WRITING WINNING SALES PROPOSALS
ONE DAY TRAINING COURSE - ONLINE OR ONSITE
SALES PROPOSAL WRITING
Professional Bid and Proposal Writing One-Day Skills Training Course
Overview
This workshop-style training event covers all aspects of preparing, writing, proofing, editing, and producing sales proposals, tender responses, bid documents, and sales quotations.
- Participants work on their own real-life documents; objectively writing, editing, and proofreading during the course.
- Detailed course manual and materials, including a PDF writing reference guide.
- Learning exercises to practice structuring, composing, editing, and proofreading.
Who should attend?
This course is suitable for sales and marketing staff, bid writers, and technical advisors.
Learning objectives include:
- Tools and techniques to write better and win bid submissions.
- How to best summarise a compelling solution clearly and concisely.
- Best practice in presenting bid submissions in a structured and professional way.
- Apply the principles of plain English – being concise, clear, and credible.
- Choose and present the right supporting information without ‘data-dumping.’
- Ideas and methods for presenting a strong and convincing business case.
- Evaluate and analyse bid requirements and align your approach to what your customer wants.
- Techniques to differentiate your bid from that of your competition.
- Avoid common mistakes that impact on your professional image and the effectiveness of your bid or quotation.
- Use a checklist to help proofread the final bid document.
About this course
This course will be delivered by an experienced trainer with real expertise and knowledge of the subject. The course will be informal, engaging, and include many practical activities.
Live online one-day training course price: £195 plus VAT per person.
£295 per person for a one-day classroom workshop, a minimum of three participants, plus travel costs.
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Professional Bid and Proposal Writing - Outline
One day online or onsite training course
Key principles of bid, tender response, and proposal writing
- Why bother with a full proposal?
- Five key points
- A few more things to remember
- Easy as ABC: Using ‘Everyday English’
Creating your proposal
- Why good writing matters
- Writing the first draft
- Planning the production process
- Developing a good writing style
- Big, but not clever
How to structure your proposal
- Six questions
- How to best structure
- The Pyramid Principle and executive summaries
- Making it read like a business proposal
Selling with words
- Selling your proposition
- Writing with style
- Building value by presenting options
- Words that sell
- AIDA: Attention-Interest-Desire-Action
Correcting Skills
- Editing and proof-reading
- Effective editing skills
- The clarity index/fog index
- Introduction to proofreading
- Grammar Rules O.K.
- Using online tools and Word functions
Presenting to the client
- Presentation layout
- Matching benefits to needs
- Producing your proposal
- Proposal checklist and action plan
Learning summary
Ideal for individual or groups
Sales proposal writing
About this course
Introduction
The training will help you to become a more effective and efficient writer when preparing and presenting sales proposals and related documents. It uses business writing principles. This is different from the writing we were taught at school or college.
Time is money
How much time do you or others waste by having to re-do your letters and business documents again and again? Or, did you experience preparing a document that does get fully read, misses the points the readers are looking for and does not achieve your objectives?
Clarity of thought is important in all areas of business and it's important to know the aim of your writing before you begin. Using the right words and phrases, keeping clear of jargon, and being logical will make your words easier to understand. Words that are understood are acted on and action makes for more productivity.
Careful consideration of the reader's needs and expectations is the basis of good practice writing. The essential qualities are:
- Clear organization
- Clear expression
- Relevant content
- Appropriate style
The first two of these meet the reader's needs. The third and fourth satisfy the reader's expectations. Plus, consider how you improve the process of producing sales proposals, regardless of the final output.
Why bother with a full proposal?
A formal written proposal is sometimes necessary to back up the content of the verbal presentation of your solution. Complex sales writing proposals can tie up expensive resources for long periods. So, it is very important to ensure that you have determined the criteria, budget, and needs of your prospect before you commit resources or put pen to paper. A proposal should state in writing the benefits your prospect will gain from implementing your solution. A proposal is therefore first and foremost a selling document. Certain situations require a formal proposal:
- When requested by the prospect.
- When the value of the sale is high and you compete with other suppliers.
- When your recommendation is a large, complex product, service, or solution, a formal proposal will help the buyer understand all the detail and implications. A large solution may also require a well-prepared sales document to justify the cost.
- When you cannot get to the ultimate decision-maker, the formal proposal should sell in your absence.
- When more than one person is active in the decision-making process, a formal proposal should be prepared and presented to the group of decision-makers.
- When the potential for future business is high even though the value of this sale may be below.
Advantages of a good formal sales proposal or bid
- Lends credibility to your claim.
- Continues to sell in your absence. It may be able to reach higher decision-makers, passing through doors normally closed to salespeople.
- Helps close the sale by providing a logical sequence from the buyer’s needs to your request for the order.
- Helps protect the account by documenting the reasons for the decision.
- Demonstrates professionalism on the part of yourself and your company.
- Acts as a script for your presentation.