I read so much bad advice on proposal writing that I felt I had better set the record straight.

Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. A proposal is simply an offer of ideas or actions extended to another party for consideration and agreement.

If I suggest to you that we go to the local theater tonight to catch the Laurel and Hardy Film Festival, I’m making a proposal. It’s an idea that might or might not capture your fancy, and which you may accept, alter, or reject. (My wife invariably rejects Laurel and Hardy.) If you suggest to a prospect that you can alleviate the prospect’s client attrition problems through a six-month, $350,000 intervention, that, too, is a proposal.

It’s helpful to understand that proposals are not inanimate documents which occur at some point in a business deal. Those documents, when they exist, are merely tangible summations of the ideas being agreed upon.

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