Aside from failing to properly qualify during discovery, nothing ruins your chances of winning a proposal more than a jargon-laden proposal. Proposals brimming with consultant-speak drive clients to the competition faster than you can say “paradigm shift.”

Scrutinize every word in a proposal and strip out empty phrases like “seamless connectivity,” “strategic convergence,” or “we deliver unparalleled solutions that create leverage for the enterprise.” In the war of words, your most potent weapon is your computer’s delete key.

Three ailments that can infect our proposal

• Consulting proposals suffer from one or more of three ailments that will drive clients into the waiting arms of your competitors—tired superlatives, buzzwords, and the plague of pronouns.
• Superlatives are like weeds in a lawn: Unless checked, they tend to take over. Avoid prose such as “Our unsurpassed commitment to client service ensures your needs will be our highest priority.” Does that mean the needs of other clients are a lower priority for the firm?
• Consultants hope to get an edge by claiming to be the fastest, best, or most experienced in the field. Clients routinely ignore such claims as unproven hype. Unless you can quantify your claims beyond a doubt, strip superlatives from your proposal.

Instead of promising an “optimal solution for reducing customer complaints,” say, “We will reduce customer complaints by 9 percent in 90 days.” Then amplify in the proposal exactly how you will achieve that reduction.

Since proposals are often used to justify unspoken decisions made early in the sales process, include in your proposal facts that validate your supporters’ desire to hire you. Give them powerful ammunition to advance your firm’s credibility and convince others in the organization. Help them effectively sell you and your proposal.

Guerrilla Tactic: Tired Superlatives to Delete or Justify in Every Proposal

Most, Superior, Best, Maximum, Optimal, Minimum, Fastest, Unsurpassed, Shortest, Unrivaled, Easiest, Highest, Least, Unique

Nothing is intrinsically wrong with any of the preceding words, and we all use them in spoken and written communication (for example, “This is the fastest way to do that.”) But in proposals, they are suspect, and you should use them sparingly, if at all.

Copyright 2005 Jay Conrad Levinson and Michael W. McLaughlin
Reprinted with permission

Copyright 2004 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. Home Page