A solicited business proposal is one when the customer asks for
a proposal formally either by asking for it verbally or by writing
an email requesting it. Whereas the unsolicited business proposal
is one where the service provider sends the proposal to a potential
customer without their request for it.
The solicited proposal involves a high risk because the
customer has asked for the information and the company needs to be
accurate in sharing the right information. The unsolicited proposal
involves no risk because the company knows that the target customer
might not even go through the proposal.
A solicited proposal gives the instructions and also criteria
to make the purchase decision and an unsolicited proposal talks
only about the product or service and the pricing giving just the
basic information.
A solicited proposal responds to the needs of a customer and
the unsolicited proposal aims at creating a need for the
customer.