Proposal Writing Strategies

I hired over 20 freelancers on Upwork this year. Not because they were the cheapest. Not because they had the most experience. But because they did something different than 99% of applicants. They showed they were professionals before I even hired them. Here's what top 1% of freelancers do differently: 1. They qualify themselves out "I'm not the best fit for this, but here's who might be..." This level of honesty is rare. And memorable. 2. They challenge the brief Instead of blindly following instructions, they ask smart questions that expose gaps in my thinking. 3. They show, don't tell Rather than saying "I'm detail-oriented," they demonstrate it through their proposal structure and follow-up. 4. They set boundaries early "I can start next Tuesday" instead of "I'm available immediately!" Busy professionals have schedules. Pretenders are always free. 5. They price with confidence No apologizing for rates. No desperate discounts. They know their worth and stick to it. The harsh reality? Most clients aren't hiring for skills anymore. We're hiring for professionalism. Because here's what nobody tells you: Technical skills can be taught. But professional behavior is a choice. I'd rather hire someone with 80% of the skills and 100% of the professionalism than the other way around. Want to stand out on Upwork? Stop competing on skills alone. Start competing on professionalism. Because while everyone else is racing to the bottom on price and promises, the real opportunities are at the top.

Here’s the proposal template that helped me close over $100 million in enterprise sales: It’s also helped my clients close more than 50% of their deals when they use it. And until now, I’ve never shared it publicly. Most sellers are great at pitching features. But the ones who consistently win big deals? They know how to tell a great story. The truth is, executives don’t buy products - they buy confidence. They buy vision. They buy a story they want to be part of. If you want to sell like a top 1% seller, you need a proposal that doesn’t just inform… it moves people. Here’s how I do it 👇 The Story Mountain Framework for Sales Proposals: 1. Exposition – Introduce the characters and setting. Start with them: → “You’re trying to expand into new markets… to grow revenue… to unify your tech stack…” Set the vision. Make them the hero. 2. Rising Action – Lay out the challenges and obstacles. → “But growth stalled. Competitors moved faster. Customer churn increased.” Quote discovery calls. Surface real pain. Build emotional tension. 3. Climax – Introduce your solution. → “Then you found a better way…” Now show how your solution helps them overcome the exact obstacles you outlined. 4. Falling Action – Ease the tension. → “Here’s our implementation plan. Here’s the ROI. Here’s how others in your industry succeeded.” Give them confidence that this won’t just work—it will work for them. 5. Resolution – End with clarity. → “Here’s our mutual action plan. Let’s get started.” Lock in buy-in, next steps, and forward momentum. This structure has helped me close some of the biggest deals of my career—including an $8-figure enterprise deal at Salesforce where I used this exact approach. I broke it all down in this week’s training—and for the first time ever, I show you the actual proposal I used AND tell you how to access my Killer Proposal Template for free. 👀 Watch the full training here: https://lnkd.in/gPY_cvv5 No more boring product pitches. No more ghosting after the readout. Just proposals that close.

During my time at Qwilr, I’ve seen THOUSANDS of proposals. Here are 4 proposal plays that the best sellers use to close deals: #1 Lead With Problems Start your proposal by articulating your prospects' problems, ideally in their own words. Using quotes from relevant stakeholders within their organisation will grab your buyers’ attention and show you understand their problems. This immediately demonstrates that this isn’t just a generic pitch – you actually understand them and are focused on their specific issues. Doing this also puts decision-makers in somewhat of a tricky situation. They must either… 1. Disregard the opinions of their team as incorrect 2. Acknowledge they’re facing a problem, but decide not to look for a solution 3. Look for a solution (which you are providing in the rest of your proposal) Most (good) leaders will opt for the latter and will read on to better understand your offering. #2 It's Easy to Digest You MUST ensure your proposal is clear, straightforward and easy to understand. Remember, the folks who will be reviewing your proposal are incredibly busy and don’t have time to decipher endless information, searching for what is relevant for them. If your offer is easy to understand, it’s easier to say yes to. Avoid dense walls of text, and use images, graphics and interactive elements to simplify complex ideas. Always steer away from jargon. While it might showcase a level of expertise, you have to keep in mind that it’s likely a number of people will review your proposal. You need to make sure that EVERYONE will buy in. #3 Make It Relevant Buyers want to know that you’ve helped organisations that look like them, or the type of organisation that they aspire to be. Making sure that your proposal speaks to your buyers’ industry, needs, challenges and objectives will increase the likelihood of engagement Build your case by including concrete data and case studies that resonate with your client’s situation. CAUTION: It can be tempting to litter your proposal with logos and quotations from your “biggest” clients. You should not (always) do this! Instead, focus on featuring logos of similar companies or aspirational peers, not just massive brands. Remember, just because a company is “big” to you, that doesn’t mean your client will care. They want to know you can help THEM! #4 Keep Next Steps Simple It’s essential that you break down your proposal into clear, actionable steps – giving your client a roadmap on how to proceed and what will happen when they sign. You should also educate your champion on how to position the proposal to the buying committee, arming them to sell internally. Meet with them and go through your proposal, asking what needs to be removed and added (for other stakeholders) and how they plan to share it more widely. Want to send proposals that impress buyers and close deals? Try Qwilr for free at https://getqwilr.com

Crafting the perfect corporate training proposal. A Deep dive into proposal components Writing proposals is a chore. What to include? what not to include? Having written hundreds of them, here's what I include and why: 1. Executive Summary: ↳ Think movie trailer, not dry summary. Captivate with the vision, not just the facts. 2. What We Heard: ↳ Mirror their language, not yours. Show you've listened, by reflecting their words, not just their needs. 3. The Opportunity: ↳ This isn't just a gap to fill. It's a launching pad for their potential. Highlight the transformation, not just the transaction. 4. Consultation Service: ↳ Position this as a partnership, not a service. Emphasise collaboration, not just consultation. 5. Approach and Methodology: ↳ Innovate, don't regurgitate. Present methodologies that are as unique as their challenges. 6. Project Roadmap: ↳ This is the journey, not just the route. Make it visual, engaging, and clear. 7. Investment: ↳ Transparency builds trust. It's not just about costs; it's about value creation 8. Terms: ↳ Make this easy to say 'yes' to. Simplify legal jargon into clear commitments. 9. The Team: ↳ Sell the dream team. Highlight unique strengths and past successes as a cohesive unit, not just individual CVs. 10. Case Studies/Testimonials: ↳ Show, don't tell. Use stories of transformation and success that resonate with their specific context. Each section of your proposal should not just inform but also engage and inspire. Think beyond the conventional and inject each part with a strategy that shows you're not just a provider, but a partner in their success. What are your top tips for great proposals? #ProgrammeBuilder #OfferActivator #BusinessDevelopment #LearningAndDevelopment #TrainingAndDevelopment #Facilitation #Workshops

Make writing a proposal for research funding easy. Here is how. There is a tendency to rapidly begin filling in the parts of the application form as soon as possible. With a deadline looming, I used to ask all the partners in a consortium project to state filling in their work packages right away after the first meeting. I had a sooner the better mentality. My plan would be that once we had work packages written I would piece them together. The result. Frankenstein projects. Work packages that did not align, and objectives that sounded like they were each describing different projects. It was a writing nightmare. I was trying sew different ideas together. Reviewers see stitches. Like a good scientific paper, a funding proposal has to have a good logical flow. I now realize that the panicked approach I took previously to funding proposal development is not how to do it. It is much better to be 100% certain of the concept. Then write. For some projects this happens very quickly. Other projects take much more time. Sometimes what you are aiming to do is just complicated and full of uncertainties. Take that time. For scientific papers an outline works. For funding proposals the first step is to get all those involved aligned on the concept. This is not to say you don't write anything at all. To the contrary writing is a way to think. But you need to build up the layers. 1️⃣ Describe the problem and what you will do on a high level. 2️⃣ Then the impacts, outcomes and outputs you intend to have 3️⃣ Then the methods. ➡️ Methods are where you often uncover subtleties and problems that were not apparent at first. You need to solve those problems and the accompanying doubts before you can really begin to write. 4️⃣ Then you can build a project plan. Not before. "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." -Abraham Lincoln Take the time to get the concept right, then write. 

A proposal mistake I watched cost an organisation $500,000. Not a small NGO. A well-established one with a strong track record and experienced staff. Here's what happened. They were applying for a large USAID grant. The programme design was solid. The team was experienced. The budget was realistic. Everything looked good on paper. But the results framework had a problem. Their primary indicator was measuring outputs number of trainings conducted, number of participants reached and calling them outcomes. The reviewer flagged it immediately. Not because the work was bad. Because the framework showed the organisation didn't understand the difference between what they do and what changes as a result. That one error signalled something much bigger to the donor: If they can't distinguish outputs from outcomes in a proposal, how will they manage a results-based programme worth half a million dollars? They didn't get the grant. I've seen this mistake more times than I can count. And it's almost always the same story the programme team knows their work inside out, but the proposal doesn't reflect that knowledge clearly enough. The difference between an output and an outcome isn't complicated: ▸ Output: 200 farmers trained on improved seed varieties ▸ Outcome: 200 farmers adopting improved seed varieties six months after training One describes what you did. The other describes what changed. Donors fund change. Not activity. If you're writing a proposal right now, go back to your results framework and ask: am I measuring what we do or what changes? The answer could be worth more than you think.

I pitched a LOT of internal data infrastructure projects during my time leading data teams, and I was (almost) never turned down. Here is my playbook for getting executive buy-in for complex technology initiatives: 1. Research top-level initiatives: Find something an executive cares about that is impacted by the project you have in mind. Example: We need to increase sales by 20% from Q2-Q4 2. Identify the problem to be overcome: What are the roadblocks that can be torn down through better infrastructure? Example: We do not respond fast enough to shifting customer demand, causing us to miss out on significant selling opportunities. 3. Find examples of the problem: Show leadership this is not theoretical. Provide use cases where the problem has manifested, how it impacted teams, and quotes from ICs on how the solution would have greatly improved business outcomes. Example: In Q1 of 2023 multiple stores ran out of stock for Jebb Baker’s BBQ sauce. We knew the demand for the sauce spiked at the beginning of the week, and upon retroactive review could have backfilled enough of the sauce. We lost an expected $3M in opportunities. (The more of these you can provide the better) 4. Explain the problem: Demonstrate how a failure of infrastructure and data caused the issue. Clearly illustrate how existing gaps led to the use case in question. Example: We currently process n terabytes of data per day in batches from 50 different data sources. At these volumes, it is challenging to manually identify ‘needle in the haystack’ opportunities, such as one product line running low on inventory. 5. Illustrate a better world: What could the future world look like? How would this new world have prevented the problem? Example: In the ideal world, the data science team is alerted in real-time when inventory is unexpectedly low. This would allow them to rapidly scope the problem and respond to change. 6. Create requirements: Define what would need to be true both technologically and workflow-wise to solve the problem. Validate with other engineers that your solution is feasible. 7. Frame broadly and write the proposal: Condense steps 1-5 into a summarized 2-page document. While it is essential to focus on a few use cases, be sure not to downplay the magnitude of the impact when rolled out more broadly. 8. Get sign-off: Socialize your ideal world with potential evangelists (ideally the negatively impacted parties). Refine, refine, refine until everyone is satisfied and the outcomes are realistic and achievable in the desired period. 9. Build a roadmap: Lay out the timeline of your project, from initial required discovery sessions to a POC/MVP, to an initial use case, to a broader rollout. Ensure you add the target resourcing! 10. Present to leadership alongside stakeholders: Make sure your biggest supporters are in the room with you. Be a team player, not a hero. Good luck! #dataengineering

Most people think grants are just “free money.” That mindset is exactly why many applications fail before they even begin. Grants are not gifts. They are strategic investments in solutions to problems the funder has already decided matter. And once you understand that shift, everything changes. A strong grant application is not about how much you need funding. It is about: • How clearly you define the problem (with evidence, not emotion) • How directly your solution aligns with the funder’s priorities • How measurable your impact will be • How realistic and sustainable your implementation plan is • How confidently you can show value for every dollar spent The best proposals don’t “ask for money.” They demonstrate readiness to execute results at scale. This is why two organizations can have the same idea yet only one gets funded. Not because of luck. But because of clarity, alignment, and execution design. If you are writing grants, stop asking: “Will they fund me?” Start asking: “Have I proven I am the best vehicle for solving this problem?” That shift alone will improve your success rate more than any template ever will. Grants don’t reward effort. They reward precision, evidence, and fit. And in today’s funding environment, that difference is everything.

I've reviewed hundreds of freelancer proposals and discovered why most get ignored... And it's not what most "experts" claim. It's not your experience. It's not your portfolio. It's not even your rates. The brutal truth? Your proposals sound exactly like everyone else's because you don't understand copywriting principles. Let me show you what I mean: PROPOSAL #1 (What Everyone Sends): "I'm a skilled web developer with 5 years of experience. I've worked with many clients and can deliver your project on time and within budget. I'm proficient in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and WordPress. Please check my portfolio to see my previous work." PROPOSAL #2 (What Gets Responses): "I noticed your current site takes 7.2 seconds to load on mobile – which means you're losing about 32% of visitors before they even see your products. I've helped 3 other e-commerce stores cut their load times by 65%, resulting in conversion increases of 27-41%. Would you be open to me sharing a quick plan for how we could do the same for you?" See the difference? ✅ One is about the freelancer. The other is about the CLIENT'S PROBLEM. ✅ One lists generic qualifications. The other demonstrates specific understanding. ✅ One blends in with 50 other proposals. The other stands out immediately. This is copywriting in action – the art of using words to drive action. The unfortunate reality is that most Pakistani freelancers are learning technical skills but completely overlooking the ONE skill that gets clients to actually hire you – persuasive communication.  Here's how to apply copywriting principles to your proposals: 👉 Lead with their problem or a solution, not your skills 👉 Use specific numbers, not vague claims 👉 Create a mini "before and after" story 👉 Always add a unique 'hook' to your proposals 👉 Never forget to add an easy call to action Learning copywriting principles could be the difference between sending proposals that get ignored and ones that have clients fighting to work with you.

11 things I wish I knew before joining Upwork. I struggled to land my first job on Upwork. Nobody handed me a roadmap, but I am handing you one today. 😊 Consider this the post I wish someone had written for me before I created my Upwork account. 🙏🏽 (Save this and start implementing today.) 1. Don't apply to jobs that the client sent invites. Most especially when the client invited just 1 freelancer. 95% of the time, that freelancer gets the job. 2. Stop rushing to be the first to apply. Aim to be the one unforgettable. Most of those proposals you see submitted within few seconds or minutes are generic AI generated copy-paste proposals. Take you time and write a well tailored proposal and you will stand out. 3. Apply to jobs that requires a short loom video. Most freelancers skip these. DON'T Even if it’s not required, send a short video anyway. Especially for new clients. It builds instant trust and sets you apart. 4. Don’t ignore jobs posted from new client accounts. As long as the payment method and phone numbers are verified, go for it. A new client with a 0% hire rate is better than an old client with a 44% hire rate. 5. End every cover letter with a strong CTA. Guide the client on what to do next. Instead of: “Let me know when you’re free.” Say: “Are you available for a quick call now?” or “Can you share your biggest challenge with this project? I’ll come prepared with a plan.” 6. Add a P.S. at the end of your proposal. The P.S. section gets read more often than the main message. Use it to reinforce your motivation, add urgency, include a second CTA or share a bonus insight Example: P.S: I created a document explaining how I would approach this project. Would you like to see it? 7. Check your profile visibility. Go to Settings → Profile Settings → Visibility. If it’s set to Private, no one can find you in search results. Ensure it is ALWAYS set to public. 8. Align your categories with your actual skills. Wrong categories = Wrong traffic = No invites. Make sure your selected categories reflect what you actually offer. 9. Start your proposal with a hook that speaks to pain. If the first sentence doesn’t grab attention, nothing else will. Example: “Tired of hiring VAs who overpromise and underdeliver? I get it. Here’s how I do things differently…” 10. Track what works. Always check your job application stats. Analyze your proposals. Improve your openers. Test different CTAs. Try different approaches until you see results. 11. Be consistent. Upwork success isn’t magic, it’s method. Show up daily. Apply to at least 1 job everyday. It counts for your profile visibility even if you don't get hired. I struggled before I figured all of this out. You do not have to. This post is your shortcut. 😊 Save this post. 🔁 Repost to help a fellow freelancer. Ask me anything about Upwork. Anything.