Persuasive Business Proposals, 3rd Edition

19 An Overview of the Proposal Development Process

ONE OF MY CLIENTS SHARED AN EMBARRASSING story during a workshop. It seems that after laboring on a proposal for several weeks she found herself, accompanied by a colleague, shuffling papers in the backseat of a cab as it raced across town, desperately trying to assemble three copies of a proposal in hopes of beating a 3 p.m. deadline. Along the way, their frantic efforts so distracted the cab driver that he hit another car. At that point, my client grabbed her papers and began running, in high heels, toward the client’s headquarters. Snapping one of the heels off, she hobbled the last couple of blocks. She got there too late and her proposal was not accepted.

Sadly, most people who have done ...