Page 301 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

292 Appendix F

nouns in the third column). These nouns, however, are further modified (fourth
column) by the kind of person you need to project yourself as. These modifying
adjectives are regulated by themes (for example, the hot buttons to which you
need to respond) (fifth column). The result, the voice you need to convey, is a
combination of the nouns in the third column modified by the adjectives in the
fourth column.
So to determine your voice, you need to ask three important questions:

◉ Given this kind of project (that is, Insight, Planning, and/or Implementation),
what verbs characterize the outcomes, the desired results expressed as your
project’s objective(s)?
◉ Given that kind of project and those verbs, what nouns (e.g., architect/planner/
strategist; tactician/facilitator/motivator) describe the character you should
play to best achieve the desired results?
◉ Given that character, what adjectives (related to your themes) describe the
characteristics you should convey?

The third question should be asked not just for me but for each member of the
selection committee.
Because the projects you propose often require you to work closely with me
and my people, within my company’s culture, your proposal’s voice has to dem-
onstrate that you can work with me and my colleagues and adapt to our culture.
By consciously defining your relationship to us, you’ll be able to determine pre-
cisely how you should “speak” and, therefore, what side of yourself is essential
to project in your document. Just as I am a complex personality whom you can’t
totally know, you are a many-sided individual whom I can’t completely know.
So you must decide what side of yourself your proposal will convey—what per-
sonal characteristics and attributes, what persona, you’ll project as your proposal
speaks to me and my colleagues on the selection committee.
Once again, we see the importance of themes. Voice is controlled at the word
level, by your decision, for example, to use the word receive or the word collect.
And your themes not only embody your larger strategy to address hot buttons,
evaluation criteria, and counters to the competition; they govern your tactical
choices, word by word, so that your document speaks, not with a lisp or a stutter,
but fluidly, as it reflects my story and helps me to see how you can become a part
of it.