I see companies work hard and spend money to generate qualified leads, move prospects through the sales cycle and finally reach the proposal stage. Then they deliver a convoluted proposal that’s poorly organized, packed with jargon, wandering off point, and riddled with grammar, spelling and usage errors.

A potential customer reviews the proposal and shakes their head in confusion, dismay and doubt. A poorly conceived and written proposal can ruin months of hard work and cost you a deal you thought was in your pocket.

Marketers: get involved in proposal writing at your company. Sales people are good at selling; they may not be very good at writing a compelling and persuasive proposal. Integrate some of these practices into your company’s proposal writing process:

• Create a library of approved content your sales team can insert into proposals when answering standard questions about your company, products and services. This will ensure consistency and clarity.
• Work with individual sales people to dissect the requirements of an RFP and design a response that fulfills all requirements and answers all of a customer’s questions.
• Get away from the distant corporate-speak and jargon and address the customer directly, using words like “you” and “yours” and incorporating language that is relevant to your customer’s business.
• Develop a style book and format for RFP responses. Use consistent headings, fonts, line spacing and colors to give the proposal a professional look and feel.
• Proofread and edit as if the deal depended on it, because sometimes it does. Mistakes in your proposal can make a customer think your company is careless or lazy. Who wants to do business with a company like that?