This may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but some people write proposals for a living and enjoy it.

We don’t mean people who have to write proposals to sell their products and services as an obligatory part of their roles as business owners, salespeople, and entrepreneurs. We mean people who write proposals as their profession — it’s their primary role. They delight in this intricate, detail-oriented, thought-provoking work. They toil for businesses big and small, and all they do all day (and all night at times) is write proposals. Some write proposals that are a handful of pages, while others write proposals with hundreds of pages in multiple volumes. Some write them pretty much on their own, while others coordinate the efforts of anywhere from a couple of specialists to hundreds on a single deal. They propose to every kind of business and government entity you can imagine, because most publicly owned or regulated enterprises buy goods and services through proposals.

It may not matter to you personally, but proposal writing is a profession — a growing and increasingly important one. It’s an essential part of a broader group of business development professionals who plan and execute strategies for businesses to obtain new customers. Proposal writers have a professional organization — the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) — whose best practices are the foundation for this book. This group of more than 7,500 practitioners from around the world knows that proposal writing is a skill you can learn, practice, and master, and, ultimately, prove your mastery of through a professional certification process.

Here’s what does matter to you: Writing Business Bids & Proposals For Dummies is your easiest and best ticket for finding out what these professional proposal writers know and for applying it to your own business. You have in your hands the collected knowledge and skills of the professional proposal writer — without having to be one.

About This Book

This book is primarily for small- to medium-size business owners, first-time proposal writers in medium-size companies, or sales representatives who need to represent their companies in the best light possible. A written proposal, whether it’s delivered in print or digital format, is still one of the most common, personal, and effective ways to win business, even in this age of near-instant online communications, social media marketing, and live-action websites.

Proposal writers have an old saying: “The best proposal won’t win the business outright, but a bad one will certainly lose it.” This means that a proposal doesn’t work in a vacuum. Developing a successful business is a complex and difficult process, with lots of interworking parts. You have to have useful and reliable products, dedicated people providing a dependable service, and innovative thinking that can solve unique problems. But even if you have the best products, the best people, and the best service record of anyone in your industry, if you can’t express those advantages clearly and persuasively in terms that truly mean something to your customers, your business will never be as successful as it can be.

If you adopt the concepts, implement the processes, practice the techniques, and adapt the tools in this book to meet your unique needs, you’ll improve the way your business captures new customers and communicates with existing ones. This book can help you to

• Establish a process for finding and assessing business opportunities.
• Create repeatable plans for responding to opportunities.
• Understand your customer’s business and its needs.
• Assess your and your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Build and manage teams to develop compelling proposals.

After you have a process and the required resources in place, this book can guide you to

• Structure your proposals in proven, effective ways.
• Write them in the clearest and most compelling terms.
• Design them for maximum readability and visual impression.
• Create practices for doing a better job each time.

We also use a few conventions throughout the book to make finding what you need easier:

• If you see a word in italics, it means that the term has a unique meaning in the proposal world. We define it right there for you.
• If you see a sidebar, you can skip that information if you’re in a hurry. It’s there to provide background information or other supporting content.

Foolish Assumptions

As we wrote this book, we assumed a few things about you, dear readers:

• You need to write a proposal, and sooner rather than later. You may be an inexperienced salesperson who inherited an account with a pressing need. You may be a newly named proposal resource in your company, and a Request for Proposal (RFP) has just landed on your desk with the clock ticking. Maybe you’ve written a proposal before, and you want to do a better job on the next one. Whatever your immediate need, we assume that you want to do this job right, and that’s what we aim to help you do.
• You know how to use a computer and word-processing software. You can’t write a proposal on the back of an envelope or napkin and be taken seriously. The leading word-processing programs on all platforms provide enough layout and graphics capabilities that you can easily create a professional document that follows basic design principles. If you don’t know how to use them, you can always grab another For Dummies book and improve your skills!
• You know how to convert a word-processing file into PDF format, which allows you to create a digital copy of your proposal that is more tamper-resistant. Leading word-processing tools have menu selections that can do this in a couple of clicks.
• You’ll eventually work your way through the entire book and will understand that there’s still more to learn. That’s where the APMP comes in. If you do need to know more, an APMP membership provides a legion of mentors and volumes of references. The APMP also offers a professional certification program for those who want to demonstrate mastery of the craft. Go to www.apmp.org for more information.

Icons Used in This Book

We use a few icons throughout this book to call out important information that you may otherwise miss.

This icon provides extra information for applying proposal-writing techniques or alternative ways of doing things.

This icon points out important information that you may want to note down or highlight, or that you may want to keep in mind as you try your hand at the task.

This icon highlights potential pitfalls and danger spots.

This icon indicates examples that we provide to illustrate what we’re talking about as you work through the book.

Beyond the Book

We’ve created a handy, access-anywhere Cheat Sheet, which provides high-level reminders that you can easily reference when you don’t have the book on hand. For instance, are you looking for a reminder of some of the key reviews you can undertake to help develop and perfect your proposal process? The Cheat Sheet helps you remember at a glance. To access this Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and search for “Writing Business Bids & Proposals For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.

We’ve also created a one-stop-shop for all digital content related to this book. Check out the appendix at the end of the book for the URL and a list of the online templates and checklists.

Where to Go from Here

Writing Business Bids & Proposals For Dummies takes you from the basic concepts behind proposal writing and the practical techniques you apply to create winning proposals to advanced concepts you may consider after you’ve mastered the basics. We recommend that you check out the table of contents for the complete list of topics, and then read Chapter 1 to get the end-to-end story from 30,000 feet.

You don’t need to read this book in any particular sequence. Each chapter is self-contained, tackles a single proposal-related subject, and, like a good proposal, has cross-references to related information. Just pick a chapter that addresses an immediate problem you have, and read, think, and apply. For example, are you already responding to an RFP? Look to Chapter 4 for advice on identifying all the customer’s requirements, or jump to Chapter 9 for ways to collect and structure your past-performance records.

And last (or maybe first), to get a general “lay of the land” in proposal writing, be sure to review our simple proposal process in Chapter 6. This list of major steps provides an “at-a-glance” view of the many duties a proposal writer performs over the span of developing either a proactive proposal or an RFP response.