Writing Business Bids and Proposals For Dummies

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Cobb Neil. Writing Business Bids and Proposals For Dummies

Introduction

Part 1. Understanding Proposal Development

Chapter 1. Introducing Bids and Proposals

Chapter 2. Understanding Different Types of Proposals

Part 2. Focusing on Your Customer

Chapter 3. Building Customer Relationships

Chapter 4. Giving Your Customers What They Ask For (And More)

Chapter 5. Sizing Up Your Competition

Part 3. Planning Your Approach

Chapter 6. Developing Your Proposal Process

Chapter 7. Setting Yourself Apart From Your Competitors

Chapter 8. Keeping Your Proposal on Track

Part 4. Creating Your Proposal

Chapter 9. Developing Your Proposal

Chapter 10. Applying the Principles of Good Writing: Structuring Your Argument

Chapter 11. Making Your Proposals Look Good

Chapter 12. Getting Your Proposal Out the Door

Part 5. Taking Your Proposal to the Next Level

Chapter 13. Using Tools and Templates to Accelerate Your Proposals

Chapter 14. Leading Proposal Teams Effectively

Chapter 15. Making Each Proposal Better than the Last

Part 6. The Part of Tens

Chapter 16. Ten Templates for Building Your Proposal

Chapter 17. Ten Common Misconceptions about Bids and Proposals

Appendix. Online Resources

About the Authors

Dedication

Authors’ Acknowledgments

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This may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but some people write proposals for a living and enjoy it.

We don’t mean people who have to write proposals to sell their products and services as an obligatory part of their roles as business owners, salespeople, and entrepreneurs. We mean people who write proposals as their profession – it’s their primary role. They delight in this intricate, detail-oriented, thought-provoking work. They toil for businesses big and small, and all they do all day (and all night at times) is write proposals. Some write proposals that are a handful of pages, while others write proposals with hundreds of pages in multiple volumes. Some write them pretty much on their own, while others coordinate the efforts of anywhere from a couple of specialists to hundreds on a single deal. They propose to every kind of business and government entity you can imagine, because most publicly owned or regulated enterprises buy goods and services through proposals.

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Gathering and providing the right information

You won’t know your customer’s hot buttons if you don’t gather the right information. How do you do this (especially when you’re not the salesperson and never escape the back office)? If your opportunity is proactive, you ask questions. You ask the customer. If your company won’t let you, you ask the customer rep or the customer support tech. You ask thoughtful, probing questions that get to the heart of the customer’s problem, and you listen closely to the answers so you can write like the customer talks.

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