Writing Persuasive Proposals

Few people like to write proposals. One of the reasons is that they do not know exactly what constitutes a good proposal. We show the typical mistakes and provide a methodology to meet the challenge of proposal writing with ease.

Who should attend:

Salespeople and their leaders

Ideal class size:

8-12

Duration:

2 x ½ days

It’s a chore – and it shows

Most salespeople are more comfortable in the field being with clients, than writing proposals. But when they do have to sit down, they try to minimize their efforts: they cut-and-paste together boilerplate texts, change the company name, the price, and that's it.

Few companies use the proposal as a strategic sales tool; it is not seen as a priority. Yet in today's uncertain world, most purchasing decisions are made in teams, and we need to convince those we never meet, too! And the ones we do meet have a thousand other things on their minds – so it’s important to persuade them again when they read our proposal.

So our offer shouldn’t just be a presentation of our company and our solution, but a tool that actively drives sales.

However, many people do not know the difference between the two.

As the result of our Writing Persuasive Proposals program, you will:

Understand the structure of persuasion: Learn what makes a document not only informative but convincing.
Improve your closing percentage: Your ratio of winning bids increases.
Say “No” more intentionally: you don’t write a proposal for every request; you have a clear method for filtering out where you can expect to get a return on your investment.
Like writing them more: You understand exactly what makes a good proposal. Since you know what to write and how to write it, you are more willing to take this on.

Remember Cicero

What did the ancient master, known for his great speeches, say? To persuade me,

You must think my thoughts
You must feel my feelings
You must speak my words.

In our fast-paced, impersonal world, his words are more valid than ever. Instead of focusing on the technical parameters of our products and services, we should focus on the customer as a person. It is not those who understand our offer who will buy from us, but those who feel that we understand them!

That's why our Writing Persuasive Proposals program ties in with our Consultative Selling training.