Writing Business Bids and Proposals For Dummies

Chapter 12

Getting Your Proposal Out the Door

IN THIS CHAPTER

Ensuring that your proposal is the best it can be

Getting your proposal ready for delivery

Submitting your proposal online

Presenting your proposal to prospects

In Chapter 8, we show you how to schedule your time backward from your due date so you leave plenty of time to put the finishing touches on your proposal. In Chapter 6, we preview the work you have to do to produce your proposal. The list of tasks is formidable for such a short time span: reviewing, revising, iterating, proofing, printing (or exporting), packaging, and delivering (or uploading).

You can stack to the ceiling all the reasons for making sure you have plenty of production time at the end of your proposal schedule, and not just those in the preceding paragraph — you can handle that laundry list of activities if everything goes right! But no matter how well you plan, something can and usually will go wrong. If something goes wrong in a proposal, it may create a situation where you can’t deliver your best, or maybe even deliver at all. And that makes for an unhappy outcome.

So read on to get the insider account of all you have to get right as you try to get your proposal out the door.

Getting Fresh Eyes On Your Proposal

If you want your proposal to be successful, you can’t just scribble out your main ideas and call it done. As you do with any important document, you have to craft a proposal. You have to review it, revise it, and edit it and then ...