1. Turn your proposal draft around in less than a week and a completed proposal in two weeks.

Time is critical, in many cases if you do not have your proposal on desk of decision maker BEFORE deadline it is tossed in trash, or at least out of consideration. You want to give decision maker plenty of time to look over your proposal, ask questions, and make their consideration. You cannot give them this time if you take 30 to 45 days to complete a proposal of any size.

2. Send a letter of intent to prospect with a quick overview describing your understanding of their requirements.

In many cases, decision maker has to get three bids, but if reasonable effort is made an only two are available, they can go with that. Letting point of contact on your proposal know you intend to bid, you understand due date, and other relevant information about who you are; they will come to expect what you have to send. When you send your proposal it is most likely to be remembered, plus you can resolve any misunderstandings and get contact information exchanged early.

3. Stay constantly in touch with your points of contacts, when requested provide useful information and be availability to answer questions.

Being available at all times for individual considering your proposal is necessary and always welcome. Nothing is more frustrating for buyer than not being able to reach a vendor who has provided a proposal. They have to be able to contact you and quickly arrange a decision. Checking in periodically with your proposal points of contact is appropriate and lets them know you are interested.

4. Ask for sale.

This should be a given, but so many present a proposal, then sit back and say “What do you think?” when they should say “Have we provided information you need to make a decision?” The objective of a proposal is to show a decision maker that you are best candidate for work and that they should pick you. Ask for sale, ask when a decision will be made, and what you can do to be company selected.

New ideas can be very difficult to find. When you do find them and put them into action, they can provide a powerful marketing edge and become a license to print money.

Here are 8 ways to help generate new ideas:

1. Ask For Opinions

We get so close to what we are doing, that often we can't see another way of doing things. To overcome this problem you could hire consultants or simply seek opinions from someone who knows absolutely nothing about your business. There are times when we need to step outside our own environment, because sometimes ideas used in one trade can be adapted to another.

For example, which came first ball-point pen or roll-on deodorant? They both use same ingenious principle.

2. Encourage Staff Creativity If you employ staff, encourage them to think up new ideas and get them to suggest changes. You will need to be open-minded and encourage their input. You'll need to be tolerant when their ideas don't work. And you'll probably need to reward them in some way, although you'll probably find that satisfaction of "seeing their ideas in action" may be reward enough.