Top 23 Business Proposal Ideas to Accelerate Your Deals

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Business proposals are written documents that express the value, pricing, and terms of your product or service to a prospect after a sales presentation. It’s likely that your prospects are receiving proposals from your competitors, as well, so it’s crucial that you make yours stand out. We asked some expert salespeople and business aficionados how to do just that. Without further ado, here are the top business proposal ideas for creating effective business proposals.

• Tips on Writing Your Business Proposal: Learn ways to optimize your business proposals when writing them for the best results. Read more below.
• Tips on Sending and Following Up With Business Proposals: Read tips on how to send and follow up on your business proposal to stand out to prospects. Read more below.

Tips on Writing your Business Proposal

When writing your business proposal, there are ways to separate yourself from other proposals by optimizing and personalizing the content leading to more deal wins. Learn pro tips to help write the best business proposal possible and communicate your ideas effectively.

Krista Neher

CEO

Create a Well-Designed & Reusable Template

"Invest time upfront in an amazing template. We spent one week creating an outstanding template (and hired a designer) and we customized about 3-4 slides in the template for each client. Our win rate increased from about 50% to over 75% with a professional, well-designed template. It also saved us time because we are only customizing a few slides for each proposal."

— Krista Neher, Boot Camp Digital

If you want to custom-design a reusable business proposal that's both professional and eye-catching, hire a designer on Fiverr for the best results. Fiverr is a gig-based marketplace where experts offer business proposal design services you can update for each prospect and send as a PDF. Gigs start as low as five dollars; check out the top options below today:

Khari Washington

Broker

Host a Discovery Call Beforehand

"When we make a proposal to list someone's house on the market, one of the best tips is to listen to what is important to the seller before creating the proposal. Sometimes the price isn't the only factor. You have to address their needs in the order of importance to them, not you."

— Khari Washington, 1st United Realty & Mortgage, Inc

James Angel

Co-Founder

Format Your Proposal Sections Correctly

"Your proposal has to be well-formatted. Poorly structured proposals might be unpleasant, confusing, or difficult to understand. Format your proposal in a clear and sequential way, and also make your proposal visually appealing and simple to read if you want it to be considered."

— James Angel, DYL

Check out our article on business proposal formats for details, which includes a formatted business proposal template with key sections.

Martin Boonzaayer

CEO

Use Honest, Simple, & Concise Language

"Keep an eye on the tone and language used in business proposals. Avoid industry jargon and technical terms by using clear, concise, and simple language. Simultaneously, avoid exaggerating your company or service, as this may undermine the trust you're trying to build with your potential client. Additionally, use the same casual-meets-formal tone you would in a meeting."

— Martin Boonzaayer, The Trusted Home Buyer

Christian Velitchkov

Co-Founder

Create & Manage Your Proposals Within a CRM

"Bring in the technology and increase the efficiency of your proposal. You can use CRM software to create, send, and track your business proposals directly. This way is quick and effective. It saves time and increases your reach."

— Christian Velitchkov, Twiz LLC

Michael Hammelburger

CEO

Add Testimonials to Inspire Trust

"One of the best tricks that has worked for our sales team when writing a marketing business proposal is adding social proof on the proposal. Come up with a list of past and present customers who resemble the qualities of your potential customer to provide a testimonial of your work. Back up your customers' testimonials with stats and numbers to prove your claims and work on a great storytelling approach to get your lead excited hearing more from you."

— Michael Hammelburger, Sales Therapy

Vince Burruano

CEO

"Recommend" Your Idea to Clients

"Don’t call it a proposal, call it a “recommendation”. Experts provide recommendations after conducting a thorough discovery and analysis. Sales professionals should do the same. By thinking of yourself as an expert providing a recommendation, you become a consultative salesperson that's more trustworthy. We're pre-conditioned psychologically to respect recommendations from experts."

— Vince Burruano, Vince Burruano Consulting Services, LLC

Paige Arnof-Fenn

Founder & CEO

Highlight Your Expertise & Thought Leadership

"We try to educate, inform and entertain in our written proposals with articles we have written or been quoted in and also extend invitations to events where we will be speaking so they can see us be featured for our expertise.  We try to make our proposals personal to stand out from the larger agency boilerplate info drop logo here approach."

— Paige Arnof-Fenn, Mavens & Moguls

Paula Glynn

Director of Strategy & Sales

Paint Yourself as an Advisor

"Always provide an insight into the customer's business as part of the proposal. This shows that you have taken the time to personalize, and think about them as a business. It shows you are an expert in your field and you are sharing a small piece of the advice/experience they would get if they were to become a customer. It transitions the proposal from ‘generic’ to ‘customized’ and VALUABLE. Different from your competitors. You would be surprised what this can do to the close rates!"

— Paula Glynn, Pixelstorm

Kamila Gornia

Founder & CEO

Highlight Your End Goal

"The client ultimately only cares about one thing - will they get what they're asking for, and don't really care all that much about the details. Your business proposal should focus on your end goal more than the steps to get there. If you can express your confidence in ACHIEVING the end result by creating your own methodology - they will get sold that much easier."

— Kamila Gornia, Heart Behind Hustle

Dan Henderson

Founder

Anticipate & Handle Objections

"As a business owner, you must understand how to write profitable and effective business proposals because they influence a prospect's decision. I believe the best way to write them is to highlight not just the benefits but also the drawbacks, and you must have a strategy for dealing with them. This will assist you in persuading prospects that the disadvantages are unimportant because you can handle them. This builds the trust that your prospects require for your business to succeed."

— Dan Henderson, GlobalTek MD

Check out our list of the most common objections and rebuttals, many of which you might want to refute in the prose of your proposal.

Harriet Chan

Co-Founder & Marketing Director

Appeal to Your Prospect’s Emotions

"Always keep in mind that cold-hard data and emotional appeal are vital to master how to write business proposals. Most clients’ decisions are bound by logic, such as budgetary restrictions, but their choices are shaped by emotions, including excitement over the business proposal. It is essential to express the tangible benefits you offer to potential clients to visualize your working relationship and make them feel confident that your offering fits the outcomes sought."

— Harriet Chan, CocoFinder

Joseph Fung

CEO

Discuss an Industry Shift

"A great tactic to use is to show a statistic or industry trend that points towards a success right off the bat. This elevates the prospect's emotion of hope. Then introduce the message that this success, unfortunately, is not the norm in that industry and link it with the pain expressed by your prospect. This creates a situation for your prospect where you've generated excitement and then tamped it down by pointing out the reality of the situation. This tactic is a set up for driving your real point home: That your product is the answer to your prospect's pain."

— Joseph Fung, Uvaro

Ben Austin

CEO & Founder

Mention Add-on Products or Services

"Mentioning add-on products or services at the end of your proposal is a great way to showcase what else is on offer to your potential client – highlighting that there is further opportunity available to them now and in the future. These should be personalized to the client you are working with – consider what would be of most interest to them and their campaign."

— Ben Austin, Absolute Media

Christina Strack

Enterprise Sales Speaker & Trainer

Never Criticize the Prospect’s Current Vendor

"Don't disparage the incumbent. If you are Forrester Consulting, and the incumbent is Gartner Consulting, be sure your current state analysis of Gartner's work is objective and not judgmental. When you criticize your prospect's vendor, remember that some people in the prospect's environment took political risk onboarding that vendor."

— Christina Strack, Titan Enterprise Sales

Michael Peres

Software Engineer, Journalist, Radio Host, Founder

Include Clear Terms & Conditions

"Further discussion of the project timeline, costs, and payment schedules will occur in this section. If the client accepts your proposal, it serves as a summary of the terms and circumstances to which you and the client will both be subjected. Ensure that you have addressed the terms and conditions with your internal legal staff before submitting the proposal to the customer."

— Michael Peres, MichaelPeres.com

Max Whiteside

Sponsored Content Lead

Consider Using a One-Page Proposal

"If you can't fit it on one page printed, you don't have a full enough understanding of your prospect and their business to present a proposal. Go back to your discovery and ask more questions. If you want to win more business, provide value, not fluff."

— Max Whiteside, Barbend

To learn how to create a one-pager and download a free template you can start with, read our article on one-page proposals.

Using all of these expert tips will help you in drafting a strong business proposal for your clients. But, the proposal process isn’t over there. Once you’re confident in your proposal, there are tricks of the trade to get your client’s to read, understand, and act on your proposal.

Tips on Sending & Following Up With Business Proposals

When sending your business proposal, these sales professionals suggest multiple ways to get noticed and make clients read your proposal. Read these tips and tricks to lead to more closed deals and successful proposals.

Christopher Pappas

Founder & CEO

Include a Call-To-Action

“A call-to-action is a specific request made to the reader of your proposal, your prospective client. These are typically included at the conclusion of proposals to encourage your prospective client to take a proactive move toward collaboration. Typical calls to action include inviting your prospective client to contact you to organize a meeting or proposing that they sign the contract included in your business proposal. A solid call to action sticks out in your proposal, instills a sense of urgency in your reader, and makes it very clear what you're asking of them."

— Christopher Pappas, eLearning Industry

Christiaan Huynen

CEO & Founder

Introduce a Sense of Urgency

"An email can easily be left unnoticed and worse, be left unread if it is not creative enough to catch a recipient's attention. Remember that an attractive subject line will appeal to your target market better if it has a sense of urgency. Formulating it as if it's the last chance of the customer to grab the discount deal will more likely be opened than other emails. People open your emails if they feel they will benefit, if they’re worried about missing out, or if you present convincing evidence about why they should. Use a killer line to draw interest from potential customers off the bat."

— Christiaan Huynen, DesignBro

Olga Gonzalez

CEO

Send Your Proposal Quickly

"The most important thing to do when writing a business proposal is to be timely. Respond in a timely manner to a prospect's inquiry, to follow-up with a discussion, and with sending the proposal. Any delays along the pipeline will create doubt, and another company will step right in to take your place."

— Olga Gonzalez, Pietra Communications

To increase your speed, consider using proposal management software that helps you create, send, and track professional proposals. For more information, check out our roundup of the best business proposal software.

Jeff Mains

CEO

A/B Test Your Business Proposal Ideas

"Web design and marketing professionals are well aware of one of the most effective methods of implementing changes to a website or document: testing it out beforehand. Experiment with different components of your ideas, one at a time, and monitor your results to determine what works. Won't placing your price information before your customer testimonials boost your win rate? Check it out with an A/B test and see what happens."

— Jeff Mains, Champion Leadership Group

Ruti Dadash

Founder & CEO

Include a Summary or Proposal Letter

"Remember that some of the people who will be seeing the proposal - some of whom are likely to be decision makers - weren't actually at the meeting you had to discuss the project. Therefore, introduce a proposal letter as a summary of what their issue is, why they need a solution now - and how you can help their business. The goal here is to ensure everyone reading the proposal will be on the same page in understanding the urgency and importance of solving the issue, so they will value your proposed solution more."

— Ruth Dadash, Imperial Rank SEO

Chris Mitchell

Founder

Deliver Your Idea in a Proposal Review Meeting

"We get the best results when presenting the proposal on a Zoom call to answer questions, and handle objections. After the meeting is over, we send the proposal and use the highly detailed tracking feature to gauge their buying interest - helping us close deals faster."

— Chris Mitchell, Intelus Agency

Ultimately, you want your prospect to acknowledge your business proposal and respond with some kind of action, making it a valuable tool to progress your prospect through your sales process. These tips come from sales experts who’ve seen what a strong business proposal can accomplish.

Bottom Line: Business Proposal Ideas

Business proposals provide your prospects with the information they need to feel comfortable during the lead nurturing stage. By far, the most common tip we received when asking experts was that the proposals should be personalized to each prospect’s specific needs and desires. This makes them feel understood, cared for, and confident in your ability to help them achieve their objectives. When you’ve gotten your prospect to this point, you’re ready to close the sale.