11.4 Types of Proposals
Proposals may be solicited or unsolicited, and external or internal in nature. We briefly explain each one in this section.
Solicited Proposal. If you have been asked to submit a proposal, it is considered solicited. The solicitation may come in the form of a direct verbal or written request, but normally solicitations are indirect, open bids formally published for everyone to see. A request for proposal (RFP), request for quotation (RFQ), and invitation for bid (IFB) are common ways to solicit business proposals for business, industry, and the government. RFPs typically specify the product or service, guidelines for submission, and evaluation criteria. RFQs emphasize cost, though service and maintenance may be part of the solicitation. IFBs are often job-specific in that they encompass a project that requires a timeline, labor, and materials. For example, if a local school district announces the construction of a new elementary school, it normally has architect and engineering plans on file but needs a licensed contractor to build it.
Unsolicited proposals. These are the “cold calls” of business writing. They require a thorough understanding of the market, product and/or service, and their presentation is typically more general rather than customer specific. Unsolicited proposals can be tailored to specific businesses to demonstrate knowledge of needs; this way the content and style of writing is not generic.
Internal proposals. These proposals are written by and for someone within the same organization. Since both the writer and reader share the same workplace context, these proposals are generally shorter than external proposals and usually address some way to improve a work-related situation (productivity, efficiency, profit, etc.). As internal documents, they are often sent as memos or introduced with a memo if the proposal is lengthy.
External proposals. These proposals are sent outside of the writer’s organization to a separate entity (usually to solicit business). Since these are external documents, they are usually sent as a formal report introduced by a cover letter. External proposals are usually sent in response to a Request for Proposals, but not always.
This section is derived from Designing and Formatting Proposals in Howdy or Hello? Technical and Professional Communication – Simple Book Publishing Copyright © 2022 by Matt McKinney, Kalani Pattison, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Anders, and Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
