Semi-Formal Proposals That Offer Services
Remember that whenever you write a proposal to offer your services, you have to sell your audience on accepting your services, rather than those of one of your competitors. Your writing should be confident. Your proposal should look as attractive as it sounds. It's like going to a job interview. Your appearance and body language can be just as important as the words you speak.That said, proposals that offer a service can be solicited or unsolicited. If a client solicits a proposal from you, they'll tell you their needs and requirements. This will make the proposal easier to write. An unsolicited proposal will be harder to write, because the client hasn't asked for it. You may not be sure of their needs or requirements, and you may need to convince them they need the service you're offering.
In a proposal that offers a service, you want to:
- Show that you understand the client's needs
- Tell what you will do to meet those needs
- Show that you have the capability to do the work
- Tell who will implement things (the client or your company)
The report pyramid looks like this:
- The Summary gives a brief description of what you will do.
- The Reason or Background compartment tells why the service needs to be done. This is where you will detail the circumstances that led to your proposal.
- The Details compartment has five sub-compartments.
- The Description sub-compartment gives a detailed description of what will be done as part of the service.
- The Gains sub-compartment tells what will be gained as a result of the service.
- The Cost sub-compartment tells what the cost will be for the service. Include all charges.
- The Conditions sub-compartment tells who will do what, as well as any constraints.
- The Capability sub-compartment tells why you are capable of performing the service.
- The
Actions compartment requests approval to move forward.
If your proposal has been solicited by the client, you can write it in letter form, as long as it doesn't exceed five pages. Otherwise, you should use a cover letter and include the proposal as an attachment.
As with other types of proposals, you can insert images into the proposal. You can also attach supporting evidence and analyses in the Evidence compartment.
Section Review 3
Below are excerpted paragraphs from a draft of a semi-formal proposal for a service. Read the paragraph, then choose the compartment or sub-compartment in which the paragraph belongs.- The difficulty with most online courses designed to teach writing skills is that they only teach the skills needed, but do not offer any hands-on practice. Students finish the course feeling like they learned a list of things they need to do when they write, but not the space to master how to do it.
- ___ Summary
- ___ Background or Reason
- ___ Details
- ___ Capability
- ___ Action
- We propose expanding the textbook training beyond the lesson/test model and offer writing assignments for each lesson taught in the class. Writing style cannot be judged or graded, so the assignments will be optional, yet afford students the chance to become comfortable using the skills they learned.
- ___ Summary
- ___ Background or Reason
- ___ Details
- ___ Capability
- ___ Action
- Each course we create is tailored to cover the topics you want your students taught. The tailoring starts during our initial discussion with you, and continues as the course is being planned…
- ___ Summary
- ___ Background or Reason
- ___ Details
- ___ Capability
- ___ Action
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