Effective proposal, key for building business partnership

In an era where the survival of most businesses are directly linked to strategic partnerships, being able to write effective proposal that will attract the interest of financiers or stakeholders is very crucial to the growth of a company.

However, crafting a proposal requires that the individual or company identifies and familiarises itself with the basic principles of putting together an effective proposal that will help sell the company’s brand.

It is for this reason that the Springboard, Your Virtual University, aired every Sunday evening on Joy FM, replayed a presentation by Rev. Albert Ocran at one of its roadshows in Kumasi.

In the presentation titled ‘Crafting Effective Proposal’, Rev. Ocran, indicated that acquiring knowledge on how to write an effective proposal was very important in every career.

“Proposal is a formal plan put forward for consideration that seeks to persuade its recipient to do something. It is important because businesses thrive on strategic partnership, a person will need a proposal because if one wants to do business, he or she needs strategic partnership with other organisations and for all that the person wants to do, he or she needs to communicate it through a proposal,” he said.

Benefits of a proposal

Explaining the benefits of an effective proposal, he said “if the proposal is effective the first thing it does is to establish an identity. Who is asking who, what exactly do they want from them?”

The second thing is to decouple the person from the request because although the business was promoted by a person, that person was not the business. Therefore there should be a clear distinction between the person and the company.

Again, a proposal should answer the key questions in the mind of the person reading the proposal, saying “whether one is talking to the MTN, Omega Capital or Star Life, there are questions that entities want answers to and that proposal helps to answer those questions.”

It is also important to note that the author will not be given the opportunity to stand in front of the recipient to clarify issues. Therefore, the proposal must be well crafted in a manner that it could pre-empt all the questions and answer them appropriately.

“The fourth thing a proposal does is to summarise and clarify the concept. Sometimes when the need is so huge, it comes with much talk and explanations. But with the proposal, the author is forced to summarise. And then finally it shows your competitive strength over others,” he added.

Common mistakes in proposals

Entitlement mentality: According to the motivational speaker, one of the common mistakes people made in proposal was what he described “as one-sided outlook”, where the proposal started and ended with how it would benefit the proponent.

That approach, he said, would always fail because of what he termed the 'entitlement mentality' and that it should not look at how the product would benefit the other party.

Statistical inaccuracies: Another mistake, he identified, was factual and statistical inaccuracies, which if found questionable in a proposal created effectiveness crisis, especially for the brand.

Long and inappropriate content: “Some people can write about 30 pages. The person you are asking to approve your project has not said he wants to read a long essay, so why then do you want to write a 30-page proposal full of unnecessary detail,” he asked.

Poor packaging: According to him, a proposal must be well packaged in order to be able to attract the interest of potential financiers or stakeholders, adding that if it was poorly packaged, it would not sell.

The cut and paste syndrome: Rev Ocran was also against the cut and paste syndrome developing among a number of people in the country. He described such an attitude as “high speed dubbing”, that would end up damaging a person’s proposal.
Little foxes: Another mistake, he cited was the little foxes, and he described them as little things people took for granted but came back to hurt them badly.

The blueprint of proposal writing

Given how crucial effective proposal is for clinching business partnerships, Rev Ocran said, "it is important for a person who is developing a proposal to factor in the background or a trend that will help explain the need he or she intends to achieve."

It was also important to identify the client with the need, which means the client must be linked to the product in order to attract his or her interest.

He said track record must also be included in the proposal so that it would be able to arouse the interest of the client, and added that a testimonial of satisfied clients would be able to sell the brand perfectly.

“It should be able to establish synergy between brands and entities. Can you imagine as Springboard celebrates its 10th anniversary, MTN is also celebrating its 10th anniversary. Therefore if a person is able to connect those little synergies, he or she will be able to seal through,” he noted.

“Once you have established a linkage, the person seeking support must be able to establish a technical proposal. This is important because it gives details of how you are going to execute the project and it clearly states that you are the right person to executive it,” he said.

It was also crucial for the person seeking support to include financial proposal. That, he said, would clearly identify how the funding would be applied to the programme.

The conclusion must reinforce the benefit of the project to all partners involved in the programme.

“After a person goes through the processes he or she must summarise the entire proposal in a minute’s speech that can compel, challenge and invite your partners to listen to you and give you the opportunity,” he added.