Proposal Writing Articles

PROPOSAL WRITING: Proposal Writing Tips From a Priest’s Sermon

Proposal writing bears quite a resemblance to a sermon.

A recent sermon at a special Catholic mass, brought this message home clearly and loudly.

Let me give you a few details of the event that related to proposal writing.

This special mass celebrated the first Holy Communion for excited and proud 8 year olds. It also was a big deal for the excited and proud parents.

This mass was also special because two past parishioners from the congregation had returned to help the Communicants (those celebrating their first Holy Communion) celebrate this important time in their young Catholic lives.

The guests happened to be brothers, both of whom were priests. The older brother had also reached the exalted position of Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. If you saw the Tom Hanks movie, "Angels and Demons," you might remember that the Cardinals were the elite group designated to select a new pope.

Being a Cardinal is a big deal in the Catholic Church.

With these details as a background, see if you can tell how they relate to proposal writing.

The pastor, in planning a celebration of the Mass, elected to do the following.

First he had the older brother, not the Cardinal, assist in the Mass. The Cardinal sat in a chair opposite the pulpit so that he was neither facing the altar nor facing the congregation. The Cardinal did not say one word during the entire proceedings.

The pastor’s sermon addressed the congregation, reminding them of how important receiving first Holy Communion was. He addressed the parents with a message to have them encourage their children to consider a religious life. The rest of the sermon rambled on about a few other religious concepts that clearly bored the Cardinal and his brother.

All of this, while reading his content from behind the pulpit. Granted, at least he looked at the congregation when he had finished a sentence or knew the next point he was going to mention. He even looked at the communicants once or twice.

I’m guessing by now you have figured out the connection between the priest’s sermon and writing a proposal.

First, the priest missed the point entirely. Nothing he said related to, sparked interest in, or was even vaguely remembered by what should have been his primary audience, the kids.

Everything he read that day was meant to impress the Cardinal and his brother.

The priest missed the point entirely.　

Many salespeople, company owners, and even some marketing gurus miss the point in their proposals when they focus on their products, services, profiles, prices, and other company brag points.

A successful proposal focuses on the clients’ wants, needs, desires, and expectations. Proposals need to clearly detail your ability to recognize, solve, and uniquely satisfy the client’s situation.

Your content must reflect your understanding of what keeps your clients up at night, what they see as the solutions to their problems, and how they will feel when you exceed their expectations.

The priest might have succeeded in impressing the Cardinal had he not lost focus. As a matter of fact, he could have impressed the Cardinal, his brother, the congregation, the proud parents, and the Communicants, if he had focused on what should have been his primary audience.

First Holy Communion is the most important religious event for Catholic elementary school-aged kids. This is their big day. It’s a big day for the parents.

Every word the priest said, should have related to, focused on, and engaged these kids.

Rather than reading to them from behind his position of power, he should have abandoned the security of his fortress and left the altar to walk among the kids. He should have engaged, entertained, and educated these very impressionable minds.

He should have talked to them in their language, told stories they could relate to, and do anything he could to make this a positive, memorable day.

Instead, he left his flock to wander aimlessly in the pasture of abstract religious detail.

Your focus when you create a proposal should always be on the client. Your focus should not be on your products, services, profiles, locations, or satisfied clients. Yes, they may be important as a part of the proposal, but they should not be the focus of the proposal.

What you have done successfully for another client does not necessarily translate into something you can successfully do for this particular client. You have to focus on what you can do for this client and how that will benefit your client in ways your competitors cannot.

The pastor had a perfect chance to score big points on many fronts that day.

He could have made a big deal about having the two former parishioners as guests out on this special day. All he did was to mention why these two strangers were present. He did not tie their visit to the importance of the day.

He could have had the Cardinal deliver the sermon.

I guarantee the Cardinal would not have delivered it at the congregation from the pulpit. I guarantee he would have focused on the kids and talked their language.

And, the pastor could have asked the Cardinal to administer Holy Communion to the Communicants as a special honor. The pastor reserved this honor for himself.

These kids see the pastor every Sunday.

Few Catholics ever meet a Cardinal.

What a blown chance to give these kids something to remember the rest of their lives!

The pastor administered Holy Communion to the communicants first.

Then he invited the two brothers to help when the kids were done.

When he had administered Holy Communion to the last Communicant, the priest should have, at that time, asked the congregation to give the Communicants and their parent. A big round of congratulatory applause. That did not happen.

So the question becomes, how do you approach your proposal writing tasks?

Do you view them as an opportunity to promote your products or services?

Do you view them as an opportunity to reveal all the great things you have done for other clients?

Or, do you view proposals as a necessary evil to satisfy the requirements of an RFP?

Your approach to proposal writing, most of the time, clearly illustrates, who gives the final approval for the proposal.

If company owners or principles approve the final draft, many times the approach centers around profiles, resumes, and successfully completed projects.

If marketing has the final say, most of the time, the proposal can be filled with Boilerplate Pollution. Boilerplate Pollution means all of the content and graphics in the proposal are the same graphics and wording in your company brochures and company website.

If salespeople have the final approval, the chances improve that the proposal approaches for content from a benefits orientation. A truly successful proposal becomes a reality when the salesperson’s oral presentation skills match their business writing skills.

Selling to a person or group in person or on the phone is a lot different from selling on paper.

That proposal needs to sell, answer questions, and reflect a highly professional image of your organization.

You can protect your professional image if you bring all of the groups mentioned above together to work through the approval process of the proposal.

This is the step that many small to medium size companies fail to appreciate.

Multimillion dollar and multibillion dollar companies who seek government contracts do this all the time by relying on the collective abilities of what they called the blue team.

And now, for instant access to a free 20-page Special Report, please click "How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Proposals,"

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