the person who reads or otherwise takes in content after it is published or shared.

Increasingly, the term proposal management is being used to suggest that engagement with the proposal process is important to more than just the sales team, and should also affect those working in marketing, legal, and sales.

Some writers refer to key stages in the proposal management process using colour codes to denote milestone reviews, for example a black hat review.[5] The Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) refers to a black hat review as an independent review of the strategies and proposals likely to be put forward by competitors.[6] According to Carl Dickson of the Capture Planning website, a black hat review should tell an organisation which competitors are strong in their own areas of weakness and which are weaker where they are strong, and is therefore also potentially used to determine whether partnering with one rival organisation might be a viable proposal.[7] Other colours are used in relation to teams: a pre-writing strategy review is sometimes called a "Pink Team", a formal draft review may be called a "Red Team", and the term "Gold Team" indicates a final pre-submission review. Dickson notes that these terms are not consistently defined.[8]

Inherent to the process of managing proposal is the decision of whether to submit a bid, which is underpinned by the capture plan.[9]

There is also a trend towards using proposal management software, which allows users to quickly and easily create proposals, collaborate with team members, and track and analyze customer engagement.

• Baugh, L. Sue; Hamper, Robert J. (1995). Handbook For Writing Proposals. McGraw–Hill. ISBN 0-8442-3274-2.
• Binda Zane, Edoardo; (2016), Writing Proposals: A Handbook Of What Makes Your Project Right For Funding ISBN 978-1537164403
• Holtz, Herman (1998). Proven Proposal Strategies To Win More Business. Dearborn Trade, a Kaplan Professional Company. ISBN 1-57410-088-2.
• Reeds, Kitta (2002). The Zen of Proposal Writing: An Expert's Stress-Free Path to Winning Proposals. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80649-1.
• Ricci, Laura; (2014), The Magic of Winning Proposals (publisher Help Everybody Everyday) ISBN 9781502792198.
• Riley, Patrick G.; (2002), The One Page Proposal: How to Get Your Business Pitch onto One Persuasive Page (New York: HarperCollins) ISBN 978-0-06-098860-9.