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Advice for Writing Great Business Proposals
In proposal writing, the only opinion that matters is that of your customer. If you want to know what to include in your proposal or how to best write or format it, you need to look the proposal from the customer's point of view. Proposal writing should answer the customer's questions, explain the benefits of your approach, and articulate the reasons why the customer should select your proposal. If you want to perfect your proposal writing, you need to first perfect your understanding of your customer. It's not about what you want to say or how well you can describe yourself — it's about what the customer needs to know in order to select the winning proposal. Only after you master writing from the customer's perspective can you write a proposal that is the most effective. The following articles provide more proposal writing advice...-
Here are 8 simple things a non-writer can do to dramatically improve their proposal writing. Use this list to transform your writing into a compelling and persuasive proposal and significantly improve your chances of winning. -
Most proposals are not written from the customer's point of view. The two simple steps in this article will show you how to break that habit and enable you to write your proposal from the customer's perspective.
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The conventional wisdom is that "when everything else is equal," proposal writing can make a difference. But proposal writing can be much more important. Effective proposal writing can become a competitive advantage if you have the right strategy. -
When someone asks for help preparing a proposal, they often ask for the wrong things or they assume that they just need one person who knows "how to do it." What they don't realize is that proposal writing and proposal management are two very different skill sets.
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Just because a person has experience or has had training does not mean they have the skill to write excellent proposal copy. How can you tell if someone "who has done it before" is capable of doing it well? How would you answer the questions in this article? -
It's not a proposal until it's written. Even proposal teams with excellent preparation often fail at proposal writing. What is it about putting black ink on paper that can strike terror in the hearts of otherwise competent people? Read this article to find out just how simple proposal writing can be.
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Writers around the world agree... it's so difficult to edit your own writing. Here are some tips to help you deliver better proposal copy. -
A good proposal answers the customer’s questions. A proposal done The Wrong Way sometimes has to avoid them.
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The evaluator needs to learn how you stack up against the evaluation criteria. They also need to understand what matters about what they are evaluating. So teach them. Just don't patronize them. -
When I review proposals, I often find myself making the same recommendations and corrections that I have made for other proposals. These mistakes appear in all proposals, including those by the largest, most successful firms.
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Some people are just not cut out to be proposal writers. Normal approaches aren’t going to help you with these people. They don’t need training, they need practice. Which of course, with a proposal due, you don’t have the time for. The only thing you can do is give them a cheat sheet. Here are give things to put on it. -
When you haven’t done your homework and don’t have the knowledge you need to write a good proposal, sometimes you just have to fake it. Here are some interesting strategies to help you complete your proposal under adverse circumstances. But they should come with a warning label...
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Here is a list of words and phrases that you should not use in your proposals and the reasons why. We see them all the time. How many of these are in your proposals? -
How do you guarantee that your ads, sales letters, proposal writing, web copy and other marketing materials are as hard-hitting as possible?
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How often have we all heard that statement? However, especially in customer service, it is very true. I see evidence of this everyday. -
One-hundred and eleven questions to answer in your technical approach
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Add some on-the-job training, a few years experience, and the other ingredients in this article and you too can write a quality management plan.
Related PropLIBRARY Articles
- 3 things you must do to go from writing ordinary proposals to writing great proposals
- 8 ingredients of proposal persuasion and great proposal writing
- The difference between writing an ordinary proposal and writing a great proposal
- The most important skill for cultivating great proposal writing
- You can’t write a great proposal if you don’t matter to your customers
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