On the lookout for new clients? In today’s economic climate, there’s no reason to improvise when you must write business proposals. Try picking up a sample business proposal or template, and flesh out your sample until you have an attention getting document that will win over your clients and earn you some business when you most need it.

First, never underestimate the power of pre-writing. Since this is your first draft and you’re not submitting it to potential customers at this time, relax and try to have fun. Do your pre-writing and figure out what exactly you are going to pitch in this proposal, what goals you have and what will differentiate your services from the other distractions your clients have to weed through every day.

Try organizing your thoughts. Break down any goals you may have into simple steps and take notes on what is needed to make each step safely. Be certain to write each of these steps in such a way as to lead the reader to the inevitable goal you stated during your pre-writing.

Start off the writing process with a simple cover letter. Make sure to use two or three paragraphs to summarize your goals — for instance, you could write: “Our company will help you by doing x, y, and z. X number of businesses in this region do regular business with us.” There’s nothing wrong with elaborating on your successes. Don’t ruin your chances with an exaggerating cover letter.

Next, the hard part: actually write your business proposal. Proposals are usually split into five pieces: the executive summary which states what you do and who you are, a statement of work dictating what services you plan to give your client, a list of steps to achieve your goal, a list of reasons why you are better than the next guy, and last but not least the legalese terms of your contract and payment arrangements.

Keep in mind that this is still just a first draft, so don’t freak out — stay calm and write what you want your client to know. Imagine potential customers sitting across from you right now. What would you say to them that would make them want to invest in your services?

Since this is the first draft, quality is not overly crucial at this stage. Realistically, the only thing you need to worry about here is finishing your proposal and fitting your information into the well defined structure of a proposal. If there’s anything you want to change — spelling, grammar, anything else — it can be done later.

Next, consider your pricing and your contract. Keep your prices competitive by doing a little footwork to find out what similar companies are charging. Now’s the time to find out you’re overpriced — you don’t want to be sitting down at the table with your client when you realize your prices are less than stellar.

When you have finished your first draft, you can begin the rewriting stage. Get a friend to read through your proposal so you can find any typo trouble or glaring errors. If there was anything you wanted to change or fix or if you wanted to add another section, do that now before continuing to the final stages.

If you’ve never tried role-playing, now might be a good time to start. Put on your client’s shoes for a few minutes and think about how they might react to your proposal as it’s written now. Can you think of anything they might complain about? Does something in the proposal seem likely to make them hesitant? Come up with tons of reasons they could refuse you, and then think of counterarguments to calm their worries.

Building a business proposal on your own might seem like hard work, and it is — but if you find a sample business proposal to use as a template, the pieces will fall into place faster than you might think. Use the above suggestions and you’ll be able to churn out intriguing business proposals that will lead clients to you over the long haul.

When writing your very own proposal, it makes sense to obtain a sample business proposal that will serve as a working template. Download sample business proposals from a site with real scenarios, so you are sure to get genuine proposals that have been tested.