Thank you to Flickr user Mudpig for the photo.

This week’s blog post is inspired by a man who was inspired by a Catholic mass service. The man’s name is Al Borowski, another one of those mysterious professional speaker types, and he brings a unique perspective of the client-proposal writer relationship to the table.

Here’s what went down: he was attending a First Holy Communion service, which, if you aren’t familiar with the Catholic tradition, is something like a rite of passage for the kids of the church. This is a huge day for them and on top of that, a Cardinal (one of the elite, higher-ups who selects the next pope) is visiting for the day.

But then, the priest conducting the ceremony preaches to the parents the entire time and doesn’t even invite the Cardinal to speak or interact with the kids or parents. The point is that he forgot who his main audience was. This was the kids’ big day. Imagine. If he had gotten out from behind of his pulpit and and got on the kids’ level. If he had “related to, focused on, and engaged these kids” the memory of this day would have been that much more amazing for them.

The same that is said for the kids can be said for clients. In both sales and proposals it’s important to keep tabs on your purpose and make sure you’re doing more than saying what you like to hear, but you are making a genuine connection with the audience, their needs and their wants. Make your proposal on that goes down in history by preaching to the right choir.

Check out Al Borowski’s full article here.

This photo brought to you by Flickr user Fonzie's cousin.

Do you see that horn there? Everyone gets one of those. No, don’t thank me; this isn’t Oprah’s Christmas Give-Away. You’ve had that horn ever since you came up with your unique business. But, you can thank me for the following advice: toot the horn.

Why? Because someone somewhere started tooting theirs and it’s getting a little tough for the customer to hear your tune in all the ruckus. Competitive intelligence is an excellent way to get yourself heard above the competition.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Know your competition. Know what they do better than you. Know what you do better than them. Not only is this great for expanding and improving your own business, but it does wonders for a proposal. A proposal is essentially a statement of why the client should chose you over someone else. Give them clear cut, honest reasons as to why you can do what you do better than others and make the client’s job a little easier.

Just keep in mind, no one wants to work with the kind of individual who says kind things to the face but spits acid at the back. Keep you comparison respectable and professional and the customer will realize that you too are respectable and professional.

So, go ahead. Toot that horn.

Sources: Competitive Analysis Considerations, Using Competitive Intelligence in Your Sales Proposal

What a lovely photo that Flicker user adonis hunter / ahptical provides us with.

Allow me to describe a scene from the movie Elf. Elf is completely new to civilization as we know it. He’s just skipping merrily down the street when he spots a sign on a window for “The World’s Best Cup of Coffee”. He runs into the shop and enthusiastically shouts “CONGRATULATIONS!” to everyone for the amazing achievement. In return, he receives a full serving of blank stares. You can check the clip out here.

This makes an excellent point. In sales and proposal writing, it’s easy to get caught up in saying the usual things rather than the accurate things. Customers don’t really buy that crap. When was the last time you really believed that place had the top of the line _____ or the best _____ on this side of the hemisphere?

In celebration of making accurate, fresh points, here’s a list of ten phrases to keep out of your proposal:

1. Top quality
2. Cutting edge
3. Customer first
4. Comprehensive solutions
5. State-of-the-art
6. We are commited…
7. Our mission is to…
8. Trustworthy
9. The right choice
10. We will strive/We hope/We intend

Instead of using tired cliches, focus on stating what you DO do and giving concise examples of the amazing work you’re capable of producing.

Source: CapturePlanning.com.

Many thanks to the feisty Flickr user Anant N S (www.thelensor.tumblr.com) for this great picture.

I’m talking about the military tactic, not the video game. Its also known as counterattack or in debate, the counterpoint, and surprisingly can be an important technique to master when it comes to proposal writing.

To sum it up, a counterstrike is a response to an attack. There are many ways to respond to criticism in the sales world, the most popular of which seems to be the well-known “RUN-AND-HIDE!!!” technique. This entails the company becoming aware that their product or service has a weakness and doing everything they can to cover that up.

That technique is all well and good, but as we all know, eventually the person hiding gets caught. And by that time, the person who had to run all around looking for them is nothing short of furious. Enter counterstrike.

This technique enables the company to admit to a certain fault in the proposal; to come clean. But, never let your guard down. This is the moment for battle. Anticipate their offense: What arguments could my client think up to convince herself not to buy my product? Now, throw up the defense (counter): Break down the argument with facts. The final blow (strike): Provide another brilliant example of why your products or service rocks. And bam, the reader is blown away.

Flickr user Audringje is a saint for graciously providing this photo.

So, you want to be that dude in the sweet hat, eh? Well, you’ll have to be quick on your feet if you want to write a better business proposal. Any successful piece of writing requires engaging in a balancing act between author and audience.

If you don’t sell yourself enough there is nothing to buy. But, if you don’t sell to your audience enough there’s nothing they would want to buy.  “To” is italicized for a reason. You never want to sell at the audience, but rather cater to them.

Two very important things to remember when selling to the audience:

1. It’s very likely that the person reading your proposal has 100 better things to do with his or her time and doesn’t even enjoy reading proposals in the first place.

2. However, this person really wants your proposal to be the winning one. If they didn’t have hope that yours would be worth their time, then they wouldn’t be reading it.

Keeping these things in mind here are 3 tips:

A. Backwards essay: don’t save the best for last. Your reader is short on time, so put the most important, most compelling information about you service at the beginning and work down from there. Remember, the audience wants your proposal to be The One, so give them what they want from the start and show them that you have what it takes to solve their problems.

B. Keep is short: Filling up pages with b.s. is also another essay technique that I don’t recommend employing in a proposal. The longer a proposal is, the less likely someone is to read through it. So, identify what the reader needs to know, toss out the rest and make these need-know-points easily accessable for the audience.

C. Jargon watch: always keep your audience in the back of your mind when choosing your vocab. Do they know a whole heck of a lot about this subject? Great, use those fancy words. Are they noobs? Keep your writing elementary, then, my dear Watson.

Follow these tips and in no time your proposals will be looking as suave and gentlemanly as our good friend up there.