![How to Write an Impressive One-Page Proposal for Sales & Business [Including Templates]](https://visme.co/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/How-to-Write-an-Impressive-One-Page-Proposal-for-Sales-Business-Header.jpg)
A business proposal is an invaluable tool for captivating prospects and closing more deals. But lengthy and multi-paged proposals can get tedious to read through.
That’s exactly why compelling one-page proposals are perfect for showcasing your business offerings. One-page proposals condense your ideas, services, and value proposition into a concise document.
Whether you’re pitching your product or service or initiating a collaboration, they grab attention fast and persuade prospects to take action.
So how do you create a winning one-page proposal?
In this article, we'll provide you with the tools, tips, and techniques you need to create an impressive one-page proposal that will help you close deals and grow your business.
One-page proposals are concise visual documents that summarize the key points of a business or project proposal. Unlike multi-page proposals, it provides a snackable overview of the proposed idea, product, or service.
The purpose of a one-page proposal is to persuade a prospect to hire your services, buy your solutions or start a collaboration. It can be used as a standalone document or summary for a full-scale business proposal.
A one-pager typically fits on an A4 or US letter-sized page. But if you go for a digital or creative version, it can be longer, much like an infographic.
The difference between a one-page proposal and a standard business proposal is their size and scope. A one-pager is essentially a concise summary of a larger proposal. In cases where the proposal is not very complex, a one-pager is the only document you need.
One-page and standard proposals share critical information about what your brand offers and the benefits prospects will get from buying your product or service.
If you prefer to use a multi-paged business proposal over one-pagers, Visme has a large repository of proposal templates. Here’s a template to get you started:
Here are some of the perks of using one-page proposals
The beauty of one-pagers is their brevity and clarity. They distill your message to the essential details, eliminating unnecessary jargon. Stakeholders can immediately grasp your proposal’s purpose, benefits, and proposed outcomes without wading through lengthy documents.
Crafting a sales proposal on one page saves time by focusing on the most critical aspects of your offering. Prospects can review the content quickly and make informed decisions. Sharing one-page documents reflects your respect for time and professionalism. This can earn you the trust and respect of potential clients, investors and partners.
With less time spent skimming numerous slides on a business proposal, one-page proposals facilitate faster decision making. The concise format ensures stakeholders can swiftly grasp the key points, leading to more efficient discussions and potentially faster approvals and agreements.
One-page proposals aren’t one-size-fits-all. The information you want to convey depends on the type of business, your audience and the purpose. Just remember that as a one-pager, every bit of space is valuable real estate for content; be picky, be concise and precise.
Whether your proposal is for sales, investment, funding, partnership, or to secure a contract, here are some key details you should include.
At the very top of your one-pager is the header. In the header, you should include your brand logo and a title.
The title of the one-pager can be your short value proposition or something else that relates to the proposal itself and will catch the prospect's attention quickly. If your text is short, include an eye-catching image that makes sense for your proposal.
Even if you don’t have a logo for your company yet, you can easily create one with Visme’s logo maker.
The following section is a quick introduction or executive summary of the proposal.
In your introduction and executive summary, you should provide a brief summary of what the proposal is about.
Also, share a brief overview of your company, including relevant experience, qualifications, and credentials that establish credibility and demonstrate your capability to carry out the proposed project or initiative.
The content of your company one pager should cover no more than a couple of inches between the header and the intro section, so keep it to three or four lines max.
Next is the problem or opportunity being addressed. Your problem statement should provide a concise description of a specific issue or challenge that needs to be addressed.
Following the problem statement section is where you share what you plan to deliver the prospect once the project is finished.
Start by describing the proposed solution, including the features, benefits and deliverables the prospect will receive from closing the deal. Be sure to describe how the solution addresses the pain point or opportunity.
This section should provide an overview of the target market, including demographics, trends, and competition.
Although it’s optional, it can be beneficial for your proposal. Including a small section about the prospect’s target audience in relation to the solution will show them that you’ve researched who they cater to.
Likewise, market analysis data for the prospect’s brand shows your understanding of the atmosphere they exist in and who their competitors are. This section is vital if you can prove that your solution is the best in relation to your prospect’s target audience and market position.
Next up is your execution plan. Here, you want to outline the strategy, steps, timelines and responsibilities required to implement a project successfully. This should include a high-level timeline, major milestones, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will measure progress and success.
You can add a simple timeline or roadmap to visualize how you plan to execute the project.
Remember to keep it brief and concise and not take up too much space on the page. If you have space, include up to four people on the core team who will execute the project for the prospect.
Towards the end of the proposal, you can share your terms, price estimates or pricing model.
Include a summary of the budget and resources required to complete the proposed project or initiative. This should include estimated costs for personnel, materials, equipment, and any other expenses. To avoid taking up space, use a simple table to explain the pricing model or price estimation.
This final section serves as a communication bridge and outlines the immediate actions after reviewing the proposal. It includes all contact information for you and your team so that the prospect can get in touch easily.
The “next steps” content is the closer. This section should be simple and to the point. It should also inspire the prospect to take action and book a follow-up with you to seal the deal.
Now you know what the key sections of a one-page proposal are. How do you write a one-page proposal?
Follow the steps below to write your one-page proposal before putting it together into a template.
The first thing you need to do for your one-page proposal is compile the content. At this point, don’t worry about the conciseness; just collect the information. If you have already created a multi-slide business proposal for another client, it’s the perfect time to repurpose it.
If you’re unsure what information you need, use the list above to help you. Put it all together in a document and move on to the next step.
With all the information on hand, it’s time to create an outline with the sections you’ll be using in the one-page proposal. Separate the content into its relevant sections and organize everything so it makes sense.
Now it’s time to summarize the content into short, persuasive statements. This part is the most important when writing a one-page proposal. It’s what will get your prospect to pay attention and be eager to find out more.
To summarize and optimize, you’ll probably have to rewrite the sections in order to convey all the information in concise sentences. If you need help summarizing your content, take advantage of the Visme AI writer.
Prompt the AI writer to summarize your content by adding it to the prompt box and implicitly asking it to condense your content into one or two persuasive sentences to use in your proposal.
Keep refining the prompts until you have a collection of statements for each section. They must be short, persuasive and easy to read. Try reading them out loud to see if they sound right, and if they don't, keep editing until they do.
With all the concise information ready to go, choose a template that fits your needs; you’ll find a handsome selection in the section after this one. To choose a template, look at the number of sections you want to include and how many the template has; choose one with a similar amount so the editing will be easy.
Once you’ve added all the text content to the template, change the colors and fonts to match your brand guidelines. Change the images if you need to or use the Visme AI image generator to create a whole new image with a relevant prompt.
Don’t work on your proposal in a silo; get help from your team. Add all interested parties to the Visme workspace where you’re working on the proposal and collaborate with them to finish the document.
Assign the copywriters to check the content and the designers to check the layout and overall look. Give edit or comment permissions to relevant team members and build the ideal one-page proposal.
Now that you know what’s included in a one-pager and how to make one, it’s time to browse some templates.
Remember that everything in these templates is customizable, from the colors and fonts to the layout and imagery. Just swap the content and sections and you’re good to go.
This one-pager proposal highlights the introduction and the next steps sections in colored boxes to call attention to them. In the middle section, you’ve got areas for the problem statement, solution, value proposition, marketing analysis, target audience and revenue model.
The chart for the target audience is a vital, eye-catching piece of real estate on this template. It’s customized to be minimal yet efficient. The rounded corners on the bars match the boxes of the intro and closer, making the proposal visually balanced.
Create many types of charts with the Visme chart maker, from beautiful bar charts like the one in this template to line charts, radar charts, pie graphs and many more.
This one-page proposal for sales training is bold and impactful, with a strong color palette and defined sections. In this example, the value proposition is at the bottom instead of the top. In this case, it’s valid since it’s presented in bulleted list form.
The middle section highlights the age distribution and occupation of SalesEd’s target audience using colorful pie charts in transparent boxes. The colors match the rest of the sections in the proposal. To achieve bold color palettes like these, use the editor’s integrated color themes and choose one that matches your goal. Ideally, use your brand colors which you can easily turn into a color theme inside the brand kit.
This proposal gets straight to the point with the value proposition in the header and an eye-catching, relevant image in the right column. The red section includes the introduction, problem statement and solution in a bullet-type list using icons to visualize each point.
Using icons with Visme is simple. First of all, you have access to countless icons in different styles–static and animated. To find anything you need quickly, use the keyboard shortcut by typing forward slash (/) to open the search box and input a key term. The results will show up in the dialog and the left-side bar.
On the right, the market analysis incorporates two data widgets that balance out the circular icons on the left. Finally, the icon at the bottom and the neon light at the top right complete the composition of circles.
In this one-page proposal design, we used a creative approach to the header. Our designers added a yellow overlay on a photo that’s relevant to the proposed brand and added a title and the logo on top.
This proposal is laid out on a three-column grid design that makes it feel professional and balanced. The four distinct color bands include all the vital information the prospect needs to make an informed decision. The data widgets in the bottom section visualize percentages quickly, making an impact on the reader.
To use data widgets while building your one-pager, click on the data tab in the left side toolbar and select data widgets. These percentage radials are only one type of data widget available in the data editor. You also have access to gauges, temperature gauges and much more.
Some one-pagers don’t need much information to get the point across. This template is a great example of a short and to-the-point proposal without any fluff. In this example, the target industry pie chart gets the most attention and highlights the proposing brand’s clientele.
The floating column on the left holds the introduction, problem statement and solution in a blurb-style design with yellow icons as separators.
Use this style of one-page proposal to distribute to a number of prospects at the same time. The proposal is generalized for sales reps to use during the sales cycle; for example, during the discovery call.
To customize this proposal for multiple clients without breaking a sweat, use dynamic fields to change prospects and company names easily throughout the design. Set it up so it's easy for sales reps to change at a minute’s notice.
Use this template if you need a one-pager that holds a lot of information in an organized and simple layout. The header includes both a title and an introduction, leaving the problem statement and solution in a section right below.
The middle section has four text boxes with the target audience, market analysis, value proposition and competitive analysis. The next section contains the revenue model, the core team and financial projections. The footer shares suggested next steps for the prospects seeing the proposal.
To create a one-page proposal (or any one-pager, for that matter) that looks this well-balanced while also holding a lot of information, take advantage of the alignment features in the editor. By using smart guides and snap to object options, you can organize text boxes along the same margin easily and effectively.
One-page proposals made with Visme have the ability to link to more documentation than you could ever fit in a one-page design.
Turn any bit of text or an object into a hyperlink that directs the prospect to further documentation like financial projections, market research, competitive analysis or a multi-page proposal. To add a hyperlink, select text or an object and click “Actions” in the top bar. Choose a hyperlink and input the URL.
This one-pager proposal template is another example of just how much information you can fit into the limited space. Aside from the usual content, this proposal also has two tables highlighting the brand’s features against competitors and a year-over-year revenue model.
Creating tables in Visme is simple. Not only can you choose between a number of table styles in the editor, but you can also easily import the data from Excel or Google Sheets. Accommodate and adjust the tables to fit the page and not take up too much space.
In text boxes with a lot of content, use bold font styles to mark a difference without taking up more space. Likewise, add icons that are small and the same color as the text.
Speaking of saving space, try using interactive hotspots to share any extra and vital information that can’t fit in the design. To use hotspots with Visme, simply select the text or object you want to add a hotspot to. Then click on “Actions” at the top right and select Hotspot. Choose what type of hotspot you want to use and how it’ll appear.
Color and contrast are important factors for effective design. In this one-page template example, the color theme is eye-catching and makes the document easy to skim. It's easy to skim through, thanks to how each section on the left has its own color and contrasting text to the background design. Also, the grouped bar chart on the bottom right creates a line of sight from the title and across the page.
The straight lines and corners make this one pager template professional and unassuming. When the prospect looks for these characteristics and you deliver them, your proposal has a high probability of being accepted and a deal being closed.
Creativity and uniqueness are desired characteristics in a one-pager when the brand fits that style. This isn’t just a black background proposal; this is a gradient background customized to give the design a fresh feel. The yellow and gray accents with the white complete the look and feel of this bold proposal.
Using gradients with Visme is easier than ever. You can customize gradient backgrounds, shapes and text using the integrated gradient editor. Simply add the colors you wish to use and adjust the angle and intensity. Create branded gradients in no time and give your designs more depth.
Go another step further and make your creative one-pager interactive. Add animated icons, GIFs, or moving backgrounds using Visme’s interactivity features.
Mastering the art of one-page proposals can be a game-changer for your sales, marketing and business efforts. By condensing your message into a single, impactful page, you can achieve focused and clear communication, save time, and expedite decision-making. Moreover, the integration of interactivity and analytics in interactive one-page proposals elevates your ability to engage prospects and track their interactions.
Remember that every section in a one-page proposal serves a crucial role, from the introduction that grabs attention to the next steps that inspire action. To create your one-page masterpiece, compile content, create an outline, summarize and optimize, and collaborate with your team.
Remember that Visme offers an array of customizable templates to kickstart your journey toward crafting compelling one-page proposals that impress and close deals. Plus, once you’re set up in Visme, you can create any number of business documents easily and efficiently, alone or with your team.
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