My 10 Step Winning Proposal Writing Process
Sometimes an RFP lands on your desk and all you have time to do is answer the questions, fill out the forms, and send it off to the customer.
In an ideal world, you would have time to create a well-planned win strategy to score more points and ultimately win the project.
If you’re in a position now where you’re ready to start incorporating a more sound strategy into your proposal process, then you’re likely wondering “Where do I start?”.
In today’s blog post, I’m sharing my exact, step-by-step proposal writing process that you can follow to create winning proposals, even if you’re not a writer.
Read on to learn more!
Step 1: Document Customer Insights
Before I do anything else related to the proposal (besides read the RFP, if there is one), I always document everything we know about the customer. The goal is to have a better understanding of why they are interested in the project, their current state, their ideal state, and any issues they have had in the past as it relates to our solution.
During this stage we also take note of any key competitors the customer might be considering, how their offering stacks up against ours, and why they would choose one of us over the other. It is important to learn during this stage if there is an incumbent on the project, and who that is. If the RFP is already released and you don’t have this answer, you can ask it during the Question period, but ideally you will have met with the customer before and have some insight into this.
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Step 2: Create Key Differentiators
As we talk through the customer, our offering, and key competitors, a few points of differentiation will start to arise. These will vary drastically from company to company and sometimes even for each project. The key thing to keep in mind is that it is only a differentiator if it matters to the customer. That is why step 1 is so important.
To create these, I take note of anything that stands out about our solution connected to the customer’s goals. For example, if the customer has a busy season where they need 10x the support compared to the slow season, a differentiator might be that we bill based on usage, not a fixed rate. This allows them to pay less during the slow months and more during the busy. A competitor, on the other hand, only offers fixed packages, which would mean the customer would have to buy the highest one to have enough support for the busy season.
When we’re creating differentiators, there are typically anywhere from 5-10 total that I finalize at the end of the strategy meeting (sometimes more depending on the competitive landscape).
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Step 3: Condense Differentiators into 3-5 Win Themes
With the notes taken and differentiators determined, it’s time to finalize win themes. I review my notes and group together related differentiators until we have about 3-5 key win themes to incorporate into our proposal (typically 3). These win themes will be used throughout the proposal to reinforce key points about why the customer should choose us over the competition and how we’ll help them to achieve their goals.
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Step 4: Compile Reference Content
Now that we have our strategy narrowed down, it’s time to start pulling together information.
You’ll notice that I don’t immediately jump from strategy to proposal. This is because I find I’m more likely to suffer a bout of writer’s block if I try to write from a blank page (and I don’t want to just insert boilerplate content that doesn’t align with our strategy). To combat this, I do a bit of research and pull together inspiration.
I create a Notes document of potential points to include, language I might tweak, boilerplate sections, graphics, content from our website, really anything that can be used as inspiration for the final proposal content.
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Step 5: Develop Outline
With a strategy in place and notes pulled together, it is time to move to the proposal.
Before writing, I create an outline using the instructions from the RFP as a guide. If there is no RFP, the structure I tend to follow is:
Cover Page
Cover Letter
Table of Contents
Project Summary
Project Overview
Product/Service Description
Key phases (if applicable)
Timeline/Project Management Schedule
Anything else that’s applicable based on the project
Scope of Work
What’s in Scope
Out of Scope
Deliverables (both for us and the client’s deliverables)
Team Overview
Pricing
Why Us
This is an example of a format I follow, but you can adjust it based on your company and what you need to include in your proposal.
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Step 6: Insert Reference Content and Win Themes
After the outline is created, I start matching up each section with my reference content. I typically add the win themes and appropriate differentiators first (they can appear in multiple sections, so don’t feel like you can only include them once), and then I either jot notes or copy over specific phrases from my reference content.
I highlight all of these notes yellow to indicate to myself that this is reference content, not final, written content.
The goal here is to piece together your proposal so you have enough information to start writing (and rewriting) without working from a blank page.
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Step 7: Write official draft
By this point your proposal will be a mess of notes. Now it’s time to start writing.
I use all of my yellow notes as inspiration and start writing each section. Sometimes an exact phrase from the boilerplate might work. Other times, I’ll rewrite it to include key information related to this specific customer.
The key step here is to write with the win themes and differentiators in mind. Your content should be as custom to the buyer as possible (within the timeframe you have, of course). Some sections, like a company overview, won’t be as tailored, but something like a timeline or cover letter should be specific to this project.
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Step 8: Get Feedback
With the draft written, it’s time to get feedback from the rest of the team.
At this stage, you may still have some gaps of missing content where you need more information from someone. Use the status calls and feedback sessions to talk through the approach with the rest of the team to determine how to answer. I normally jot down notes based on this and highlight them yellow to go back and rewrite later.
Pro Tip: I change my notes to yellow highlights because it’s easy for me to scroll through the proposal and see exactly what sections still need to be written.
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Step 9: Revise (repeat as needed)
This step is all about taking the feedback and making the proposal stronger.
If you have time until the RFP deadline, you’ll likely cycle through this step several times, alternating between writing and getting feedback. I try to focus on the highest scoring sections or the ones that we identify as important from a strategy perspective. This allows us to create a stronger proposal in the areas that matter instead of rewriting the entire proposal over and over again up until the deadline.
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Step 10: Finalize & Submit!
Once you get the final approval on the content, it’s time to finalize!
I work in Microsoft Word for nearly every proposal, which means we design the proposal as we go along (typically in steps 7 & 9), but if you use another tool, this is typically where you’ll complete the final design.
For RFPs, I make sure to submit all applicable signed forms, add anything to the appendix that we need, and do a final read through to confirm all of the contact information and RFP mentions are correct.
Once it’s ready, it’s packaged up and sent off to the customer!
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