Bids, Proposals and Tenders - Succeeding with effective writing

5 GETTING INFORMATION FROM EXPERTS

Number Six: ‘What do want?’

Number Two: ‘Information.’

Number Six: ‘You won’t get it.’

Number Two: ‘By hook or by crook, we will.’

The Prisoner, Patrick McGhoohan, TV serial 1969 (slightly misquoted)

AT A GLANCE

• getting information from specialists whose skills or knowledge are different from your own;
• who writes what;
• strategies for gathering material;
• what information might be needed.

INTRODUCTION

Writing is not something that everyone finds easy, and writing for sales proposals can be harder still. Most bids have tight time constraints, and, as I have said before, the experts who have to contribute frequently have other, ‘real’, jobs that are supposed to take up all of their time in the first place. ...