How to Personalise, Contextualise and Legitimise Automated Proposals

In the second of our four-part series, we look at the importance of creating persuasively structured content to generate powerful, personalised, automated proposals. As proposal professionals we all appreciate the power of a client-centric value proposition in our proposals. But how can we drive the persuasive paradigm beyond the confines of the proposal centre and into everyday sales communications?

The answer is deceptively simple: automate the creation of proactive proposals to exponentially improve the quality, consistency, speed and throughput of proposals and increase the sales pipeline. The practical implementation, however, is more challenging. It requires the right combination of people, process and technology to spread proposal best practice through mass production.

“What you are describing sounds like Proposal Nirvana!”

I presented this topic at the APMP's 13th Annual UK Conference with Darrell Woodward and received excellent feedback from our audience – it’s not quite proposal nirvana, but it is certainly enlightening! We know that a number of the delegates are benefiting from our insights and ideas to help them prepare their business case to initiate proposal automation projects within their own businesses.

Steven describes how driving the persuasive paradigm beyond the confines of the proposal centre has delivered a force multiplication of proposal excellence - turning best practice into common practice

Here are a few of the key elements that we believe are critical to success.

Create ‘blended’ not ‘boilerplate’ content

Consider the good-fast-cheap 'Iron Triangle’ when developing a content library to help classify content application.

Use the Iron Triangle concept to consider which two of three elements - good, fast, cheap - you care about

We’re all familiar with boilerplate content. There are good arguments for and against its use. Ranging in the 'fast-cheap' zone of the iron triangle, this content is professionally written, factually accurate, reliable – and frankly, a necessary evil.

• Fast: because it’s easily accessible, easy to use, and repeatable.

• Cheap: because of the write-once/read-many applications of boilerplate content.

Developing blended content takes the distinctive skills and experience of certified proposal professionals. Ranging in the ‘good-cheap’ zone of the iron triangle, this content is persuasively structured and personalised. Combining blended content with boilerplate and bespoke content creates a force multiplication of proposal excellence, and delivers a proposal that is much better than simple boilerplate, and almost as impactful as completely bespoke.

• Good: because it’s persuasively structured – propagating best practice by stealth;

• Cheap: because of the economies of scale that automation brings to bear.

Ranging in the ‘fast-good’ zone of the iron triangle, bespoke content is the unique proposal prose we craft in our day-to-day role as bid managers: devising win themes, writing thesis statements, drafting executive overviews and authoring a truly client-focused proposal narrative.

• Fast: because, as bid managers, we’re well-practiced in the techniques of persuasive writing;

• Good: because it’s commissioned for a specific client, it’s super-compelling.

If Content is King, then Context is Queen

To achieve the level of insight necessary to write ‘blended content’ intelligently, research your clients’ industries to achieve an informed (not expert) understanding of their common business problems and desired outcomes. Take time to read-in on the issues that are vexing your clients’ C-suite. Who is your customer? Who are their customers? What’s driving change in their market? Why do they need you?

Blended content must be generic enough to be applied confidently in a variety of proposal use cases, but it needs to feel specific enough that it passes the ‘sniff test’ and resonates with the reader. Consider the context of where and how blended content will be used in the proposal:

• Boilerplate has no place in an executive overview. Agreed!

• Every executive overview should be bespoke. Agreed!

• Blended content works well in an executive overview. Absolutely!

To achieve that “generic-specific” feel, use the client’s industry to frame the content. Consider the context of where in the proposal structure blended content can be applied. Graphics and trigger words on the title page? Hot buttons and sentences in the cover letter? Key themes and paragraphs in the executive overview? Crucially, pay special attention to crafting segue text as intros and outros for the blended content – acting as universal connectors that transition neatly between bespoke, boilerplate or other blended content assets.

One Example is Worth a Thousand Explanations

When working with authors to write new content, avoid falling into the trap of explaining how blended content will work in a proposal. Rather, create a worked example – a mock-up proposal document using your template and stylesheet – that you can use to clearly illustrate to contributors where blended content will be injected into the proposal structure.

Blended content consumes relatively small amounts of real estate in terms of word or page count compared to its boilerplate cousin. Invest time and effort getting the content right, coaching contributors to think first about the client, not their product or service. Help contributors to avoid writing about “feeds and speeds”, instead focusing on translating features into business benefits and outcomes.

Use the NOSE technique – a four-step pattern of persuasion which is promoted by Dr. Tom Sant as the ‘persuasive paradigm’ – to heighten the client focus and persuasiveness of blended content. Do this at the macro level by structuring the flow of the content and at the micro level in the phrasing of the proposal narrative. This will enable you to personalise contextualise and legitimise automated proposals at scale with quality.

In summary: How to Personalise, Contextualise and Legitimise Automated Proposals

• Consider the good-fast-cheap ‘Iron Triangle’ when developing a content library to help classify content application.

• Research your clients’ industries to achieve an ‘informed’ (not expert) understanding of their common business issues and desired outcomes in order to write intelligently.

• Create a worked example proposal document that clearly illustrates where and how the blended content will be injected into the proposal structure.

• Don’t let perfect get in the way of much better. Draw a clear distinction between persuasively structured, personalised ‘blended’ content and the ‘bespoke’ content written and customised specifically for a client.