Ch. 24: Proposals

• Understand the persuasive purpose of proposals
• Proposals are meant to persuade an audience to take an action
• authorize a project
• accept a service or product
• support a specific plan for solving a problem 
• improving a situation
• Understand the expectations of people who read proposals
• Decision makers want to know
• What the problem or need is
• Why they should spend time, money, effort
• What your plan is
• Why they should accept the costly items in your plan
• What action they are supposed to take
• Differentiate between solicited and unsolicited proposals
• Solicited proposals are requested by a manager, customer, or client
• Unsolicited proposals have not been requested by anyone
• Differentiate between formal and informal proposals
• Formal proposals have the same format as a formal report
• Informal proposals are in email or memo format
• Understand the different functions of planning, research, and sales proposals
• Planning proposal
• offers solutions to a problem or suggestions for improvement
• Research proposal
• requests approval/ funding for a study
• Sales proposal
• offers services or products
• solicited or unsolicited
• Write a proposal
• Introduction
• Statement of problem and objective/ project overview
• Background and review of the literature
• Need
• Benefits
• Qualifications of personnel
• Data sources
• Limitations and contingencies
• Scope
• Plan
• Objectives and methods
• Timetable
• Materials and equipment
• Personnel
• Available Facilities
• Needed facilities
• Cost and budget
• Expected results
• feasibility
• Conclusion
• Summary of key points
• Request for action
• Works Cited