Business Proposal Process refers to the structured series of steps involved in creating a formal proposal to secure business contracts or partnerships.

To make the process a non-herculean task, this guide is designed to help you master the art of crafting compelling business proposal – a document that helps you earn clients and partners by describing your business’ service and product offerings – which is key to securing deals and contracts.

With decades of experience in the field, our team, including a certified proposal manager with an impressive 87% win rate, has secured over $4.5 billion in awards for our clients, and, by following these steps, you can ensure that your proposals are clear, persuasive, and tailored to meet your clients’ needs, ultimately enhancing your chances of success.

Here are some questions that can help you determine if you can complete the proposal on time.

• Who needs to be involved?Legal – to review the proposal
• The Gatherer(s) – to procure all of the necessary information
• The Creator(s) – to create new content
• The Pricer(s) – to put pricing together
• The Reviewer(s) – to review the document along the way
• The Checker (s) – to check for amendments daily
• Does the timing work with existing schedules?
• Does everyone participating in the process have the capacity for more work?
• Have you reviewed the Scope of Work? Can you do all of the work in-house
• What certification does the entity accept?

If everyone involved can take on additional work, it’s time to begin perfecting your business proposal. Schedule a kick-off meeting with all team members who will be part of the proposal process. Ask everyone to review the RFP (Request for Proposal) or RFQ (Request for Qualifications) beforehand, noting any questions or concerns. During the meeting, address any issues raised from the initial review and clarify each person’s role to ensure their schedules accommodate the additional work. This is an ideal time for everyone to mark important dates in their calendars, ensuring they can allocate the necessary time to meet deadlines and effectively contribute to the business proposal.

When perfecting your Proposal Structuring Plan, managing a vast amount of information and multiple deadlines is crucial. Great organizational tools are your best allies. Consider where you are storing all pertinent information and how you are organizing it to meet project needs. If you’re not using a proposal management system, creating an Excel spreadsheet to house all the information for the forms can be very beneficial.

Additionally, we recommend making a proposal matrix for each proposal, which includes critical due dates, necessary sections, pricing information, and more. This ensures compliance and responsiveness.

The great benefit of electronic submission is that you can upload documents as you go. When you have completed one of the necessary documents and signatures have been acquired, go ahead and upload it! Update the compliance matrix and move the document to the submitted folder. That way, there is no last-minute confusion about whether a completed document has been submitted.

Once everything has been submitted, it is time to review your process. This can also be called a white team review or internal debrief. There are always lessons learned from every submission. Here are a few questions to consider:

• What could you have done differently?
• How could you better organize the information for your next project?
• Are there things you could have done to speed up the process?
• Is there something we could have done/said differently to help us stand out more than our competitors?