Feature Article: Get It In On Time - Proposal Production
By James England
Writing a proposal involves a lot more than just
simply putting the words together.you have to
make sure that your proposal document looks
professional and that it gets to the client on
time. You could have the best proposal in the
world, but if it's submitted after the deadline
it is extremely likely that it won't even be
considered - especially in public sector
procurement.
So what's involved in producing a proposal? It's
just a question of printing it out and sending
it off isn't it? Sometimes yes - but there may
be other things to
consider. Here's a quick list of all the things
that you have to consider:
The Proposal
The finished document is obviously the first
thing you need in place. Make sure that this is
the finished document - any red team review
should have already been completed on draft
versions.
Proof Reading
Neglecting proof-reading is one of the biggest
mistakes you can make. It takes very little time
to do properly, though is often the first thing
to go when time is running short. Yet if it
isn't done correctly, one simple mistake in the
wrong place can destroy all possibility of
actual being awarded a contract.
Printing
Printing can often take longer than you expect.
Always make sure that you have plenty of toner
or printer ink. Allow extra time if you are
printing in colour and check beforehand to see
how many copies you need - and allow extra time.
It's also a good idea to have a backup in case
things go wrong - find a local print shop where
you can get documents printed. In fact, if they
can produce higher quality documents
on their equipment, think about outsourcing your
document production to them.
Binding
Make sure you have the equipment and consumables
in stock. Don't always use the cheapest binding
option. A great looking document sends an
immediate message to the buyer about your
quality and values.
Packaging
Make sure you have big enough envelopes. Did the
client provide and envelope or label that you
must include on the tender? Always check the
tender documentation to verify the address where
the document should be sent - it may be different
than the address that you usually use for this
client.
Getting It There
Always allow time for delivery and get proof of
postage. If the proposal is completed a day
early, send it a day early. Don't leave it until
the last minute. If using a courier service then
make sure that they are reputable.
Think about how long these are going to take in your
organisation and plan for them. Ensure that your
deadline for completing the proposal takes into
consideration the time that these activities
will take. Always allow time for contingencies -
something will go wrong!!
Plan your document production as part of your
bid management process. Use a ready-made
Proposal Kit like the Bid Development Plan in the Learn
to Write Proposals Bid Management Toolkit.
This will help you plan the entire document
creation and production process and avoid the
last minute rush.
About the Author
James England is a proposal specialist with
years of experience in the creation of
proposals, proposal
strategy as well as bid management and
production tools and
software. Find out more at Learn
to Write Proposals
Professional Contract and Proposal Templates
As James explained in his article above, if you
run a business selling services to other
businesses, regardless of whether it's SEO, web
design, copywriting or even a home business, you
need
to have a professional, impressive-looking proposal.
But sometimes you get so caught up in the
day-to-day process of actually running the
business that you don't spend enough time
fine-tuning your proposal template. Perhaps, heaven
forbid, you don't even have one!
Do you think your existing proposal does a good
job of selling your company? Do you find
yourself losing business to your competitors? Do
you wonder what was included in their proposal
that made their offer more appealing to your
potential client? Are you unsure whether your
business is projecting a professional image? Do
you want to win more bids, close more sales,
save time and ultimately make more money from
the jobs you take?
If so, Proposal
Kit
is fast going to become your favorite business tool.
Sample Proposal Pack Template Style
Proposal Kit is template software that
automates the chore of putting together a
complex business proposal and services contract.
Templates are
particularly suited to online businesses and
include documents for the initial sales pitch,
the planning stage, estimating, contracting,
project timelines, non-disclosure, legal issues
and invoicing.
For SEOs reading this, the latest version even
includes a Search Engine Optimization Services
Contract ready for fleshing out with your own
pricing and contact details! The templates come
in a range of styles and colors, ready-made to
match your company colors and logos. Better
still, the software is
easy to use, allowing you to add, remove and
tweak individual documents within your master
proposal at the click of a mouse.
Check
out Proposal Kit for yourself and if
you like
what you see, be sure to take advantage of our
discount offer below, exclusive to Search
Light subscribers.
Exclusive Discount Offer from Proposal Kit
As a valued subscriber of The Search
Light, we
are pleased to provide you with an exclusive
discount coupon code for redemption towards the
proposal templates of your choice from
Proposal Kit.
The coupon code WEBRANK will give you a
10% discount
on your next purchase at Proposal Kit.
Make sure
you enter coupon code WEBRANK in the
refer/upgrade field to claim your discount. So
what are you waiting for? Go choose
your templates and start closing more sales
today!
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Dear Reader,
Welcome to another Search Light issue! I'll keep
this month's intro short and sweet as it's the
busiest time of the year for us and I should
really be
sending out end of month invoices and gathering all
our accounting info for the impending business
tax return. Don't you just hate tax time?
Such is the drama of running a business, I
suppose. Speaking of business dramas, how many
of you hate putting together client proposals
and pitches? It's another of my pet-hates. But even
if you hate doing it, you simply have to get it
right to make a good impression.
This month's article by James England focuses on
how to keep sane while putting together your
business proposal and how to ensure nothing goes
wrong at the last minute when it comes time for
proposal submission.
Enjoy this issue and remember to visit the daily
Search Engine Advice Column to check out
my answers to frequently asked search engine
questions or submit one of your own.
Till next time - wishing you clicks and
conversions...
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| FAQ1: Why can't I get traffic from search engines? | | |
 Dear Kalena...
My site http://www.wanginternet.com has been in
operation for almost 4 months and it has a page
rank of 4/10. However, my site mainly consists
of articles I got from ezinearticles which
allows us to republish their articles as long as
the content and links aren't changed.
Appreciate if you could help with several of my
questions:
1. Why can't I get any traffic from the search
engines? I know this fact from the SiteMeter
I've implemented.
2. Is it because the articles are duplicates
from ezinearticles?
3. If I add news feeds on the pages, would this
make the search engines think that the content
is fresh and new?
4. What can I do to get more traffic from search
engines?
Thanks for your time Kalena.
stress X
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dear stress X
Not sure about the other search engines, but
according to Google, your domain
www.wanginternet.com doesn't exist. Google
considers your site address to be
http://earncash.50webs.com/ because you've
obviously built the site on a free server and
then set up your domain to point to the free
site. I suggest you ditch the free site and pay
for proper domain hosting if you want the
domain-based site taken seriously. Until you fix
it, all your hard-earned link popularity will be
attributed to 50webs.com rather than your own
domain.
Kalena | | |
| FAQ2: What does this Google guideline mean? | | |
 Dear Kalena...
I am new to your blog and I enjoyed visiting it
again today. You have a new regular visitor.
Thanks for the link to the Google guidelines. I
understood most of it but I would appreciate
clarification of what they mean by both parts of
the first guideline:
"Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text
links.
Every page should be reachable from at least
one static text link."
(I do my own HTML. The site is very basic.)
Betsy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dear Betsy
Thanks for the blog feedback, it's great to be
reassured sometimes that people are actually
reading this thing! Now to your question.
What Google means by that statement is that your
site navigation structure (menu) should be
straight-forward and each page should have at
least one link pointing to it from within your
site. The easiest way to achieve this is to
create a site map with text links pointing to
every page on your site. This is to enable
Google to find and index all your pages and also
to help visitors. Then you can put a link to
your site map on your home page or within your
navigation menu.
Hope this helps!
Kalena | | |
| FAQ3: Why can't I get listed in DMOZ? | | |
 Dear Kalena...
I have tried to get my firm listed in the DMOZ
marketing and advertising firms with a cultural
and ethnic focus for a few years to no avail.
Any thoughts on this? Thanks!
Lwald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dear Lwald
The Open Directory
(DMOZ) is run entirely by volunteers. As you
can imagine, this leads to very haphazard
editing quality and submission delays. Remember
also that if your site is already listed in DMOZ
in another category, any subsequent submissions
are likely to be ignored or earn you the wrath
of editors.
The exception to this is if your site truly
suits both a regionally-specific category and a
more generic category, you can submit to both.
But that is no guarantee you will be accepted.
For more tips on getting into DMOZ or following
up a submission, read my article How
to Submit Your Site to Directories.
Kalena | | |
| FAQ4: How can I increase my AdSense commissions from Google? | | |
 Dear Kalena...
I have read your interesting article about Top
10 AdSense Tricks To Boost Your Commission in
Site Pro News. And would like to ask you, what
you think we need to ask the visitors of our
sites to do; that there will be a high Pay Per
Click-commission by Google?
Nestler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hi Nestler
I'm assuming you mean "What can I do to
increase the AdSense commission I am currently
receiving from Google?"
If so, then I recommend the following:
1) Increase the number of pages on your site and
add AdSense code to them.
2) Opt-in for Google's
Referral Program where you can earn USD 100
per converting referral.
3) Optimize your pages for keywords and phrases
that are hot topics or write articles about
those subjects and add AdSense code to the
article pages.
4) Add new content to your site each and every
day and make sure you submit the new pages to Google
Sitemaps using an XML Sitemap.
Kalena | | |
| FAQ5: Why has the Google PageRank of our home page dropped? | | |
Dear Kalena...
I was working on a ecommerce site for the last
2-3 months and was able to get a GPR (toolbar)
of 3 on the home page and 3-4 on the internal
pages. However recently we have seen that the
home page PR has dropped to 1 but the internal
page PR remains the same. We have not lost any
IBL, to the best of our knowledge. I know the
toolbar PR hardly means anything and thats not
the actual one but I am sure you understand that
it is really difficult to convince the client
and also I find it quite strange to see that the
home page PR has dropped while the internal page
retains its position.
As the site is just 2-3 months old we have not
achieved any rankings in Google. I would like to
know your opinion and thoughts on this.
Regards
Saptarshi Roy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hi Saptarshi Roy
It's not unusual to see fluctuations in the
Google Toolbar PageRank. I know of cases where
the PageRank has displayed differently for the
same site when viewed at the same time by people
in different locations. So don't rely on the
Toolbar PageRank score as being anywhere near
accurate.
What is more concerning is the fact that your
home page PageRank has dropped while the
PageRank for your internal pages has not. This
is a little strange. Without seeing the site in
question, I'm only guessing, but in my opinion,
this could be caused by:
1) a glitch with the Google Toolbar (do you have
the latest version installed?).
2) your incoming back links are mainly pointing
to internal pages.
3) you have recently changed content on your
home page and now Google sees it as "less
relevant".
4) you have recently obtained a lot of new links
pointing to your home page from lower quality
sites.
5) Googlebot struck a problem while indexing
your home page during his last visit.
If you have submitted an XML sitemap for the
site to Google
Sitemaps, the data collected should give you
some clues related to any indexing issues.
Kalena | | |
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