What Makes Proposals Hard

How many proposals do you write a year? A month? A week?

Do you consider your internal reports and presentation decks a form of proposal?

When they're tools utilized to persuade, inform, and demonstrate, you should. Even as you do the writing or pulling together inside a department or group in an organization, you still represent that business and brand.

Which is why you would think of your proposal, report, or deck as a promise made. My definition of brand is the sum of promises made, promises kept and the unbounded expectations market.

Value is about closing the gap -- reducing the cognitive dissonance between what was promised and what was delivered. Which is where social interactions are so valuable in realigning expectations.

Thinking about the promise

The part that makes writing a proposal hard is identifying the hot buttons for the person on the receiving end -- your boss, prospect, client, partner, and their colleagues or bosses. Words have a way of getting ahead of ourselves, don't they?

As many an experienced sales professional and consultant knows, the key to a successful proposal is not perfection, it's being on point with qualifying the opportunity. The person or team on the receiving end makes an investment in time and attention, at a minimum.

Think about the proposal as your promise and you will do good trade.

Are you ready to submit?

Your proposal begins with the right question. When submitting for a speaking opportunity, that is more likely understanding the audience. Who will be there? What problems are they called to solve in their work? Which promises do they need to keep to make better ones in the future?

Are you thinking about the context of the event?

These are examples of questions I ask myself.

Although it's important to address audience make up and expectations, it's not a duality kind of world. Right or wrong really depends on closing the gap between promises made and promises kept.

Tracking promises is the third core business function.

+++

What makes proposals hard is what makes good case studies helpful -- the process of thinking through the promise, and managing expectations by underwriting the risk. So you can trade better and better promises and make your business stronger and more resilient.

Do you have any hot buttons when writing proposals? Where do you get stuck? Which lessons helped you get unstuck? Have you ever made a promise you knew you depended on someone else to keep? How did that turn out?

If you're a manager, investor, potential partner, buyer, what do you seek in a proposal? Are personal relationships important to even get to your door?

One more question: Should you give people exactly what they're looking for?

The comments are yours.

 

If you enjoyed this post from Conversation Agent, subscribe, share and like it. Sign up for my Premium Newsletter.

Comments

[B2bmarketing]

Valeria, I really question the value of proposals in today's "give the headlines in 140 characters" world. Most turn into writing assignments reminiscent of 5th grade theme papers. And at the very least, are huge time-sinks.

Why not boil it down to a simple one-pager, highlighting all the main points?

[Valeria Maltoni]

I'm wondering if you have a name. Presentation is important, wouldn't you agree? This comment is in fact an example of proposal, as I wrote in the post. I'm not sure which post you were commenting on. (BTW - I corrected the spelling of my name)

[Brian Driggs]

Lately I've been working on a PPT at the office dealing with traffic to a number of our projects behind the firewall. I've been trying to keep the imagery powerful and the text simple, and I'm fairly happy with it, but I hadn't thought of it as a proposal.

Who is this for?
Why do they need to know this information?
And what promises am I making with this effort?

Granted, this was assigned to me, but it bugs me that I don't have immediate answers to these questions. They will make for a good conversation this afternoon. Thanks!

As for "should you give people exactly what they're looking for?" I regularly struggle with this one. From a journalism perspective, I need to give people what they want, but moreso than that, I need to make the significant interesting and relevant. Not always easy. ;)

[Valeria Maltoni]

once you start to focus your promises, you will find it easier to be more effective in connecting with meaning.

You probably know my answer to that last question. Which is why this blog will be more popular once I stop writing it and it goes away ;-)

[peter]

Should you give people exactly what they're looking for.

This needs context;

Why are they looking for it
Why am I be giving
Can i deliver what they are looking for
Did I promise to give or is it an unsolicited gift ( or is it a combination of both)
What am I getting in return ( goodwill, a warm feeling, $, influence etc)
What is 'price' of being exact and the risk of being inexact.

Giving is algorithmic but for which there is often no measurable answer.

So yes, give people exactly what they want but only if that's appropriate.

[Brian Driggs]

Whattaya mean once I stop writing and it goes away?

There are 7Bn people in the world now. That means there are 7,000 one-in-a-million types. Last I checked (as Im replying to this comment via email), you have close to 20,000 subscribers. From where Im sitting, if you can help just a third of your subscribers affect change and succeed, your work is valuable beyond measure, Valeria.

We all face the disinterest of the masses. They simply consume, forgetting the bulk of what they read within minutes. Whats worse, there are those who feign interest merely for personal gain, hiding behind pseudonyms because, subconsciously, they know theyre shills. But for the relatively small group of people who have sought to understand and experienced success - however minor - through the application of your ideas elsewhere, your work is important, it is appreciated, it is priceless.

I, for one, found my calling, my lifes work, because of your efforts here. Surely, I cant be the ONLY one in 20,000 to have experienced such a revelation. And, if it is indeed the case, that only 1-in-20k will see such results, doesnt that make you want to get to that 40k mark?

Maybe I read between the wrong lines, here, but I like to err on the side of positivity. We all need to know were appreciated from time to time. :)

BRIAN DRIGGS | DR1665

[Valeria Maltoni]

I came across this article in AdAge today http://adage.com/article/small-agency-diary/genius-midst-listening/230882/

"Geniuses make themselves evident by having ideas bigger than we can conceive; it seems that they can see the future. Their thinking is highly disciplined, even though their behavior might not be. They appear fearless.

Why don't we listen?"

Leading is in my DNA. I don't know how *not* to see what is coming. I'm a systems thinker (with lots of practical experience of what doesn't work to back it up).

The work I'm doing doesn't exist anywhere else, so it's a mission that goes with that vision. One that is often misunderstood and taken for granted.

Being able to rely on someone is priceless. That is what I've been offering here. I'm grateful I have such a mastermind group of peers because we can never get back time...

BTW - People are fascinating.

[Brian Driggs]

I appreciate you sharing what you see on the horizon. On this stretch of highway, Im still very much a passenger, but Im learning how to look down my own road and see whats coming.

Why dont we listen? Fear of uncertainty is my guess. ;)

BRIAN DRIGGS | DR1665

[Thabo Hermanus]

Wow, got lost in the comments, so now have to refresh my thinking on the post. Interesting thing is I feel like I write proposals daily. Given I have to introduce candidates to clients, I have to position their CV's/ Resumes to get the hiring manager keen on actually meeting with the prospective candidate.

That means I have to give them what they want! If I push my own agenda, or that of the candidate, with no consideration for there being a meeting of the minds with the hiring manager, my proposals will end up getting turfed, and losing all credibility.

So if I am not feeling it, I don't just churn out a covering letter for the sake of looking like I am working. We always tell people that we are not a "CV pushing enterprise" and there is a reason for that.

So while I will write with the reader in mind (the prospective employer), I will look to make sure that I catch his or her attention, but say it like it is, as that is the experience they will get if the candidate is in the same mind-frame I met him or her in should they interview.

[Valeria Maltoni]

I can see your point of view on making that match happen. Talent acquisition is probably the most expensive buying decision an organization makes. And alignment today is increasingly rare due to the constant change every industry is experiencing with competitive forces, alliances, etc.