Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts

11. The Structure of the Letter Proposal

The letter proposal may be as brief as a single page or as long as three or four pages with attachments. The exact salutation you use, the particular format you choose (block, modified block, whatever), the complimentary close, none of that’s really very important. What’s important is that your letter proposal clearly address the essential elements of the persuasive paradigm as described in Chapter 4:

1. The client’s need or problem. Get right to the point. Don’t waste time with cliché openings. In fact, mark it down as an infallible rule, any sentence that begins “Per your . . .” is a bad sentence. Even more common is an opening sentence like this: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for ...