Before you e-mail a proposal, you should review the questions on
The E-mail Effectiveness Test.
If you can't answer at last 90% of the questions correctly, you might need a refresher course on e-mail.
If you need help finding the correct answers, Al Borowski can point you in the right direction whether you are a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner.
Showing posts with label Proposal Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Proposal Writing. Show all posts
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Proposal Writing: How To Get Your Proposals To Sell For You
Proposal Writing becomes easier, more powerful, and more productive when you follow some easy tips your English teacher never told you.
REDEFINE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF A TOPIC SENTENCE
Your Topic Sentence is your first paragraph.
Your first paragraph is your Topic Sentence.
Your first paragraph, your Topic Sentence should never be more than two sentences. Never!
Forget what your English teachers said. You are writing a business document, not a term paper.
This becomes even more critical in Proposal Writing.
Review the rest of this article and learn how to receive immediate access to a White Paper entitled, "How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Proposals"
REDEFINE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF A TOPIC SENTENCE
Your Topic Sentence is your first paragraph.
Your first paragraph is your Topic Sentence.
Your first paragraph, your Topic Sentence should never be more than two sentences. Never!
Forget what your English teachers said. You are writing a business document, not a term paper.
This becomes even more critical in Proposal Writing.
Review the rest of this article and learn how to receive immediate access to a White Paper entitled, "How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Proposals"
Monday, June 29, 2009
Proposal Writing Tips From a Priest’s Sermon
Proposal writing bears quite a resemblance to a sermon.
A recent sermon at a special Catholic mass, brought this message home clearly and loudly.
Let me give you a few details of the event that related to proposal writing.
This special mass celebrated the first Holy Communion for excited and proud 8 year olds. It also was a big deal for the excited and proud parents.
This mass was also special because two past parishioners from the congregation had returned to help the Communicants (those celebrating their first Holy Communion) celebrate this important time in their young Catholic lives.
The guests happened to be brothers, both of whom were priests. The older brother had also reached the exalted position of Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. If you saw the Tom Hanks movie, “Angels and Demons,” you might remember that the Cardinals were the elite group designated to select a new pope.
Being a Cardinal is a big deal in the Catholic Church.
With these details as a background, see if you can tell how they relate to proposal writing.
Review the rest of this article and learn how to receive immediate access to Al's offer to review up to 20 pages of one of your proposals at http://www.proposalwritingsuccess.com
A recent sermon at a special Catholic mass, brought this message home clearly and loudly.
Let me give you a few details of the event that related to proposal writing.
This special mass celebrated the first Holy Communion for excited and proud 8 year olds. It also was a big deal for the excited and proud parents.
This mass was also special because two past parishioners from the congregation had returned to help the Communicants (those celebrating their first Holy Communion) celebrate this important time in their young Catholic lives.
The guests happened to be brothers, both of whom were priests. The older brother had also reached the exalted position of Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. If you saw the Tom Hanks movie, “Angels and Demons,” you might remember that the Cardinals were the elite group designated to select a new pope.
Being a Cardinal is a big deal in the Catholic Church.
With these details as a background, see if you can tell how they relate to proposal writing.
Review the rest of this article and learn how to receive immediate access to Al's offer to review up to 20 pages of one of your proposals at http://www.proposalwritingsuccess.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
PROPOSAL WRITING: 21st Century Proposal Writing Strategies
Proposal writing strategies that meet 21st century standards depend on one overriding principle.
You must be passionate about creating proposals that sell for you when you are not in front of your clients.
So what does that have to do with 21st-century strategies?
Let me explain by showing how the types of websites you display to the world relate to your proposals.
Review the rest of this article and learn how to receive immediate access to a White Paper entitled, "How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Proposals"
You must be passionate about creating proposals that sell for you when you are not in front of your clients.
So what does that have to do with 21st-century strategies?
Let me explain by showing how the types of websites you display to the world relate to your proposals.
Review the rest of this article and learn how to receive immediate access to a White Paper entitled, "How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Proposals"
Thursday, June 11, 2009
PROPOSAL WRITING: HOW TO SQUEEZE THE MOST PROFIT FROM YOUR PROPOSAL WRITING EFFORTS
Proposal writing can either create increased profits or drain your resources, time, and budget.
Squeezing profits from your proposal writing efforts demands paying attention to three significant disciplines.
The sales skills required to sell on paper, however, differ vastly from the skills mentioned above for selling in person.
When selling in person or on the phone, sales people can benefit by observing body language, tone, and verbal and non-verbal cues.
Selling on paper or via e-mail, without these benefits, must rely on a keen sense of client priorities. In proposals, sales people must match what clients see in their heads with the pictures the words paint.
Read the entire article at http://www.proposalwritingsuccess.com
Squeezing profits from your proposal writing efforts demands paying attention to three significant disciplines.
The sales skills required to sell on paper, however, differ vastly from the skills mentioned above for selling in person.
When selling in person or on the phone, sales people can benefit by observing body language, tone, and verbal and non-verbal cues.
Selling on paper or via e-mail, without these benefits, must rely on a keen sense of client priorities. In proposals, sales people must match what clients see in their heads with the pictures the words paint.
Read the entire article at http://www.proposalwritingsuccess.com
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Proposal Writing Requires Research
Your research starts with developing a business relationship with clients who fit the profile of your target market.
If you sell software, you need to focus on the clients who have the computer power and applications that logically make your product a benefit to the client.
If you are in the AEC area, you need to know what organizations are planning major projects that fit your capabilities.
All of this is Sales and Marketing 101.
Once you know your target market, you need to know those clients as well as you know your own company. If you expect to "partner" with these clients on their programs, plans, and projects, you need to prove to them that you have their best interests in mind as well as yours.
Face to face meetings, telephone conversations, e-mail messages, annual reports, internet research, RFPs all provide valuable pieces of information that mean the difference between a successful proposal and wasted time and effort.
The more you know about the client, the better your chances of winning the business.
If you sell software, you need to focus on the clients who have the computer power and applications that logically make your product a benefit to the client.
If you are in the AEC area, you need to know what organizations are planning major projects that fit your capabilities.
All of this is Sales and Marketing 101.
Once you know your target market, you need to know those clients as well as you know your own company. If you expect to "partner" with these clients on their programs, plans, and projects, you need to prove to them that you have their best interests in mind as well as yours.
Face to face meetings, telephone conversations, e-mail messages, annual reports, internet research, RFPs all provide valuable pieces of information that mean the difference between a successful proposal and wasted time and effort.
The more you know about the client, the better your chances of winning the business.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Proposal Writing Requires Specifics
Being specific, means making the clients feel what you are proposing will solve their specific problems. It is not a generic product or service that anyone can acquire.
You need to state specific products or services, pricing, delivery, installation, and implementation schedules. And, in stating all of these factors, you need to be specific in how and why no other company can meet their needs the way you can.
Being specific also means you limit the number of options that you offer them.
If you feel the client is one that would be more comfortable with options, consider this tactic.
Option number one would be the option you strongly recommend because it is the best for the client.
Option number two could then be what the clients thought you would offer or what they thought they needed. But, they will quickly realize that option one, indeed, would meet their needs even better.
This gives them what they want -- options -- but, in effect, makes their choices much easier
You need to state specific products or services, pricing, delivery, installation, and implementation schedules. And, in stating all of these factors, you need to be specific in how and why no other company can meet their needs the way you can.
Being specific also means you limit the number of options that you offer them.
If you feel the client is one that would be more comfortable with options, consider this tactic.
Option number one would be the option you strongly recommend because it is the best for the client.
Option number two could then be what the clients thought you would offer or what they thought they needed. But, they will quickly realize that option one, indeed, would meet their needs even better.
This gives them what they want -- options -- but, in effect, makes their choices much easier
Friday, October 17, 2008
Proposal Writing Tip: Keep it Conversational
Proposal writing is not an academic assignment.
Please don't make the same mistake many people make when writing a proposal.
In college, you write one way; in business, you write an entirely different way.
With your proposals, think BTB - business to business. That means person to person, not student to academician.
For example, you would (or should) never use a word like academician in personal or business writing. You may in college. But I recommend you avoid it in any document that pertains to business.
Your proposal writing should sound as natural as a telephone conversation. After all, that's all your proposal is - a written version of a conversation you would have with a client about solving the client's problem or making your client's life and bottom line better.
Let me give you an example.
Simply stated, we all grew up with the impression that a superior vocabulary is the mark of a superior mind.
So, when we wrote our term papers, we filled them with polysyllabic words to impress our teachers.
We used consultant words like utilize, paradigm, reiterate, conundrum, and transpire.
We also slipped in a few academic words like methodologies, cohorts, iterations, and monographs.
Consultant and academic words slow down your readers' brains as they try to interpret what you mean or how you are using those words.
Please allow me to comment on a few of those words to clearly explain not only the what I mean by conversational, but the why.
Let's start with "utilize."
The words "use" and "utilize" do not mean the same thing. Don't use the big word, "utilize," when a clearer, shorter, more understandable word will work. Most of the time when people use the word "utilize," they really should use "use."
Besides, you save time typing three letters (use) rather than seven (utilize).
Using three letters rather than seven allows your readers to read your document easier and faster. Direct them to focus on the benefits you bring to them, not your vocabulary.
A "paradigm" is a pattern, model, or example by which you are supposed to learn something about the structure of the English language.
Although "paradigm" has been popularized by consultants, many people still do not have a clear picture of what the word means. If you ask 10 people to define a paradigm, you will get 10 different definitions.
Be yourself and don't try to imitate someone else's words or style.
"Conundrum" is the corporate word for this decade.
Consultants use this word to imply a problem, challenge, or situation.
If you look up the word conundrum in a good dictionary (not a Pocket Dictionary) you find that a "conundrum" is a mythical or mystical puzzle or riddle, the answer to, which is a pun.
How many people do you think really know that?
Most people use the word "reiterate" to mean to restate, repeat, or emphasize.
If you mean restate, say restate.
The word "reiterate" means to "say repeatedly."
Most people use the word "reiterate" when they really mean to use "iterate" which means "to say or do again."
Actually, they should be using the words, state, restate, repeat, or emphasize, depending on what they are trying to say.
The dictionary tells us that the word "transpire" is considered incorrect or vulgar. Rather than telling you the actual meaning, I recommend you look it up in the dictionary.
But, you might say, "Looking up a word in the dictionary wastes my time."
Now you understand why you should use the shorter, more familiar, more easily understandable words when you write.
Most of the time when people use the word, "methodologies," they mean "methods" or "ways."
I once asked five academics what a "cohort" was. I got five different definitions.
Let's compare the language of two sentences that should say the same thing.
"I must reiterate that nothing will transpire until we utilize our resources to shift our paradigms as a means of addressing the conundrum we face." (25 long, confusing, abstract words)
If you were talking on the telephone, you would probably say:
"I must emphasize that unless we find a new way to refine crude oil, we will face gas shortages." (19 clear, familiar, easily understandable words)
So, my Proposal Writing message here is twofold.
1. Using conversational language increases the chances that your clients will clearly understand and quickly read every word you've written. You will not lose business because your client interpreted one of your big words or phrases differently than you meant it. Or, you will not force them to take more time reading your proposal.
2. Imagine you are the one reading the proposals. Would you prefer to read a clear, understandable, client focused proposal in five minutes or a confusing, erudite opus that took you 10 minutes to read?
What is your mental attitude and inclination after reading a five-minute proposal, versus a 10 minute proposed?
Please don't make the same mistake many people make when writing a proposal.
In college, you write one way; in business, you write an entirely different way.
With your proposals, think BTB - business to business. That means person to person, not student to academician.
For example, you would (or should) never use a word like academician in personal or business writing. You may in college. But I recommend you avoid it in any document that pertains to business.
Your proposal writing should sound as natural as a telephone conversation. After all, that's all your proposal is - a written version of a conversation you would have with a client about solving the client's problem or making your client's life and bottom line better.
Let me give you an example.
Simply stated, we all grew up with the impression that a superior vocabulary is the mark of a superior mind.
So, when we wrote our term papers, we filled them with polysyllabic words to impress our teachers.
We used consultant words like utilize, paradigm, reiterate, conundrum, and transpire.
We also slipped in a few academic words like methodologies, cohorts, iterations, and monographs.
Consultant and academic words slow down your readers' brains as they try to interpret what you mean or how you are using those words.
Please allow me to comment on a few of those words to clearly explain not only the what I mean by conversational, but the why.
Let's start with "utilize."
The words "use" and "utilize" do not mean the same thing. Don't use the big word, "utilize," when a clearer, shorter, more understandable word will work. Most of the time when people use the word "utilize," they really should use "use."
Besides, you save time typing three letters (use) rather than seven (utilize).
Using three letters rather than seven allows your readers to read your document easier and faster. Direct them to focus on the benefits you bring to them, not your vocabulary.
A "paradigm" is a pattern, model, or example by which you are supposed to learn something about the structure of the English language.
Although "paradigm" has been popularized by consultants, many people still do not have a clear picture of what the word means. If you ask 10 people to define a paradigm, you will get 10 different definitions.
Be yourself and don't try to imitate someone else's words or style.
"Conundrum" is the corporate word for this decade.
Consultants use this word to imply a problem, challenge, or situation.
If you look up the word conundrum in a good dictionary (not a Pocket Dictionary) you find that a "conundrum" is a mythical or mystical puzzle or riddle, the answer to, which is a pun.
How many people do you think really know that?
Most people use the word "reiterate" to mean to restate, repeat, or emphasize.
If you mean restate, say restate.
The word "reiterate" means to "say repeatedly."
Most people use the word "reiterate" when they really mean to use "iterate" which means "to say or do again."
Actually, they should be using the words, state, restate, repeat, or emphasize, depending on what they are trying to say.
The dictionary tells us that the word "transpire" is considered incorrect or vulgar. Rather than telling you the actual meaning, I recommend you look it up in the dictionary.
But, you might say, "Looking up a word in the dictionary wastes my time."
Now you understand why you should use the shorter, more familiar, more easily understandable words when you write.
Most of the time when people use the word, "methodologies," they mean "methods" or "ways."
I once asked five academics what a "cohort" was. I got five different definitions.
Let's compare the language of two sentences that should say the same thing.
"I must reiterate that nothing will transpire until we utilize our resources to shift our paradigms as a means of addressing the conundrum we face." (25 long, confusing, abstract words)
If you were talking on the telephone, you would probably say:
"I must emphasize that unless we find a new way to refine crude oil, we will face gas shortages." (19 clear, familiar, easily understandable words)
So, my Proposal Writing message here is twofold.
1. Using conversational language increases the chances that your clients will clearly understand and quickly read every word you've written. You will not lose business because your client interpreted one of your big words or phrases differently than you meant it. Or, you will not force them to take more time reading your proposal.
2. Imagine you are the one reading the proposals. Would you prefer to read a clear, understandable, client focused proposal in five minutes or a confusing, erudite opus that took you 10 minutes to read?
What is your mental attitude and inclination after reading a five-minute proposal, versus a 10 minute proposed?
Friday, October 10, 2008
Proposal Writing: How To Be Correct When Writing Proposals
Being correct means many things.
First, the information needs to be correct. That includes names, dates, addresses, contact information, pricing, products, services, projected timetables, and solutions.
Second, the structure of the proposal must match the structure of the RFP or the size and importance of the client.
Your knowledge of and history with a client can serve as a guideline for how to correctly structure your document.
You may be dealing with or know the principle of a firm and know that he or she simply wants a one-page document (similar to an Executive summary) that states solutions, costs, fulfillment details, and support strategies.
If you can do all of this in one page, do so.
If you are working on a multi-faceted, multi-million dollar contract, you need to create a proposal that correctly follows and correctly presents your products and services using the structure laid out in the RFP.
But maybe, more importantly, your spelling, punctuation, grammar, format, style, and tone need to scream correctness.
If you call the Procurement Officer and ask for Mr. Smith and the voice at the other end of the line says, "This is he," do you have a clue on one of the more important parts of that proposal?
I hope so.
First, the information needs to be correct. That includes names, dates, addresses, contact information, pricing, products, services, projected timetables, and solutions.
Second, the structure of the proposal must match the structure of the RFP or the size and importance of the client.
Your knowledge of and history with a client can serve as a guideline for how to correctly structure your document.
You may be dealing with or know the principle of a firm and know that he or she simply wants a one-page document (similar to an Executive summary) that states solutions, costs, fulfillment details, and support strategies.
If you can do all of this in one page, do so.
If you are working on a multi-faceted, multi-million dollar contract, you need to create a proposal that correctly follows and correctly presents your products and services using the structure laid out in the RFP.
But maybe, more importantly, your spelling, punctuation, grammar, format, style, and tone need to scream correctness.
If you call the Procurement Officer and ask for Mr. Smith and the voice at the other end of the line says, "This is he," do you have a clue on one of the more important parts of that proposal?
I hope so.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Proposal Writing: Proposals Need To Be Complete in Two Ways
If your proposal is not complete, you risk automatic elimination from the selection process.
Being complete takes at least two forms.
Most of the time, incomplete proposals result from carelessness, assumption, or lack of time. All three elements just mentioned are within your control.
Sometimes carelessness results from lack of time. But, many times lack of time results from poor planning.
Let's face it. In most instances, creating a proposal or responding to an RFP is a pain.
However, the rewards for successful proposals can be very satisfying and profitable.
Being complete means taking the time to assign several people or groups of people to double and triple check your document to ensure simple things have not been overlooked.
Simple things left out of proposals have included such things as the submitter's contact information, current prices, accurate timetables, and specific answers to each element of the RFP.
The best way to ensure your proposal is complete is to focus on three words:
Proofread; proofread; proofread.
Being complete also means including everything the client has said in pre-proposal, relationship-building meetings. It means extensive note taking to ensure you have captured every word, every detail, every emotion, and every nonverbal signal you can capture in face-to-face or telephone meetings with the client.
If the client uses a phrase such as "billable hours," the client should see that phrase in the proposal.
If a client expresses concern about meeting time tables or complying with government regulations, the client needs to see those terms and conditions dealt with and completely satisfied in the body of the proposal.
Being complete takes at least two forms.
Most of the time, incomplete proposals result from carelessness, assumption, or lack of time. All three elements just mentioned are within your control.
Sometimes carelessness results from lack of time. But, many times lack of time results from poor planning.
Let's face it. In most instances, creating a proposal or responding to an RFP is a pain.
However, the rewards for successful proposals can be very satisfying and profitable.
Being complete means taking the time to assign several people or groups of people to double and triple check your document to ensure simple things have not been overlooked.
Simple things left out of proposals have included such things as the submitter's contact information, current prices, accurate timetables, and specific answers to each element of the RFP.
The best way to ensure your proposal is complete is to focus on three words:
Proofread; proofread; proofread.
Being complete also means including everything the client has said in pre-proposal, relationship-building meetings. It means extensive note taking to ensure you have captured every word, every detail, every emotion, and every nonverbal signal you can capture in face-to-face or telephone meetings with the client.
If the client uses a phrase such as "billable hours," the client should see that phrase in the proposal.
If a client expresses concern about meeting time tables or complying with government regulations, the client needs to see those terms and conditions dealt with and completely satisfied in the body of the proposal.
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