Book Review: Persuasive Business Proposals by Tom Sant

ISBN 0-8144-7153-6, AMACOM 2004, $17.95

This book has four sections: an introduction; a discussion of persuasion; the proposal writing process; and the style and language to use in the actual writing of the proposal.

The introduction explains the simple idea at the heart of this book. Tom Sant recommends writing proposals that tell the customer what the supplier's proposal will do for them, in language that is easy for them to understand. He points out that a high proportion of proposals are written simply as a statement of what the supplier will do. This is of course easy for the writer.

The persuasion section explains how proposal writers need to put themselves in the customer's shoes. When writing they should consider the proposal evaluation process, and write to meet the evaluation requirements rather than internal concerns of the supplier.

Using examples, both good and bad, the next section suggests a proposal writing process that will put the customer first. It deals with variants such as responding to a Request For Proposal (RFP); dealing with grant proposals; and proposing by letter. It also considers how to deal with proposing to a customer with a negative perception of the supplier for some reason. It closes with a description of success metrics for proposals.

The brief section on writing style covers issues such as word choice, sentence structure and how to keep the proposal short and to the point.

The thesis of the book is hardly original. However, when we write business proposals, most would agree that we often stray from customer centricity.

I found the book both reinforced my belief in writing for the reader and made me realize how often I don't. I think reading and following this book's propositions will help proposal writers at all levels to write a higher proportion of winning proposals.

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