Give Your Proposal Writers a Kick-Start
By Dan Safford

What’s the most difficult part of writing for you?

Most people will answer. “Getting started.” This part of the process is the single biggest time-waster in the whole writing effort. Time spent pondering, time spent writing and running into dead ends, time spent cranking out words that end up being cut. Because you often don’t know where to start, you’re more likely to put off the writing until the last moment, which erodes the quality of what you do end up producing.

What’s the answer? Use section directions to manage the proposal content and give the writers a kick start. These section directions are just that—directions to the writers about exactly which topics they should include in their sections, which themes they need to stress, what kind of graphics and how many.

Who writes these directions? The Proposal Manager is in the best position to write these directions. This person is the one with the big picture. She knows the winning themes, the approach, the overall proposal outline. Now she has to sit down and give her writers their marching order.

Use section directions to manage your sub-contractors/ consultants. Section directions are also an excellent way to manage your sub-consultants. By telling your subs what you want in their sections you can manage their input, and when they submit their sections you’ll find you will have to do very little revising to bring their sections on track.

What do you include in section directions? Here’s a list of the basics to include section directions :

·         The writer assigned to this section

·         The section number and title

·         The number of pages allocated for this section

·         The number and kinds of figures allocated to this section

·         The main message or theme of the section

·         Key points to include (RFP requirements, win strategy points, specific benefits to the client)

The section directions can be as specific as you want, or as general. Remember, though, that the more general your directions, the more control over the content you are giving away to the individual writer. And the more you will have to edit later to make sure it fits with your vision of what the proposal should look like.

Section directions are terrific time-savers; they focus the writer immediately on what to include in the sections. This means less work later, when you are fighting the clock to get the proposal out the door.