A favorite phrase of mine in relation to any writing is this: Is there a hole big enough to drive a truck through? It makes me stop and look carefully at what I've written, in particular the overall piece.
So if you've written a business proposal and completed the whole thing, or a significant portion, how does it read? Does it hang together? Are there any parts that are disconnected, or don't make sense? Is there a hole big enough to drive a truck through? It's important to catch these holes before they sink you.
The worst case scenario is going through your proposal with the team and discovering that it simply does not work.
You are faced with two options: One, trying to rewrite the existing proposal to see if you can make sense of it; two, coming up with an entirely new proposal.
Neither option is pleasant.
Both almost always put you in a time crunch.
The best way to avoid this is through your initial proposal planning.
You know what the present client situation is.
You know what the client wants to achieve.
Now, do your proposed steps to get from A to B make sense? Do they flow? Read them through and check them out with the team.
Ask yourself, based on what I know of the client, will this work? If you have any doubts, any questions, flag the areas concerned.
You do not want to proceed on a path that's not viable.
In business proposal writing I have not only developed my own massive holes, but been guilty of another, related charge; that is, not thinking sufficiently about what my proposal might involve.
As a developer and writer of proposal bids, you have to keep in mind whether your proposed USP is doable.
I've had production managers look at my suggestion, love the idea and then shake their heads.
"We can't do this," was the usual answer.
It was going to cost too much, require too many people, technically it wasn't feasible.
You get the idea.
It's so important for the proposal team and the writer to keep things in perspective.
Here's the budget.
This is what we can afford.
Here are the technical limitations.
Here's the space we have available.
And no, building restrictions do not allow you to drive a vehicle in here during an event.
Forget anything that falls outside these parameters.
If your business proposal has a hole big enough to drive a truck through, you are in trouble.
Whether it's because the proposal does not hang together, or whether the ideas the team comes up with are not feasible due to cost, or technical reasons, you cannot keep plowing ahead, regardless.
I've seen people do that.
They were convinced the idea would work, sure that flaws could be overlooked.
If you have an inkling that your proposal could be wrecked by a truck, better rethink what you're doing.