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Last Updated: Aug 17th, 2005 - 12:33:36 |
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Change the Way You Think About Proposals
What’s your impression of how the evaluation process goes? Do you imagine that the evaluator reads proposal after proposal until he happens upon the one that makes him stand up and say, "Eureka! This is it!"
Jan 21, 2005, 11:55
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Change Is In The Wind: Part Three
In a recent article we talked about how changes in the federal procurement process under the new Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) can affect your proposal efforts, even if you don’t write proposals to the feds. We pointed out that agencies will place more emphasis on performance-based Statements of Work, and basing awards on whether the proposer offers “Best Value.” This issue we’ll talk about the changes in how evaluators will view the past performance of an offeror in making award decisions.
Jan 21, 2005, 11:51
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
How do you get technical people to understand that they have to prepare proposals that sell?
Getting the technical people to write what I call "proposalese"-the language of proposals-is the Holy Grail that all marketing people seek. Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet here. However, I've found that there are some ways to help them along.
Jan 21, 2005, 11:48
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Proposal Themes: What message do you want to send?
Consider these facts: A few hundred years back, in a town in Europe two families didn’t get along well. Then a boy from one family fell in love with a girl from the other family. There were a few fights between members of the family, and eventually one of the boy’s friends was killed. The boy and the girl decided to run away, but the plan went awry and both ended up dead. The families mourned their losses.
Jan 21, 2005, 11:46
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Proposal Themes: The Win Strategy Session
I've talked before about how important it is to come up with a set of themes that run throughout the proposal. How do you come up with these themes? You develop them during a win strategy session. This meeting, held at the beginning of the proposal effort, concentrates on four areas:
Jan 21, 2005, 11:45
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Personalize Your Proposal Writing
Most technical writing is marked by a complete lack of personal pronouns. Probably back in college a professor told you that technical reports had to be objective, dignified and professional, which, somehow, makes personal pronouns taboo.
Jan 21, 2005, 11:39
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Make Sure You Mention The Client
In this issue and the next, I'll talk about sections in your proposals that often seem tailor-made for waving the company flag and trumpeting how excellent your firm is. In fact, the client often seems to invite you to do that. But beware; dangers lurk in those woods.
Jan 21, 2005, 11:35
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Long Sentences? Use the Meat Cleaver
One way to make your writing easier to get through is to reduce the size of your sentences. A rule of thumb is that your sentences should be between 12 and 17 words long, on average.
Jan 21, 2005, 11:33
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Just The Facts
If you're old enough, you may remember the TV cop show Dragnet that ran in the fifties and then again in the late sixties (if you're too young, you can see the show now and again on Nick at Night). Its premise was to show what being a cop was really like. No glamour, but humdrum reality. The main character, Sgt. Joe Friday, when confronted with excited witnesses and hysterical victims would say, “Just give us the facts. Just the facts.”
Jan 21, 2005, 11:24
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Judgment Day: A Look Inside The Evaluation Process
Michael Asner is a proposal consultant I've met through the web. He has some interesting perspectives on proposal development, in part because he also helps his clients write the RFPs you might respond to. This is one of his articles.
Jan 21, 2005, 11:21
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
How To “Prove” You’re The Most Qualified
In past articles we’ve advised against using phrases such as “We have extensive experience,” or "We are uniquely qualified,” and letting it go at that. You may be all those things, but unless you show that you are, the evaluator is left with just your claim.
Jan 21, 2005, 11:19
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
How important are graphics in a proposal?
The short answer to the question above is--VERY!! I've already written a couple of articles about this, but it bears repeating:
How the proposal looks is extremely important, especially when you consider a couple of important facts.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:57
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
How does the customer evaluate proposals?
It's impossible to give a description of how each evaluation process works; every firm and agency that evaluates proposals has its own way of doing it. But it is possible-and very useful-to explain a few things about proposal evaluation in general.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:53
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Help Your Readers and Get the Fog Out of Your Proposals
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.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:46
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Help Readers Get Through Your Proposal: Part Three
Have you ever noticed that when we write, our writing seems more stilted and formal than when we talk? Look at the following example:
Jan 21, 2005, 10:44
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Help Readers Get Through Your Proposal: Part One
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.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:41
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Help Readers Get Through Your Proposal: Part Two
The English language is rich with subtlety and nuance. One of the best ways to guide the reader to your way of thinking is to use words with lots of connotative value—words that evoke a more emotional response.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:38
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Four Rules of Thumb for Preparing Winning Proposals
I have worked on a dozen proposals in the past year, some small (e.g., 10 pages worth $150k) and some large (e.g., 2000 pages worth $2B). These proposals were written to customers in a variety of industries: aerospace, Architecture/Engineering/ Construction and Information Technology. I have worked on proposals to customers in 4 different countries. And I have had the same lesson reinforced on each and every one: you must follow four basic rules of thumb if you want to win.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:36
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Focus on What is Important in Your Proposal Sections
Here's a question I get asked often:
"How do I figure out what to say in my sections when there is so much I could say? Where do I begin?"
Jan 21, 2005, 10:25
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Do Style and Tone Matter?
Style and tone matter a great deal in proposal writing. The customer's selection process is really a process of elimination. Your job is to make it as hard as possible for him to eliminate your proposal. One way you can do this is to keep your writing from boring him to death. That's a sure way to make him lose interest.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:19
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Differentiate Yourself from the Competition Another Look
Think about your client for a minute. He has issued an RFP and now has a stack of proposals to wade through. It could be a tall stack or a short one, depending on how many people proposed. It doesn't matter how tall the stack; what matters is that your client is about to read a bunch of proposals on the very same topic written by people who are probably going to offer very similar solutions to resolving his needs.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:17
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Differentiate Yourself from the Competition
Think about your client for a minute. He has issued an RFP and now has a stack of proposals to wade through. It could be a tall stack or a short one, depending on how many people proposed. It doesn't matter how tall the stack; what matters is that your client is about to read a bunch of proposals on the very same topic written by people who are probably going to offer very similar solutions to resolving his needs.
Jan 21, 2005, 10:15
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Change Is In The Wind: Part Two
You may not write proposals to Federal agencies, but if you write proposals to any level of government, or even to private companies, what the feds do when they change their procurement process will sooner or later affect you.
Jan 21, 2005, 09:29
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Proposal Writing 101: How to Stress Benefits not just the Features
I realize you have heard this before. I know my clients have (I say it all the time, like a broken record). But I’ll say it again...
Jan 14, 2005, 16:32
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Get an Objective Look: Conducting a Red Team Review
The best way--the only way, really--to make sure your proposal is giving the client what he wants is to have it reviewed by an objective panel that have been briefed to think like the client. This type of review is often called a Red Team Review...
Jan 14, 2005, 16:30
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Reviewing Your Proposal Before It Goes Out the Door
Every proposal gets reviewed. Too often, however, it only gets reviewed once, and at the end of the process, just before it goes out the door...
Jan 14, 2005, 16:28
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
The Best Time to Write the Executive Summary
I've written about the importance of the Executive Summary to your proposal; it's the condensed version of your offer, packaged so that people can get a quick snapshot of your main messages-the "Why us"-before plowing into the details.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:42
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
The Executive Summary More Than Just an Intro
The Executive Summary is the most-read part of your proposal. Everyone who has anything to do with evaluating the proposal will read at least part of it; sometimes it will be the only thing they read. Your Executive Summary must be a compelling sales document.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:41
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
The Most Important Section in Your Proposal
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.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:40
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
The Six Deadly Words To Avoid In Proposals
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.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:37
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Tips For Writing The First Draft
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.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:31
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Transitions To Keep Your Reader On Track
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.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:27
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
The Pros and Cons of Using Boilerplate
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...
Jan 13, 2005, 14:24
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Write to Express, Not Impress
We are often more concerned with how something sounds than with what it means.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:07
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Tips for Creating a Great Proposal Cover; First Impressions Count--A Lot!
True story: A client of mine visited one of his clients, a director of public works. It was simply a "touch base" call-Hi, I'm alive, just thought I'd meet and we could talk.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:03
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
How to Effectively Write the Resume
Clients want to see that you are proposing qualified people for the job and that they have the experience level appropriate to perform the work. Some clients go to the resume section first, before going to other sections in the proposal.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:01
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Writing The Related Experience Section
When asking for proposals to provide services, clients frequently require descriptions of relevant projects. And being a conscientious proposal writer, you always respond.
Jan 13, 2005, 14:00
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Writing the Approach Section
If you are proposing services to a client, the approach sections are the heart of your proposal. This is where you tell the evaluator what you will do during the project and how you will do it. But you must go beyond that if you want to win.
Jan 13, 2005, 13:57
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Change Is In The Wind; Are You Ready?
We have been keeping an eye on changes in the way the federal government conducts its procurement process. In 1994, Congress passed the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA); the federal government wanted to cut its procurement costs.
Jan 3, 2005, 16:28
Articles
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Proposal Writing Techniques
Keys for Building a Go/No-Go Database
Have you ever written a "wish-list" proposal? I’ll bet you have. You write a wish list proposal when you propose on a job you'd like to have, but you don’t know much about...
Jan 3, 2005, 16:25
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