WWP#003 : Keep the Fluff out of your RFP Proposal Response

Posted by Michel Theriault

Oct 11

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:07 — 3.5MB)

When reviewing proposals written by bidders, I can’t stand seeing fluff.

And, I’m not the only one. Someone I recently interviewed about reviewing proposals said that when there’s fluff, it’s glossed over and if there’s something related to the evaluation criteria hidden in the fluff, it’s missed by the evaluators.

Keeping out the fluff when writing isn’t easy, but it’s key to a successful proposal.Since your winning bid needs to convince your client you can do the job, you need to provide them with facts and information, not generalities, theories about how you work, motherhood statements and other not-so-useful material.

Sure, it’s easy to simply write fluff – you probably have lots of boilerplate material lying around – but it’s not the way to win new business and beat your competition in a competitive Request for Proposal response.

In this Podcast, I talk about fluff, why it’s a disadvantage and how to keep it out.

I also give some related quotes from Albert Einstein and Mark Twain. If you don’t believe them, you may believe Jakob Nielsen, a PHD. He studies useability on the web and his research also relates directly to how you write your proposal response and how hard it is for the client’s evaluator to filter out the important information.

Check out our other podcasts and blogs on this site and come back for new episodes. Sign-up to our mailing list to be notified of new podcasts as they are available.

Feel free to leave a comment about this topic or contact me directly.

Our Book "Win More Business - Write Better Proposals". is now available at Amazon in many countries, including the USA , Canada, UK, Japan, Germany and France. You can also order it directly from the author on this website

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WWP#003 : Keep the Fluff out of your RFP Proposal Response

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