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WINNING PROPOSALS
Hans Tammemagi, PhD
Self-Counsel Press
(a division of)
International Self-Counsel Press Ltd.
USA Canada
Copyright © 2012
International Self-Counsel Press
All rights reserved.
Preface
The purpose of this book is twofold. First, it teaches the rudiments of how to prepare a proposal. The components that you need are listed and described.
However, components are just a collection of pieces unless they can be assembled in a meaningful manner. Thus, the second, and more important, purpose is to explore the exciting realm of persuasion: making the proposal into a winner. To be a successful persuader, you need to know why people agree to things. I describe how persuasion works and present guidelines that will help you convince people to accept your proposals and ideas.
This book goes beyond what other books offer in proposal writing — it provides not just formulas and recipes, but also the psychology that is needed to make your proposal a winner.
The psychology of persuasion, the foundation for winning proposals, is rooted in human nature, which does not change. Thus, I thought it would be a very long time before an updated edition of Winning Proposals would be necessary. The second edition of Winning Proposals was prepared a scant five years after the first, not because there had been some unexpected change in human nature, but because of the extraordinary revolution in communications brought about by the Internet and the Web, which have had an impact on virtually all aspects of life — including proposal writing. The second edition added relevant websites for obtaining Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and that provide technical assistance in writing proposals.
One aim of this third edition, which follows the second by a decade, is to update those aspects of proposal writing that are affected by the ever-growing, ever-changing Web.
The first and second editions focused on formal proposals typically used by consulting firms. The secondary objective of this third edition is to expand discussion of other forms of proposals — specifically, the unsolicited proposal — and other areas of life where persuasion is relevant.
The motivation for this book arose from my long involvement in the consulting business and also through my association with the academic world. A consulting firm’s lifeblood is the proposal. They must write and win a reasonable share of proposals, or perish. University researchers are in the same position; they must prepare good grant applications or wither. One would imagine that consulting firms and universities would devote considerable resources to ensuring that their staff can write proposals of high quality.
Sadly, this is not the case. Effective proposal writing is an overlooked discipline; it somehow falls between the cracks. All too often, individuals are left to fend for themselves with little or no guidance. When instruction is provided, the emphasis is generally on the components that make up a proposal and the mechanics of assembling those components, rather than on strategy and psychology.
This is akin to giving a soldier the tanks, guns, and other equipment needed to fight a battle without teaching the tactics and strategy that are necessary to out-manoeuvre the opponent. This book corrects that glaring oversight. It outlines the strategies and methods for turning an ordinary proposal into a winning proposal.
When proposals require less time and effort to produce, considerable savings are realized. Describing how proposals can be prepared more efficiently forms an important part of this book. For organizations that submit many proposals, these savings will directly improve the bottom line.
Your proposals will be more convincing, and they will be less costly to prepare. Your competitors had better beware!
Given that it focuses on the magic of persuasion, this book will be of special interest to:
• Consulting companies competing for contracts
• University and college researchers competing for research grants
• Businesspersons seeking venture capital or other forms of financing
• Salespersons selling the myriad of things they sell
• Fundraisers
Because persuasion plays a role in almost all facets of human interaction, this book is intended to help all those who want their bright, innovative ideas to come to reality.
1
The Fascination Of Proposals
1. The Importance of Proposals
Proposals are fascinating creatures. I am intrigued by the proposal’s enormous importance and the wide role it plays, not only in the business sector but in every sector of our lives. Yet few understand the proposal and the principles of persuasion that are at its foundation.
Society is changing. As heavy industry and resource production decrease, the service sector is growing in importance — and so grows the significance of the proposal. Virtually all parts of the service sector use the formal, competitive proposal as the means of soliciting and offering work. Proposals have become one of the main tools of modern business. A proposal is both a sales presentation and a marketing tool. Without the ability to write winning proposals, many companies would cease to operate.
Millions of proposals are requested and submitted each year in North America and cover such diverse services as installation of pollution control devices, safety and management training courses, landscaping and interior decoration, surveys of consumer product usage, reviews of cultural behavior, building of bridges and other infrastructure, filling of potholes, and so on. All levels of government and most parts of the private sector rely on the competitive proposal as the principal means of awarding contracts. Several billion dollars of goods and services are procured annually using proposals.
In this growing information age, consulting firms are proliferating, and their very existence — be they engineering, environmental, or business management firms — depends on proposals. Any single company might write from a few dozen to several hundred proposals each year. Thus, the lifeblood of a consulting firm is the proposal.
But the importance of the proposal extends much further. In today’s business world, virtually all firms and organizations that offer a service or product must submit descriptions to their clients of what they have to offer and why that service or product is necessary. To survive, they must present persuasive proposals. At universities, professors must submit grant proposals to obtain research grants. Hospitals must present proposals to federal and state governments to receive operating
