There are two main reasons to write a business proposal. Either someone has invited you to submit a RFP (Request for Proposal); or you are trying to gain support or funding from your employer or another organization.

When drafting a proposal the most important thing to keep in mind is that the reader is looking for benefits; they want to know how your product, service, or idea adds value to their operation. Therefore your proposal must be well-written and it also must clearly indicate how you can fulfill a current need.

Here are a few tips to help you improve your proposal:

1. Make the proposal about your customer. A proposal is not the time to tell about your mission, your locations, or how long you have been in business. Instead you should state how these (or any other) aspects benefit your client.

2. Show and don’t tell. Do not tell your prospect what you can do for them, but show them using clear examples. Avoid unsubstantiated hype like “best value”, “low risk”, and “cutting edge”; unless you are willing to prove it.

3. Be careful not to include irrelevant information. If you are making the proposal about the reader, and showing instead of telling, then you should have no problem with this.

4. If you are responding to a RFP, read the request more than once. You want to ensure that you completely grasp the requirements.

5. Show your creditability. Who have you worked with before? How did you help them and how does that relate to the company you are submitting this proposal to?

6. Watch your language. It is very important to make sure your proposal is politically correct. Additionally, you want to avoid jargon unless it is commonly known in the field you are targeting. Also, avoid writing in passive voice.

7. Include samples if it is appropriate. This is a great way to show that you are capable of handling the job.

8. Be specific. State your time frame for completing the project and your rates (if applicable). This will help eliminate differences in expectations.

9. Above all, if you are a poor writer, seek assistance. Proposal writing is time-consuming and it requires a certain amount of skill.

About The Author

DJ Nelson is a Corporate Writer and Marketing Specialist. She can help you write a business proposal that sells. Visit her website at http://www.Donyell.com.

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The best time to negotiate contract terms and conditions is before the contract is signed!

Contract law is complicated, involving numerous federal, state and municipal laws (not to mention internal policies, procedures and protocols!) that apply different conditions depending upon the type and cost of the item under consideration.

Terms in the tender document or request for proposal are the starting point for most acquisition processes. The language of the tender or RFP is critical to successfully achieving a satisfactory relationship with the supplier of goods or services. The terms of the tender document, with the terms of the successful bidder’s response, are substantially the terms that will be included in the final contract. Procurement officers need to know the extent of negotiating ability they have upon receipt of bids or proposals. The variety in responses possible from bidders can often lead to very good reasons for going off in a new direction. But, straying too far from the tender specifications can quickly lead to multiple claims from unsuccessful bidders.

Purchasing and Risk Management Departments must work closely with other corporate colleagues to review or create business contracts that limit the organization’s liability exposure. Well-drafted, the indemnification and insurance clauses ensure that if something goes wrong it is clear who will bear financial responsibility.

The Risk Manager’s Role

The importance of risk transfer requires Involving risk management early in the process. The risk manager can help examine the purpose of the contract from an ‘outsider’s perspective. Specifically - what could go wrong with the work (or product/service)? If something were to go wrong – what are the implications of that problem? “Implications” can be financial cost, a delay in using the end result (e.g. a building), negative publicity or any combination of these three outcomes.

Risk manager can provide advice and consultation in structuring tender or RFP, assist colleagues in properly drafting contracts consistent with corporate policies and minimize financial risk by identifying and dealing with possible contingencies. They do this because they know that poorly prepared contracts can lead to nasty surprises. You want to enter into contracts with some assurance that the end result will satisfactorily meet your expectations.

The classic risk management process is helpful in conducting a review of any proposed transaction. To avoid surprises, you need to identify risks by considering what potential downsides can arise from the project. Once this step is complete, assess the risk by determining how likely it is that something will go wrong and if it does, how expensive the problem is likely to be.

The contribution of the risk manager to the contract language is central to successfully achieving risk transfer. Clearly define the circumstances under which the contractor will hold harmless and indemnify the municipality for losses arising from the supply of goods or services. If a serious loss occurs, these clauses can be analyzed word-by-word. Any ambiguity is likely to be held against you. Review and revise both the hold harmless and indemnify clauses until it is absolutely clear to you and to your procurement officer.

The term “Contractual Risk Transfer” is used by risk managers to avoid saying ‘passing the buck’. The goal is to always make the party who has control over the products or services accept financial responsibility.

Usually insurance does not cover problems arising from poorly-drafted contracts, negligence in the procurement process or poor performance of the work described by a contract. For example, there is usually no coverage for situations where unauthorized employees engage in work under an unapproved contract or for breach of contract claims. Poor business judgments and financial mistakes are also the responsibility of the organization. Claims arising from these errors typically must be paid by the municipality as those costs are rarely transferable to insurers or anyone else. The municipality is likely to incur all of their own costs arising from problems, plus any award to the claimant.

Always use written contracts and state terms and conditions clearly. In many situations verbal agreements are legally permissible. Properly drafted written contracts, however, reduce the chance of misunderstandings in the future. Documented business transactions protect the rights of all parties to the contract. The written contract provides an audit trail and authorizes the use of funds when paying invoices. Further, if the subject of the contract becomes an adversarial issue due to a lawsuit, the contract can show the intent of both parties at the outset of the work.

Written agreements ensure both parties have an opportunity to clear up at the negotiation stage any confusion or differing interpretations. The main purpose of written contracts is to prevent conflicts or litigation caused by inadequate documentation of crucial points. It is time-consuming and expensive to take issues to court for interpretation. Judges may interpret the contract differently than either party intended. The courts do not usually consider very great weight to verbal evidence as verbal statements are considered unreliable once a dispute has arisen. When contracts are vague or indefinite, or the intended performance cannot be determined, the court may rule the contract unenforceable - to the disappointment of both parties.

Power does not always prevail – when one party is larger than the other it may make them feel that they can dictate contract terms and conditions. Remember that you want a contract that is enforceable. When unfair bargaining strength is used, it can become contentious later if other problems arise. It is in all parties’ best interest to avoid ambiguous language and unreasonable or unlawful conditions. Always be prepared to be flexible and to take the time required for a good result!

Remember, it is important to note that any language showing a clear intention to negotiate cannot defeat an inherent duty of fairness with which the municipality must conduct themselves at all times. The trade-off is clear: the more extensive the negotiations, the more stress it puts on the municipality’s duty to be fair to all bidders.

To ensure changes are binding make them in writing and have the amendments signed by duly authorized representatives of both parties. This documents the change, provides clarity and binds both parties should problems arise later.

Three clauses complement and support the risk management process. They are hold harmless, indemnification and insurance. I recommend that these clauses be written separately.

In most vendor-provided contract documents, the Indemnification/Hold Harmless provision is far broader than what your organization would want to accept. Many vendor-provided indemnification and hold harmless clauses are limitless. If you accept these clauses you may be accepting responsibilities that your organization never wanted nor intended to assume and may not be able to insure. Usually you want to only sign contracts where the language limits your liability to acts over which the municipality has control and to the extent that it exercises that control. Assuming liability for independent contractors and consultants who are not under the municipality’s control is unwise.

The intention of the hold harmless clause is to describe exactly what type of circumstances the supplier accepts responsibility for. In particular, they specify who will pay for loss or damage arising out of the performance of the work contemplated by the contract. Most corporations will only enter into contracts in which the indemnification language limits their liability to acts over which they have control and to the extent that they exercise control. The hold harmless clause however, is only one clause of the trio needed to adequately protect the parties.

The second clause used is an ‘indemnity clause’. It will state that if something does occur leading to a loss, of a type that I/we have held you harmless for – then we will pay on your behalf (or reimburse you) any costs arising from our negligence. In other words, ‘the buck stops here’.

The final clause of the trio is the insurance clause. The insurance clause promises that the party performing the work (e.g. builder, supplier, etc.) will obtain and maintain the type and amount of insurance that you have stipulated to pay for any claims, losses and related expenses that may arise out of their negligence in performing the work planned in the contract. The intention is to ensure that the contractor has sufficient financial resources to support the indemnification provision in the contract.

With these three clauses, you have obtained a promise from your supplier or contractor to:

1. accept responsibility for their own errors or negligence,

2. pay any costs arising from those errors or negligence, and

3. carry insurance evidencing sufficient resources to keep their promises.

Often, I find that contract document presented by contractors have been written by lawyers or other ‘non-insurance’ professionals. In these cases, the language used may be out-of-date or simply not reflective of terminology used by insurance professionals. When this occurs, it is prudent to revise or replace those clauses with descriptions and phrases commonly used in the insurance industry today. This reduces the chance of ambiguity and difficulty in obtaining evidence of the type of insurance you want the contractor to carry. The most common example I see is the phrase “Additional Insured’ VS ‘Additional Named Insured’.

It is important that this phrase be limited to ‘Additional Insured’. Additional Named Insureds have at least two disadvantages: only Named Insureds are responsible for paying premiums and some policy exclusions apply only to Named Insureds. Benefits to your municipality of being an additional insured are:

 Coverage remains in force for Additional Insureds if a Named Insured breaches a policy condition,

 Reinforces risk transfer agreements in the contract,

 The Additional Insured has a right to claim defense from the insurer, and

 It usually prevents the insurer from subrogating from the Additional Insured.

Certificates of Insurance:

There is much debate amongst the risk management and insurance community about the value of obtaining and maintaining evidence of insurance on contracts. Certificates of Insurance verify the type of insurance that the Named Insured on the policy has purchased and specifies the coverage levels under that policy at the point in time that the certificate is issued. I firmly believe that certificates are of limited value – but they are the best and only evidence available at this time providing some level of comfort that contractors have a source of funds for defined claims situations.

There are two broad categories of certificates, those that you receive coming in and those that your send out to other parties. Municipalities usually receive certificates and infrequently send them to others.

Incoming certificates of Insurance are commonly issued by the contractor’s insurer or insurance broker. To be valid, I want to see the ‘live’ signature of a person authorized by the insurer to issue the certificate. Before issuing a certificate, the insurer wants some information describing reason for the certificate, the length of the subject of the certificate (e.g. a multi-year contract) and specific details of the name of the contact person/mailing address of their and at your organization.

Upon receipt of a certificate in your office, you will want to see at least the following information:

• name and address of the organization to whom the Certificate is being issued,

• brief description of planned activities/work,

• name and address of the Named Insured, (who must match the name on the contract)

• amount and type of insurance in force,

• effective dates of coverage, and

• a statement that your municipality is included as an ‘additional insured’.

When you are asked to issue certificates of insurance you should review the contract to be sure that you provide evidence of the proper type and amount of coverage required. Under no circumstances should you issue a certificate on behalf of any party or other organizations independent of your municipality, no matter how close a working relationship you may have with it.

When reviewing tender or RFP documents and the contracts that arise from them you can effectively use the risk management process to review the proposal and draft appropriate language. Manage exposure in any contract situation by ensuring conformity with generally accepted ‘due diligence’ practices from the very beginning. Be sure that appropriate risk transfer provisions are included at the tender or RFP stage. Finally, once the contract draft is agreed upon, ensure that evidence of insurance (and bonding, if required) is obtained and maintained throughout the life of the contract. As a risk management professional, remember that your training and experience makes YOU an expert who can protect your municipality.

About The Author

Joy Jackson is president of Cunnart Associates; specializing in risk management training and consulting services for the public and non-profit sector. To contact, email joy@cunnart.com or visit http://www.cunnart.com

Technorati Tags: request for proposal templates

Yes, non-profits are viable. But there are certainly more financially rewarding sectors for IT specialists. Let’s first take a look at the pros of non-profits.

o It’s easy to reach non-profits because they belong to trade groups and you can get your hands on the publicly available directories.

o You can get a lot of tremendous emotional satisfaction and gratification knowing you’re helping a particular cause.

The two biggest downsides of non-profit:

o Thin profit margins

o Bidding wars

Bid situations reduce your firm to a commodity. Additionally, when you bid against someone else’s specs, your competitor may be shortcutting. Thus lowering the bid price and keeping you from quoting a more realistic solution.

Non Profits and Government Bids Are Tricky for IT Specialists

For most IT specialists, selling to private sector small businesses is going to be a lot easier than trying to navigate the waters of non-profit and government bids. The unfortunate part is, in most cases, non-profits and government agencies are legally bound to take the quoted price.

The Downside of Bidding Wars for IT Specialists

When you’re getting into a bidding situation, you really don’t have the luxury of the trust, personality, and credibility factors helping you all that much. It really usually boils down to who can post the bond, who can follow the rules, and who can get the bid in on time.

Then, on top of everything else, bidding requires you to do a ton of non-billable upfront work that you can normally bill for in the private sector. This non-billable work consists of researching, developing configurations, and bringing it all together. And the reality is this: getting the contract may be a real long shot.

Bidding Wisely

If you are going to try a competitive bid, don’t bet your whole company on it. Make sure that your bid chasing time is no more than 20% of your business development efforts. Unless your company is 100% focused on selling to non-profits or government agencies, you’re usually better off concentrating on the traditional private sector small businesses.

If a government agency is looking to outsource support services, and it’s a well thought out request for proposal (RFP), it becomes a more interesting proposition. If the agency however is just looking to buy hardware and some one-shot deal installation services, you’re going to run into a lot of profitability challenges.

The Bottom Line on Non Profits for IT Specialists

Non-profit and government are still better niche options for IT specialists than just going down the retail path. But non-profit and government are anywhere near as attractive as the sweet spot of small business computer consulting.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

About The Author

Joshua Feinberg has helped thousands of computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for Joshua’s free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training at http://www.ComputerConsultantsSecrets.com/blog/.

Technorati Tags: request for proposal templates

Technorati Tags: request for proposal templates

E-mail marketing campaigns can be integral parts of any organization’s marketing strategy. That’s because e-mail marketing can be a powerful tool for differentiating a brand, driving targeted traffic to a Web site, and increasing sales. In addition, one of the greatest benefits of an e-mail marketing campaign is that online reporting tools make measuring results easy and data is available nearly instantaneously after launching a campaign.

The keys to success are the relevancy of the content provided to the target audience as well as the quality and segmentation of the sender’s e-mail list. Organizations that pay attention to these critical points will increase the probability of accomplishing their goals.

This article contains practical tips that you can use to develop and implement an e-mail marketing strategy.

Developing your e-mail marketing strategy

Who is your audience? What is your message? How often will you launch a campaign? Develop a clear strategy that answers these questions while remaining consistent with your overall marketing strategy. Consider the following four components when developing your e-mail marketing strategy:

Set realistic goals.

What specific, tangible benefits do you want your e-mail marketing campaign to help your organization achieve? Some examples might include:

Increase sales leads from A to B.

Increase product or service sales from A to B.

Enhance customer relationships by increasing the number of times that your organization connects with customers from A to B.

Differentiate your brand by providing customers with expert advice they can apply to their business.

Drive traffic to a specific content section within your Web site.

Analyze and segment your e-mail list. Get to know your customers and determine what topics grab their attention. Then segment your e-mail list into smaller lists based on the identified commonalities. Remember to update e-mail addresses that have changed.

Develop relevant content based on your segmentation.

A segmented e-mail list gives you the freedom to develop customized content, increasing the odds that your audience will respond. Provide your audience with content that is interesting to them. Highlight product and service features that are highly relevant to your audience and unique from your competitors. These types of features are called drivers.

Providing relevant content also reduces the risk that your audience would consider your e-mail marketing campaigns to be distractions, or even worse, spam.

Measure your results.

Most leading e-mail marketing distribution tools provide real-time data as part of their package. The AVS Group uses Constant Contact for our campaigns. For a broader view of your Web site’s performance, Webtrends is a leading Web analytics tool that generates detailed traffic statistics.

Differentiating your brand

Can e-mail marketing be useful in differentiating a brand? Absolutely, and here’s how.

Focus on drivers.

Earlier we recommended highlighting the features of your products and services that are highly relevant to customers and unique from competitors. These features are called drivers. Drivers are any organization’s true points of differentiation. Drivers are so powerful, they actual drive customer choice toward one brand versus another. Your e-mail marketing campaign should communicate your drivers.

Share your expertise.

Share your organization’s knowledge with your e-mail list. Offer recommendations based on your experience. Write papers based on your organization’s research. Comment on industry or marketplace trends. Sharing your expertise makes your brand different – you are not communicating the same message as competitors.

Brand consistency.

Your team has invested time and effort toward developing your organization’s logo, tagline, graphic standards, and overall brand identity. To protect this investment, create an e-mail template that can be used for all of your e-mail marketing campaigns. Your audience will receive a professional looking message that is consistent with the positive attributes that your brand identity represents. For each issue, you simply update the content.

Timing consistency.

Set specific intervals to distribute your e-mail marketing: weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. and stick to them. It takes a commitment to consistently develop and distribute relevant e-mail marketing campaigns. Remaining consistent will provide your organization with differentiation from all of the organizations marketing themselves inconsistently.

Driving targeted traffic to a Web site E-mail marketing is a proven method for driving site traffic. In fact, experiencing traffic increases of 100 percent or more on days that an e-mail marketing campaign is launched is realistic.

Targeted e-mail marketing campaigns can also deliver impressive open and click-through rates. For example, 50 percent of the recipients of an e-newsletter may open the e-mail and 30 percent of those people may click into the Web site to learn more.

Why are these numbers so high? The sender provided relevant content to people who already knew of the organization. The recipients may not have been very familiar with the organization, or even current customers. However, they at least gave the organization their e-mail address.

Use teaser content to trigger interest.

Do not provide all of the information within your e-mail marketing message. Support the content in your e-mail marketing campaign with more content on your Web site. Encourage people to click and learn more.

Intuitive design.

Drive traffic by using a layout and design for your e-mails that is intuitive. Are the links easy to locate? Is the navigation and overall layout and design simple? Is the content easy to read?

Use references to build credibility.

People generally do business with organizations they trust. Highlight your work, press releases, or case studies to serve as evidence of your achievements. Your audience may be more apt to click into your Web site if they perceive your message to be credible.

Increase sales

We have witnessed e-mail marketing campaigns that have generated online sales within minutes after being sent. These campaigns created a sense of urgency and promoted relevant products. However, if online transactions are not a good fit for your organization, consider using e-mail marketing to generate sales leads.

Create a sense of urgency.

With a segmented list, you will be able to create special offers based on what will appeal to each segment. For one segment, you might offer free shipping. For another segment, you might offer a discount. Get it right, and you could experience sales increases of 100 percent on the days that e-mail marketing was used.

Promote relevant products.

Because your list is segmented, you have the opportunity to feature the most relevant products. Create multiple campaigns based on the product preferences of each segment within your overall list.

Generate leads.

Encourage your audience to go online and fill out a contact form or upload a request for proposal to you. For example, we receive requests for proposal from customers and prospects visiting AVSGroup.com. To help facilitate this process, we added a Discuss Project form making it easier to connect with our team.

In closing, any organization can be successful with e-mail marketing campaigns by implementing the right strategy. Developing an e-mail marketing strategy will lay the groundwork to reach your goals. E-mail marketing can be a powerful marketing and brand-building tool for your organization.

About The Author

Stephen Woessner

The AVS Group is a marketing, training, and communications company. AVS is in La Crosse, Wisconsin. AVS helps clients communicate and market effectively. AVS can be found online at http://www.avsgroup.com

swoessner@avsgroup.com

Technorati Tags: request for proposal templates

Unlike having to find, interview, and hire an employee - and thus incur the tax liability of a new employee - often savvy business owners turn to outside companies. Outsourcing services take on the tasks underlying a business leaving the owner more free time to pursue the front-end of his or her business.

Wikipedia states:

“Outsourcing” involves transferring or sharing management control and/or decision-making of a business function to an outside supplier, which involves a degree of two-way information exchange, coordination and trust between the outsourcer and its client.”

Outsourcing, therefore, becomes an integrated part of your business. The importance is to determine what should be outsourced, why it should be outsourced, and who will provide your outsourcing services.

Business segments typically outsourced include:

* Information technology

* Human resources

* Facilities

* Real estate management

* Accounting

* Direct Online Marketing and SEO

In addition, many companies also outsource their customer support and rely on call center functions.

Using the Know How of Others

The business owner must be able to step back and make an honest evaluation of his or her talents. We are not all created equal. We all have different strengths. One surefire strength for business success that a business owner must cultivate is the ability to delegate responsibilty through the use of outsourcing. That’s how a well-run, profit-pulling online business accomplishes its goals.

Today’s businesses - large and small - gain immense benefits by finding other companies outside their own arena who possess the technological know how to analyze, plan, and implement target objectives.

In the case of the smaller web site owner looking to gain greater footing with the hot market of search engine results, finding an outsourcing service to handle marketing (and a small portion of advertising) is one such effective strategic move.

Traditional approaches to search engine marketing have, for decades, focused primarily around a web site’s meta tags, firming up web page content, and then submitting the site on a regular basis to the search engines. From a purely advertising basis, other companies will insist that just driving “targeted traffic” to a site is “enough.”

While both of these methods are viable, a good outsourcing company often adds these two methods at low cost or no cost - just bonuses while the real work of marketing is underway.

Choosing the Right Outsourcing Company

As an online business owner it is easy to become frozen in place trying to keep up on all the possible, working, methods for marketing online. Even if one could find the time to read everything and devise a plan, putting that plan into action becomes cumbersome. Doing even the “smallest” of tasks can literally take hours of your week away from you. Hours better spent on web site enhancements and new products, mailing list contacts, and just being there for your web site visitors. Unless the web site owner is willing to give up some control, the grind of working the foundation of marketing too often must supercede the human approach to being there for your customers.

While we all love to do our initial digging online, pick up a phone and call or send email inquiries or submit forms for call back when choosing an outsourcing service. Make sure your questions are addressed intelligently and at a level of understanding that you feel most comfortable with. Avoid listening to prescripted sales pitches where all they want to do is monopolize the phone and beat you down to the point where you really don’t know what they can or cannot do. Take control of the conversation, then turn that conversation into an effective two-way street of open communication. Any company not willing to do that - or vague in their explanations of how - should be moved to the bottom of your list as you locate the best outsourcing company to work with you and your website.

Finding a company that understands and weeds out fad flash-in-the-pan methods, and builds your marketing business on solid, proven methods of web site promotion should be your goal. Find that company and establish a two-way street of information and trust in order to work effectively together.

How to Incorporate Outsourcing Into Your Business

“Prior to the contract development of any outsourcing agreement, the outsourcing company develops a request for proposal (RFP) document which highlights the major requirements and scope of the project which is to be outsourced.”[1]

Through a bid-like process, or the acceptance of agreed upon stated services at given costs, the recipient company has an actual proposal of services in hand. They know what they are getting, what timeframe to expect, and projected results from this outsourced service.

By outsourcing, the owner understands what the benefits to the service(s) are, but the strategizing, planning, and implementating can be safely placed into more knowledgeable and efficient hands to get the job done.

In Summary

Outsourcing is not just for the “big guy.” Overall outsourcing is viewed by many organizations as a strong business tactic that ultimately is a superior economical approach to developing products and services.

Simply put, don’t try to do everything yourself. You may have many fine strong points, but running your online internet business single-handly should not be one of them. Learn when and delegating responsibility can actually make your business grow by leaps and bounds. Then find an outsourcing service you can work with - one with a complete understanding of your web site - one that is willing to go extra miles to make your business a success.

=======================================

About The Author

Theresa Cahill and her business partner, Jeff Greer, put their experience at your disposal. Our effective, reliable outsourcing service specializing in home business, or storefront marketing. For a FREE web site analysis http://www.market-for-me.com.

Technorati Tags: request for proposal templates

Proposal?! I panicked as I tried to confirm with him what he meant by that since I had never done one before, at least not as a freelancer.

I must’ve not really wanted to pursue this opportunity since I didn’t bother to do research or follow up with the company after submitting a contract instead of a proposal. A little time passed, I came across an article on writing RFPs (Request for Proposal). Ding! The light bulb went on. This guy verbally gave me his RFP and wanted a written response.

When a company needs a project to be completed by a contractor or outside source, they write a RFP. This is a formal document describing the project, how the contract companies should respond, how the proposals will be reviewed, and contact information. Often, the company documents the submission guidelines to make it easier for them to compare responses. There are no specific standards or guidelines for creating the RFP, but government agencies usually strict standards they follow when conducting the proposal process.

Outside companies read the RFP and write a proposal (a bid) explaining how they can best provide and meet those needs. When writing the proposal, the company should closely follow the guidelines established in the RFP to avoid being removed from consideration for the potential project.

A typical proposal contains:

• Executive summary - summary of the entire proposal
• Statement of need - why project is necessary
• Project description - How project will be implemented and
  evaluated
• Organization information
• Project schedule
• Budget
• Conclusion

My situation was an informal version of all this. The client gave me a high level overview of what I might do for him. If I knew then what I know now, I would’ve written up a description of the client’s needs and how I would complete the work in meeting those needs.

Small businesses would likely do a proposal in between the one I got and the complex government required ones. Most small businesses will be prompted to write a proposal when approaching a client. The client may ask you to submit a proposal outlining what you can do for them. In this case, write a proposal including the elements of a typical proposal and keep it short and to the point especially if the client is not a large company.

There are examples of RFPs and responses peppered throughout the Web, but which one you can learn from depends on the type of work involved. A proposal can be two pages or as big as a book. Rely on your favorite search engine and do the research to create an unbeatable proposal.

Meryl K. Evans, Content Maven, is Editor-in-Chief of eNewsletter Journal and The Remediator Security Digest. She’s a slave to a MarketingProfs weekly column and a Web design reference guide at InformIT. She is the author of the popular e-report, How to Start a Business Blog and Build Traffic. Visit her site at http://www.meryl.net/blog/ for free newsletters, articles, and tips.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meryl_K._Evans

Author: Meryl K. Evans

Technorati Tags: request for proposal examples

If you attempted to host your program on the internet lately, you’ll notice that many of the ‘Free’ download areas are now charging to host your program. If the download hosting is free then they may charge for the membership and vice-versa.

PbxInfo.com offers 100% Free Download Hosting for any program related to Telecommunications.

Simply visit our site, create a 100% Free Membership and upload your program - it’s that simple.

PbxInfo.com is offering this free service as a proponent of PbxInfo’s 360-degree model. The model is designed to assist telecommunications professionals in every phase of a telecommunications project.

PbxInfo’s System Comparison allows for system research,

PbxInfo’s Buy-Sell program allows for RFQ’s and RFP’s to be developed and introduces buyers to sellers,

PbxInfo’s MarketPlace allows buyers to find used or refurbished systems and equipment vendors to post items for sell,

The forums allows system owners/technicians to ask questions about programming and features of a particular system or general telecom questions,

The portals break system manufactures into Avaya, Cisco, and Nortel.

Free Downloads of programs created by Telecom professionals for Telecom professionals.

And finally the Job Portal allows job seekers and employers to communicate.

Visit: http://www.pbxinfo.com today and click the Download link at the top of the home page to upload your programs.

Article by Charles Carter

www.cs2communications.com

About The Author

Charles Carter is an administrator for the Nortel Portal and Vice President of www.pbxinfo.com. He has 20 years experience in the telecommunications field, is a software owner/programmer, author of the fictional book “Chaos Theorem” and is currently the President of CS2Communications (www.cs2communicatons.com) - A Southern Mississippi Telecommunications LLC specializing in Nortel Meridian Programming, Nortel BCM Programming, Cable Plant Installations and Nortel Symposium Programming

Technorati Tags: request for proposal templates

• Go randomly and make a list of 9-10 service providers (firms or freelancers). The more the number of choice the better it would be. Now make a list of services and packages they offer. In the end compare the price at which the quality is coming. Remember it is not necessary that quality comes with high pricing only even the providers with moderate pricings can also provide good work.
• If you are a web design firm or big organization then you can ask for a RFP (Request for proposal) from the vendors to show their interest.
• Quality Check: - Checking for quality is a must. You can scroll through the vendor’s website and the existing portfolio to see the quality of the codes.
• W3C Standard: -

Make sure that the vendors convert the codes as per W3C standards. All codes must be coded manually along with neat and clean CSS markup.

• Compatibility Check: -

Make sure that the codes written must be cross browser compatible. Generally IE 6 is the browser which gives the slicer a tough time and tests their skill. There are many other popular browsers too which are used popularly in different parts of the region such as Opera, IE, Mozilla, etc.

• Turnaround time: -

Discuss on the time frame prior to the commencement of the deal as it is one of the most important factor. Vendors promise wrong timings initially just to clinch the deal but later they stretch it.

• Support: -

Support system of the vendors or service providers must be very good. A nice support system keeps you aware of the progress on your project.

• Testimonials: -

You can also take testimonials or feedbacks of the clients into notice. Generally all website contain good client feedback for obvious reasons. So you can check out some online comments over communities or reviews.

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Author: Manish Rawat

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Your buddy at the barbecue tells you how the new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software which they recently installed at their company has revolutionized their business.

He waxes lyrical about no more sales leads slipping through the cracks; a much higher close rate on sales inquiries; more precise and cost effective marketing campaigns; improved productivity and customer service levels; vastly improved reporting and so on.

Great! Sounds just like what the doctor ordered for your company. You have been getting by using Microsoft Outlook to manage your database of sales prospects, follow-ups, notes, profiles etc. but it’s starting to prove woefully inadequate.

Only problem is his business is in an entirely different industry sector to yours, with a much bigger IT budget to boot. Their CRM solution seems like an unattainable dream for your small business.

So now what? A quick search for CRM on Google returns 26,600,000 results! Whoa! So you narrow your search query to Small Business CRM only to get 6,260,000 results. You then put “Small Business CRM” in quotation marks which yields 29,300 results. But now the fun really starts..

You realise there are hundreds of CRM, Contact Management, Sales Force Automation and other Sales Tracking software tools to choose from. Each of these tools sports a dizzying array of features, some of which won’t apply to your business.

To confuse matters even further, you see some of these applications are Web Based CRM (sometimes referred to as Hosted or Online CRM), or Open Source CRM. Others are the more conventional CRM software tools you may be already familiar with.

Yet others are embedded within Microsoft Outlook, but adding CRM functionality. A great solution for small businesses that already use MS Outlook.

Many CRM packages now cater for certain industries. That is, these software solutions may have been customized, or had specific add-on’s developed, for specific industries. One of these tailored solutions might be suitable for your small business.

Which of these CRM apps should you download to evaluate? How should you evaluate them?

Many at this point realize that they need a more thorough evaluation of their requirements to enable them to put together a Request For Information (RFI) or Request For Proposal (RFP). This will be of tremendous benefit if they decide to call on the services of a CRM consultant to fast track the important decision of selecting and implementing a tailored CRM solution suitable for smaller businesses.

This should be your kicking-off point. Sit down with all your staff and co-operatively draw up a list of all your specifications. Keep it broad - you can always narrow down the options later. And be sure to involve your staff - ensure everyone has an opportunity to contribute.

From this informed position you are far more able to choose the correct CRM solution for your small business, and will see marked improvements in productivity levels and sales. After all what has not been measured, remains undefined. What is undefined cannot be improved. There are specific criteria that you and your CRM consultant need to fulfil. Build your wish list, meld it with reality and build it into your business.

About The Author

Perry Norgarb has specialized in Small Business CRM solutions for the last 16 years.

Contact him or find out more about CRM, Contact Management and other Sales Tracking software tips and solutions for small businesses at: http://www.smallbizcrm.com.

You are free to re-publish this article as long as this bio box and copyright remain intact and links live. © 10 February, 2006.

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