Successful proposal writing requires you to make your proposals attractive as well as informative. Your proposal needs to offer your clients a sample of what their world will look like and feel like when they select you for their project.

You can make your proposals more attractive in at least three ways.

AVOID THE “WAR AND PEACE” PROPOSAL

Don’t force your clients to dread reviewing your proposals because they conjure up images of reading “War and Peace.”

Use the proper mix of graphics, fonts, photos, headers, bullets, and paragraphs that immediately proves to the clients that your proposal will be pleasing to the eye and not a burden on their brain.

FLATTERY WILL GET YOU MORE BUSINESS THAN BRAGGING

Attractive also means the readers will be drawn into your proposal because it addresses their stated wants, needs, desires, goals, budgets and timetables. Flatter your clients by making them the Number One consideration in the proposal, not the great things your products or services have done for others.

Your clients will be attracted to the proposal because it fits their situation, not your capabilities and past successes.

AIM FOR THE HEART AND THE HEAD

Your proposals become more attractive when they appeal to your clients emotionally and logically.

It appeals to their emotions because they appreciate something created to solve their problem, fix their pain, or vault them into a productive, prominent, and profitable position.

It appeals to their logic because they recognize the value your solution delivers to them. Your solution may not be the lowest price but the value your solution brings far exceeds any cost considerations.

Attract more business; attract more profits; make your proposals attractive to your clients.

There are many advantages to both supervisors and employees in having an effective performance planning and review process. The process should identify clearly what is expected of the employee, which in turn provides the opportunity to recognize good performance and identify areas that need corrective action or added training.

Four areas that must be identified in a performance plan are:

1. Job responsibility – what has to be done?

2. Performance measure – how will this be checked or measured?

3. Performance standard – how well must it be done?

4. Target date – when will it be checked?

When building a performance plan, you would obtain information in these areas from the job description and you would also look to the organization needs to clarify which duties have priority and the standard they must be performed to. An effective performance plan should outline results expected, performance measures, standards to be achieved and target dates for measurement.

Performance plans are usually prepared at the beginning of annual review period, or when an employee first starts their new job. Preparing for the initial planning meeting should be undertaken by both the supervisor and the employee. Both supervisor and employee should be reviewing the goals, objectives and needs of the work unit and looking at the current job description. The supervisor should list the things in the job that they intend to measure, and the standards you will measure to. The employee could write down the ways they think each of their tasks could be measured and how well each should be performed.

Performance objectives and results to be achieved should be focused on results and set in order of priority. Measures should be specific to each task, with clear standards which include dates and times when appropriate.

The next step in the process is providing regular feedback. The supervisor should be maintaining a log of performance facts, which will ensure that important issues are given the attention that is required and will help the formal review proceed in a more focused and potentially more positive way. The employee should also maintain a record of accomplishments and special achievements, or issues that need to be resolved. Discussion of these things during scheduled or spontaneous feedback sessions will allow resolution of problems in a timely manner.

Reviewing performance gives the supervisor and the employee the opportunity to look at results that have been achieved in relation to the original plan and standards of performance that were established. At this meeting, you should review all performance records and assess each task, discussing whether they met the standards of performance or not, and whether they exceed those standards. Review any outside factors that may have had an effect on performance. At this time, the supervisor should be identifying any areas where improvement may be necessary or performance could be enhanced. The employee should also have the opportunity to discuss areas where they could have used more help.

Another important aspect to completing this cycle is action planning. This is where the supervisor and employee would plan for any training that needs to occur, and could also be where you discuss career planning.

The completion of this cycle should illustrate to us that a positive atmosphere of working together is beneficial to both the work organization, the supervisor and the employee.

Imagine…you’ve just managed to save the training budget for this year. Although it’s been cut 25%, you were able to convince your boss of the need to maintain training, especially in economically challenging times. Now, working with 25% less, you have to implement training to address the concerns of several departments: Jennie, the customer service manager, wants her 25 reps trained; Bob, the IT manager, wants IT training for his department; Clarise, the administrative manager, says her support staff desperately need email business writing help. How can you service Jennie, Bob, and Clarise? What can you do to meet everyone’s needs on a limited budget?

The scenario mentioned above is all too real in today’s workplace, but with some creativity and a good training company willing to work with you, you can pull it off. Here’s how.

Assess the specific training needs of each manager; in our case: Jennie, Bob, and Clarise. Use this fact-finding assessment to identify the specific job performance skills each manager wants addressed. For example, it’s not good enough for Jennie to simply state, “My people need customer service training.” What kind of customer service training? What kind of skills do they already have? What are Jennie’s performance objectives for her department? What kind of training have they had in the past?

Assign a category to the training needed. Can it be provided on an informal or formal basis? Can you use an in-house trainer–someone from the department with that skill set, or will you need an outside trainer? Can you provide any part or all of the training online?

Address the cost involved to provide the training. For example, once you have determined that providing Jennie’s customer service training is most cost-effective utilizing web-based training, figure out what it will cost per employee. While conducting your research keep in mind that a reputable company should:

• Charge no more than $25 per employee
• Charge on a monthly basis (allowing you to stop and start on-line training at your discretion)
• Be able to build or customize training content to meet your on-going and ever changing needs

Further, let’s assume that you’ve determined Clarise’s e-mail training request would benefit all three departments. In this case, you want to bring in a trainer, and you want to stagger the training days to enable all employees to attend. Negotiate with the training company to give you a full day of training split over two days for one price. For instance, if the company charges $3,500 for up to 40 employees, get the company to come in two half days. This option allows you to send 20 people to training one day and 20 the next day. Let’s not forget Bob, the IT manager. You find out from Bob who are his brightest team members and suggest using them to teach their other team members. Perhaps Bob feels uncomfortable with that solution, so you suggest he send one or two of his brightest and best to an outside training session then come back and teach the rest of the group. This option will keep your training costs down and morale up because Bob’s employees can now see a way to increase their value to the company and to themselves. Others on Bob’s team benefit from learning from co-workers, and they, too, see the company in a favorable light — one still willing to invest in their employees!

Analyze/Action involves analyzing all possible solutions and then taking action. So, let’s wrap this up and see how you’ve met everyone’s needs on your limited training budget:

• Web-based Customer Service training for Jennie’s 25 reps totals $4,000: One-time set-up fee for unlimited monthly web access: $1,500 (This is an average. Some companies may charge up to $2,500). $25 per employee per month fee to access web-based training ($25 x 25 = $625). Jennie’s reps need three months ($625 x 4 = $2,500)
• On-site E-Mail/Business Writing training for Clarise’s team is $3,500: Two four-hour training sessions for 40 employees, which happens to include Clarise’s team, Bob’s team, and Jennie’s team
• Outside training session for Bob’s two employees who will, in turn, come back and teach/train their colleagues is $1,118: One day of training @ $399 for two employees = $798; paid time off for two employees @ $20/hour for 8 hours = $320

Summary: For $8,618, you’ve given each manager the training they’ve requested to grow their departments, increased the overall value of the organization to your customers, and… you have $1,382 left over for pizza! Remember, with a little creativity, the right training company, and a willingness to look at different options, you can assist each department in meeting their training needs!

Happy Training!