The best way to find out what your customers hot buttons are is to ask him. You don’t exactly put it that way; you can say, “What are your biggest concerns about this project?” Or, “What are you most worried about that might go wrong?” I’m always surprised at how reluctant people are to ask
A key to a successful marketing document is to keep the reader reading! One way to achieve this is to make your proposal easy to get through. This should drive your writing style. Try to achieve a “clear” style. Most of us know clear writing when we see it, though it may be hard for us
There is only one way to win a fair and open competition: provide evidence that you offer the best solution with the least risk at an acceptable price. In contrast, there are many ways to lose. You can submit an excellent proposal, make the short list, give your presentation, and even submit a “best and
Years ago the comedian George Carlin got into some serious trouble with a routine of his called “Seven Words You Can’t Say On TV.” Well, here are six words you’d better avoid in your proposals. 1. Best Efforts. Courts have interpreted “best efforts” to impose a very strict legal obligation, one that goes well beyond
Proposals take so much time to write-and time is often so short-that you are always sorely tempted to pull sections out of other proposals (ones that won and ones that didn’t), tweak them a bit and plug them into the current document. If you give in to this temptation, follow this advice: Be careful! Using
We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s as true in proposals as in any other document. Graphics can help you get across a complex set of ideas in a very compressed space. Evaluators like graphics that let help them see the points you are trying to make instead of making
Which section is the most important one in your proposal? Some will say it’s the offer itself-the product or service you are proposing to your customer. Others will say it’s the pricing section-what the service will cost the customer. I’ve heard compelling arguments that the Executive Summary (or the cover letter, if you choose to
A transition is way to move smoothly from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph or section to section. It’s an indicator to the reader that what’s about to be said is related to what you just said. You can use one-word transitions or multi-word phrases. You can also use full sentences. Use transitions between sentences.
We all know unclear writing when we see it. Long sentences, lots of big words. Technical writing is filled with it. So are proposals, especially those written by technical experts. Contrary to prevailing opinions that “engineers can’t write,” my experience tells me that engineers—and other technically-oriented folks—write very well. Their sentences are often extremely elegant
Okay, you’ve figured out what you’re going to sell, you’ve planned your strategy, you’ve planned your proposal project, and you’ve gotten the rest of the proposal team on board. It’s finally time to write. How you go about writing the first draft–where you do it, which part you begin with, whether you write it out
