Persuasive Business Proposals, 3rd Edition

3 Rushing to the Exits

RECENTLY I WAS SPEAKING AT AN INTERNAtional conference sponsored by Microsoft. The attendees were integrators, developers, and resellers from all over the world. More than 800 people attended, so I asked them a question I’ve asked many other groups over the years:

“How many of you honestly enjoy writing proposals?”

Fewer than 20 hands went up. And that response is fairly typical. Most people do not like writing proposals.

Four Exit Strategies You May Have Seen

Because they dread writing proposals and perhaps because they know they don’t do them very well, people have found creative ways of avoiding the job. These are “exits” toward which they rush to avoid the hard work of writing a client-centered, persuasive proposal. ...