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What is a Proposal?
PROPOSALS
Ingredients of the persuasive proposal
• Need to communicate what you plan to do or offer
• Explains how you will implement what you propose
• Convince the potential customer that your organisation
can meet customer’s needs than other competitors
• Bring out your organisations unique qualifications
(USP) to do the job or provide goods/ services
• Often stands alone in selling your solution or services
Types of Proposals
• Unsolicited Proposal
– Prepared at the writer’s initiative to present their solution to
problems or initiation of new ideas etc
• Solicited Proposal
– Prepared in response to a request
– Generally as a reply to Request for Proposal (RFP)
– Generally formal, may be sometimes informal
• A proposal is a marketing tool that sells your ideas to
others and it is a persuasive document
• A persuasive message in which a writer analyses a
problem and recommends a solution. The problem
may be a need for equipment, services, research,
plan of action etc
• Proposals take time to develop and do involve risks
and need to assess the probability of success
• Proposals can be informal or formal, internal or
external, unsolicited or solicited
Types of Proposals
• Informal Proposal
– Take the form of letters (external) or memos (internal)
• Formal Proposal
– Structured document, explaining various features
• Internal proposal
– Generated with in the organisation – to solve problems,
improving procedures, re-organising departments, reducing
budgets, introducing new products etc
• External proposal
– Generated by an outside organisation having expertise in an
area to solve problems, creating new ideas and
implementing, including providing goods and services etc
A SIMPLE EXAMLE OF A
UNSOLICITED
INTERNAL PROPOSAL
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Request for Proposal
• It is a formal document, that describes a project,
product or service need (a problem) and invites
potential suppliers to propose solutions.
• Request for Information (RFI), Request for Bid (RFB) &
Request for Quotation (RFQ) are similar documents
• The contents of a proposal vary depending on the
purpose, but generally contains some common items
• They are
– Introduction: background, profile of the company and the
objective of the document
– Project/product/service description: what they need / hope
to accomplish giving clear and accurate description
Request for Proposal
– Besides these headings, the RFP may contain
• List of illustrations
• Glossary
• Reference list
• Appendices
PROPOSAL PLANNING
PROCESS
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Request for Proposal
– Vendor Requirements: Specific requirements of vendor such
as quality certification, geographic area, experience etc
– Restrictions: Time, budget or other constraints
– Proposal guidelines: What you expect in the proposal and
what all to be included, and in what order or format etc
– Evaluation Criteria: general parameters of selection, may not
reveal the weightage of each criterion
– Confidentiality Statement: Assuring the proposals will be kept
confidential and also the expectations from the vendor
keeping it confidential
– Submission and Contact information: Details on where to
submit, how to submit, dead lines, contacts for queries and
clarifications etc
EXAMPLE OF RFP
Proposal Planning Process
• Four major Steps in Planning Process
• 1. Screening the bid or bid decision
– Screen the RFP
– Whether to compete for the RFP, read the RFP thoroughly
– See the fitness based on specifications or restrictions etc
– See whether capable of executing the work
– Whether executing the job enhances your reputation
– Chances of winning
– RoI
• 2. Creating a Capture Plan
– It is an analytical planning document for internal use to
ensure the creation of a winning proposal
– Involves conduct of customer analysis & situational analysis
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Proposal Planning Process
• 2. Creating a Capture Plan
– Customer Analysis
• Problem Identification – clarify and restate problem
• Need Analysis – Examine the entire document, look for
any inherent assumptions made by the customer and its
implications, what exactly the customer is looking for?
• Customer’s previous buying behaviour – Quality of goods
and services procured, price paid, background of the
customer on the web, their level of satisfaction etc
• Proposal Evaluator – Find out who in the company will
evaluate, individual or team, their knowledge and
background, does the company normally allot to lowest
bidder or combined with quality, their weightage etc
Proposal Planning Process
• 3. Formulating a Solution & Strategies
– Next step is to make a solution for the problem and devise
strategies for implementing it. An effective proposal to have
three kinds of strategies
• Technical Strategy – It explains the solution and how the
solution will be implemented
• Management Strategy – It explains the firm’s ability to
implement the solution through experts of personnel,
experience, organisational facilities, quality control,
schedule and timelines etc
• Cost Strategy or Cost Estimate – Provide adequate
information so that customer can assess their
affordability. It needs to be competitively priced.
PROPOSAL WRITING
PROCESS
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Proposal Planning Process
• 2. Creating a Capture Plan
– Situational Analysis: To scrutinise the internal and external
environment. Make the proposal competitive by providing
information of your strengths and USP.
• Competitor Analysis: Finding out the competitors and how
others can influence and how to out perform
• Internal Analysis: What are your strength and
weaknesses? Will the weakness hamper and how to
overcome the weaknesses and how to demonstrate your
strengths?
• Theme development: Develop a few themes that
communicate that your ideas are better than other.
Examples of themes- High quality, Cost justification, Your
research, RoI etc
Proposal Planning Process
• 4. Budgeting & Scheduling the Proposal Effort
– This is the final step
– Some proposals may take more than a month to prepare
– Some times may require financial investment
– May involve a lot of calculations to workout the cost of the
project
– Hence the need to budget and schedule the proposal effort
Proposal Writing Process
• Need to pay attention in detail
• Brilliant work done need to be brought out in writing
the proposal
• Use effective format consisting of effective persuasive
writing and appealing graphics
• Be Persuasive
– Write a persuasive executive summary
– Choose correct business jargons (words – RoI,
efficiency, reliability)
– Use themes you formulated in the capture plan
– Back up with facts, statistics, expert testimony, build
credibility
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Proposal Writing Process
• Write Effectively
– Writing should be clear, concise with out
grammatical and typographical error
– Take care of fonts, size etc for better readability
– Use simple language
– The flow should be logical for better clarity
– Do not clutter with data in between (in the body of
the proposal), instead use appendices and
annexures where ever need be
– The evaluator needs the solution as early as possible
PROPOSAL FORMAT
Suggested Headings of the Format
• 1. Cover Materials
– Letter of transmittal, title page, table of contents
• 2. Executive Summary
– A persuasive summary covering briefly the need/problem,
the solution, implementation plan, cost, resources required
etc.
– Include the theme strategy, make it concise and persuasive
• 3. Introduction
– Include how the document layout is for the reader to
perceive the document
• 4. Need/ Problem Statement
– Background of the present situation, details of your study of
the problem, the cause and your approach to the solution
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Proposal Writing Process
• Use Graphic Appeal
– Every thing you present in the proposal need not be
in words, use appropriate graphics
– Use adequate margins and space between the lines
– Construct paragraphs appropriately – Breakup text
by appropriate sections, sub-sections, paragraph
headings
– Use bold/capital where attention of the reader is
sought
– Use appropriate graphics (diagrams, photos, charts
etc) in between the text appropriately
– Use DTP techniques if the proposal is long
Proposal Format
• There is no standard or fixed format
• In many cases RFP may give guidelines of the format
• Many organisations have standard format
• Design a format so that your persuasive message is
effective
• Some of the suggested headings are:
Suggested Headings of the Format
• 5. Technical solution or Methodology
– Heart of your proposal
– Present your solution
– Convince that yours is a best solution
– Cover the implementation plan
– Just stating is not enough, able to sell the solution
– Use facts, figures and expert’s testimony
– Give the time line of tasks
– Explain how will you evaluate at every stage
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Suggested Headings of the Format Suggested Headings of the Format

• 6. Management Profiles • 7. Budget
– Introduce individuals and team who would be involved in – Provide breakdown of costs
designing and implementing the solution – Provide sub contractors list, their qualifications and costs
– Their qualification, background experience etc- include them – Specify method of payment
as appendices/ annexures – Include penalties for late payment
– Describe how will you organise the project • 8. Conclusion & Recommendations
– Explain the WBS from beginning to end
– Summarise the problem and your solution
– Include all resources and facilities to be used
– Add if need be your recommendations for better solution
– Present management policies and administrative methods –
– Make it persuasive
quality control, cost accounting, payroll, timekeeping,
reporting methods etc • 9. Bibliography
– Through the profiles demonstrate that your company is – If referred to make it scholarly authoritative
stable, financially viable and reputable. Include company’s • 10. Appendices & Annexures
financial statements if need be
– Add if required

Finishing touches before Submission

• Evaluate the Proposal
– Evaluate your proposal as regard to the RFP called for
– Have you correctly identified the problem and your solution
EXAMPLE OF A offered is feasible
– Have you met all the requirements stated in the RFP
FORMAL PROPOSAL – Read the proposal from the point of view of a technical
evaluator and decision maker
– Is the document concise and competitive

Finishing touches before Submission

• Packaging
– Should have professional appearance
– A laser printer preferable
– Choose correct quality of paper
– Proper binding Assignment:
– No extravagances (example – leather bimding)
– Do not give an impression that you spend resources
Writing Unsolicited Proposal
needlessly
• Delivering
– Correct number of copies
– Correct address
– Is a transmittal letter enclosed?
• Be prepared to present the proposal through presentation

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You have been hired as “Business Development Manager”
by MDI, Gurugram. You need to prepare a Proposal on
MDP programme to be sent to select corporates, for their
executives to undergo MDP at MDI.
It is a team work of two or at the max three individuals.
You may form your own team. But the condition is the
members need to be of same elective. The MDP needs to
be related to your elective. You may use the existing
MDPs of MDI or create your own MDP topic.
You need to send it to six corporates. You need to identify
the corporates which would be interested in your MDP.
Date of submission of Assignment: 30 Jan 2017
Date of Presentation: 06 Feb onwards
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What your assignment need to contain?
1. List of team members, their roll No. and their electives
2. Names of Six Corporates and their main business to whom you
are targeting the MDP
3. Analysis of the six corporates leading to what MDPs they would
be interested, in a paragraph of one page.
4. What is the MDP topic, finally your team has chosen to offer a
proposal.
5. A persuasive and influencing Unsolicited Proposal Document
for a minimum of three pages to be sent to these corporates.
The paras or sub-paras of the document are left to your choice.
6. A covering letter from appropriate authority of MDI to these
corporates with which your Proposal will be sent along in one
page.
7. Your team will also prepare a ppt to present your assignment
work on a subsequent date.
CONCLUSION