The “Seven Deadly Sins” of Proposal Writing

The proposal is one of the most powerful, but misused tool, in a consultant's marketing arsenal. Look at your last proposal and see if you spot any of these seven deadly sins.

1. Lack of focus on the client's business problem and industry dynamics.

2. The "we, us, and our" syndrome. Does your proposal talk more about your firm than about the client's business?

3. No basis of differentiation. Focus is on weak differentiators such as quality service, price, responsiveness, and your firm's pedigree.

4. The expected value of the project isn't quantified so you can't use it as a baseline for justifying the proposed fee.

5. The proposal is laced with jargon, difficult to read, and doesn't include an issue-focused executive summary.

6. Reliance on a boilerplate resume.

7. Errors: misspellings, poor grammar, wrong client name, or inconsistent formats.

Comments

[Chris]

Great advice - and so often overlooked. I'd expand point 7 "Boilerplate Resume" to "Boilerplate Proposal". Having a template to enforce consistency in look and feel is a great idea/tool, but often these tools turn into an excuse for not writing a very pointed, differentiated proposal.

Great stuff on here... keep the ideas flowing.