Utley Strategies helps B2B businesses creating winning proposals and responses to RFPs. Here we share tips and tricks to make proposal writing easier and more effective. We offer online courses, templates, and writing support.
For trainings, check out our courses here: www.utleystrategies.com/proposal-writing-courses
To improve your proposals today, check out our FREE Technical Proposal Writing Playbook: www.utleystrategies.com/technical-proposal-writing-playbook
Hm, in general, I would say no. Especially in RFP situations, it's not really needed and the space can be used for something else. The only case where it might make sense is if you had a meeting and were sending a less formal proposal and it was in direct response to something specific from the conversation.
Thanks a lot for detailed review of this proposal sample. The points you highlighted regarding Executive Summary are being considered in the technical approach, which cannot be included here due to page limit. I appreciate the observations regarding cover letter, especially list contents removal. I will follow this. Thanks
She explains this in a way that not even my professor explains it lol. Thank you so much for this video, it was right to the point and you broke down the steps in a way where I understand.
Great question! Both have potential. Grant writing tends to require working at a nonprofit, which can be great for fulfilling work but can come with lower pay (but not all the time!). Proposal writing is more likely to be at a larger company and can pay fairly well, but it's a little harder to get into. Both can be a good fit depending on your goals.
To increase the win rate, we must strict to a specific area and we should have relevant past experience with references. If we need to bid in the multiple areas then we should bid through different companies.
Our proposal bundles have a few example proposals with some simple visuals to give you an idea! We also show how to find inspiration for graphics (and how to create them) in the Designing Proposals in Word course. Designing Proposals in Word Course: www.utleystrategies.com/designing-proposals-in-word Proposal Bundle: www.utleystrategies.com/digital-products-store/proposal-bundle
That is so great to hear that you're finding it helpful! If there are any topics you'd like to learn more about, feel free to share, and we can add them to our queue. :)
1 Project info, 2 color schedule Project schedule blue yellow red, 3 kickoff questions - do we have this , 4 deliverables - assign experts red to yellow to green, 5 format- set order of docs, excel allows comments
We have a video that shows what to include in your template for an RFP response in Word here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gk9qYhGcFls.html For more detailed Microsoft Word formatting instruction, check out the Designing Proposals in Microsoft Word course, which gives you everything you need to know to design and format an RFP response in Microsoft Word. www.utleystrategies.com/designing-proposals-in-word
It depends on the agency. Most won't release the proposals until the contract has been awarded. Always check the RFP to confirm there isn't anything prohibiting submitting the request during the active RFP (though there typically isn't language around that).
I found out about a proposal through a partner we often work with. It was due in less than a week and required printed materials. Dropped everything to get it done, worked the weekend for like 18 hours each day. Went to fedex to mail over night it, and while there called to confirm the address. Finally got confirmation, so I shipped it. On my way home, I got a call from the requester saying that RFP was cancelled. We are a small business of three and this would have been a $500,000 contract so we were very eager. Wasted over $1000 in printing, and shipping and over a week of productive work. Turns out the California state eprocure website has a glitch and does not tell you when an RFP is cancelled unless you are searching. If you have a direct link to the RFP, there is no warning.
That is truly a nightmare scenario! Also, it's amazing that you were able to hit that deadline (even though it was cancelled). Hopefully you were able to reuse some of the content so it wasn't a total waste.
They are different! Request for Quotes normally only require a few forms and pricing whereas RFPs can be very detailed (sometimes hundreds of pages long). This video defines these and other popular requests in more detail: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9MgwFQymasM.html
I'm doing a proposal for a local festival and I will print it as well as make it available online. As a website designer I know how to add links to other sections, but I'm wondering what is possible with the Word version? I'm thinking a side bar section showing all the other sections but wondering if I can link those? Appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks.
Yes, you can link to other sections in Word! You do it with bookmarks. Microsoft has a good guide here: support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/add-hyperlinks-to-a-location-within-the-same-document-1f24fc4f-7ccd-4c5f-87e1-9ddefb672e0e If you export to PDF, just make sure you save it as "digital" not "for print" (for print will remove the links in the PDF version). Hopefully this helps! This is also covered in our Designing Proposals in Word course. :)
We help clients develop strategies for responding to government proposals, but we currently are not taking on new clients for the actual response work, unfortunately.
We recently introduce payment plans, which could be a good option! There are also special discounts early in enrollment periods, so make sure you watch for those.
