Mark Buckshon over at Construction Marketing Ideas posted about my article on which font to use for proposals. He raised an interesting point regarding how important the use of fonts in proposals is and whether this discussion could be considered bugdust. Think of it this way. In the 2008 Olympics, many swimmers wore special suits […]
September 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Difference Between Bugdust and a Clear Advantage in Proposals
September 23, 2012 by 17 Comments
Want Clients To Believe Your Proposals? Use This Font.
Recently, the New York Times conducted an interesting experiment. They wanted to figure out if their choice of font had any impact on whether readers believed statements they made. What they found is going to blow your mind. The Experiment To answer this question, they set up an online survey, providing readers with a […]
September 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Why They Hate Writing Custom Technical Approaches
Some people wonder why technical professionals hate to write custom technical approaches. They hate it because it’s hard. It’s hard to write when you went to school for engineering or architecture. It’s hard to face that you don’t know everything you should know about the client and their challenges. It’s hard to put off […]
August 30, 2012 by 21 Comments
Want Better Proposals? Stop Worrying About Bug Dust!
Several Linkedin forums have been debating about cliches in proposals. These conversations devolve into debates about bug dust. What Is Bug Dust? Bug dust is defined as elements of your proposal that have no significant influence on whether you win the job or not. Should you use contractions in your proposals or is that too […]
August 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
What If The RFP Stipulates Experience Within The Last Five Years, But Yours Isn’t?
You have your hands on an RFP that is perfect for your firm. You have completed a ton of projects just like the client needs. But there is one gut- wrenching problem. The proposal asks for experience within the last five years. Your relevant projects are over five years old! Now, you could just throw […]
August 20, 2012 by 1 Comment
How To Create The 100% Recyclable Proposal
Clients have been asking that more and more of our proposals be recyclable or made from recycled material. Eventually, they’re going to ask for the 100% recyclable proposal. Why not beat them to the punch? The Challenge Of Creating 100% Recyclable Proposals We already have 100% recycled paper. That’s really easy to come by at Staples […]
August 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Guess What Will Be In The New AIA Handbook!
Good things come in “threes,” so I have three exciting announcements for you. First, the kindle edition of my book, Proposal Development Secrets: Win More, Work Smarter, and Get Home on Time has officially been downloaded over two thousand times. A huge thank you goes out to everybody who downloaded and read the book! Of […]
August 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Cost of Bid Pulling
The A/E/C marketing community is a very close-knit and supportive community. That’s what the last few days have taught me. Thursday’s post on bid pulling really struck a chord with many people. I got a ton of email from people who had something to say about this topic. Everyone who contacted me really felt for […]
August 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Why Would You Pull A Proposal At The Last Minute?
It can only be described as the proposal manager’s worst nightmare. You work for months on the largest design-build proposal you’ve ever done. It’s worth $5B, yes billion. The hard work is done. You’re in the client’s lobby when you suddenly get a call. “Pull the bid,” the voice on the other side commands. One […]
August 6, 2012 by 2 Comments
Merge Data From Excel into Indesign
InDesign and Excel Data Merge from Ted Orr on Vimeo. In a thread over at the Proposal Development and Writing Secrets group on Linkedin, Ted Orr from Steven Schaefer Associates posted this really interesting video explaining how you can merge data from an Microsoft Excel file into a proposal formatted with Adobe Indesign. If you use these […]
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