Proposal templates are useful.
Until they aren’t.
In this episode, we talk about one of those deceptively simple sales questions: what format should a proposal actually take?
A polished PDF?
A PowerPoint?
A response inside the buyer’s RFP template?
A simple statement of work?
A video?
A one-page website?
Our conclusion: the format should follow the buyer, the decision, and the situation—not our internal attachment to “the way we always do proposals.”
We also get into the slightly uncomfortable bit: sometimes the buyer has asked the wrong question.
That doesn’t mean ignoring their process. It means answering what they asked for and, when appropriate, giving them the context they may not yet know they need.
Which sounds wonderfully strategic until you realise you’ve spent three weeks politely trying to expand an RFP and the buyer is effectively saying, “Yes, lovely… but can you please just fill in the form?”
We’ve all been there.
This episode covers:
- choosing a proposal format that fits the audience
- when to follow an RFP exactly
- when to add supporting material
- how to avoid overloading buyers
- why sometimes the best proposal is the simplest one
And, because this is us, we also manage to connect proposal strategy with new babies, uncertainty, and recovering from an audio glitch without a second take.
🎙️ Tea & Timbits: Global Perspectives on Business Development to Help You Prosper!