You must’ve heard of Proposal packs before. If you haven’t, well, you’re hearing now. They’re designed to help you write short bids and quote proposals immediately, using pre-written samples, templates, automation software and design options.

Since you’re reading this, you probably work in a niche where you’re constantly required to make quick assessments and then dash off a short quote or a proposal on the spot or on short notice for each new prospective client. This happens a lot in the home maintenance and building industries, and in fields where bundles of discounts are sold to various individual customers.

Well, you could continue to just scratch and write off a few numbers on a notepad and then show it to the client, but the problem with this practice is aesthetics; that small piece of paper does not inspire a lot of confidence in the client, especially if what you’re doing involves a lot of money.

Obviously, the best manner in which to conduct any business deal is to meet your client in person and give them a business card and write down all their specific requirements, restrictions, new equipment to be procured, products they desire, measurements and whatever else you may possibly need - and then go back to your workspace to draft a professional looking bid package.

But clients usually don’t have as much patience.

Nowadays, it’s very trendy to generate professional-looking short quotes for immediate delivery in the field. The slowly pervading new sentiment among clients is the expectation from any vendor to provide them with instant electronic documents; smart tools like Quikflw allow you to go out into the field armed with nothing more than a smartphone or a tablet.

To handle such cases, you could make detailed electronic quotes on the go using Adobe PDF on your tablet computer by using the pre-designed templates available there, and then immediately share the quote with your clients. You can also send all the details of the job back to your team at the office, who’ll dash off a quick, alluring package for a bid or a short quote to show on the spot.

What should you include in the package? Begin with a short, succinct cover letter, informing the client as to who you are and briefly summarizing the details of your agreement, and provide all your contact information so that they have no problem responding to you.

Then add a well explained quote note, an estimate page or simply a work order form that tells them the total cost of the work and then maybe add a deposit request. If you want to add an additional Terms of Contract form, that could come after all this. As a topping, you could offer a guarantee for your work after putting all of this into the proposal; it’s a nice way to wrap up the entire package. Just make sure that all your pages look tidy and professional.

If you are working on something that has more variables, you could consider including a Statement of Work that describes what you promise to do and when, in detail, annotated with Price Lists or Labor Rates so that your client can understand the costs involved and the decisions to be made.

Conclusion

If your job entails a lot of short quoting and bid writing, then time is money. If it’s too much for you to handle, you could consider getting yourself a Proposal kit. It would include all these pages that have been mentioned above, as well as spreadsheets that help you to calculate your quote.

Author's Bio: 

Author, Freelance writer