Why You Need a Proposal Template

The stress of crafting the perfect proposal can be daunting. But you can truly benefit from using a proposal template, which makes it easy for different teams to collaborate on a single document and to properly format that document for submission. In this article, we fill you in on reasons why you need a proposal template. Then, we give you a free, downloadable proposal template for Microsoft Word!

Major Benefits of a Proposal Template

According to Quandora, “The average win rate for request for proposals (RFPs) is slightly under 5%. This means that only one proposal in 20 is successful.” With this rate in mind, you need to make sure your proposals are as perfectly written as possible.

With a proposal template, you increase your odds of winning new business and make sure that your team avoids unnecessarily long responses and irrelevant information. Every word counts, which is why you should submit a proposal your company can be proud of.

The top 3 benefits of using a proposal template include the ability to:

Ensure Consistency

Whenever multiple contributors offer their expertise and simultaneously make changes to a single document, comments and edits can overlap, be deleted by mistake, and result in overall confusion and errors in the document.

For example, say that a sales representative enters a description of your company’s solutions into a shared document, then a production manager adds an explanation of operations immediately following that section. If you wanted to separate these two pieces of information so that they’re not back-to-back, you would have to go into the document and manually make the change yourself. Not only is this time-consuming, but you run the risk of introducing typos and other errors.

By using a proposal template, you take away the possibility of responses being entered in the wrong place and save yourself the hassle of making corrections.

A template keeps your document structure intact. With several contributors entering information into your proposal draft, a template will make sure that text is added in the correct spots. This is especially beneficial if you have to print your proposal for submission.

Save Time

When you don’t have a proposal template and an RFP arrives, you have to figure out how the proposal should be structured. But, when you have a template, you can forgo this step and focus on writing answers into sections that have already been outlined for you. You will no longer have to decide on how to build a proposal from scratch every time. In addition, you avoid accidentally leaving out important information, which can cost you the win.

Imagine the time savings and increase in productivity, just by having a structured document! And, remember – the more proposals you are able to submit, the higher your odds of winning bids. Plus, Bidsketch found that winning proposals are delivered to clients 26% faster than losing proposals.

Following proposal templates will save you time and streamline your proposal writing process.

We found that your turnaround time makes a big difference. Less than 24 hours separated our average winning turnaround time (2.7 days) from the average losing time (3.4 days).

Keep a Strong Structure

Finally, a proposal template decreases the structural errors that come with writing a proposal.

Furthermore, a proposal template will feature sections that show off more than just your solutions. By using a template that includes sections like case studies and team members, you’ll showcase how your solutions have helped others and which team members will be dedicated to providing those solutions.

A proposal template improves the composition of your solutions by keeping your proposal neat, informative, and structured. These three qualities increase your odds of winning new business and improving your win rate on RFPs.