Writing Winning Business Proposals: Your Guide to Landing the Client, Making the Sale, Persuading the Boss

Are your business proposals good, but perhaps not good enough? One leading management consulting firm recently lost a major project by 5 points out of 1000, one-half of one percent! With the gap between victor and also-ran so narrow, and the stakes so high, your proposal must give you every advantage. Here is the guide that will give you the edge, especially in tough times.
The secret is the authors' rigorously systematic yet easy-to-learn method for creating proposals. This method has been proven to win business, especially in "complex sales" involving multiple buyers - each bringing different buying criteria to the final decision.
Part One of this book shows you how to probe and present the "logics" of a proposal: the logical relationship between the potential client's current situation and desired result. You will learn to ferret out key information (often unwritten and unstated) in order to address the discrepancy between where the organization is and where it wants to be.
However, because most people buy for psychological as well as logical reasons, Writing Winning Business Proposals also focuses on proposal "psychologics." Part Two shows you how to assess all members of the evaluation committee, determine their individual "hot buttons," and craft a proposal strategy that has collective appeal. You'll discover new ways to crystallize and develop key proposal messages and themes - and thus convince decision makers that you have heard and understood the issues from their respective points of view.
Part Three offers specific strategies for weaving these elements into a web of persuasion. "Just as Beethoven repeated musical themes throughout his symphonies," the authors write, "you want to 'play' your themes throughout your proposal." Because presentation is also crucial, there are effective techniques to help you make your writing, visuals, and page design more powerful and persuasive.
To help you experience and practice the book's concepts step by step, most chapters end with a Work Session, based on an actual case study, making the book a self-contained workshop. And whenever you need guidance in a hurry, you can simply consult the handy Chapter Reviews for an instant overview.
Your goal is to prepare logical and persuasive proposals. Writing Winning Business Proposals will help you achieve that goal.

The authors, who work with A.T. Kearney and KPMG Peat Marwick, offer their particular method of training consultants to write proposals. They clearly distinguish proposals from internal reports: proposals don't have an answer but seek to sell a service to find an answer. The strengths of this title are its practicality, logical development, and detail. It points out trouble spots such as clients who don't know what they want or organizations with conflicting goals. It offers specific language for specific kinds of proposals, e.g., identify and compare for a market survey; develop and recommend for a planning project. The features that make it useful for teaching in a corporate or academic setting include reviews and summaries, checklists and worksheets, and a real-world case study. Unfortunately, like similar works, it invents its own jargon (hot buttons, PIP, SI) and takes swipes at English teachers. It is more thorough and realistic than many similar titles, however, and may be of interest to business collections and technical writing programs.
Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.