Module 4 of 7
Proposals that quote the buyer back to themselves
Every element traceable to something they said.
A proposal is not a brochure and it is not a description of you. It is a written answer to a specific problem the buyer described, and the test for every line is whether you can point to the moment in the conversation that produced it. Anything that survives unchanged from one proposal to the next is either boilerplate or an assumption you did not check.
A structure that works and fits on two pages. First, the situation as they described it — in their words, close enough that they recognise it, because if this part is wrong nothing after it matters. Then what they said they want to be different. Then what you propose to do, and what you deliberately are not doing, which is where scope creep is prevented before it starts. Then the price, from ENT-102, stated once and without apology. Then what you need from them, which most proposals omit and which is the most common reason a project stalls. Then dates, and how long the quote stands.
Send it fast. A proposal that arrives the next morning while the conversation is still fresh converts far better than a more polished one that arrives in nine days, because the intent that produced the meeting decays quickly. And put the price in the document rather than in the covering message, because a price that has to be hunted for reads as a price you are uncomfortable with.
Every line should trace to something they said. Include what you are not doing, and what you need from them. Send it while the conversation is still warm.