Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts

As you get ready to write your proposal, you can gain deeper insight into the kinds of details you should provide by asking yourself:

• What does the decision maker think of me and/or my company? The decision maker may have certain assumptions about you and your company that will color the review of your proposal. Perhaps your company is well known in a particular niche, but is now trying to penetrate a new market. The customer may have assumptions about your firm and its capabilities based on the past. If you can identify those assumptions and address them, you have a better chance of appearing credible and appealing.

• What prior experience does the client have with us? Was it good or bad? Either way, it will influence whether you come across as credible and appealing. If it was good, you should remind the client of that fact in your proposal. If it was bad, you should directly address changes your firm has put in place to prevent bad things from happening in the future. Past performance is particularly important when you are writing proposals for government contracts.

• Is the client currently using our products or services? Is the client using our competitors'? If you are the incumbent, you have a much better chance of winning additional business. If you are not the incumbent, you must focus on differentiating yourself from the current provider and emphasizing how much more value the client will receive from making the switch to you.

• What must I say or do to convince the decision maker that I am knowledgeable, reliable, experienced, honest—in a word, credible? We will discuss this in much more detail in a few pages, but the ultimate answer to this question is: Communicate a believable message the way the audience wants to hear it.

• Do I understand my client's business situation and needs? Have I communicated that understanding clearly? Credibility is usually proportional to specificity—not about your products or services, but rather about the client's business, the industry within which he or she is competing, and the operational parameters that affect your solution's implementation.

• Am I approaching my relationship with the client as a partnership? "Partnership" is an overworked clich , but it's better than acting subservient. Proposal writers often undercut their own credibility and appeal by adopting a tone of supplication rather than equality. I mentioned that trite, clich d opening that so often shows up in cover letters: "Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to submit my proposal and for taking time from your busy schedule to review it." You can practically hear the sound of kissing up in the background, can't you? Remember that you have something important to bring to this relationship: the solution to the decision maker's problems or a way the decision maker can meet his or her needs or achieve crucial objectives. Be polite, of course. But don't come across as a sycophantic toady. You have the solution and the client has the money. That's the basis for a wonderfully equal partnership.

• Am I offering specific recommendations? I'm amazed how often I read proposals that never recommend anything at all. Instead, they describe products or services in detail. They may include management resumes, implementation schedules, and cost analyses. But they never actually recommend that the client do anything. Make a specific recommendation. Say, "I recommend that you contract with Dayton Facility Management Corporation for a six-week trial project to determine the cost savings available from outsourcing your security, landscaping, and engineering services." Your specific recommendation will be a call to action. It will also communicate much greater confidence and commitment.

  While we're on the point, resist the temptation to turn your proposal into a smorgasbord. If you are truly an expert in your field, you should be able to recommend the one or two best ways to solve a particular problem. Giving the customer a laundry list of options is an abdication of your function as a professional and an expert.

• Am I offering a fresh solution, one that focuses on what this customer needs? Even if you're offering the same basic solution you've offered the last two dozen (or two thousand) clients, make sure your proposal doesn't sound bored and weary. It should sound like you're excited and enthusiastic about your recommendations. This is a matter of tone and attitude, and a matter of positioning what you have to offer against what the customer needs. Compare the difference in tone between these two statements:

  • Our engine system includes a fuel regulator, so-called because it controls how much fuel enters the engine at various operating conditions.

  • Your aircraft will operate more profitably, because the engines incorporate solid-state fuel regulators—an innovative technology that prevents the engine from wasting fuel at various critical points in the flight envelope.

  Notice that the focus on the first one is on "our engine system," whereas the second version starts out talking about "your aircraft." It's a subtle difference, but it helps make the second one sound like a solution instead of product documentation.

• Am I focusing on the customer's organizational or business interests rather than technical issues? Technology in and of itself doesn't sell. People buy technology because it will have a positive impact on organizational concerns—profitability, productivity, staffing levels, quality, downtime, whatever.

• Am I writing clearly, concisely, emphatically, logically, and persuasively? You wouldn't submit a proposal that had a coffee stain on the title page, would you? That would send the wrong message. Submitting a proposal that's wordy, difficult to understand, illogical, contradictory, wishy-washy, or unconvincing is just as bad. Along the same lines, submitting a proposal marred by misspellings, typos, grammar mistakes, the wrong client's name, and similar lapses also destroys your credibility.