Writing winning proposals - Part 1
You have read and possibly heard hundreds of proposals, and although some may be outstanding, most aren't. Cut-and-paste boilerplates; missed opportunities to deliver value; and poor logic, organisation or focus are just some of the symptoms of a business proposal that's not going to make the cut.
Many proposals writers I have worked with (and for) think of them as distractions to their real business. An evil necessity. But in many situations, proposals are the only way to win business.
In most SMEs, the expert in their field has few options but to move from running the business and making a profit, to becoming a proposal writer. It's a choice between doing the work and taking a gamble on possible future work.
Larger businesses have dedicated people and departments for creating proposals. They are usually called 'marketing' or 'business development' teams.
However, the same dynamics hold true, and the same set of common misconceptions apply, to the process of crafting successful proposals.
Misconception #1 - The bigger, the better.
This reminds me of the famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Our hero, Indiana Jones, has been running through the streets of Cairo only to come to an abrupt halt in front of a huge, bad guy with an even bigger sword. After a few suspenseful moments, with the audience fearing our hero's demise, he simply pulls his pistol and shoots him.
It's often considered that size and glitz are critical to success. It seems that size displays the effort put into the proposal. A good communicator knows that it's the quality, not the quantity, that matters. You can be the huge, exotic, sword twirling thug or you can be like Indiana Jones and solve your client's problem with a single bullet.
I've seen proposals as big as the Yellow Pages. Imaging your prospect receiving one of these doorstops. Just the thought of reading it would make them groan.
If you feel that that an immense proposal equals impressive, the intelligent reader, assuming that most of the text is boilerplate, will think, "Look at all the work they didn't put into it."
In fact, a fat proposal is a sure-fire way to distance your prospect. 'Big' suggests:
- You have trouble communicating in a direct and succinct way.
- You expect your prospect to plough through pages of extraneous information to get to what they want.
- You're trying to hide something ... and the detail might be buried deep on page 276.
I've just finished reading a six page proposal to government that has changed the course of financial services regulation in Australia. This document could have easily, and legitimately, been 600 pages. But it was to the point, short and successful.
If you want to differentiate yourself in a world of very long proposals, a smaller, more focused effort will stand out.
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