A business proposal outlines how your business will solve a problem for your client, while also indicating pricing, estimated timeline, and the scope of work. Business proposal templates enable you to save time and streamline the business proposal generation process. Download our free business proposal templates, customize each section to suit your company’s brand and sales process, and use it to close more deals.
Free Business Proposal Templates
Download free business proposal templates including PDFs as well as a simple MS Word version, a more graphic Word document, and a PowerPoint version suitable for digital business proposals. Each template details the content needed for each section to construct a proposal.
Simple MS Word Document Version
PowerPoint for Digital Business Proposal
Simple PDFOnce each section’s content is customized, you can further adjust the document’s design to fit your company’s brand. After downloading one or all of these business proposal templates, keep reading for more details about how to customize these templates for your business and use it to win more deals.
Components of a Business Proposal
The business proposal template your company uses to generate client proposals should make the case for your business and enable prospects to easily navigate and absorb pertinent information. Once your template’s main components are laid out, you can easily customize and revise the content any time you need to generate a new proposal for a prospective client.
Cover Page
Your cover page is the first thing your prospective client sees, and its design can set your proposal apart. You can use colorful graphics and images or keep it simple. Regardless of design style, your business proposal’s cover page should have the client’s name (“Prepared for”), your business’ name (“Prepared by”), and the date it’s being sent to the client.
Table of Contents
To make it easier to navigate the proposal, a table of contents should list the sections of the proposal by page number. Create your table of contents after the proposal is finished, since developing each section is likely to cause changes to page numbers. The table of contents can be on the first inside page of the document or added to the cover page, especially if you’re sending the proposal digitally.
If you’re sending a digital business proposal, we also recommend linking each table of contents item to the corresponding section of the document. This allows readers to quickly navigate to a particular section by clicking on the section name in the table of contents.
Body
The body of a business proposal contains all of the primary information potential clients will be interested in, and we outline the sections that should be included below. There, the reader sees the summary of their problem or need and the solution you propose, along with its estimated cost, scope of work, and timetable.
Appendix
An optional appendix section can be added referencing sources, charts, studies, images, and other supplemental materials. This section is often needed for projects with visual elements such as construction, interior decorating, web design, and engineering projects. When referring to an appendix item, make sure to label it and refer to the label when citing the item.
For example, if you’re describing how a home will look after construction by using a picture of a similar house, you can label the picture as “Appendix A,” then cite “As seen in Appendix A” in the text of your proposal so readers know where to look. Similar to the table of contents, for digital proposals, you can hyperlink the words in the body of the proposal to jump to the corresponding appendix section.
Sections in the Body of a Business Proposal
These sections comprise the body of your business proposal. There may be situations, however, where it’s better to put some of these sections or elements in the appendix. For example, if your total price estimate incorporates several sub-items, it may be best to list the total cost in the body and include line item pricing in the appendix as a spreadsheet.
Company Introduction
When writing your business proposal, the first section in the body is your company introduction. This is where you briefly introduce your business, its mission, and its unique value proposition, awards, or industry breakthroughs. You could also reference your company’s founding and add photos of your founders or leadership for a personal touch. Keep it relatively short, from one to two paragraphs at most.
See the below example of a company introduction:
ABC Corp. was founded in 2009 with the mission of giving small businesses access to cost-effective and comprehensive cybersecurity solutions. From day one, we’ve focused on offering tremendous service to our small business clients by educating them on the current cyberthreat landscape and providing 24/7 service.
Executive Summary
The executive summary describes the main takeaways of the entire proposal. If the prospective client was to only read this section, they should be able to get a basic understanding of what is being offered.
Below is a sample of an executive summary in a business proposal:
ABC Corp. proposes to develop a comprehensive cybersecurity program for XYZ Inc. Through installation of the newest security technology and a focus on awareness training for the employees, we believe we can make XYZ Inc. into the industry standard for cybersecurity culture. Full implementation of this project will take place over the course of 12 months at a billable rate of $250 per hour.
Scope of Work
The scope of work section of your business proposal details the needs and pain points of the client and your company’s proposed solution. Depending on the project, this could be a lengthy section indicating exactly who, what, where, and how you will complete the scope of work.
Below is a breakdown of the elements of the scope of work that should be addressed in this section:
- What the scope of work is: Defines what the scope of work will be based on the client’s stated needs and desired outcomes. If you are responding to a request for proposal, the client may already have indicated part or all of what the scope of work should be.
- Who is responsible: This subsection identifies the persons, roles, departments, and organizations responsible for completing the scope of work items. Keep in mind this may include personnel from your organization, partners or subcontractors, and even individuals in the client’s organization, such as someone responsible to approve incremental work in order to move to the next phase.
- Where will the work take place: Work may take place on the client’s site or from a remote location, or a combination of both.
- How the work will be performed: This explains your proposed solution and the deliverables that come with it. Use sufficient details to indicate how you will solve the client’s problem and how your proposed solutions are different from other prospective contractors.
When identifying the team members, subcontractors, or partners who will be responsible for completing the scope of work items, your client may also want to know their qualifications. You can add brief summaries in this section or add professional bios and company profiles to the appendix.
Timeline or Schedule
The business proposal’s timeline section illustrates how long you expect the work will take to complete. If your proposal was submitted in response to a request for proposal (RFP), the client may have their own requirements or expectations for the timeline and schedule. This section can state a total length of time or be broken down on a detailed task-by-task basis.
Below is an example of a detailed timeline presented in a business proposal:
Task/Deliverable | Deliverable Completion/Due Date |
|---|---|
Initial cyber security program audit | February 23, 2022 |
Initial security awareness training seminar | March 15, 2022 |
First network vulnerability scan and report | March 23, 2022 |
Installation of new firewall | March 30, 2022 |
First penetration test and report | April 15, 2022 |
Second security awareness training seminar | April 23, 2022 |
Installation of new anti-malware software | June 30, 2022 |
Final cyber security program audit | October 15, 2022 |
Price Estimate
The pricing estimate of your business proposal should account for all costs of labor, materials, and administrative expenses. Make sure to do due diligence to avoid over or underpricing. Your proposal should clearly define the pricing method as well as the total cost, indicate whether an upfront deposit is required, and what (if any) portion of the cost is non-refundable.
Your cost estimate can be as simple as stating the total price, or be heavily detailed with a line item for every unit, rate, or service that will be invoiced. When pricing, your business may use a total price, incremental pricing such as a monthly retainer, or some type of fixed-rate such as an hourly or per-unit rate, or even a combination of these.
Below are examples of price estimates using various pricing methods:
- Total price: The total price for the scope of work outlined in this proposal, including all costs of labor and materials, is $35,000, with a non-refundable 10% deposit ($3,500) to be paid prior to the commencement of work and the remainder billed after all portions of the project are complete.
- Incremental pricing: The price for the completion of all periodic deliverables laid out in this proposal will be $5,600 per month invoiced on the 2nd day, every other month, on each of the following five months: February 2022, April 2022, June 2022, August 2022, and October 2022.
- Fixed-rate: Completion of all work stated in this proposal will be billed at an hourly rate of $225 per hour plus the cost of materials, hardware, or software listed in Appendix B.
The pricing for your business proposal should reflect the revenue and opportunity goals in your business’ sales plan. Our how-to guide for creating a sales plan can get you started with free templates and a step-by-step process for setting sales objectives and strategies to achieve them.
Conclusion With Call to Action
After reading the previous parts of your business proposal, a conclusion should be added indicating a call to action. The call to action describes the next steps that should be taken if the prospective client needs more information or is ready to do business with you.
Below is a simple example of a call to action in a proposal:
Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions or concerns, or you wish to get started with the development of your cybersecurity program, please contact our Security Consultant, James Williams, using the information below:
- james@abccorp.com
- 123-456-7890
Terms & Conditions
Some business proposals include terms and conditions to make sure all parties are on the same page about procedures, contingencies, and responsibilities. For instance, you may put contract master service terms about liability and remediation processes. This section could also indicate when the proposal and its pricing expires or express your company’s guarantees or refund policy.
More Business Proposal Tools
In addition to our free business proposal template, there are other resources available to help your business save time and money with proposal design, content, and project management. These include both standalone services and tools that are grouped within customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Proposal Format & Design
For some businesses, writing proposal content is easy but formatting and design are overwhelming. Better Proposals alleviates this with premade, professionally designed, customizable templates. Plus, Better Proposals integrates with CRM software like HubSpot, Agile CRM, and Zoho CRM, and is fairly inexpensive, with plans starting at $19 per user, per month for up to 10 business proposals.
Better Proposals integration with HubSpot (Source: HubSpot)
Integrating business proposal software with your CRM allows you to organize proposals within your opportunity management system. With a robust integration, your CRM can show you the revenue potential of your current open proposal opportunities and give you access to all of the proposal documents in one place.
Project Management Software
Creating a business proposal can be a long endeavor entailing extensive collaboration and complex task and schedule planning for a major project, which will, in turn, require robust project management. When managing projects you’ve won, you can use project management software to keep track of tasks that still need to be completed, generate incremental (or final) invoices for completed work, and see the status of all your open projects.
Zoho Projects and Airtable are robust project management tools that help manage both the proposal process and the scope of work once a project has been won. Users of either platform can evaluate project progress using Timeline and Kanban views.
Zoho Projects timeline view (Source: Zoho Projects)
Airtable Kanban view (Source: Airtable)
Likewise, Bitrix24 is CRM software with built-in project management tools and the ability to convert opportunities into collaborative projects. Users can also convert pricing quotes and sales deals into professional invoices.
Freelance Resources
If you need cost-effective assistance with your proposal’s copywriting, editing, or graphic design needs, Fiverr is a great resource. Fiverr connects freelancers with organizations looking for work on an as-needed or ongoing basis. Freelancers are vetted by Fiverr and the site provides transparent pricing and reviews for each freelancer.
Fiverr copy editing freelance page (Source: Fiverr)
Part of a sales manager’s job is managing a sales operation by providing resources to their staff to elevate team performance. These resources could be anything from personnel found in freelance network platforms or through software tools like CRM or project management software.
If you’re looking for more information on ways to put your sales team in the best position to succeed, check out our ultimate guide to sales management. This article helps you navigate the sales management realm with proven techniques and methods for building, training, motivating, and developing sales teams.
Bottom Line
A well-written business proposal proves that your business has the qualifications and expertise needed to fulfill your prospective client’s needs. You can save time and money generating proposals using business proposal templates and professional resources for design, copywriting, and project management that help manage the process from beginning to end.
