7 Ways to Improve Business Proposal Acceptance Rates

Summary: The acceptance rate of business proposals is determined by cost, experience, and a storytelling-based narrative that persuades evaluator to learn more about your proposed solution.

This Klariti tutorial will explain how to write a story-telling narrative for your business proposal that holds your reader’s attention, highlights your point of view, and encourages them to examine your proposed solution – and contact you for a follow-up presentation.

Work Breakdown Structure template with sample data

[ Learn more about these Proposal Templates ]

How To Write Better Business Proposals

Why do some Business Proposals get accepted and others never get funding? You can improve your bid win rate if you look at how the Proposal evaluation team, and others in the procurement industry, assess, review and evaluate Proposals.

While each step is important and deserves attention, give extra time to planning your proposal. Give special attention to each specification and functional requirement, use persuasive writing techniques, and get the costs right.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

If you understand the Request For Proposal guidelines before you write your proposal, you stand a much better chance of getting shortlisted.

To do this, make sure their goals and objectives align with your solution. This is where new proposal writers go wrong. Their solution might have merit but does not address the core issues or pain points.

To improve your chance of winning government contracts, look at the planning and research activities first, and then follow these steps when writing the actual Business Proposal.

Write Clearly

One mistake in Proposal writing is to be vague and avoid giving the exact information the assessment team need to review your document. No one likes bids that sidestep costs or other ‘hard’ facts. Discus the project outcome, impact of funds, and then discuss goals, measure objectives, and how to quantify outcomes.

Compliance Issues

Don’t get eliminated in the first wrong. Instead, avoid the mistake of not complying with the purpose, goals and objectives. For example, ensure that you submit the Tax Clearance Form and other mandatory documents.

Define Goals

While your ultimate goal is to get funding and win new business, you also need to outline how to plan to use this money, and why your vision matches the grantmaker’s priorities. To do this, you need to write an interesting, persuasive and compelling proposal.

Follow-up

After you’ve submitted the bid, contact the decision-maker (if allowed under the terms) and discuss the status of your proposal.

Good Writing Skills

Look at other successful Business Proposals and see how the Proposal Writers use different techniques to win over the reader. Understand how to use the advanced writing techniques when developing Proposals and Grants. For example, write in the active voice, be positive, and make it interesting to read. Remember, the assessment team gets many bids every week so make sure yours is a cut above the rest.

Plan It

Demonstrate your planning, research and leadership skills throughout your proposal and show where and how you will address risks/issues are they arise with contingencies if/when things go wrong.

Problem Statement

Outline what you understand as the significant need or problem in your proposal. The more you can articulate the problem, the more likely the grant-makers and Request For Proposal writers will trust your bid.

This also helps if you want to apply to the same agency at a later date. Request feedback about your proposal’s strengths and weaknesses and create a dialogue with the assessment team.

 

[ Learn more about these Proposal Templates ]

Conclusion

Once you have completed the Business Proposal, proof-read it twice. Have you focused your bid on following areas: needs, purpose, feasibility, costs, accountability and experience?