Over the years, I have written thousands of business documents, including hundreds of proposals for many different situations.
During that time, I learned the hard way that the most effective way to develop a proposal is to work from a model that has already been created for another proposal submission situation. It doesn’t need to be for the exact same situation; as long as it is along similar lines.
The important thing is to be able to use the approach and structure of the sample template that you work with as your guide for the new proposal that you need to draft. Using an already-proven template that matches your situation as closely as possible can have numerous benefits as follow:
- You will save significant time by not having to start from scratch.
- The template will act as a “checklist” to ensure you cover everything.
- A template will tend to stimulate your thinking and give you new ideas.
- You will know you are using an approach already used successfully by others.
In the end, using a previously developed proposal should give you a result that is even better than the model you are working from.
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