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PROPOSAL WRITING COURSE

Write proposals that win the work

Practical proposal writing training for sales, technical, and business development professionals. Choose instructor-led group training or a self-paced practicum course with personalized instructor feedback.

  • Write proposals structured around what your reader actually evaluates.
  • Reduce proposal writing time and end the scramble before every deadline.
  • Craft executive summaries and value propositions that decision makers act on.
  • Convey technical solutions in clear, client-focused language that shows business impact.
  • Every participant receives individual instructor feedback.

Customizable for Groups

See What's Included

Download the full course outline, including objectives, lessons, and delivery options.

For Groups & Teams

Choose the format that works for your team: instructor-led virtual, instructor-led onsite, or a facilitated self-paced course. Always customized to your industry, your buyers, and the proposals your team actually submits, and highly interactive. Volume discounts apply.

Schedule time to speak with an instructor, not a salesperson, about your team's writing.

For Individuals

A practicum course in which you will plan, draft, and edit a real proposal from your work, with instructor guidance and written feedback.

Includes a live coaching session to review your final proposal.

Fee: $895.

Writing training trusted by professionals at 900+ organizations

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Liberty Mutual
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U.S. Army
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Dupont
Shell
Novo Nordisk
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Training a sales team, a proposal team, or the technical staff who contribute to proposals? Every course is customized to your team's actual proposals, buyers, and evaluation criteria.

Who is this for

Built for professionals who write proposals to win business

This isn't a generic writing course. Every exercise focuses on the proposals you actually write at work.

Sales and Business Development Professionals

Write proposals that convert qualified leads into signed business, and shorten the distance between a good conversation and a closed deal.

Proposal Managers and Proposal Writers

Bring a repeatable process to every submission, so quality does not depend on who happens to be drafting. Proposal writer training that covers formal RFP responses, informal proposals, and email proposals.

Project Managers, Engineers, and Technical Experts

Contribute to or create proposals that both inform and sell, without burying the value in technical detail.

Technology Professionals

Translate technical solutions into persuasive, client-focused proposals that demonstrate ROI and business impact.

Marketing Managers

Shape the messaging and positioning of RFP responses so they align with broader brand strategy.

Consultants and Professional Services Firms

Turn a scoping conversation into a structured, client-focused proposal that wins the work and sets expectations before it starts.

Not the right fit: This course teaches you how to write the proposal. It is not bid or capture management training, and it does not cover grant writing or academic statements of purpose. Responding to an RFP? See our RFP writing course.

Three Proposal Writing Course Formats

All formats cover the same core curriculum.

Online Self-Paced Proposal Writing Course, Practicum with Feedback

Individuals Teams
$895 / individual

Plan, draft, and edit a real proposal from your own work, with written instructor feedback and a live one-on-one coaching session to review the finished document.

You leave with a proposal ready to send and the process to write every one that follows.

What's Included

  • Written instructor feedback on your audience analysis, proposal structure map, submission email, and final proposal
  • Live one-on-one coaching session to review your completed proposal
  • Complete on your own schedule with 24/7 access to all course materials
  • Instructor support and course access for two months
  • Available for individuals and groups

Instructor-Led Virtual Proposal Writing Training

Teams

 

Contact Us for Pricing

Real-time, highly interactive virtual instruction customized to your team's actual proposals, buyers, and evaluation criteria.

Large-group, small-group, and peer breakout exercises ensure active participation throughout. Each employee also receives individual written feedback on their writing.

What's Included

  • Live virtual sessions via video conferencing
  • Breakout room activities: construct and deconstruct real proposals with colleagues
  • Curriculum customized to your team's proposals, industry, and sales cycle
  • Individual written instructor feedback for every participant
  • Volume discounts available

Instructor-Led Onsite Proposal Writing Training

Teams

 

Contact Us for Pricing

Highly interactive proposal writing training delivered at your location, built around your team's actual proposals.

Skills transfer immediately. Participants apply what they learn to the next proposal they write, and each employee receives individual written feedback on their writing.

What's Included

  • Delivered at your location, on your schedule
  • Individual and group exercises using your team's actual proposals
  • Customized to your industry, your buyers, and your competitive situation
  • Individual written instructor feedback for every participant
  • Volume discounts available

What You'll Learn in This Proposal Writing Course

The same core skills and process in every delivery format, applied directly to the proposals you write at work.

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CUSTOMIZED FOR GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS

This is the standard course outline. Group training is customized to your team's documents. Individual enrollments receive customized feedback based on the proposal you write in the course.

Skill Area
00
Getting Started: Set Your Goals
Meet your instructor, describe the proposals you write, and share your specific writing challenges. You set a clear personal benchmark so instructor feedback addresses your exact proposal writing needs from the first lesson.
FOUNDATION
01
Lesson 1: Six Steps to Effective Proposal Writing
Learn the optimal six-step framework for writing proposals, a repeatable process that cuts writing time and holds up whether you are answering an RFP, sending an informal proposal, or writing a proposal letter or email. It applies to consulting, government, technical, non-profit, financial, engineering, and logistical proposals.
PROCESS
02
Lesson 2: Analyze Your Audience Deeply
Frame every element of your proposal around what your reader actually evaluates, including any stated evaluation criteria. Includes a practice exercise with detailed instructor feedback on a real work proposal.
PROCESS
03
Lesson 3: Plan and Organize Any Proposal
Learn content tiering, structuring techniques, and how to use AI effectively and safely to plan proposal content. A proposal structure map exercise with detailed instructor feedback ensures your solution's value is in the right place for the reader who decides.
PROCESS
04
Lesson 4: Draft an RFP Response, an Informal Proposal, or an Email Proposal
Choose the right form for the situation and the selection process, then move from your map to a draft. Covers formal responses to an RFP, informal proposals, and very informal email or letter proposals.
PRACTICE
05
Lesson 5: Weave in Visual Persuasion
Build at-a-glance persuasion hooks into the format itself, so a reader who skims still sees the value of your offer. Works whether your reader is a federal agency, a small business, or a Fortune 500 buyer.
PRACTICE
06
Lesson 6: Send Your Proposal Effectively
Write the transmission email that carries the proposal, highlights its value, and prompts timely action. Includes a practice exercise with detailed instructor feedback on your own submission email.
PRACTICE
07
Lesson 7: The Money, Deliverables, and Terms
Present pricing, deliverables, and terms so the offer stays compelling while preventing project creep. Build the transparency and professionalism that reduce friction in the decision.
PRACTICE
08
Lesson 8: Style, Organization, and Presentation
Choose the right title, use visuals and graphics appropriately, and maintain graphical integrity. Your proposal looks polished and professional and is easy to navigate.
PRACTICE
09
Lesson 9: Clarity, Tone and Word Choice
Hone clarity, choose active voice, write with confidence, eliminate technical jargon, and write persuasively. Strike the balance between professionalism, competence, and approachability that builds trust.
POLISH
10
Lesson 10: Grammar and Syntax
Receive a personal grammar diagnosis and targeted strategies for your most common errors. A grammar error in a proposal costs credibility at the exact moment you are asking to be trusted with the work.
POLISH
11
Personalized Feedback on Your Proposal
The self-paced course concludes with a live one-on-one coaching session to review the proposal you planned, drafted, and edited throughout the course. Instructor-led group courses conclude with individual written feedback. Every participant receives individual instructor feedback on their writing.
FEEDBACK
INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

Individual Feedback Is Built Into This Proposal Writing Course

Winning proposals come from practice and expert review. Our group training gives your team both. Every participant receives detailed written feedback from an instructor, so each writer knows exactly what to improve in the next one.
Watch how individual instructor feedback works in our practicum courses.

For Groups and Teams: Feedback for Every Participant

1
During Group Training
Your team plans, drafts, and edits proposals in many live exercises. They work through large group, small group, and peer exercises. Every exercise is built around your team's proposals, offers, and decision makers.
2
After the Training
Each participant writes a summary that mirrors the real proposals your team writes.
3
Individual Written Feedback
An instructor reviews each participant's document for substance and for sentence-level writing. Each person gets detailed feedback on their own writing, which builds on the group training and reinforces what your team learned.

Talk with an instructor about feedback for your proposal writers.

YOUR PROPOSAL WRITING INSTRUCTORS

Expert instructors. Real proposals.
Feedback that sticks.

Every exercise uses real proposals from your field, not generic writing examples.

ElisabethO_Headshot

Elisabeth O'Quinn

Senior Instructor

Business writing and content specialist with an extensive background in writing, editing, and marketing. She has supported countless government agencies and commercial teams, and participants consistently single out her written feedback. She works with sales, technical, and business development writers on proposals and client-facing documents.

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Business Writing Technical Writing Writing with AI
grace-cuddy

Grace Cuddy

Senior Instructor

Business writing coach for sales, technical, and international teams, with a strong background in corporate communication and management. She has helped professional engineers and firms develop proposal writing skills, and works with individuals and groups across Europe. She is bilingual in English and Spanish.

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Business Writing Technical Writing Writing with AI ESL Writing
Janet D'Angelo

Janet D'Angelo

Instructor

Business writing and marketing instructor, consultant, author, and public speaker with more than 20 years of experience. She taught proposal writing, analytical writing, and marketing writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and has worked with individuals, small businesses, and corporations on every facet of business communication.

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Business Writing Technical Writing
Katie Almeida Spencer

Katie Almeida Spencer

Instructor

Writing coach and instructor for technical and commercial teams at DuPont, Shell, the World Wildlife Fund, and the U.S. Army. She evaluates both the substance and the language of proposals and technical documents, bringing an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and a B.A. in Journalism to every engagement. Her expertise includes government proposals and government contracts.

Read more >>

Business Writing Technical Writing ESL Writing

Proposal Writing Training Results

Instructional Solutions has delivered proposal writing training to sales, technical, and business development teams at Workday, TransUnion, Dematic, Nouryon, and organizations across technology, healthcare, finance, construction, and consulting.

"My sales team is closing more business because our proposals are written to capture business. Huge improvement."

VP of Sales

TransUnion (Self-paced)

"Grace's comments were to the point and spot on. She gave me precise criticism. This gave me the perspective and knowledge I needed to write better proposals."

Account Manager

Nouryon (Virtual)

"As someone who is so entrenched in the engineering and the details, this was a chance to take a step back and think about my work and how I communicate with others...I now have a logical process for engineering my writing."

Solutions Engineering Director

Dematic (Onsite)

Frequently Asked Questions About Proposal Writing Training

For Groups & Teams

Every instructor-led session, whether virtual or onsite, is built around your team's actual proposals, buyers, and evaluation criteria. We can customize our existing curriculum, combine multiple courses, or develop a new course from scratch. We handle all scheduling and administration. Contact us to discuss your team's specific needs.

Instructor-led training is customized to your organization's needs. Virtual sessions typically span eight hours and are delivered in one or more sessions depending on your team's schedule. Onsite training is typically a full day. Both can be expanded or compressed to fit your requirements.

Yes. We frequently combine our proposal writing course with other programs, such as technical writing, sales writing, writing with AI, or grammar workshops, into a multi-module curriculum tailored to your team. Schedule a call to discuss options.

We work with teams across technology, healthcare, finance, construction, consulting, manufacturing, energy, and government. Every engagement is customized to your industry's buyers, procurement process, and competitive situation.

Group training accommodates teams of any size. We cap each group at 18 participants to ensure high interactivity and can run multiple cohorts for larger organizations. Volume discounts apply. Contact us to discuss your group's size and structure.

For Individuals

The self-paced course takes approximately eight hours to complete, depending on your pace. It includes ten lessons, writing exercises with instructor feedback, and a live one-on-one coaching session. Your instructor is available to support you for two months.

The course concludes with a live one-hour, one-on-one session with your instructor to review the proposal you planned, drafted, and edited throughout the course. Your instructor gives structured feedback on whether the proposal is built on the reader's needs, whether the reader has everything they need to move forward, and on organization, tone, and word choice.

Yes, and that's the point. This is a practicum course: you plan, draft, and edit an actual proposal from your own work. Instructor feedback is based on your real document, not a generic exercise. If confidentiality prevents using an actual proposal, we can use a scenario.

Yes. You get four proposal format examples, proposal examples by industry, a proposal structure tiering diagram, and software recommendations, alongside the writing process itself. You leave with the judgment to approach any proposal, plus tangible structures to build on.

Yes. Upon completing the course, you receive a personalized digital certificate of completion that you can share on LinkedIn, download to print, or reference in a resume.

Get Started

Ready to write proposals that win?

Choose your path below or download the full course outline to review with your team.