jim rogers
win
more
work
how to write winning A/E/C proposals
jim rogers
win
more
work
how to write winning A/E/C proposals
Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals, by Jim Rogers
Copyright © 2014
American Council of Engineering Companies and Jim Rogers
ISBN 978-0-910090-61-2 (MOBI edition)
ISBN-978-0-910090-62-9 (EPUB edition)
ISBN-978-0-910090-63-6 (PDF edition)
All rights reserved. This publication is the sole and exclusive property of ACEC. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, duplicated, stored in any form of retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without the prior written permission of ACEC.
The material in this publication is for informational purposes only and is not to be regarded as a substitute
for technical, legal, or other professional advice. While ACEC has made every effort to present accurate
information, we recognize that errors may exist or changes may occur over time. Therefore, the reader is
encouraged to review any information contained in this publication carefully. ACEC is not responsible for,
and expressly disclaims, liability for any claims arising out of use, reference to, or reliance on information
contained in this publication.
American Council of Engineering Companies
1015 15th Street, NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20005-2605
202-347-7474
202-898-0068
www.acec.org
COVER DESIGN
Rich Pottern
INTERIOR DESIGN
Laura Carter
ACEC MANAGING EDITOR
Roberta Rosenberg
COPY EDITOR
Lynn Thompson
DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR
Karen Bush
Jim Rogers, Unbridled Revenue, Inc.
For Harold Hughes, my teacher and friend
Contents
About
Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
vii
Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
viii
the
Chapter 1: Are You Better Than Average?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2: Why Judges Can’t Judge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 3: The Three-S Cure
for
Betterness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 4: Substance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Question One: Why Now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Question Two: What Do They Really Want?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Question Three: Why You?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 5: Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
It, They, You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Chapter 6: Style Matters
of
Written Proposals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Tell Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Stop the BABBL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Extra Credit: Use a Motif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Chapter 7: Style Matters
of
Oral Presentations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Memorable Mindset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Memorable Visuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Good Resources for Powerful Presentations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
v
vi | Winning Strategies for A/E/C Firms: An Executive’s Guide to Maximizing Growth and Profitability
Chapter 8: Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Recommended Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
About the Author
PHOTO BY DAVID PERRY/LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER
A
s an executive with a global management consulting firm, Jim Rogers became an expert in selling intangible, technical services to clients with formal
procurement processes. Over the past 25 years, Jim has been on the winning
end of proposals ranging from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred million
dollars. He was also on the losing end of one where the marketing costs were
over $2 million, which was a preventable waste of money if the owners hadn’t
fallen into the Betterness Trap. In this book, he shares what he learned along the
way. As an industry outsider, Jim approaches A/E sales and marketing from a 45°
angle. As president of Unbridled Revenue, Inc., he helps clients win more work.
He lives in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife Cathy and their three children.
vii
Acknowledgements
T
he examples within this book are adapted from real client proposals. Thank
you to my earliest clients, whose desire to continually improve provided the
experiences that bring this book to life: Glen Kelly, Ben Quinn, Jr., Richard
Tutt, Taylor Kelly, David Kratt, David Smith, Clint Goodin, Stuart McIntosh,
and Joe Jones.
During this process, one of my earliest colleagues and friends wore many hats,
including collaborator, developmental editor, and cheerleader. Thank you,
Karen Bush. The team at ACEC has a terrific vision for serving their clients by
launching their e-publishing endeavor. Thank you to Roberta Rosenberg for
her editing skill and for extending my understanding of English (and Yiddish)
etymology. Thank you to Marie Ternieden, Publisher, for taking a chance on
the first-time author, and to Lynn Thompson for copyediting and Rich Pottern
for cover design and Laura Carter of Carter Publishing Studio for page layout.
This book was not written over the course of a year—it began in college and
during the early years of my consulting career. I had the best teachers of persuasive writing during those formative years. Thank you Joanne Gilbert and Frank
Rovinksi. More recently, George Binder and Eddie Mesta saw the relevance
of my knowledge and experience to the engineering profession and gave me a
platform to communicate it. My wife Cathy, and my children Lucy, Abby, and
Jimmy, provided inspiration.
CHAPTER 1
Are You Better Than Average?
A
re you better than average? Depending on your professional perspective, you
can consider this question a few ways:
• Do you do a better job than the average professional in your industry?
• If you are employed by or associated with a firm, “Is my firm better than
average?”
Now take it a step further. How would you rank your performance in relation
to your peers? Bottom third or top third—or do you see yourself as part of the
elite top 10%? Hold onto your self-ranking—we’ll get back to that.
In a 1976 survey by the College Board of 829,000 high school students during
the administration of the SAT, seniors were asked to rate their ability to get
along with others. Here is how they ranked themselves:
85%
25%
Above average
Top one percent
Perhaps the city you live in is like Lake Wobegon. Lake Wobegon is Garrison
Keillor’s fictional town in his weekly radio show A Prairie Home Companion
“ . . . where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all
the children are above average.” We parents may even agree that our kids are
above average, regardless of what their teachers, grades, and test scores tell us.
Keillor’s phrase has entered pop psychology lingo as the “Lake Wobegon Effect.”
Other clinical terms for this effect include overplacement, illusory superiority,
and the better-than-average effect.
I prefer the term betterness, because, well, I made it up; therefore, it must be
better than other terms—at least in my mind.
It turns out that some adults cling to inflated opinions of themselves, too. Look
at how these adult groups believe they are better than average:
• Percent of university professors who believe they are doing a better job than
their colleagues: 94%
• Percent of car drivers in the United States who believe they are in the top
third of drivers: 80%
1
2 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
• Percent of American adults who say most of their fellow Americans are overweight: 90% Yet only 39% say they themselves are overweight.
Are engineers and architects exceptions to the rule? Go back to your answer to
the opening sentence in this book: Are you better than average? Face it, most
of us think we’re funnier, smarter, warmer, more honest, or more conscientious
than we really are. There are many reasons we over-rank ourselves relative to
our peers:
• Subjectivity. We have different ideas about what good or average means. How
do you define a good driver? Is your idea of a good driver a safe driver? Perhaps you think of a good driver as a fast driver? And if so, what sort of a fast
driver? A fast driver as in, “Daytona-International-Speedway-was-your-playground” fast driver? Or merely a “haven’t-gotten-caught-in-a-while-by-the
state-police” fast driver.
• Familiarity. We know ourselves better than we know our competitors. When
we have limited information about others, we fill in the gaps in our favor.
We assume that they have more weaknesses than we do.
• Survival. People cling to overly positive beliefs about themselves, fostering
illusions of control and beliefs in false superiority, because positive beliefs
help them cope and thrive.
Whether we are a self-centered teenager, a speedy driver, or a proud parent,
each of us has a tendency to perceive ourselves as better than others. Betterness
is, at its core, a mindset. It is a mindset that creeps into your professional life,
especially when competing for business. The betterness mindset is the little voice
that tells you, “You are better than they are; therefore you deserve to win the
work. Everyone can see that!”
Betterness Manifested
One of the premises of this book is that overconfidence—what I have termed
betterness—gets in the way of winning work and thwarts your efforts in some
very surprising ways. My goal for you, therefore, is to show you how to keep
overconfidence from sinking your sales efforts, especially when writing and
delivering proposals.
One way betterness manifests itself is in bad pursuits. Bad pursuits are those
opportunities that you have a low probability of winning, yet you chase them
anyway. Your betterness gets in the way of discerning a winnable pursuit from
a lost cause. Having the discipline to stay away from those lost causes is the
easiest way to save both time and money.
We see the effects of the betterness mindset in many aspects of our lives. Lawsuits, strikes, wars, and stock market crashes are examples.
Chapter 1: Are You Better Than Average? | 3
Consider lawsuits for a
moment. When plaintiffs
and defendants believe
they are more deserving,
smarter, and righteous
than those on the other
side of the dispute, they
go to court. That, in part,
explains the glut of legal
cases that overwhelm our
court system. Figure 1
shows a dramatic example
of how betterness plays
out in the business world.
As an architect or engineer, you may have been a
victim of your betterness
mindset if you’ve ever
said to your colleagues or
secretly thought to yourself any of the following:
FIGURE 1. Betterness manifested
• “This one is ours to lose!” [You probably will.]
• “Them? They hired them? We were a better fit than them—couldn’t the selection committee see that?” [No, they couldn’t.]
• “It’s a level playing field. This is wide open.” [If you think it’s a level playing
field, you’re probably running second behind the real front-runner. In my
home state of Kentucky, a hotbed of thoroughbred horseracing, if you finish
out of the money, we call you an also-ran.]
If you are now convinced the betterness mindset has affected your business acquisition, click Why Judges Can’t Judge to skip ahead. If you need more proof,
keep reading.
Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg
cackles as if she laid an asteroid.
—MARK TWAIN
Betterness surfaces in your written proposals and interview presentations as
puffery, bloat, and nonsense. Here are some examples lifted from real proposals—identities have been changed to protect the guilty!
4 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
The team at Toast Architects is committed to providing high
quality and innovative design services to our clients and continues
to expand technology while providing services in a cost effective,
timely manner.
Or this example:
Hagen & Spencer is your one source for expert consulting services,
exceptional planning services, superior project management, and
unmatched construction supervision.
I see these superlatives and bluster in almost every proposal I read. Yet clients
tell me that they hate writing proposals because when they use superlatives
and puffery to assert their betterness, they feel like used car dealers or carnival
barkers. If you don’t want to feel that way, don’t write that way. This book
will teach you how to identify and rewrite these phrases.
That’s right—it filets, it chops, it dices, slices,
It gets rid of unwanted facial hair . . .
It delivers a pizza, and it lengthens,
and it strengthens . . .
It makes excuses for unwanted lipstick on your collar
And it’s only a dollar, step right up; it’s only a dollar, step right up . . .
—TOM WAITS (from the song “Step Right Up”)
Don’t feel bad. You have been unsure what else to do because no one has shown
you how to understand the steps to presenting yourself in a more compelling
way—not your college professors, not your mentors, and not your marketing
firm.
In today’s competitive environment, the same old approach just won’t work.
Decision-makers now may receive more than a dozen submittals when they used
to count the proposals on one hand.
No One Is Exempt from the Betterness Mindset
For those of you who are thinking that this mindset doesn’t apply to you, that
you don’t fall prey to your betterness, perhaps it reveals itself in another way.
You’re the one who answered “No” to the chapter-opening question “Are you
better than average?” You thought, “Other engineers may think they’re better
than average, but other engineers are soooo arrogant. I’m less arrogant than
most engineers.” Perhaps modesty is merely another trait you’re overestimating!
Chapter 1: Are You Better Than Average? | 5
Let’s get real, though. To win a piece of work, have you ever ignored your
self-doubt and asserted your betterness anyway? Of course you have, because
that’s what you think may win the work, even if you have no business chasing
that job. You believe that you can make strenuous assertions that will help the
decision-maker to see you as better and pick you.
I am better than my reputation.
—JOHANN FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER
You would never write or say, “We’re not even close to the best firm for this
job, but hire us anyway! We’ll do an okay job.” No, instead you use words like
superior, unmatched, innovative, and client-focused.
The Betterness Trap
In trying to win over the client with bold assertions, there is a flawed mindset at
work that I have coined the Betterness Trap. It’s a trap that will lose a terrific
project, cost you money, and sap your energy. The trap is in your belief that
you can get the decision-makers to see your betterness by proclaiming it loudly.
CHAPTER 2
Why Judges Can’t Judge
T
o understand why you must avoid the Betterness Trap at all costs, it helps to
understand why judges’ decisions may be perplexing or arbitrary. There are
good explanations for what may seem to you as unfair decisions: subjectivity,
bias, impropriety, blindness, stupidity; however, what stands above all is . . .
laziness.
I know you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, decision-makers work hard.” Of
course they do. I’m not indicting judges for intentional laziness—it is just how
our brains have evolved to be wired for self-preservation. According to Daniel
Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, we are all subject to something
termed the “law of least effort” when it comes to a complex decision. “The
law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will
eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. Laziness is built
deep into our nature.”
During the selection process, when a decision-maker has several good, yet fairly
indistinguishable, firms from which to choose, the decision becomes more difficult. Therefore, the default action is to find an easier way to choose.
Consider difficult decisions you make in life, for example, buying a car or home,
hiring a new employee, choosing an engagement ring or even a college.
The choices are dizzying and the amount of information available is overwhelming. The act of choosing may be exciting at the beginning, but it becomes tiring
and unpleasant. This explains the popularity of independent rankings found
in various lists such as “Best Colleges” or “Best Retirement Cities,” published
in magazines and on the Internet. These are tools that help us cut through the
data clutter. The same is true for a seemingly small decision, such as choosing
a bottle of wine to take to a dinner party. It’s easier to rely on wine ratings so
we can quickly locate a highly ranked choice that fits into a budget, sports a
nice looking label, or perhaps even a catchy name.
If you have ever used a scorecard to judge a competition such as a dive meet,
a science fair, or a chili cook-off, try to recall the process. You diligently do
your best to score competitors based on criteria that you may or may not fully
understand. You total up the scoring criteria only to find that the scorecard
7
8 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
doesn’t agree with your gut feeling as to who should win. You get out your
eraser and force the math to reflect your gut feeling.
I won’t remember you in fifteen minutes.
—SIMON COWELL
Essentially, we look for the easiest way to make what we think is the right decision. This often means relying on the information that is easiest to remember:
what we heard first or last, something surprising, something familiar, or plain
old gut feel.
The common element across all those decision factors is that they include something easy for us to remember. The more memorable the factor is, the more
likely we will use that information when we get overwhelmed and default to
our “lazy” decision-making process.
Only YOU Are to Blame
Think about what you do when you stand face-to-face with identical twins. You
look for anything to help you distinguish between them. Any little thing—a tiny
mole on the left cheek—might help you distinguish Mary from Alice. That’s
exactly what your prospective clients try to do when you are lumped in with
other good choices. The problem gets multiplied the more good choices they
have. Three qualified finalists may look like identical triplets to them!
Hiring a professional can be a complex decision, and without realizing it, you
are probably making it even more complex. When decision-makers have a choice
between two good alternatives but the proposals look the same, they have an
identical twins problem. Here’s what the identical twins problem looks like in
an engineering services proposal:
Our goal is to ensure client satisfaction. We achieve this by producing high quality construction documents and working in a
collaborative design process with our clients for building designs
that evolve uniquely to the need of each project.
Versus this one
Our service philosophy is based on client satisfaction through integrated and technically competent services. We marshal the resources of the most talented and competent architects to present a
comprehensive team of professionals committed to the successful
completion of each assignment.
Chapter 2: Why Judges Can’t Judge | 9
Where is the mole on the cheek of these identical twin statements? The
­decision-maker must struggle to find one, which makes it a coin toss.
Without wanting to or realizing it, you’ve snared yourself in the Betterness Trap.
You’ve undermined yourself because judges can’t judge. Judges can’t judge, yet
they believe they get it right every time, because you did not make the choice
easier for them. Don’t make them work hard; make their job easy.
People don’t hate buying; they hate difficult choices.
Make it easy for them to choose.
—JIM ROGERS (Yeah, that’s me)
In the next chapter, you will learn the cure for the identical twins—or even quadruplets—problem. Follow the advice and you’ll never be mistaken for someone
else again. Instead, you will be memorable and win more work.
CHAPTER 3
The Three-S Cure for Betterness
I
n the four following chapters, you will learn how to fully purge all traces of the
Betterness Trap from your proposals. In this brief chapter, I will introduce a
framework that will help you identify the three major proposal elements where
you can find ways to be memorable rather than forgettable. Proposals, whether
good or bad, winning or losing, memorable or forgettable, all share three major
elements: substance, structure, and style.
• Substance makes the argument for your team.
• Structure gives order to your substance.
• Style gets your proposal noticed and remembered.
When you provide the substance in an orderly and
structured manner, with style that presents your ideas
and team memorably, you hit the sweet spot—the
intersection indicated by the arrow in Figure 2—that
makes your client think “I can see and remember the
difference, and I want to hire you.”
FIGURE 2. Proposal Elements
I organize proposal elements like this to give you an
easy way to remember and apply the practices you
will learn. For each element, I identify the primary
difference-makers that most proposal writers fail to
nail. If you nail them, your win rate will start to rise
. . . at your competitors’ expense.
Some difference-makers I describe will sound familiar and you may already be
doing them today—this will serve as a good refresher. Many difference-makers
will be new. Some difference-makers will sound familiar, yet you never applied
them. Regardless of where you are now—start or continue using the difference-makers in this book and you will win more work.
The difference-makers in the substance (see Chapter 4: Substance) and structure
(See Chapter 5: Structure) elements are common for written proposals and presentations. However, matters of style are very different for written proposals
and interviews; therefore, style will be treated separately in two chapters: Style
Matters of Written Proposals (Chapter 6) and Style Matters of Oral Presentations (Chapter 7).
11
CHAPTER 4
Substance
Substance is the core of your logical argument. It answers the following questions:
1. Why now?
2. What do they really want?
3. Why you?
If you’ve done your legwork to understand the project and the client’s needs,
you will have a great chance of winning. Why? Because you’ll be able to answer
these questions without hesitation. If you did, you are probably a front-runner,
if not the front-runner. Plus, as an added bonus of this up-front work, you’ll find
this substance section should practically write itself. This part of the proposal
could actually be (gasp) fun!
Let’s tackle the three questions.
QUESTION ONE: WHY NOW?
At the earliest opportunity in your proposal, answer the question, “Why now?”
Your answer should describe the business problem and its urgency. This sounds
like one question, but it is really a two-in-one: Why? and Why now?
First, the why. You’ll want to describe the problem from the point of view of
people, that is, the stakeholders. It is not enough to state, “Widening the road
to add a center turn lane will speed up traffic.” The value of speeding up traffic
may be obvious to engineers, drivers, city council members, and even people
who don’t drive! Yet, moving traffic along faster doesn’t explicitly connect the
requirement to the value for the user of the road; it is merely an accomplishment
of the project.
Although you may think the benefit is obvious, don’t allow the decision-maker’s
imagination to engage without your direction. Connect the accomplishment
to a human to illustrate an outcome that people value. In this example, after
you’ve written the accomplishment “speed up traffic,” you’ll add, “As a result,
commuters will spend less time in their cars driving to work and enjoy more
personal time to have a catch in the backyard with their daughters, read books
about proposal writing to help them grow their business, or play online canasta.”
13
14 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
In short, describe the value to people, which most RFP writers rarely address
in their descriptions of need. Don’t assume the value will be obvious. Try to
visualize yourself as the stakeholder who will benefit from the project. If it is a
local project and you are a user of the solution, this may not be difficult at all.
I have clients who protest, “but the no-nonsense engineers don’t want to read
or hear all that fluff—they just want to skip to the technical solution.” This is
likely often true, but don’t worry about it. If you know your audience, make it
short or give them a visual cue (e.g., a headline) to enable them to skip ahead
to the technical meat of the proposal.
Go on to consider and answer the question “Why now?” because selection
committees may include members with no engineering background. If those
committee members represent the stakeholders in any way—let’s say they are
elected officials—they will appreciate this brief replay of the larger issue.
Examples of Answers to “Why now?”
Here’s a sample list of engineering design project benefits:
• Provide clean water, so we can live healthy lives
• Provide safety from natural disasters, so we can protect our lives, property,
and prosperity
• Provide safety from foreign attacks, that is, for our defense
• Provide energy to power our homes, hospitals, and schools
• Build our communities
• Get us to work, to visit loved ones, and to get away and relax
• Encourage visits to national parks and historic landmarks
• Promote tourism in our region
• Attract business and create jobs
• Improve flow of commerce
• Protect wildlife
• Make progress while preserving history
• Reduce the cost of food and other goods
Notice the focus on benefits to human beings.
Examples of benefits for architects include the following:
• Finally have your “forever house”
• Help children learn; improve test scores
• Help patients feel less pain and heal faster
• Make it easier to reconfigure the space when future needs change
• Ensure that adaptive re-use meets the needs of the investors while preserving
historical elements
Chapter 4: Substance | 15
Where’s the Fire?
Remember, there are two questions in one. Let’s look at the other part; the
question is the now.
There may be many reasons for the answer to “why now?” For example,
perhaps there was an accident that called attention to the need for improved
safety, availability of municipal funds that may be lost, or imminent deadlines
for monumental events, like the next Olympic Games. If you know why this
project takes higher priority over others, then say it. If you don’t, then find out.
Beyond showing that you fully understand the situation, you’ll create a positive and memorable impression on the judges, because you will validate the
decision-makers. People have a deep need to be acknowledged. If you’ve ever
volunteered to do something without pay, the likelihood of your volunteering
again probably rests upon whether your effort was acknowledged in some way.
Below are examples of likely key players who like to be validated, and why.
Government employees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of April
2014, there are approximately 265,000 civil engineers in the U.S. At least onefourth of those are in government. On top of that are hundreds of thousands of
other local and state government employees who are stakeholders or decision
makers for projects. These folks sometimes feel overworked, underpaid, beset
upon, or unappreciated. They need to be reminded of their value.
Commercial clients. A profit-minded, commercial client balances the benefits,
costs, and risks of a building project. They will appreciate your understanding
of their goals while acknowledging the inherent financial risk. You’ll be viewed
as someone committed to their ultimate goals. Commercial clients, too, may
only need a few sentences to show that you understand them.
People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
——SIMON SINEK
You. If you want your passion to shine through your proposals, your answer
to “why now?” may remind you of why you do what you do. Other than good
pay and job security, you probably had a strong desire to design or build very
early in life. If I were to peek into your childhood attic, I’d probably find Lincoln
Logs, an Erector Set, Tinker Toys, Legos, or all of the above.
16 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
Real-life Example
Here’s a great example of text from an actual requirement—only lightly edited—I adapted from a client’s proposal. In his draft, he copied and pasted the
following text from the RFP.
The Chimney Rock Parkway Corridor connects I-99 to US 23 and
is a vital arterial route into the Chimney Rock area. The Western region has a lack of sufficient transportation infrastructure
and system linkage. This section of the Chimney Rock Parkway
Extension has geometric deficiencies that need to be upgraded to
current standards in order to provide travelers of the Parkway
with a modern and safe transportation facility. The purpose of
this project is to provide a safer and more efficient corridor, and
to contribute to the transportation infrastructure improvements
needed to support and enhance economic vitality in the Western
region of the state.
Before working with me on a proposal, my client may have just regurgitated
this text and wasted the decision-maker’s time in the process. After working
together, we ended up with something like this:
Chimney Rock Parkway is the most important corridor to the
mountain tourist destinations for hiking, skiing, and folk festivals.
The Parkway is vital to move lumber, to promote adventure tourism, and to move goods and services. It also provides access to all
points east, including beaches, the best health care in the world,
four national universities, and the state capital. The widening of
Chimney Rock Parkway to four lanes is crucial for access to the
corridor. As importantly, this project is on the critical path for
another big job—CN 31. Therefore, Chimney Rock Parkway is a
must-do project in order to free up funding and resources to next
tackle this project.
It is that easy to make a quick restatement, in readable English, of the business
need. Hit it, and then move on.
QUESTION TWO: WHAT DO THEY REALLY WANT?
The second question your Substance portion will answer is “What do they really
want?” This question is very different than the specifications for what the client
is buying, for example, a traffic study, a bridge repair, a home, a wastewater
system, a recreational trail. If you don’t understand the need in their solicitation, then you have no business chasing this piece of business. Instead, answer
the question “What do they really want?” If you answer this question well and
Chapter 4: Substance | 17
if your strengths play to what they really want, you may be the front-runner
and you will win 90% of the time, all other things being equal. They will likely
never say aloud what it is that they really want, because that often taps into
unmentionable fear and doubt. In the business world, we often wear masks to
prevent others from seeing our vulnerabilities. Unstated concerns are psychological. For example, a decision-maker may be worried about the complexity of
the project, the amount of work, the possible “gotchas,” including some they
can imagine and others that are inconceivable. Occasionally, a client may not
even be conscious himself of what he wants to accomplish through his purchase.
That underlying need can be identified with good detective work on your part
while learning about their needs.
It helps to have an understanding of why people really buy. In Rapid Response
Advertising, Geoff Ayling lists fifty reasons why people buy. Following are eleven
paraphrased reasons that relate directly to the sale of professional services:
1. To attract praise—because almost everybody loves it
2. To avoid criticism—which nobody wants
3. To make work easier—a constant need to many people
4. To speed up work—because people know that time is precious
5. To avoid effort—because nobody loves to work harder than necessary
6. To avoid trouble—because trouble is never a joy
7. To access opportunities—because they open the doors to good things
8. To protect reputation—because hard work went into building it
9. To be excited—because people need excitement in a humdrum life
10. To save money—the most important reason to 14% of the population
11. To leave a legacy—because that’s a way to live forever
How do you address unstated needs in your proposal? By playing them back
wherever possible and by matching your strengths to those needs.
Here are some ways that you might express unstated needs for the client, if they
are willing to share them—and you don’t want to offend them by being blunt:
• Stay out of the press
• Avoid 2 a.m. phone calls
• Limit or avoid rework
• Free up time to work on another project
If you are the incumbent, a likely unstated need is to avoid effort related to
switching consultants, that is, of hiring someone new. Why would the client
hire someone else who would need training on all the site specifics that you
already know? It will take time away from something else they could be doing.
Incumbents often make the argument that because they know the area, they
will have less ramp-up time. They fail to make the connection to the unstated
client need, which is to avoid effort. Follow the phrase “less ramp-up time” with
18 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
“you can spend less time in meetings and more time finding budget for other
important projects.” These few words clearly express the benefit to the buyer.
Real-life Example
Here is an example from my first engineering client. He shared a proposal with
me and asked me to do an evaluation. It was a winning proposal for a neighborhood sidewalk. As he handed it to me, he explained that sidewalks can have
some tricky issues, especially when there is water nearby, changes in terrain, or
right of way matters. This sidewalk happened to be in a tony residential neighborhood with well-manicured lawns devoid of intrusive sidewalks that would
break up their continuity and beauty.
When I returned to the office, a simple Google search yielded some local newspaper articles about the contentiousness of the project. Residents with influence
were unhappy. Knowing that, I saw immediately that this project wasn’t merely
about pouring concrete next to a road; it was about managing stakeholders.
When we got together to discuss my assessment, I smugly announced, “You’re
lucky I didn’t help a competitor write their proposal.”
“How’s that?” he asked, unfazed by my smugness. After all, he was a friend
first; client, second.
“Because I think you missed an opportunity to address a big need that the client
had, which was stakeholder management. Even though you won the work, you
would’ve erased all doubts had you described specifics to handling the public
on contentious projects like this one.”
I believed that staying out of the daily press would be a measure of success for
the client. To help this client stay out of the press, some of the difference-makers
might have included:
• Maintenance of traffic
• Extra care and respect for personal property
• A communication approach that went beyond the obligatory public meeting
to include door hangers, one on one conversations on doorsteps, and social
media
Those proposed tactics would address resident concerns before they started
calling town council members or the local beat reporter.
Those difference-makers would address the unstated concern about stakeholder
worries.
Chapter 4: Substance | 19
QUESTION THREE: WHY YOU?
At this point, you’ve answered the questions “Why now?” and “What do they
really want?” The third question you must answer for the buyer is “Why you?”
Why should they hire you instead of another vendor? Here are three ways you
can answer that question memorably and separate yourself from the competition:
• Find ONE idea, or “win theme,” that addresses the primary client concern
• Focus the description of your strengths exclusively on the ONE win theme
• Describe vivid advantages of hiring you
Win Theme: The ONE Thing They Should Remember
Your win theme is the connective tissue of your proposal. It is where what you
have to offer the client connects with their most important needs—very often,
the unspoken needs we just discovered.
It is the message that connects to the predominant client concern. Go back and
look at the list of reasons people buy, and see how they might help form the
core of a win theme.
Here are a couple of examples of a common win theme that small and midsized firms may use. Notice how I take a theme (or strength) for the firm and
connect it to the buyer. Once you make the connection from your strength to
the buyer’s need, the theme changes to a win theme.
Strength or theme: We are small and nimble.
Win theme: We give you flexibility and choice. You have control
and will not be stuck with a decision if your needs change.
Strength or theme: We are the incumbent firm.
Win theme: Because we have worked with you before and know
your processes and people, we can save you effort, risk, and worry.
If you end up with a theme that looks merely like a list of strengths, then you
haven’t gone far enough to connect to the buyer.
Moreover, if you have an idea, a talking point, or message that doesn’t connect,
leave it out. It might be relevant for another proposal, but not this one.
Ideally, you should develop the win theme early on, but don’t panic if you haven’t
done a good job early on. Most proposal writers think it’s a huge mistake to
begin writing a proposal without a well-crafted win theme. Nonsense. It is an
inconvenience and can create rework, but I do not believe everyone (without
outside help) can uncover the theme without getting down into the weeds. The
20 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
earlier you develop a well-formed win theme, though, the easier the writing of
the proposal.
I always have trouble remembering three things; faces,
names, and—I can’t remember what the third thing is.
—FRED ALLEN
In almost 30 years of writing proposals, I still find it a challenge (a fun challenge) to help my clients uncover effective win themes. There is as much art as
there is science in creating them, as they don’t just pop out of a formula. Very
often, the theme emerges as I listen to the principals discuss their key points,
their competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and as we do an analysis of what
the decision-makers care about. That is, what do the buyers value? What are
their preferences? Their concerns? What is their stake in the project? A good
proposal writer who does not work on the account can often hear themes that
the account teams cannot hear for themselves. Have someone else in the room
with you—someone with business acumen and an understanding of buyer values—not merely a proofreader or technical writer.
Real-life Example
A client hired me to help his team prepare for an interview for bridge design.
In preparation for our kickoff meeting with the presentation team, I asked the
client about his written proposal (which I did not help write). The ensuing
conversation went something like this:
Me: “To understand your strengths and to find a strong win
theme, let me ask a few questions. First, why do clients hire and
re-hire you?”
Partner: “We’re cheaper.”
Me: “You compete on price?”
Partner: “No, we’re just cheaper.”
Me: “You’re never going to say that again. You’re not cheaper;
you save your clients money. Let’s talk about why you are able
to save them money.”
Partner: “We do a lot of bridge design.”
Me: “How does that make you cheaper?”
Partner: “Because we specialize in bridge design, we foresee problems that prevent rework.”
Chapter 4: Substance | 21
Me: “How?”
Partner: “We have 104 years collective exper . . .
Me: (I didn’t let him finish.) “That doesn’t tell me anything. You
might have 52 people with two years’ experience, or two with 52
years’ each.”
Partner: “Well, we do only have three engineers. The least experienced one has 28 years’ experience.”
Me: “Good. That’s more powerful. Say that to the client. Again,
how are you cheaper?”
Partner: “Our fees are on the same rate schedule as our competitors; we come in under budget. We don’t bill as many hours as
others do.”
Me: “Why not?”
Partner: “We get it done in less time.”
At this point, it’s beginning to sound a lot like Abbott and Costello’s Who’s on First? routine, so I change tactics.
Me: “Tell me how you do the work.”
Partner: (Blank stare)
Me: “You’re a three-engineer firm. Do you folks divide up the
work, where one partner takes the lead on certain jobs and someone else performs QA?”
Partner: “No, we work on the same jobs together, over and over.”
Me: “Every job?”
Partner: “Yes, all three partners work on every project. Actually,
all seven employees do, from the person who answers the phone
to the draftsman.”
Me: “Let’s refer to that as an ‘intact team’, because you stay intact.
Because you work together, there are few miscommunications for
handoffs, your methodology is the same, and each person knows
his role. You can finish each other’s sentences.”
Partner: “Yes!”
22 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
Me: “Now, what evidence do you have that you cost less? How
would you prove it? For example, what percentage of bridge work
projects over the past five years has required a change order?”
Partner: “Well, we’ve written only one change order in five years—
and that was a major scope increase initiated by the client.”
From that conversation, I drafted a win theme that connects with their clients,
who are usually repeat clients. The win theme actually became a part of their
brand identity. They now use the statement in each proposal, on their web site,
and in their marketing collateral:
Engineers hate surprises—that is, bad surprises such as rework,
change orders, and missed deadlines. Clients who prefer predictability to surprises hire Mallory, Neal, & Plummer for their bridge
and roadway projects. Here are some examples of predictability:
• Mallory, Neal, & Plummer has completed thirty-seven projects
in the past five years and has written only one change order.
That’s predictability.
• As a small engineering firm, we use the same team—completely
intact—on each project. That’s predictability.
• Over the past five years, the Division of Highways has rated
us an average of 95.5 for bridge design. That’s predictability.
How are we able to predictably deliver high ratings with few
surprises? We use the same experienced engineers over and over,
project by project. Our engineers average 32 years of experience,
with the least experienced engineer clocking in at 28 years of experience. Because we each have complementary skills and work on
virtually every project together, we communicate tightly, have few
handoffs, and are able to resolve issues. That translates into our
1) being able to work within the Division of Highways’ approximate budget 97.2% of the time, 2) to write change orders only
when absolutely necessary (there are never surprises), and 3) to
meet schedule 98% of the time. Predictability frees our clients up
to focus on all the other projects that they are juggling.
Mallory, Neal, & Plummer. We’re what predictability looks like.
If you’re a client buying innovation, Mallory, Neal, & Plummer isn’t selling
it. That’s not the type of work they chase. It doesn’t mean they can’t say they
are innovative—they are. It just isn’t the most important part of their identity.
There’s no reason to go there, because it clutters the theme of predictability.
Chapter 4: Substance | 23
I was still thinking about this client when I heard University of Kentucky basketball
coach John Calipari on the radio. Coach Cal, as he is known, has become synonymous with college basketball in Kentucky and with the phrase “one and done.”
This is a result of his recruiting the top freshman class year after year, knowing
that most of the kids will leave for the NBA after one year of college. With this in
mind, I encouraged the bridge design client to say, “We don’t have any freshmen
on our team. We are successful because, in basketball terms, we are more like juniors and seniors who have played together for years. We have team chemistry.”
Sound gimmicky? Not if you know your client. In Kentucky, the metaphor
worked well—it was a colorful, memorable way to describe what they do and
why they are different.
Strengths
Your biggest strengths are usually your people and their experience. Clients buy
your people’s time and talents. Because you are selling an invisible service, you
are essentially selling a relationship. Clients choose relationships with professionals that they trust. Trust is supreme.
A well-written, relevant project can be memorable and help sell your team.
Typically, related project descriptions are forgettable—they are recitations of
project facts. Instead, write your relevant project description as you would an
application for an engineering excellence award or a press release trumpeting
your client’s achievement. You can bask in their glory. With some thought, you
could find something about each project that is newsworthy or provides a clear
tale that helps potential clients understand what it could be like to work with
you. Humbly giving your clients the credit is a difference-maker. Humility will
make you likeable and, consequently, more memorable.
We don’t like to think about our sewage system and tend not to
. . . until something goes wrong. In 2003, in the city of Mount
Pilot, something was definitely wrong. Each heavy thundershower
inundated sewers that then dumped raw sewage into back yards,
onto streets, and even onto property near the elementary school!
To fix the problem, Mount Pilot doubled its wastewater treatment
plant capacity—but it wasn’t enough. Two years later, the plant
was back up to 93% capacity. The city risked a sewer tap ban
that would prevent new construction for multi-tenant dwellings,
retail stores, industrial parks, and other private projects. A sewer
tap ban would kill economic development and job creation. City
leaders, who had been in negotiations with the state to build a new
medium-security prison, were stunned to find the sewage problem
24 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
caused the state to drop them from consideration two days before
their presentation to state decision-makers.
Crump, Otis, and Floyd’s design included a more affordable way
to expand the wastewater plant. Crump, Otis, and Floyd proposed
the Zero-Sum Sludge System (ZSSS), a European technology that
had yet to be implemented in North America. ZSSS restored Mount
Pilot’s eligibility to compete for new business. Although the city
lost its chance at the new prison, an auto parts manufacturer chose
to build a new factory there, creating nearly 300 jobs. Residents
of Mount Pilot were understandably more excited about the new
factory than the prison.
The Advantage of Hiring You
Don’t assume that the client will make the connections between your strengths
and the advantage of hiring you. Making the connections is work. Remember,
we’re all lazy when faced with complex decisions. Tell them yourself—clearly
and pointedly.
Real-life Example
My house once had a leaky roof . . . in San Diego. How bad could that be? After
all, San Diego is a semi-arid climate. It rains on average only 12 inches per year,
and has bright sunshine almost three hundred days a year. By comparison, St.
Louis, Missouri gets 41 inches of rain a year; New Orleans, 60.
Although I have no purchasing department and no formal procurement rules,
when hiring a contractor, I often interview three firms before making a selection. The first “dude” showed up in a dilapidated truck, threw his cigarette butt
onto the street, and then scratched out an estimate of $9,999 on a dime store
sales receipt pad.
The second contractor, who looked respectable and had been referred to us by
a friend, described the two primary roofing materials for flat roof residences
and explained that he could do either, yet preferred the longer-lasting material
at $10,900. He also said he would match anyone else’s price.
The third roofer said the same thing as the second, but added, “I will give my
business card to all of your adjacent neighbors and tell them to call me if they
have any concerns with noise, their property, or any other issue. We will leave
your property in at least as good a shape as we found it. For instance, you have
beautiful calla lilies. We will not trample your calla lilies; you will not have to
spend a month handpicking old roofing out of your shrubs; and you won’t step
Chapter 4: Substance | 25
on any roofing nails. The basic estimate for the roofing material we recommend
is $11,900.”
Who did we pick? The third contractor, because we trusted him. We were willing
to pay a premium to ensure that he would do the job well, and that we and our
neighbors wouldn’t have additional inconveniences to worry about.
We trusted him because he anticipated concerns that went beyond price, material,
and schedule. He was very specific about the total experience: the problems that
we would not even think of, as it was our first time replacing a roof.
He would have made his case even stronger if he had asked, “Have you ever
replaced a roof before? Or remodeled a kitchen or bath?” If we had answered,
“No,” he could tell us about some of the unpleasant surprises that homeowners
have experienced. If we had said, “Yes,” he could ask, “Do you remember what
that was like to deal with the dust, the neighbors, and the noise?”
The point is that we have unstated needs. The most common unstated need is
to avoid making a mistake. As a result, the only thing that we really buy is trust
that you will not prove to be a mistake. The proposal and everything that leads
up to it must help create this feeling of trust.
Key Takeaways
By using the difference-makers in these Three‑S Elements, your proposal will
be memorable.
Substance is the foundation of your logical argument. By answering the question
“Why now?” you validate the decision-makers.
By answering the question “What do they really want?” you address their unstated needs.
By answering the question “Why you?” with a description of strengths and
then connecting them to the advantage of hiring you, you will be persuasive.
Finally, by sticking to one win theme, you make it easy for them to remember
the advantage of hiring you.
Answering these questions purges your proposal of betterness and instead makes
you memorable.
CHAPTER 5
Structure
L
et me describe how a typical kickoff meeting unfolds when I work with a new
client on our first proposal.
I walk into the war room, where I see the backs of a half-dozen people staring at
the far wall, like tourists standing in front of the Mona Lisa. They are studying
an aerial image of the site’s terrain, existing structures, and nearby environmental
concerns. They describe budget constraints and then debate alternatives for the
solution to the client’s technical problem.
I clear my throat to snap them out of their obsession with the map. I introduce
myself to the folks I haven’t yet met, and we all sit down to get started. The
project manager asserts control and describes for me the technical problem the
client needs solved.
Before he can begin his third sentence, I gently interrupt and ask for permission
to lead the meeting. I grab as many adhesive, blank flip chart pages as will cover
up the aerial map, and then say:
“For the next two hours, we are going to talk about people.
During this time, you will not look at the aerials of the site. If we
don’t discuss the technical solution before I walk out the door in
two hours, that will be fine by me. Our planning will determine
whether you will win this work. At some point during today’s
meeting, you may even determine that it will be a waste of time
and money to chase this opportunity.”
No one looks happy.
Why have I just made everyone in the room unhappy? Because they always
begin with the technical problem. They are engineers and they like to solve
engineering problems. They are in their comfort zones. However, if they begin
with the technical problem, they spend all their time up until the day before
the proposal is due working on it, then they write the cover letter—by cloning
an old one. By waiting so long, they miss a big opportunity to be memorable.
27
28 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
I’m not suggesting that technical solution doesn’t matter—of course it does. Yet,
you cannot bank on the uniqueness of your technical solution. What happens
if several competing engineers arrive at the same solution?
Regardless, there is a sequence that can work almost every time—as long as you
are not out of compliance with the RFP instructions.
IT, THEY, YOU
Structure is simple—it is laid out in Substance in the three questions:
1. Why now? [describes it, the work]
2. What do they really want?
3. Why you?
Did you expect me to say something different? This is the exact sequence of
the questions that your substance must answer, as laid out in the prior chapter.
I told you writing the proposal could be FUN . . . if you do your homework.
Most proposals I review, though, read like this:
1. All about us, our team, our experience
2. The technical problem
3. More about the technical problem,
4. Even more about the technical problem
5. An anemic “thanks for your consideration” as a parting statement
When you start your proposal by taking about yourself, that is, a “me-first”
approach, you fall into the Betterness Trap and will be forgettable, not memorable. From now on, you aren’t going to do that.
Real-life Example
Here’s a great example of how me-first betterness mentality shows up in the
first slide of a PowerPoint presentation for orals:
Fife & Partners
Established in 1980
Offices in Manteo, Raleigh, and Tabor City
64 Employees
32 Professional Engineers
16 PTOEs
8 Engineers in Training
4 Professional Land Surveyors
2 Architects
And a partridge in a pear tree
Chapter 5: Structure | 29
Without looking back at the list, try to jot down as many of those points as
you can remember. Not many, I’d wager. That was an example of the me-first
sequence. Start instead with them.
Clients care first about the impact of your services on them;
then they think about your people.
—MICHAEL W. McLAUGHLIN, Winning the Professional Services Sale
A client once asked me to assess her proposal. As we sat down to review it, I
asked her to go through a quick exercise before I began sharing my thoughts. I
asked her to quickly skim the first two pages of text and to highlight first person
pronouns (I, me, us, we, or firm name) and second person references (i.e., you
or client name). Within the first two pages, she referred to her team forty-two
times. She referred to the client six times. That is a seven to one ratio. That’s
too much “us” and not enough “you.” I challenge clients to shoot for three
“you” references for every “us” reference.
Grab a few of your past proposals and try this exercise yourself. You will
probably be very surprised. Follow the It, They, You structure every time and
you will soon improve to one or two to one, very quickly. Don’t worry, it gets
easier over time.
There really isn’t much more to say about structure, other than . . .
Don’t Bury the Lead
Pick up the nearest magazine or newspaper. Read the first paragraph or two
and see what you notice. The writer usually introduces the most important information in the article right away. In journalism, failing to introduce the most
important information early in the article is called burying the lead. If you bury
the lead, the reader may become disinterested and stop reading before getting to
the most important bits. What will it mean for you if the decision-maker skips
ahead in your proposal without reading your best argument? Worse, how would
you feel to learn that the reviewer stopped reading your proposal, tossed it in the
discard pile, and moved on to proposal number six of fourteen that they must
evaluate? [The reader just evaluated your proposal without actually reading it,
didn’t he or she? There is no way to coerce the reading of your proposal; it only
has to be evaluated. Read and evaluate are not synonymous.]
Put your strongest arguments up front. Never introduce new strengths, themes,
or supporting data near the end of your proposal. The conclusion needs to be
familiar to the reader or listener and must reinforce the ONE thing that you
want the decision-maker to remember. Anything introduced after the one big
30 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
idea will likely overwrite the big idea, creating a risk of making your big idea
forgettable when it comes time for them to consider their decision.
Good Example of a Bad Wrap-Up
Here is an example from an executive summary—that was making a fine argument for the firm’s services—until it ended with a list of Top 10 Reasons why
the client should hire them:
1. Thorough understanding of needs
2. Broad experience with similar projects
3. Familiarity with the project site
4. Passion
5. Strong history with client personnel
6. Top-notch project manager
7. Immediate availability
8. Local office
9. Desire to serve
10. Meet and exceed your expectations
Let me point out two big problems, among many, with this list. First, if you
have a list this long, they won’t remember many, if any, items. They might remember one of the first or last items on the list. Or maybe none at all . . . the
items are forgettable. Even if there were only three items, the reader wouldn’t
likely recall even one ten minutes later.
Second, many of these statements did not appear in the document until the last
paragraph. The writer introduced new information at the end of the executive
summary that was not already covered. You want to reinforce an idea that
you already planted—preferably ONE idea. Repetition will help make the idea
memorable. They also have a better chance at recalling the last big idea that they
read. Instead, end with that idea that most vividly expresses your win theme.
When to Break the Rules
Dear Selection Committee:
I’ve waited 30 years to do this job. I live near the site for your
proposed new ballpark, currently occupied by the century-old,
abandoned, brick textile plant. Over the decades, I have watched
it deteriorate as I drive past it daily. I’m glad that this opportunity
comes today and not 30 years ago, when I was a brash architect.
Thirty years ago, I might have been eager to demolish the plant
and build from scratch. You will, indeed, hear other opinions to
do just that. After much study, though, I believe that there is a
Chapter 5: Structure | 31
place for this abandoned factory as a centerpiece for your ballpark
that preserves the history of the neighborhood while bringing it
forward to serve the community for the next century. Your vision
for this project is grand, and I hope to be a part of it.
This cover letter violates the “It, They,You” structure that I recommend for
executive summaries. I recommend using this in rare cases when there is such a
connection to the work that showing passion for the project might actually create
a connection with the reader. Although many selection committee members may
dismiss and skip past the cover transmittal letter, leaving this formality to the
procurement nitpickers, in this case we know selection committee members read
the letter. They said they read it because the first line was eye-catching (thanks
to the graphic designer), and because they were intrigued by it.
Therefore, don’t consider the cover letter to be a mere transmittal letter! A cover
letter can be a great place to reinforce your win theme and strengths.
CHAPTER 6
Style Matters of Written Proposals
Y
ou now understand the keys to compelling substance and a great way to
structure your proposals. Let’s talk about style: the verbal and visual elements
that get your proposal noticed and remembered . . . or discarded. Some elements,
such as stories, are common to written proposals and presentations. I address
them in this chapter and leave the elements that are unique to presentations for
Style Matters Of Oral Presentations.
TELL STORIES
For years, I’ve begged to have someone explain to me why engineers don’t go
to the movies. Maybe I’m drawing a false conclusion from a repeated, sometimes heated, debate I often have with engineers. The conversation generally
goes like this:
Me: “The presentation seems very data-packed, long, uninspiring,
and unlikely to win over the decision-makers. Instead of tranquilizing them with forty-five PowerPoint slides, let’s start out with
some stories that show the advantages of hiring you.”
Client: “Stories? Jim, these are engineers we’re talking about. They
need to see lots of detail—Gantt charts, data, and schematics.
They don’t have patience for stories. They have big left brains!”
Me: “I understand that we’ll need to support our proposal with
data, but they cannot read the charts—the font is 7 point Arial
Narrow. Even if they could read it, they won’t believe, let alone
remember, your data. Let’s first convey your idea through a story,
then hand out the spreadsheets, schematics, and Gantt charts to
discuss in detail if necessary, or for them to take away if we run
out of time.”
Client: “But Jim, these are engineers, you don’t understand how
they think. They don’t want stories, they want graphics and data!”
After having many of these conversations over the years, as I nudge my clients
toward better—or no—use of PowerPoint, I must finally concede that I am
wrong and that engineers, indeed, only respond to data. Which leads me to
33
34 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
eat crow and conclude that engineers do not like movies, books, or television.
They probably resented reading to their children at bedtime. Perhaps they were
raised by wolves.
However, if they were raised by humans, they will enjoy and remember stories.
People universally respond to stories.
Folks presume that left-brained, deductive reason-seekers like engineers prefer
facts that lead to a conclusion—a bottom up way of reasoning. As a consequence,
presenters believe they must present the facts first, then state the main idea.
Not true. It is often far more compelling to open with a story to get attention
and engage the audience or reader. There is a place for supporting facts; present
them to support the story after the story.
Keep the stories short, interesting, and relevant. Good short stories that reinforce
your theme or strengths improve the chances that your story will connect and
be recalled. Remember, being memorable trumps your betterness.
Stories also create emotional appeal. Yes, emotional appeal is vital to winning.
You may be thinking, “Yuck, here comes the touchy-feely stuff.” I’m not suggesting you try to reduce people to tears or make them glow with your warmth.
Emotional appeal can be as simple as reminding decision makers that they
matter, showing your passion for the work, or connecting with their unspoken
needs. When it is time for them to make the decision, your emotional appeal
will emerge for them as “gut feeling.” You want them to say aloud to others,
“These guys just feel like the right fit for this one.”
Engineers ask me, “Aren’t stories just for presentations?” No. If you don’t use
stories in your written proposals, you may not be invited to orals. If you have
space, weave stories into your written proposals and make the short list!
There are three optimal proposal sections where stories can make you memorable:
• Executive summary
• Team member bios
• Relevant project descriptions
Interestingly, architects, engineers, and their marketing professionals grossly
underutilize the last two sections. Let’s examine what each section might look
like with stories woven in.
Executive Summary
Here is an example of how we used a story in an Executive Summary section to
emphasize the firm’s advantage—they were local and their competitors’ nearest
offices were hundreds of miles away.
Chapter 6: Style Matters of Written Proposals | 35
Real-life Example
When Division of Highways undertakes important projects in
mountain areas, it’s useful to include native mountain-savvy folks
on the project team. BASS Engineering Consulting proposes a band
of mountaineer engineers for this roadway-widening project. Not
only do we know the terrain, we also know how to relate to the
mountainfolk here.
For example, at a recent public meeting, our lead design engineer
helped the Highway Division’s team soothe tempers in what began as a contentious meeting. Flaring tempers are nothing new
to Division engineers and their design consultants. That said, our
native roots help us relate to local citizens. The ability to explain
engineering issues in terms that the public can understand is important to success. If not, you may be marked as an outsider who
cannot be trusted. Folks around these parts are used to hearing
our team explain our decisions in their language, which helps us
keep things on schedule for you.
Your story can center on a technical problem that you solved; however, be sure
to put people in the story. A story has characters, conflict, a setting, action, and
resolution. The airport tarmac is NOT a character. The airport Vice President
of Facilities is a character in your story.
A Lesson from Your DVR
I record the History Channel reality series “Pawn Stars” on my DVR. The show
is set in a family-owned Las Vegas pawnshop where almost any imaginable item
on any given day can come through their door. Fans watch the show largely
because of the items brought into the store, yet many viewers must find the
pawnshop staff—now minor celebrities—interesting as well, which explains
part of the show’s appeal. Here is a representative program description from the
DVR listings: “The guys check out a Japanese machine gun camera; Chumley
and Corey take a look at some sketches drawn by Spiderman creator Stan Lee;
Rick and the Old Man eye a $1,000 Federal Reserve note from. . . .”
If this were a contest, let’s see who would win, pawn items or people.
• Pawn items: three (camera, sketches, note).
• People: five (Chumley, Corey, Stan Lee, Rick, Old Man).
The people have it! Even for devotees of the show who, like me, are annoyed
by the staged bickering and antics of the shop owners, the objects have interest
and value because of the people who may have owned, or used, or are selling
them. The objects by themselves mean relatively nothing.
36 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
Let’s consider another example: television coverage of Olympic swimming
events. Without stories about the swimmers and their competitors, you may as
well watch greyhounds at a dog track. The television producers for the Games
know that we must care about the people or we will not stay tuned.
Real-life Example
The DOT hired us to plan a tunnel through Pilot Mountain. The
existing roadway had narrow, hairpin turns that spelled dangerous
travel for rigs and school buses. It was apparent early on that, given
the economic climate, a tunnel would not be affordable, yet we needed to protect the public. I spent three days with district personnel;
on the first day, we realized we needed someone from the central
office to join us. Suddenly, it occurred to us that by widening the
roadway two feet and using lane lines to encourage wider turns,
we could solve the safety problem without the expense of blasting
our way through the mountain.
Put stories in your proposals and put people at the center of your stories more
often than the architectural or engineering problem.
Team Member Bios
Real-life Example
The following is an excellent example of a team member bio responsible for
community involvement.
To keep opponents of the project from delaying or derailing the
project, Charlene will engage the stakeholders early. This will
help make sure that community members feel heard and their
input valued. This will turn potential allies into evangelists for
the project. On the contentious Dobson landfill project, three
groups were steadfastly opposed. Their tactics included picketing,
monopolizing the microphone at town meetings in order to suppress civil discussion, and writing dozens of letters to editors. For
a time, the team viewed the three groups as adversaries . . . until
Charlene recast the opposition groups as upset customers who
needed to be heard early and often. In advance of town meetings,
the project team held pre-meetings with upset community members
to hear their concerns. Resistance began to wane as opponents
felt acknowledged and involved. Within months, some community
members gave talks at their churches and at townhome association
meetings to advocate for the project.
Chapter 6: Style Matters of Written Proposals | 37
Relevant Projects
If you want to describe relevant projects well, make them short and interesting,
and emphasize people—especially clients and stakeholders. Set off technical aspects in sidebars and bullets, so they can pick them out quickly without getting
important project elements obscured by filler words in body text.
Where possible, include and call attention to client testimonials. No one tells
your story better or more memorably than a satisfied client.
Below is a real-life example of a relevant project. Think about the tactics we
used and see if you can pick out our win theme.
Real-life Example
The Department of Highways needed to fast-track this project,
which was on the critical path for the 5-year plan. At the project
kickoff meeting, the team realized there were a number of unanticipated problems that threatened to slow us down. The Department
had not yet cleared the right of way for this section. Power utility
issues were going to prevent us from meeting our project schedule.
Mary Sprague [Note: naming names in government proposals may
be risky—know your client well before using this tactic], the Department’s lead engineer, and Walker Clark, our utilities liaison,
met with engineers from Rogers Energy the next day. Because of
our strong working relationship with the utility, we were able to
quickly get them to move us to the front burner.
Ms. Sprague and our project lead, Sheldon, worked with her Right
of Way folks to estimate which parcels could be cleared by the targeted letting date—we reduced the number of impacted parcels from
twenty-seven to nine. We also worked out an agreement with the
FHWA for an initial/ultimate construction of temporary tie downs
off the end of the bridge to allow for I-99 widening on the letting
schedule. The state could improve this highway section after clearing
right of way and utilities. Ms. Sprague was proud of this fast-track
project. Below is an excerpt from an email she sent to our team.
Dear Sheldon,
I appreciate the experience, creativity, and expertise that you all brought
to this fast-track project, allowing us to meet a ridiculously tight timetable.
—Mary Sprague, PE
Notice how we put people in the center of the story and repeated words emphasizing our fast-track theme. You might have also noticed that this story could
38 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
have easily fit in any of the three sections. In fact, I encourage you to use the
same story in more than one section, if the proposal is long. There is a chance
that evaluators will choose to read only sections that matter most to them and
won’t encounter the redundancy. If they do notice the redundancy, they will
often forgive it and skip ahead . . . unless they are obsessive-compulsive, but
that’s not your problem. Again, know your client and whether or not the redundancy will annoy them.
Just tell stories. Your stories—and tell them well.
STOP THE BABBL
Beyond stories, another key to being noticed and remembered is to make it easy
for the decision-maker to see or hear what matters to them. In the following
example, pick out the ideas you think the reader will remember:
No other firm maximizes your project’s design better, more thoroughly, or cost-consciously.
I’ve read this sentence to audiences a hundred times over the years and still can’t
remember a single idea—that’s why I have to read it verbatim in my presentations. The problem is that anyone can use these words. I created an acronym
for this problem: BABBL.
BABBL defined
BABBL stands for baseless assertions and bankrupt blather. Baseless assertions
are unsubstantiated claims that anyone could make, as in, “We are the industry
leader.” If anyone can say it, don’t. Bankrupt blather refers to words and phrases
made worthless by overuse, for example, “Think outside the box.” Bankrupt
blather also refers to nonsense; you know, babble. For example, “We meet or
exceed schedule.” I know you wouldn’t boast that you will go over schedule,
but that’s what “exceed schedule” means, doesn’t it?
. . . in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.
—HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
In the example above, “No other firm” provides a good example of baseless
assertion. Are they really the only qualified firm?
In the same sentence, they win the Daily Double with “maximizes your project’s
design better . . .” How does an engineer maximize a design—do you make it
bigger? Do you have the world’s largest printer?
Chapter 6: Style Matters of Written Proposals | 39
Examples of Baseless Assertions
Scour your proposals and web site for the following words and phrases that
are baseless assertions.
1. We put our clients first
2. We are the leader in our industry (unless you can prove it)
3. You can trust us to . . .
4. We “always” or we “never”
5. We meet or exceed expectations
6. Our rare experience
7. Our reputation
8. Quality work
Examples of Bankrupt Blather
1. We are flexible and responsive
2. We have over 283 collective years of experience
3. Value proposition
4. Our mission statement
5. Total solutions
6. Strong (or valuable) asset
7. 24/7 service
8. Complete customer satisfaction
9. We are highly professional
10. We partner with you to . . .
11. Breadth and depth
12. Go the extra mile
You’re talking a lot, but you’re not saying anything.
—DAVID BYRNE, ”Psycho Killer”
Click [email protected] to send me an email to add your best examples
of BABBL to my running list. [You may also send me a proposal in MicrosoftWord format and I will return the proposal to you with jargon highlighted. I
created a macro to do this and can share the tool with you.]
Examples of Statements Backed Up by Evidence
Instead of baseless assertions, use evidence. Ask yourself, “How do we prove
this statement is true?” Good evidence takes the form of:
• client testimonials
• awards
40 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
• satisfaction scores
• facts about accomplishments
Instead of “We always meet budget constraints,” instead write, “We have written
one change order in the past 5 years.”
Instead of asserting you’re innovative, let your client testimonials or awards
demonstrate it. Instead of explaining that you deliver quality and service, use
your customer satisfaction ratings in your narratives.
Examples of Good Substantiation without BABBL
“In the past three years, we designed 14 interstate cloverleafs.” Or greenways.
Or sustainable K-12 schools. Or water filtration plants.
“When the Administrative Office of the Courts challenged us to cut $1.2M from
the new courthouse, we worked with the AOC director of facilities to beat that
challenge—saving $1.4M instead.”
“We have a 94% right of way acquisition rate without using the condemnation
process, which helps projects stay on schedule.”
“Any effective surveyor uses GIS software. However, we wrote the documentation and training used by the state, and we continue to certify state and private
surveyors twice a year.”
Use verbs rather than adjectives to help avoid BABBL. Verbs emphasize action,
that is, what you did. As a result, verbs illustrate evidence better than adjectives,
as they are verifiable rather than mere assertions. Instead of “We are the experts
in green roof technology,” try “We were the first to use green roof technology,
and we earned a federal grant to write the course.”
The Vomit Twins
Watch out for BABBL’s henchmen, the Vomit twins, Verbal and Visual. They
are like human growth hormone for BABBL, making it more difficult to notice
and remember the important things.
Verbal Vomit
Think of words that clutter your ideas as Verbal Vomit. It clutters your ideas,
it confuses the reader, reduces reader interest and readability, and makes your
win theme and strengths forgettable.
Chapter 6: Style Matters of Written Proposals | 41
The overuse of adjectives often creates Verbal Vomit. Adjectives can slow down
the reader with clutter and they result in baseless assertions. Examples of overused adjectives include the following:
• best
• only
• brightest
• innovative
• unmatched
As to the adjective, when in doubt strike it out.
—MARK TWAIN
Other examples of verbal vomit include over long sentences, college words,
clichés, and jargon.
When it comes to writing advice, would you trust Thomas Jefferson or a modern
day comedian like George Carlin [the late George Carlin’s routines included
The Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television]?
About writing, Jefferson asserted, “The most valuable of all talents is that of
never using two words when one will do.”
George Carlin said, “I will not say concept when I mean idea. I will not say
impacted when I mean affected. There will be no hands-on, state-of-the-art
networking. We will not maximize, prioritize, or finalize, and we will definitely
not interface.”
Both of these dissimilar men, centuries apart, offer valuable advice: Brevity and
straightforward simplicity will enhance your communication.
Eschew obfuscation.
—BUMPER STICKER
Again, don’t sign up for a night class on writing—hire a proposal strategist or
a good editor and learn by working side-by-side with them. It is worth it to
become a better writer, yet you must decide how much effort you want to put
into it to become one. Remember, though, even Stephen King has an editor.
Visual Vomit
Visual Vomit comprises those visual elements that distract attention from your
message. Hire a page layout editor to help with your proposal page design.
(What’s that, you say, you already have one? Then start listening to them!)
Here are a few tips to avoid Visual Vomit.
42 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
Tip #1:
In other words, if everything is important, then nothing is. Use emphasis at the
beginning of a cover letter or page in order to draw the reader in. Pick up any
magazine and you’ll see very good models. Here are some guidelines you might
notice: they typically choose only two fonts, one for emphasis and one for the
core writing. They tend to use boldface and italics for further visual emphasis,
but they don’t underline. The body text tends to be in 11 to 12 point serif fonts,
using 14 point sans serif fonts for the slightly larger headlines and sub-headlines.
Reserve the use of emphasis for your big ideas, especially your win theme and
two or three key strengths per page.
The overuse of emphasis marks reminds me of a classic Seinfeld episode when
Elaine, a book editor, is summoned by her boss, Mr. Lippman:
Lippman: I was just reading your final edit, um, there seems to be
an inordinate number of exclamation points.
Elaine: Well, I felt that the writing lacked certain emotion and
intensity.
Lippman: Oh, “It was a damp and chilly afternoon, so I decided to
put on my sweatshirt!” You put exclamation point after sweatshirt?
Elaine: That’s, that’s correct, I-I felt that the character doesn’t
like to be ch-ch-chilly . . .
Lippman: Get rid of the exclamation points . . .
Elaine: Ok, ok ok . . .
Tip #2: Stop using narrow margins; instead, leave some white space. Engineers
tend to want to cram more words onto a single page and get creative doing
so. You want to use the fewest words possible to get your message across.
Newspapers have column widths of about 60 characters per line. If a line of
text is too long, the reader’s eye will have a hard time focusing on the text. The
subconscious mind stays energized when tracking down to the next line. If this
interests you, click Readability to learn more:
Tip #3: Stop using tiny images; instead, use one or two good-sized images
per page and make sure that a non-engineer can figure out why you used them.
Chapter 6: Style Matters of Written Proposals | 43
If you really need to explain, do so in a caption instead of body text. If it is in
the body text, you force the reader to work harder to connect your thought to
the image. Remember, judges are lazy; don’t make them work too hard. Furthermore, if they don’t get it and get it quickly, they won’t remember it.
Eliminate BABBL and you free up space in the reader’s mind to remember the
critical parts of your proposal—the main idea and perhaps a few supporting
facts or stories.
EXTRA CREDIT: USE A MOTIF
For extra credit, and to be extra memorable, weave a motif into your proposal.
According to Merriam-Webster, a motif is something such as an important idea
or subject that is repeated throughout a book, story, etc. Think of a motif as a
repetitive word or phrase.
Motifs that ring true—that don’t feel contrived—are difficult to create, espe­
cially when time is short. Therefore, start early, generate several alternatives
and read the text out loud to see if it supports the idea. Here is a great example
of a motif I developed for an architecture firm.
Our surroundings affect the way we feel, think, act, and learn . . .
Researchers have discovered that interior design affects children
greatly. With the choices that you make for Surry Elementary
School, you will help children discover and learn. Here are some
design choices I’ll help you understand and make.
First, floor covering. Researchers discovered that younger students
spend 37% of their school day on the floor! Everyone wants the
kids to learn and discover without germs. There are flooring choices
that help prevent the spread of germs.
Next, color. Researchers discovered that soft cool colors slow our
heart rate . . . In a classroom, this can calm students, allowing
them to focus and discover, and raise test scores.
Finally, acoustics. There are inexpensive ceiling panels that reduce
noise by 25%, which helps students hear well so they can learn
and discover.
Notice the repetition of the idea of discovery.
We took the concept forward with each speaker, including one who discussed
using the construction site as a discovery tool to help children learn about math,
science, and environmental impacts.
44 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
To develop an effective motif that reinforces your win theme and strongest
selling points, you have to be able to step far back from the specifics of the
proposal and instead consider the unstated needs of the buyer. Ask for help
from someone who isn’t involved in writing the proposal—they may have an
easier time uncovering one.
CHAPTER 7
Style Matters of Oral Presentations
R
eading a book on effective presentations can be about as useful as reading a
text-only description of what Picasso’s masterpiece Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
looks like. Inadequate, at least for me. As presentations rely on visuals and delivery, they are better demonstrated than described. That said, for the purpose
of this e-book, I will focus on difference-makers that can be understood and
applied without showing visual examples. [At the end of this chapter I refer you
to good (sometimes hilarious) resources on presentation design.]
When preparing for an interview, here are difference-makers that can make you
memorable: your mindset and your visuals. If you confuse, misuse, or neglect
these difference-makers, you will cloud your message and be forgettable. In
Figure 3, I contrast characteristics of memorable vs. betterness presentations.
Visuals
Mindset
Memorable Presentations (Winner)
Betterness Presentations (Also-Ran)
You present you
You present your slides
You create a conversation
You make a pitch
You reinforce win theme and key
strengths
You regurgitate the written proposal
You use visuals that reinforce your
message
You rely heavily on slides from your last
presentation
You create a leave-behind that helps
them easily remember your win theme
You print out your slides as a
leave-behind
FIGURE 3. Memorable vs. betterness
THE MEMORABLE MINDSET
YOU Are the Presentation
To me, the biggest mistake with sales presentations is the mindset that the slides
are the presentation. They aren’t. YOU are the presentation; don’t confuse the
two. If you make this shift in your thinking, you make the greatest leap forward
toward being memorable and winning more work.
Most consultants rely heavily on slides to drive their presentations for many
reasons, including:
1. Slides are a tangible work product, and consultants are very focused on
documentation and deliverables
45
46 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
2. Slides are easy to lift from prior presentations
3. You believe that the client expects slides, and you fear that a lack of slides
will be perceived as a lack of effort from you
4. You can print your slides to serve as a handout
5. You’re afraid to present without them
It’s too light. It feels like a “C.” Bulk it up and add a few
multicolored graphs.
—RODNEY DANGERFIELD in the film “Back to School”
As a result, the slides, not you, become the presentation. Of those reasons, #5
is the biggest barrier between you and the decision-maker. You use the slides
as an outright teleprompter.
The text, usually in the form of bullet points, distracts the audience’s attention
away from you, which means that you are now competing with your slides for
attention. They aren’t buying your slides, they are buying you.
In my experience, architects do a better job of representing information visually
than engineers (sorry, engineers); however, the caveat is that most architects
will still clutter their visuals with other text-laden slides or superimpose text
that obscures the message of the visual. If I spend too much time working to
decrypt what it is that you want me to take away from your visuals, you are
asking me to take attention away from you.
Conjure Your Inner Don Draper
To learn effective presentation techniques, you do not have to read half a dozen books or go to night school. You can learn during one of our favorite past
times—watching television. If you are not already a fan of the television series
“Mad Men,” then rent, buy, or record a few episodes. The series is set in a New
York City Madison Avenue advertising agency and takes place, for the most
part, in the early 1960s. There is much to learn by watching how advertising
executives like Don Draper—the main character—sold their ideas and their
services in the age before PowerPoint or other slideware. They were no less
effective at expressing their ideas and winning accounts without it than they
are with it in today’s marketplace.
Three-martini lunches with their clients and prospects aside, they sold their approaches to marketing their clients’ goods and services by making an emotional
connection to them . . . without PowerPoint. Of course, they used visuals—it
was vital to use visuals to convey their advertising ideas. Yet they used the
Chapter 7: Style Matters of Oral Presentations | 47
visuals to sell their ideas and to cement their relationships with their current or
prospective clients.
I do not recommend always going “presentation commando,” that is, going
without slideware at all. I have, though, tried to imagine how Don Draper might
use PowerPoint effectively. Find ways to get the audience to pay attention to
you, not your slides. If you aren’t comfortable going commando or if the situation seems to call for a presentation, here are the two surefire tips that keep
attention on you and your win theme:
1. Remove most words from slides—especially any words that might tempt you
to use the slides as a teleprompter.
2. Use the <B> key on your laptop to make the slides go black, forcing the audience to return their attention to you. This is particularly important after
you’ve made your point, or when you tell a story, switch to a prop, or engage
the decision-makers in conversation.
I’m a simple guy. When I can give only two tips that triple the effectiveness of
your presentations, I do. Those are the two. I provide a more detailed, 10-step
process in the next section, for those of you who already do the above two.
MEMORABLE VISUALS
Think Images, Then Slides
When recalling your presentation, listeners are more likely to recall images.
We don’t think in words, rather our words conjure pictures. An image might
take the form of a video or a prop. Engineers tend to under use props in their
presentations, with the exception of scaled models. Here are a few examples
of effective props:
• photographs
• artist’s or architect’s renderings
• the book or training manual that you wrote
• a piece of rope
• a tool
• an object that conveys an idea—I once used a pyraminx (a pyramid shaped
Rubik’s cube) to communicate complexity
• a video clip
Don’t be afraid to spontaneously use a whiteboard or flipchart during the presentation to draw out an idea or to capture the audience’s ideas on the fly. It is
a great technique to pull the audience into the conversation and reinforce their
memory of your presentation.
Can you find a way to incorporate sounds into the presentation? For example,
to contrast the before and after effects of building a sound barrier at an airport,
48 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
try to use audio or video recording of one of your past clients. Music is a difficult
prop because it can seem gimmicky and irrelevant if not used well. There also
may be copyright issues if you have not licensed the material for commercial use.
Once you begin thinking in terms of images that communicate your message,
you free yourself from thinking only in terms of wordy slides.
Real-life Example
A client told me about a project for a multi-level garage at a nearby university.
Several teams of garage specialists from around the country flew in to present
their proposals to the selection committee. The first firm showed up in dark
suits and red ties. They had dozens of me-first slides, unreadable slides, slides
with tiny pictures of garages arranged in a collage, and, of course, the obligatory
barrage of bullet points. The third (and last) presenter pretty much did the same.
Sandwiched between the fairly forgettable first and third firms was the second
candidate. In walked the lead project engineer, dressed as he might be on the
job site. The opening conversation between Frances, the committee chair, and
Warren, the lead engineer, went like this
Frances, noting that Warren is alone: “Do you need more time to wait
for the rest of your team?”
Warren: “No. Thank you for asking, but it’s just me.”
Frances: “Here. You can plug your laptop into this projector.”
Warren: “Not today, perhaps next time.”
Warren reached into his pocket and pulled out a fastener to be used in the garage.
His was the firm that helped design the fastener, which proved safer and cheaper
to install. Warren told a story about early prototypes, and how they improved
the fastener, and how his firm took financial responsibility for some rework.
Along the way, Warren then asked questions of the committee members and
told more stories to illustrate his points. After answering their questions, he
summarized his win theme and key strengths. He walked out of the room with
fifteen minutes left on the clock.
Later that day, after the committee yawned through the third presenter’s pitch, it
took Frances and the selection committee about five minutes to select Warren’s
firm. In a year, they wouldn’t recall much about that presentation—but they’ll
remember the fastener Warren pulled from his pocket.
Warren’s approach works almost every time. His high win rate frees him to choose
the best clients and increase his billable hours, all without the overhead, pomp,
and forgettable BABBL found in his competitors’ proposals and presentations.
Chapter 7: Style Matters of Oral Presentations | 49
Eliminate Visual Vomit
Your interview presentation should look like a dessert after a fine meal. It is
not a bag of Mississippi mudslide pie. Dessert after a fine dinner might be a
lemon sorbet.
Dessert is certainly not the main course, and it is not a regurgitation of your
proposal, aka, Verbal and Visual Vomit.
Focus on the big ideas, that is, your most compelling strengths and your win
theme. Here’s my proven process for helping clients to rid presentations of
ineffective slides. Look for these slides and delete them:
1. Slides that don’t support your ONE main idea and key strengths
2. Slides with bullet points
3. Slides with unreadable graphs or diagrams that are in the written proposal
or that you can replace with a takeaway
4. The Q&A slide with a bunch of question marks on it (instead, use the <B>
key to blank the screen and start a discussion)
5. Slides with your name, credentials, demographic information—instead, refer
them to your written proposal or handout, if you are allowed to have one
6. Slides that you consider appendix information, especially tabular data you
created in MS-Excel; instead, put this information in a handout
7. Slides with clip art in them that you cannot better represent with photographs
8. Any slides that will detract attention from you. The attention should be on
you, not the slides.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.
— ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY
Create a Memory-Jogger, Don’t Print Your Slides
Forget the notion that your presentation is your leave-behind. The stack of slides
may get lost in the stack of other 8-1/2 x 11 papers in front of the prospect,
if they even bother to look for the takeaway. Find a creative way to stand out
from the pile.
I was working with a client who was pinched for time—in fact, we rewrote the
entire presentation the day before the interview. Although we may have been
able to print copies of slides, which is what they typically did, we knew that we
might change the presentation order at the last minute or add or remove slides.
50 | Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals
We had one of their designers create an odd-sized, one-page, two-sided leave-behind that would stand out from the stacks. On one side, we created a collage
with the images of hospital rooms, an MRI room, worried patients in hospital
gowns, their best design idea, and the street view of an award winning hospital the firm had designed. These were the images that supported the main
theme and key strengths—the only word on this collage was the motif from the
proposal—wellness.
On the flip side of the piece were photographs of the design team, taken in natural work settings on projects. Again, on one side were images that represented
theme, strengths, and ideas; the other side, people.
Bottom line: the client is buying you and your ideas. Your takeaway should
make it easy for them to recall those two things.
GOOD RESOURCES FOR POWERFUL PRESENTATIONS
There are dozens of solid books related to good presentations, yet I use only
one: Presentation Zen, by Garr Reynolds.
TED Talks. TED conferences bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers
and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less.
TED’s mission is spreading ideas. These talks, tightly written and rehearsed, provide great models for clarity of thought, powerful visuals, and engaging delivery.
Toastmasters. There are thousands of chapters around the globe and likely one
within an hour’s drive from you. They meet for 60-90 minutes either weekly or
every other week. Because you get continuous practice writing and delivering
presentations, getting rid of distracting “ums” and “ahs,” and practice speaking
extemporaneously, I prefer this approach to Carnegie or other weekend workshops that aren’t focused on working in the context of proposals themselves.
Watch this hilarious YouTube video by comedian Don McMillan titled Life After
Death by PowerPoint. It will help you realize the symptoms of PowerPoint abuse.
Here’s a great example, created by Peter Norvig, that illustrates how Abraham
Lincoln might have used bullet points as a teleprompter in his Gettysburg Address.
CHAPTER 8
Conclusion
T
his book describes the difference-makers that will help you write memorable,
winning proposals. This is what you learned:
1. Our belief in our “betterness” creates an identical twins problem. Asserting
our betterness is a trap, because judges can’t judge.
2. When we look like an identical competitor, we make it difficult for judges
to judge. Complex decisions make us lazy, so we default to instinct or what
can be easily recalled. That makes being memorable more important than
trying to prove our betterness.
3. Proposals comprise the Three-S elements that you must consider to write
winning proposals:
• Substance
• Structure
• Style
4. Make sure that your Substance answers these questions:
• Why now?
• What do they really want?
• Why you?
5. Use Structure to make your proposal memorable:
• It, Them, You
• Don’t bury the lead, that is, start with your strongest points and don’t close
with new information
6. In written and oral presentations:
• Tell stories in many sections
• Stop the BABBL and avoid the Vomit Twins
• Use a repetitive phrase (motif)
7. Have a winning mindset. YOU, not your slides, are the presentation.
8. Create memorable visuals:
• Think images first, then slides
• Eliminate Visual Vomit
• Create a memorable leave-behind; don’t print your PowerPoint slides
If you make the switch from a “betterness” mindset to a “memorable” mindset
and if you apply the principles in this book to every proposal, you will have no
choice but to WIN MORE WORK.
51
Appendix
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Ayling, Geoff, et al. Rapid Response Advertising. Australia: Business & Professional Publishing Pty Limited, 1998.
Bacon, Terry R., and David G. Pugh. Powerful Proposals: How to Give Your
Business the Winning Edge. New York: AMACOM, 2005.
Cherry, Paul. Questions That Sell: The Powerful Process for Discovering What
Your Customer Really Wants. New York: AMACOM, 2006.
Freed, Richard C., Joe Romano, and Shervin Freed. Writing Winning Business
Proposals, Third Edition. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2011.
Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Made to Stick; Why Some Ideas Survive and
Others Die. New York: Random House, 2007.
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, 2011.
McLaughlin, Michael W. Winning the Professional Services Sale: Unconventional Strategies to Reach More Clients, Land Profitable Work, and Maintain
Your Sanity. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
Sant, Tom. Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers,
Clients, and Contracts. New York: AMACOM, 2012.
Schultz, Mike, John E. Doerr, and Lee W. Frederiksen. Professional Services
Marketing: How the Best Firms Build Premier Brands, Thriving Lead Generation Engines, and Cultures of Business Development Success. Hoboken: John
Wiley & Sons, 2013.
Sobel, Andrew and Jerold Panas. Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win
New Business, and Influence Others. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012.
Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. Elements of Style, 4th Edition. Essex,
England: Pearson Education, 1918; and 1999.
53
AMERICAN COUNCIL OF
ENGINEERING COMPANIES
1015 15th Street, NW, 8th Floor
Washington DC 20005-2605
Phone: 202.347.7474
Fax: 202.898.0068
E-mail: [email protected]