BID WRITER
SELLING IN WRITING IS DIFFERENT
A proposal is a selling document.
People often assume that all they need in a proposal for it to sell are the right words. They believe they need to bring the written version of a salesperson to close the deal. What they don’t realise is that selling in writing is different from selling in person. It’s not the magic words you use, but what you do before you start writing that determines whether you win.
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Not interactive
Proposals are not interactive. Watch a Key Account Manager in action. They ask questions and based on the answers try different approaches. You can’t do that in writing. In person, you explore, discover, and test. In writing, you anticipate.
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One direction
Proposals only provide information in one direction. In a proposal, you can’t ask questions and modify your response based on what the customer tells you. You have to research the answers to your questions and anticipate the customer’s questions before you start writing.
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Homework
Doing your homework is critical. You have to get the answers to your questions ahead of time. When you sit down to write the proposal and find you have questions about the customer’s preferences, you may just have to guess. Educated guesses are better. Not having to guess is best of all.
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Perspective
Perspective is critical. You must learn to see the world from the customer’s perspective. When they read what you’ve written, they will see your proposal through their own eyes. To reach them and persuade them, everything you write must revolve around the customer.
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Mistakes
Mistakes are permanent. Typos are bad and your customer will find them. But there’s worse. If you misinterpret the customer, misunderstand what they want, or fail to write from their perspective, they will be constantly reminded of it every time they look at your proposal.
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Decisions
Decisions are made differently. When you try to persuade someone in person, they often make their decision on the spot. When you try to persuade someone in writing, they take their time deliberating. They think more about how they should decide and what criteria should guide them.
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Trust
Trust is earned differently. In a face-to-face meeting, trust is earned through body language, questions and answers, challenges and responses, and interaction. And over time. In writing, people decide whether to trust someone primarily by consistency, accuracy, transparency, and thoroughness.
People only buy from
people they TRUST.
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In conclusion
The best way to win in writing is to combine the two approaches. The proposal should follow the in-person discussion. But the proposal is not a follow-up to what happened in person, it is the extension of the discussion into another media.
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Your ability to win with a written proposal depends on your being able to see things from their perspective better than anyone else and to do it in writing. If the decision will be made exclusively on the strength of the proposal, your only chance is to write a better proposal. This means that you do a better job of writing from the customer’s perspective.
Very few people have empathy strong enough to write from a stranger’s perspective. The ones who do we call Winners.
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For the full 3-page paper, please request:
Selling in writing is different DJ.pdf
on my CONTACT page.