tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366510872024-02-28T16:16:56.679-05:00Sant's Messages that MatterThe Sant Corporation's award winning newsletter with practical advice to improve your business communication skills and proposal writing. The newsletter is written by Dr. Tom Sant: best-selling author, educator, and founder of The Sant Corporation.Brian Vasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04997728653978935117noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-75783384385450238602010-11-01T10:50:00.000-05:002010-11-01T10:50:01.135-05:00Responding to Web-based RFPsSometimes you do everything right but it all comes out wrong. You write a fabulous proposal and you still lose. True, it’s not fair. <br /><br />That’s our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Responding to Web-based RFPs <br /></span><br />A proposal specialist at a major health care company recently sent me a copy of an RFI (request for information) his team has to fill out. It’s a Web-based form that’s required of all health care companies who want to bid for contracts from any of the dozens of companies who have agreed to use this thing. Called eVALUE8, which is too cutesy to be tolerated in a license plate much less a business document, it’s basically a big checklist. <br /><br />The document starts out, “Members of the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) and Watson Wyatt (WW) eValue8 group have embraced a common set of core health plan performance expectations and have worked collaboratively to develop the 2006 NBCH/WW eValue8 Request for Information (RFI).” Just reading that opening sentence, you know we’re in trouble. The sentence is 40 words long, contains three acronyms, not counting the “eValue8” thing, and uses some pretty bizarre business clichés. And how about the weird syntax? The members claim they have “embraced” a “set of core…expectations.” I’d probably buy a ticket just to watch them do that. <br /><br />Anyway, lots of big companies are involved in this thing, so healthcare companies feel like they’re bullied into filling it out. It consists of page after page of tiny fields where you enter all kinds of obscure data: the percentage of your practitioners who work in a staff model or in a captivated multispecialty group, or in a captivated IPA, whatever that is. Or the number of plan members you have enrolled in a commercial HMO/POS arrangement, or in a commercial PPO, the total number of Medicare members, and so on. It goes on this way for page after page, little boxes and lots of numbers. All in all, it’s over 150 pages long! <br />If nothing else would do it, filling out eValue8 would make you eager to see healthcare reform in this country. <br /><br />What about you? Are you getting similar RFPs and RFIs in your business? What should you do with them? <br /><br />One tempting answer is to pitch them in the trash. Requiring vendors to fill out reams of data and complete spreadsheets on pricing is a lousy way to buy anything. I've always believed that this kind of granular RFI or RFP really gets in the way of making an intelligent buying decision. And there are a couple of sneaky aspects to them that make them even less palatable. <br /><br />First, a checklist RFP is based on the assumption that what you and everybody else in your industry offers is a commodity. For these buyers, value has no value. They deny the relevance or importance of any value-added components, any differentiators, and any distinctions in service delivery models. They refuse to acknowledge that prior experience is a good thing. Typically, all they want is pricing data and confirmation of technical specs. With the increased power procurement groups have grabbed during the recession, we're seeing a lot more RFPs that are written this way. <br /><br />Second, this kind of RFP is often written by a consultant or some other third party. <br />Unfortunately, it’s in the consultant’s self-interest to make the buying process as complex as possible and to minimize the meaningful differences among vendors. The consultants prefer to keep the vendors at arm’s length from the actual customer and to focus the customer’s attention mainly on the consultant’s ability to manipulate a huge amount of data. That’s why the RFPs they issue are so complex, why they give you so little room to respond, and why they focus on technical details for the most part.<br /> <br />So… back to our question. What do you do with this kind of RFP? Well, it really might be in your best interest to refuse to respond to them. That decision depends on a number of factors, but the volume of effort involved in responding compared to the probability of winning profitable work makes them pretty unattractive. <br /><br />This is particularly true if you have received the RFP from a client with whom you’ve had no previous contact. Statistically, your chances of winning any business in that situation—you’ve never talked to them, the RFP arrives out of the blue, and it gives you no room to make a persuasive business case—is less than 1 in 20. <br /><br />It’s also possible you’re being used. Maybe the company issuing the RFP already knows who they want to hire, but they have to get three other bids. Or maybe they want to beat up their current supplier on price. Any way you look at it, it’s not a very good investment of your time, is it? <br /><br />But let’s suppose you have to respond to it for whatever reason. Is there any way to make your proposal stand out a bit? <br /><br />Well, first of all, if there are any areas of the RFP where you are allowed to enter free-form text, make sure you write as persuasively as possible. Second, write a well-structured, persuasive executive summary and use it as the covering e-mail when you submit your completed RFP on line. Maybe nobody will read it, but it’s not that much extra work and it might help. Third, if you make it past the first stage of reviews, seek a face-to-face meeting with the client and develop an absolute killer proposal presentation, one that emphasizes your understanding of the client’s needs, the value you can deliver and the differentiators that set you apart. <br /><br />I hope these form-based RFPs are a passing fad, because it doesn’t seem to me they serve the interests of either the buyers or the sellers. <br /><br />One bit of good news in all this is the fact that Sant Suite can automate your response to forms, even if they’re in spreadsheets or on the Web. At least that way you’re spending a lot less time on them! You can see an interactive, Web-based demo of how it works at our site, santcorp.com.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-65534471864225931462010-10-25T10:48:00.000-05:002010-10-25T10:48:00.288-05:00Paper or Digitalgroceries: paper or plastic? I even did research on the Web to figure out which was the right choice. Talk about confusing! I finally just gave up and now I bring my own—cloth, thank you. <br /><br />But there’s another choice we face with our proposals: paper or digital? We know which is greener. But which is more effective? <br /><br />That’s our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Paper or Digital</span><br /><br /><br />Would you prefer to submit your proposal as a printed document or as a digital file? Perhaps more important, which format do your prospects prefer? <br /><br />We're at a flex point in proposal writing, I think. Traditional methods have involved writing a document, printing it out, binding it and putting it between nice looking covers, and then delivering it—usually multiple copies—to the prospect.<br /> <br />Many RFPs still specify that you must submit hard copies. State and local government agencies often require a paper submission. <br /><br />But increasingly, RFPs call for digital submissions. At the simplest level, they may require that you submit your document via e-mail or that you upload it to a Web site. At a more complex level, they may require you to fill out Web-based forms. <br /><br />I believe that at some point in the next few years, proposals will be true digital documents—more like Web sites than Word docs. They will feature embedded video clips, hyperlinks, search capabilities, and other functionality that will make them interesting and easier to use. That kind of development is inevitable, I believe. But will it be a good thing? I honestly don't know. <br /><br />Each of these modes of delivery has advantages and weaknesses.<br /> <br />Traditional paper-based proposals have the familiar form factor that all paper-based documents have. They're easy to skim, easy to flip back and forth in and easy to score. You can write notes in the margins, you can fold down the corner when you see something interesting, and you can underline or highlight stuff that you want to remember. <br /><br />On the other hand, with paper-based proposals, a lot of trees have to die. Right now I have a single copy of a proposal written to the state of New York, which required paper-based submissions. The proposal consists of three volumes. Each volume contains over 500 pages of text. Each volume is bound in an elaborate three-ring binder, and each binder is housed in a slip case cover. This proposal is so big; I had to clear an area of my desk off just to house it. Reading it is pretty much a nightmare. And how much do you think it cost—both in terms of dollars and carbon footprint—to deliver multiple copies of this thing to Albany? <br /><br />Digital proposals save paper, save transportation costs, and can be delivered to the prospect almost instantaneously. There's no need to make multiple copies, because the prospect can simply forward your digital version to whomever needs to see it. You're probably creating the document digitally; using Microsoft Word, so delivering it digitally eliminates an extra step in production. <br /><br />But digital documents can be difficult to work with. If the proposal has been saved as a .PDF file, which it probably should be, the reader will have extreme difficulty annotating it. Skimming digital documents can be very difficult, too. And when you deliver a document in native Word format, its appearance can change (and never for the better) if the recipient has the Normal template set to something unusual. In fact, you may have problems delivering the document if the client is using an older version of Word (accepting .doc files) and you're producing your proposal in a newer version (such as a .docx file). <br /><br />The next generation of digital delivery sounds pretty exciting. The ability to embed video, to create hot links to Web sites outside the proposal, and the opportunity to use advanced search technology, hyperlinks, and a more creative interface all sound pretty cool. <br /><br />But there are a whole host of issues associated with the use of technology that will have to be addressed. In the public sector, it's unlikely that such submissions will be accepted for a long, long time, because they usually require the least technically advanced mode of delivery—in part to keep the playing field level and in part because that's all they can handle. Even if you're dealing with a technically sophisticated clientele, we've all had problems from time to time getting a video to open, a photograph to display, or a page to load properly. What happens if your evaluator has similar problems? Do they simply mark your submission noncompliant and move on to the next one? <br /><br />What do you prefer? Would you rather produce a paper-based document or do you prefer to submit via e-mail? Or are you excited about the prospect of creating a true Web-based submission? <br /><br />In the meantime, you know that whatever the future holds in terms of delivery, our tools will simplify the process. From our early days, when we first generated proposals in Word, WordPerfect, and AmiPro, until our latest versions when we can build them from components in multiple media and deliver them the same way, we have tried to take the hard work out of formatting and make your deliverables as crisp, professional, and consistent as possible.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-49986966640005310002010-10-19T10:42:00.003-05:002010-10-19T10:46:22.858-05:00Keeping ScoreThe premise of open book management is that employees will make better decisions if they understand how those decisions affect profitability. In The Great Game of Business, Jack Stack argues that workers need to know what the measures of success are, should be expected to improve the numbers by taking action in their own area of responsibility, and should have a direct stake in success or failure. <br /><br />It all makes sense, yet surprisingly enough many companies have no idea what their win rate is, have no idea how long it takes on average to close a deal, and don't know what their best source of leads is. If you're not tracking that stuff, you're playing shortstop with a blindfold on. <br /><br />Metrics matter. That’s our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Keeping Score<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span><br /><br />For years we have claimed that our proposal automation tools increase effectiveness and improve efficiency. A recent survey of several hundred Sant clients shows that those claims were completely justified. On average, our clients' win rate improved by 33% and they reduced the time required to create a proposal an average of 42%. <br /><br />Unfortunately, there were quite a few clients who were unable to participate in the survey. Why? Because they had never measured their win rate before, so they had nothing to compare it to. And they had never tracked how much time goes into creating a proposal, so they didn't know how much time they were saving. <br /><br />If you want to improve your proposal process, if you want it to produce more wins and spend less time and money along the way, you have to track what you’re doing and measure the results. That’s a basic principle underlying all continuous improvement methodologies, and it applies to the proposal operation as much as it does to the factory floor. Likewise, unless proposal writers and managers know how they're doing, they won't see the need to get better. If nobody is tracking my batting average, why would I bother to take hitting practice? <br /><br />One of the first steps an organization needs to take is to decide what it is they want to measure. Which measurements are truly meaningful? "Win ratio” is the obvious first answer that comes to mind, but we all know from the experience of the recent recession that win ratios can be very misleading. If you won 30% of the deals in 2008, when the economy was still pretty healthy, but only 26% last year, after it had really tanked, does that mean you had a terrible year? In reality, you might be having a terrific year in spite of the small drop in win ratio. It’s possible that because of the recession, everybody else is doing much worse. <br /><br />Or, to give another reason why it’s risky to use win ratios as the only metric, what if you’re winning all of the small opportunities and none of the large ones? In that case, your win ratio would be high but the average revenue generated per proposal would be low. If you supplement win ratio tracking by measuring the percentage of dollars won compared to the total amount for which you bid, you might get an idea of how well you did overall. <br /><br />Other factors might include the ratio of new business won from new opportunities compared to new business won from existing clients. If you have a high renewal rate but are struggling to win new business, that doesn't bode well for your market share over the long term. <br /><br />Deciding what to measure is not necessarily as easy or intuitive as it might initially appear, but it is the first vital step. <br /><br />The next step is to gather a baseline of data. After all, if you don’t know where you are, it’s pretty hard to figure out if you’re moving in the right direction. In organizations where the proposal effort is centralized, or where there are controls placed on proposals so that none of them are issued without being reviewed by legal, finance, or senior management, it's a fairly straightforward matter to start tracking results. But in organizations where sales people are able to submit proposals without any further review or approval, tracking the actual win ratio may require a crystal ball or a Ouija board. <br /><br />The final step is to develop a process for tracking results going forward. Assuming that you have tweaked the system in some way, you will want to know if that tweak has improved your win ratio or reduced the time required to finish a proposal. But unless you have a systematic way of gathering the data, you'll never know for sure what's working and what isn't. <br /><br />Once you have the three basics covered—you know what to measure, you have a baseline to compare it to, and you have a systematic way of capturing the data—you’re ready to start managing based on the numbers. <br /><br />At Sant, we believe in measuring results. But why wouldn't we—our results have been terrific. We're happy to share references and case studies to show you just how good they've been. And you can see an interactive, Web-based demo of our software in action on our site, santcorp.com.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-29615582351797045962010-06-23T08:21:00.001-05:002010-06-23T08:24:08.259-05:00Lessons LostYou often hear people saying that they want to capture the “lessons learned” from an important project, such as a major proposal. <br /><br />My question is what do they do with those lessons after they capture them? Because they sure seem to disappear pretty quickly, given the number of proposals that repeat the same mistakes again and again. <br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><br /><strong>Lessons Lost</strong><br /><br />Last fall I worked with a company that was in a pretty desperate situation. They hadn't won a single bid for over a year. They had survived on some large projects that generated cash, but those were winding down. If they didn't win a major opportunity—and soon—they would be forced to lay off hundreds of employees. <br /><br />They had an opportunity to respond to an RFP for a huge engineering project, something that was perfect for them. They asked me to help, because they saw it as a must-win situation and somebody in their management group thought my methods might work. <br /><br />I began by asking for certain kinds of content and insights into the engineering project and the government agency that was funding it that they hadn't gathered. When I arrived on site, I led a series of workshops to create client-centered and persuasive responses to each of the 20 major "questions" or topical areas in the RFP. And when we got to the section on personnel, I asked them to throw out their traditional resumes, which were long and boring, and write them in a completely different way. <br /><br />For some contributors, the process was invigorating. They enjoyed doing things in a new way. For others, the process was more painful. But at the end of the process, they had a response to the RFP that was persuasive, value oriented, and client centered. And a few months later, they learned that they had won. <br /><br />That was good news, obviously, and I took a large measure of pride in having helped them. But since then, I have learned that they have not incorporated a single thing we did into their standard processes. We found that doing things differently, following a different process, putting the emphasis on different areas of content, resulted in a win. You might even call those "lessons learned". But none of them were preserved. Instead, they have gone back to doing things the same old way—the way that had failed to win a single deal for over a year. <br /><br />This is an extreme example, but one that's nevertheless common. In proposal operations, in spite of lip service to the contrary, lessons learned are quite often lessons lost. If you are a habitual reader of Dilbert, as I am, you may be cynical enough to simply accept the notion that senior managers would completely disregard lessons learned that produced hundreds of millions of dollars of success after months and months of failure. But I think the real cause of lessons learned becoming lessons lost has more to do with processes than with personalities. <br /><br />Most proposal organizations, and indeed most sales operations as a whole, have no institutionalized process for capturing lessons learned. The argument might be that each proposal, like each sales opportunity, is unique. Each poses its own challenges. What works on one proposal may have little relevance to the next. <br /><br />As you probably know, if you have read my comments over the years, I think that is nonsense. Although the specifics of each proposal vary, they vary within predictable ranges. By documenting what works, what contributes to greater success, what saves time or eliminates quality problems, we increase our ability to produce successful work in the future. Yes, the proposal itself will be different—perhaps very different—but the processes and tools we use will be very similar from one opportunity to the next, and focusing on improving those processes and tools is absolutely vital if we are to show steady improvement in both effectiveness and efficiency. <br /><br />So why do so many proposal operations skip the process of gathering, documenting, and institutionalizing lessons learned? One reason is that they are immediately neck deep in the next bid effort. They believe they have no time to pause for reflection. As soon as today's proposal has been delivered, we must rush off to work on tomorrow's. <br /><br />Another reason is that there is no budget set aside for this kind of effort. As a support organization, the proposal operation must be very careful to show that every minute of time and every dollar of budget is being directed toward winning business. Something that's one step removed, like capturing lessons learned, could be criticized as frivolous, so proposal managers avoid doing it. <br /><br />A third reason is that in many organizations the proposal effort is decentralized. In a decentralized organization, it's extremely difficult to gather any kind of information on what's working, and it's even more difficult to learn what doesn't work. After all, who wants to volunteer to be the example of how not to do it? <br /><br />Finally, lessons learned are often lost because the proposal operation and the sales organization as a whole may not have any system in place for implementing change. In an engineering or project management environment, change management is a well-defined part of the process. There are documented steps for institutionalizing a better process when you discover one. That is seldom true in sales or proposal operations. <br /><br />What's to be done? The first step, I think, is to acknowledge that doing things the same way, over and over, without being open to changes that may improve results, is a recipe for stagnation and eventual failure. If you can get your organization to make that cultural shift, then here are some suggestions for capturing lessons learned and incorporating them into your standard procedures: <br /><br />• Conduct regular lessons learned meetings with the sales and proposal development team. At a minimum, this should happen right after a major bid has been completed. Ask: What worked? Where were the obstacles? What workarounds or solutions did we come up with? <br />• For problems that come up repeatedly, create a task group to analyze the root causes. Ask: What preventative measures can be implemented? What gaps in capabilities should be closed? <br />• What did you do differently? Did it work? Was there anything you did that was so effective you think it should become part of your standard approach in the future? If so, document it and figure out how to make sure everybody embraces it. Training? Checklists? Tools? What's going to make this new way of working the standard way in the future? <br />• At least once a year, stand back from your standard processes—you're unquestioned "best practices"—and question them. What's being done simply because it's always been done? What's no longer adding value to the final deliverable? Can these steps be eliminated? Can they be changed and made more effective? <br />• Establish a formal process for institutionalizing change. Document the changes. Incorporate them into internal training. Modify your ProposalMaster and RFPMaster databases or the user interfaces to reinforce the changes. Begin including the use of these new methods into performance appraisals. Figure out what's going to work to convert lessons learned into accepted standard practices as quickly as possible, and then follow through. <br /><br />If you would like some help in figuring out what lessons you have learned and what lessons other people learned that you can borrow, give us a call. From working with hundreds of companies in dozens of markets, we can help you jump start the process.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-397933505727525302010-06-23T08:10:00.002-05:002010-06-23T08:20:34.743-05:00ProfilingProfiling is not allowed in a criminal case, but it makes a lot of sense in your business case. By establishing a set of behaviors and characteristics that define your best customers, you create a pattern or profile to use in searching for new ones. <br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><br /><strong>Profiling</strong><br /><br />Can you describe your best customers? Would you recognize them if you bumped into them at a conference or on a sales call? <br /><br />You may be rolling your eyes at this point. Of course I recognize my best customers! I'm in their offices eight to ten times a year! I'm more likely to recognize them than I am to pick out my spouse's cousin at a wedding!<br /> <br />Right. But what I'm referring to is whether or not you've created a profile of your best customers. One that identifies the nature of their business, their business model, their financial situation, key recent events, significant pending changes, their current infrastructure, and any other characteristic that helps define them. <br /><br />When I developed the first version of ProposalMaster almost 20 years ago, I did it based on the observation that most of my clients had a limited number of vertical markets to which they sold their products and services. Within those markets, there were half a dozen or a dozen reasons that clients needed their products and services. There were certain options and features that were of particular interest to certain kinds of buyers. By defining the typical buyers and what motivated them, we were able to create a taxonomy of the content sales people needed to deliver persuasive proposals to the buyers they encountered most frequently. <br /><br />That same thinking can be the basis of creating a comprehensive sales toolkit. Everything from cold calling scripts to negotiation strategies can be thought through in terms of the typical patterns of behavior that you and your colleagues run into. And profiling your best customers can make it easier for you to find them and connect with them. In fact, profiling your best customers should help you figure out the most effective sales process. <br /><br />Here are some questions that may help you start profiling for profit: <br />• Do our customers' needs vary by vertical market? <br />• Do their needs vary by the buyer's role? <br />• Do needs vary based on other factors, such as: <br /> o Size of the customer's organization? <br /> o Geography? <br /> o Primary source of funding? <br /> o Their use of certain legacy systems? <br /><br />• Are there certain "trigger events" or "red flags" that are strong predictors of when a customer is most likely to need our help, such as: <br /> o Explosive growth? <br /> o Expansion into a new market? <br /> o Release of new products or services? <br /> o New CEO, VP of Engineering, VP of Sales, or other senior leadership? <br /> o Recent or pending acquisition or merger? <br /> o Obviously broken processes (for example, high rates of product returns, poor quality, late financial filings)? <br /> o Employee morale issues as indicated by high levels of sick time, absenteeism, accidents, workers' comp claims? <br /> o Market share erosion? <br /> o Loss of patent protection? <br /> o Declining productivity? <br /> o Declining revenues? <br /><br />The specific questions you ask to profile your best customers—and more importantly, your best prospects—will be different from these, of course. But figuring out what they are and then finding the answers to them is an important step forward in creating an empirical basis for your sales process, the tools your sales people use, and the content in your proposal and presentation libraries. <br /><br />It will probably come as little surprise to you to know that we can help you with that process. We conduct Structure & Strategy sessions for our clients that uncover the right answers to the right questions, which is one of the reasons that companies that implement our proposal software see a near 30 percent increase in win rates on average. Give us a call if you'd like some help profiling for profit in your business.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-76165266033486932442010-04-19T12:53:00.000-05:002010-04-19T12:54:13.750-05:00Overcoming the Fear of ValueWhy is that so many proposals contain no value proposition at all? What are those proposal writers afraid of?<br /><br />That is our topic this time.<br /><br />Regards,<br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><strong>Overcoming the Fear of Value</strong><br /><br />Are you afraid of value? There's plenty of evidence that suggests most proposal writers are. For one thing, very few proposals even contain a value proposition. And for another, when I bring up the importance of putting a value proposition in your proposals, the audience pushes back—hard!<br /><br />I call this reaction "value paranoia." The result is weak value propositions that do little or nothing to move a deal forward. Here's an example of a so-called value proposition born of value paranoia:<br /><br />"We offer a full range of enterprise-strength, integrated technology solutions."<br /><br />Pretty exciting, huh? Makes you want to grab your checkbook, right? Or how about this one:<br /><br />"We are a true one-stop shop for all your financial services needs."<br /><br />I'll bet that makes you want to shout YES!, doesn't it? And here's another one—one that was actually used as the value proposition for an opportunity worth over $500 million:<br /><br />"We are committed to the success of the enterprise."<br /><br />Good grief! These are horrible. There's just no other word to describe them. For one thing, every one of them starts with "We," even though common sense would suggest that an effective value proposition should be focused on the buyer and what they care about. And for another, they contain no promise of positive results that can be tracked or quantified. Finally, none of them are backed up by even a shred of proof. These three supposed value propositions—all of which appeared in real proposals, by the way—are little more than marketing fluff.<br /><br />When I press clients to create a more compelling value propositions—"ABC Company can reduce total energy costs by 75 to 80 percent by implementing our solar energy panels"—they sometimes squirm in their seats.<br /><br />"What if the client actually follows up and holds us to our promises?" they ask. "Where will we find the baseline data against which to measure our impact? How will we ever get this past our in-house lawyers?"<br /><br />These are all good questions. But they are questions that can be answered by modifying your sales and implementation processes and presenting your value proposition in clear, careful language. They are not reasons to refrain from offering a meaningful value proposition.<br /><br />1. What if the client actually measures our results? <br />It'd be great if they did, assuming your products and services are as good as you claim. Why not make that part of your implementation strategy? Tell them that you'll work with them to set up the processes necessary to track results. Getting that data should make it a lot easier for you to win the rebid or the next phase of work.<br /><br />2. Where will we find the baseline data against which to measure our impact? <br />Ideally, you will get it from the client, but we all know that many of our clients aren't measuring current performance so they have no way to know what kind of impact our products and services have had on their operations. If the client can't provide the baseline data, how about industry associations? They often publish data that represents industry averages. Or how about getting your own baseline data by going in to a new client immediately after you have won a deal and measuring the key parameters at the outset and then measuring them again after six months? If you do this half a dozen times, you'll have your own baseline data that you can use as a starting point with customers. You'll know the average cost of processing a check in the Accounts Payable systems from half a dozen organizations that are similar to your new client. You'll know how long it takes to process a data record in a legacy system compared to what it takes once your system is in place. And so on.<br /><br />3. How will we ever get this past our lawyers?<br />Lawyers believe that their job is to keep the company out of trouble. And they know that the primary sources of trouble are (1) clients and (2) employees. If they can just eliminate both sources, they will have done their job perfectly. Unfortunately, in the real world there must be a balance between the "excess of caution" that lawyers love to live by and the slight risk of doing business that is required to actually close a deal. By using weasel words appropriately—"this may result in…," "you could see an increase of up to 20 percent…", "based on current assumptions, we project savings of…"—you can protect the company from making promises that could come back to haunt you and yet you can still offer a meaningful value proposition.<br /><br />Value propositions are the means by which we motivate the decision maker to move forward. A strong, specific value proposition that offers quantifiable improvements in a core area of performance is the key to shortening your sales cycle and winning more business. Don't let value paranoia cripple yours.<br /><br />We can calculate a compelling value proposition from automating your proposal operations. Give us a call and we'll put some pretty impressive numbers in front of you—and no marketing fluff!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-75174928580377357862010-03-09T07:57:00.000-05:002010-03-09T07:59:04.812-05:00Why Great Proposals LoseSometimes you do everything right but it all comes out wrong. You write a fabulous proposal and you still lose. Here’s why it happens. <br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Why Great Proposals Lose </span><br /><br />Shouldn't quality be rewarded? Shouldn't an outstanding effort be crowned with success? <br /><br />Well, maybe in Hollywood, where happy endings are required, but in real life it doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes you produce a great proposal and it still loses. It's beautifully written. It has terrific graphics. The win theme is creative and strong. And what happens? Nothing. It doesn't even get down-selected to the final two or three. What's up with that? <br /><br />What's up is that your seemingly great proposal might be doomed by a fatal flaw. And just as is true of those Shakespearian heroes and their fatal flaws, the consequences for your proposal are tragic. Here are some of the most common flaws that can doom your magnificent effort: <br /><br />• Weak qualification of the opportunity. The proposal was well written, true, but there was never a deal there in the first place. <br /><br />One of my clients in London received an RFP from a global technology firm. Overjoyed by the size and scope of the opportunity, my client assembled a top team who worked for six weeks to respond to the complex and difficult bid document. They even spent £100,000 with an outside graphics firm to create fantastic illustrations and slides. But when they arrived at the prospect's headquarters to present their proposal, they were told, "We're so delighted you chose to respond, considering that we don't actually intend to change our supplier this time around." <br /><br />Ask yourself three questions: Is the client serious? Can we be competitive? Can we win? If you can't answer these questions honestly, throw up a big yellow flag. Otherwise, you may be in for a case of proposal heartbreak. <br /><br />• Not understanding the business drivers. You can be 100% compliant to the RFP and 100% a loser if you don’t understand the client's real needs. The RFP almost never discusses the business problems that lie behind an opportunity. So your proposal, which does a great job of responding to the technical requirements, may be missing the point completely. <br /><br />Suppose a bank discovers they have a serious problem with the security of their accounts, particularly in regard to on-line banking functions. They issue an RFP, seeking help. Do you think they will indicate exactly what the problem is, how serious it is, how many customers are at risk? No, no, and no. RFPs can quickly become public documents, so any revelations about leaky security could damage the bank's reputation, create panic among customers, and possibly send the share price plummeting. <br /><br />• Failing to leverage lessons learned. Have you had previous engagements with a client? Have you received a debriefing after submitting a previous proposal? If so, you may have valuable insights that will enable you to personalize the message. Unfortunately, the so-called lessons learned often go into long-term storage and are never looked at again. It's surprising how many companies invest millions of dollars in CRM systems, but don't use them to store information or insights into decision makers, corporate culture, or other factors that could strengthen the next proposal effort. <br /><br />• Pitching to people who aren't there anymore. If we have a long-standing relationship with a client or a government agency, we might find ourselves unconsciously slipping into a traditional pattern. We know what they want. We know how they like us to organize our bid. We share experiences and assumptions, so we don't bother to spell that stuff out. "They know that," we say. "We don't need to mention it." What we may fail to notice is that those people have moved on. Some of them retired. Some were replaced. Maybe a few of them transferred to new positions. And as a result our usual way of proposing may not work anymore. I recently worked on a huge proposal to a government agency, one that was deemed a "must win", and kept getting "advice" from the old timers about the way that agency liked things done. What they weren't acknowledging was that six months earlier the entire command structure in t hat agency had been replaced and the culture was totally different. Happily, we ended up pitching to the people who were there, and I got word a couple of weeks ago that the proposal won. <br /><br />There are probably a few other reasons why otherwise great proposals lose. But I suppose you could argue that if a proposal was hampered by one of the fatal flaws I've listed above, it probably wasn't all that great in the first place. <br />If you're looking to eliminate hidden fatal flaws and produce truly great proposals, give us a call. We have the software, the training and the processes to help increase your win rate. And how great would that be?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-50781838631922678752010-01-06T08:39:00.001-05:002010-01-06T08:41:35.043-05:00Why Saying YES is Always More Dangerous Than NOWhy Saying YES is Always More Dangerous Than NO <br /><br />You don’t have to be the parent of a teenager to realize that saying YES is always potentially more dangerous than saying NO. (Although if you are the parent of a teenager, you can probably come up with plenty of examples to illustrate the point.) <br /><br />The same thing is true in business. And if we’re going to sell our products or services, we have to make saying YES a little less risky. <br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards,<br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><br /><br />Why Saying YES is Always More Dangerous Than NO <br /><br />It's a truism of consultative sales methodologies that there are numerous decision influencers in an opportunity who have the power to say NO to a deal, but only one person who has the authority to say YES. The person who can say YES is sometimes called the "economic buyer" (in Strategic Selling terminology) or the "center of power" or simply the "boss.” Whatever you call that person, he or she carries a heavy burden: they have the authority to commit the organization to change. <br /><br />Change is risky. After all, we know how to do what we're already doing. Maybe we don't do it very well and maybe it's not producing the results we want, but at least we feel comfortable in following the process and getting things done the way we've always done them. It's not surprising, then, is it, that we might see you and your enthusiastic recommendations for change as being more than a little threatening? <br /><br />In our sales process and particularly in our proposals, we can make saying YES a little less dangerous for our clients. Here are seven ideas: <br /><br />• Chunk the recommendation down into bite-size pieces. If our solution involves complex products and services, significant resource commitments, extended development cycles, or a large price tag, we're probably making our decision maker feel uneasy about saying YES. Why don't we divide that big solution into several smaller ones? Maybe we can start with a simple planning or assessment project that provides a clear Go/No Go gate at the end to protect the client from becoming embroiled in a large-scale disaster. <br /><br />• Avoid over-engineering the solution. Simple is always safer than complex. Easy is always less risky than difficult. Try to avoid the temptation of adding in extra elements when you are configuring your recommendation. <br /><br />• Link your solution to the customer's needs. One of the best ways to overcome the tendency to say No is to make it clear that your solution addresses their key needs. We've discussed this before, but as a quick reminder, I urge you to start your presentation of the solution with a quick summary of two or three key needs that the client wants to address. For each need, show how a specific feature of your solution addresses it, what the benefit to them will be, and a quick proof statement (a reference, for example) indicating that it's likely to work. Now they see that they are in fact buying a solution. Unfortunately, most proposals contain canned descriptions of products and services that are not linked to anything. They're just information dumps and they provoke a profound desire to say NO. <br /><br />• Include service level agreements or real guarantees in the contract. The client is more likely to feel protected if we've been willing to offer them a way of measuring our performance and if we're putting some of our revenue at risk. <br /><br />• Avoid self-serving behavior. The flip side of putting guarantees into your offer is taking out anything that might be construed as self-serving. For example, if you require buyers to purchase an expensive support package as part of the deal, even though you have assured them that your solution is dependable and low maintenance, they are justified in thinking you're just trying to jack up your own commission. If you recommend a product that doesn't quite address their needs and they later find out you were being spiffed on that product, they're likely to question the objectivity of your recommendation. <br /><br />• Provide a convincing value proposition. People will take risks when the potential payoff is big enough. Unfortunately, most proposals fail to include a value proposition. And when they do include one, it often consists of marketing fluff rather than measurable results that will have a positive impact in a key area of organizational performance. <br /><br />• Tie your recommendation to an inescapable compelling event. If the client has a fixed date in the future by which something has to be done, and your solution will help them get there, make the connection obvious. <br /><br />One bonus tip worth considering: create a persuasive and fully compliant proposal. We can help you with that one, because Sant Suite is designed to take away the hard parts of writing a winning proposal. That's why so many of our clients say YES to our solution!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-12675527416183477132009-12-22T10:08:00.000-05:002009-12-22T10:09:12.003-05:00Rhetoric: It’s Not Just for Politicians Any MoreRhetoric: It’s Not Just for Politicians Any More <br /><br />Rhetoric became a dirty word back in the sixties. Maybe it’s time to rehabilitate both the concept and the practice.<br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><br />Rhetoric: It’s Not Just for Politicians Any More <br /><br />For some reason, the word “rhetoric” has acquired a negative meaning. It implies the misuse of language, the manipulation of arguments to mislead rather than inform, to arouse emotions rather than thought, to distort the truth rather than reveal it. Many of us would point to politicians or political pundits who make a living ranting on cable TV as examples of people who indulge in “rhetoric”. <br /><br />But for more than two thousand years rhetoric was at the heart of western educational practice. Plato and Aristotle would be surprised to hear us define rhetoric in such a narrow, negative way. So would Abraham Lincoln, whose inspirational oratory is an example of rhetoric at its finest. <br /><br />At the heart of traditional rhetoric is a focus on using language to motivate an audience to take action—precisely what we want to accomplish with a sales presentation or a proposal. Our goal is to combine information, evidence and informed opinion in a way that helps our customer make a decision that favors us. The action we have motivated is the decision—manifested in the client’s signature on our contract or a verbal commitment to move forward with a business deal. And the way we have motivated that action has nothing to do with misleading our audience or twisting facts or arousing false emotions. <br /><br />Instead, the first rhetorical move we need to make is to ask ourselves what matters to the audience? Research into decision making suggests that what matters the most is their own pain (their needs, issues, problems, gaps in capability, and so forth), followed closely by the potential for them to achieve gain (the outcomes or results they can achieve by solving their problems or addressing their needs). Unless we focus on these two topics first, we are highly unlikely to win the client’s attention, much less arouse their motivation to act. <br /><br />If you have read Persuasive Business Proposals or if you’ve been reading these Messages that Matter for awhile, you recognize that these first two moves are the basis for what I call the persuasive paradigm or the NOSE pattern for persuasive communication. (The N and O stand for Needs and Outcomes, and the S and E stand for Solutions and Evidence.) <br /><br />But rhetoric includes more than the structure of our message. It also involves the clarity and effectiveness of our delivery. For example, which of these opening statements is more effective for a proposal to the US Navy? <br /><br /><br />Current limitations in scope and access are preventing the US Navy from gaining full value from satellite data intended to improve fleet situational awareness and increase combat effectiveness. Currently used legacy algorithms have the capacity to decode and process only a small percentage of the total data feed being broadcast from the satellites. <br /><br />The US Navy depends on satellite data to improve fleet situational awareness and increase combat effectiveness. Unfortunately, that data is currently limited in scope and access to the data is difficult. Because processing is handled by outdated algorithms, only a portion of the data is available, a situation that is analogous to having access to a vast library of information but then being allowed to look at only one shelf. <br /><br /><br />I would argue that the two openings say the same thing, but that the second version is more effective largely for rhetorical reasons. What have we done differently? <br />First, we have changed the subject and verb in the first sentence from something highly abstract (“limitations…are preventing…) to something much more concrete in the second version (“The US Navy depends…”). That makes the opening sentence more interesting and more obviously relevant right away. <br /><br />Second, we have broken a rather long sentence (28 words) into two shorter sentences (16 and 15 words respectively). That makes them easier to decode. It also separates two distinct concepts: how satellite data benefits the Navy and what the current problems are with that data. One concept is positive; the other is negative. Separating them gives both of them more punch. <br /><br />Third, we have taken the concept of outdated algorithms and expressed it more vividly by using a metaphor. If you attended the Webinar we broadcast with Anne Miller (you can access archived webinars here) you remember the many examples Anne shared of using metaphors to make a sales message clearer and more powerful. Metaphors are a rhetorical device. <br /><br />To be persuasive, we first need to organize our messages using the right structure and then use language in the right way. The combination will help our client see that what we are recommending makes sense for their situation and will motivate them to take action. <br /><br />If you would like help in putting the best possible structure into your proposals or presentations or revising your content so that it delivers your message effectively, give us a call. We’re proud to admit that rhetoric is something we’re really good at.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-18886166923118505822009-08-24T14:57:00.003-05:002009-08-24T15:02:46.552-05:00Your Value Proposition - Creating an ImpactIt's great to offer the customer outstanding value. It's even better when the customer notices.<br /><br /><br />Unfortunately, many sales presentations and proposals contain no value proposition at all--even when the vendor has a good story to tell. <br /><br /><br />If we don't spell it out for the customer, they probably won't figure it out for themselves. They may not have the time, may not see how our unique products or approaches can add value, or may assume that all vendors are the same. In the attached message, we look at ways to improve the impact of your value proposition.<br /><br /><br /> That is our topic this time. <br /><br /><br /> Regards, <br /><br /> <img border="0" src="http://www.santcorp.com/images/email/tsant_sig.gif" /> <br /> </p><br /><br /><p align="center"><br /> <font size="3" color="#1388bd"><b>Your Value Proposition--Creating an Impact</b></font> <br /> </p><br /> <p><br /> Bringing a deal to closure can seemingly take forever. It may be even more difficult today than ever before. Think about the characteristics of selling in today's markets. <br /><p><br />Here's a question for you: Would you rather buy customer support software that costs $10,000 or $35,000? <br /><p><br />Everything being equal, that's not a hard choice, is it?<br /><p><br />But what if the $35,000 package includes free training, maintenance, and upgrades. And what if it works so much more efficiently, you can reduce your customer support staff by one full-time equivalent position? Now which one is more tempting?<br /><p><br />It's the difference between price and value. And sometimes we forget to show our customers what that difference is. We need to communicate a value proposition that equates to an advantage for our solution. The basic value proposition can be expressed like this:<br /><p><br /><STRONG>(Value<sub>s</sub> - Cost<sub>s</sub> > (Value<sub>a</sub> - Cost<sub>a</sub>)</STRONG><br /><p><br />where the value of our solution (Value<sub>s</sub>) minus its cost is greater than the value, minus cost, of any alternative.<br /><p><br />Customers are often willing to spend a little more if they see they are getting a lot more. But if there's no compelling difference among vendors, if there's no compelling value proposition, they'll buy whatever is cheapest.<br /><p><br />That's why it's so important to offer a value proposition. And to do it in a way that gets noticed. <br /><p><br />Here are some tips that will help you create a big impact with your value proposition:<br /><p><br /><STRONG>1. Focus on what the decision maker cares about. <br /></STRONG><p><br />A good value proposition should demonstrate impact in an area the customer cares about. If the customer is trying to reduce the cycle time involved in processing data, focusing your value proposition on reduced training costs for operators is a little bit off the mark.<br /><p><br /><STRONG>2. Quantify the impact of your value whenever possible.<br /></STRONG><p><br />For most decision makers, numbers are more convincing than words. That's especially true if you've based your numbers on data the customer has shared with you. The second-best source of numbers is information published through public sources--trade associations, for example.<br /><p><br /><STRONG>3. Show the impact graphically.<br /></STRONG><p><br />A study by the University of Minnesota showed that a graphic could increase the persuasiveness of a piece of text by 47%. There's probably nothing you want to be more persuasive than your value proposition, so show it in the form of a simple graphic.<br /><p><br /><STRONG>4. Base your value proposition on your uniqueness factors.<br /></STRONG><p><br />What differentiates you from your competition? And how do those differentiators add value for the customer? Those are very important questions that you must be able to answer if you're going to create a value proposition that doesn't set up your competition. A value proposition based on general characteristics of your solution--characteristics that all vendors have in common--doesn't give the customer a compelling reason to buy from you. <br /><p><br />Ask yourself: What separates us from our competitors? Name them and brainstorm the differences. Then ask how those differences add value. Second, ask yourself what you do in the customer life cycle that nobody else does, or what you do in a way that's significantly different from the way others in the industry do it. These are the two ways to find differentiation. <br /><p><br />A final note: Don't confuse product features with differentiators. Features are usually a short-term advantage. You're better off looking for differences in the areas of systems or methods.<br /></p><br /> <p align="center">Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-19159459122776467412009-07-08T09:45:00.001-05:002009-07-08T09:45:02.664-05:00Shortening the Sales CycleMy favorite sales experience involved a national company based in Chicago. I got a call late one evening from a member of the sales vice president's staff. "Do you have proposal automation software?" he asked. "Would you be willing to demonstrate it to us next week?" Yes and yes. <br /><br />The next week we were in Chicago. I was about fifteen minutes into the demo when the senior vice president of sales leaped up and said, "That's it! That's exactly what I envisioned. Get it." And with that he left the room. Ten days later we had a signed contract and a check. <br /><br />Unfortunately, most of our sales cycles aren't that short. How about yours? If you'd like to shorten the sale cycle, this is a good message for you. It focuses on how effective follow-up communications can reduce the length of the sales process. <br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards,<br />Tom Sant<br /><br /><br />Shortening the Sales Cycle<br /><br />Bringing a deal to closure can seemingly take forever. It may be even more difficult today than ever before. Think about the characteristics of selling in today's markets. <br /><br />Often you are selling not to an individual, but to a team. And that team is composed of people with different, sometimes conflicting views of what your solution should do and how it should be judged. <br /><br />Typically, you're under severe cost pressure. And the analysis of costs goes much deeper than merely acquisition price. <br /><br />Finally, you're expected to demonstrate positive business impact. Your decision team is looking for a solution that will improve their operations, their bottom line, their use of technology--all at the same time probably! <br /><br />So that's a lot to handle. No wonder it takes so long to close a deal. <br /><br />Here's a little secret that one of the largest high-technology companies in the world found several years ago: <br /><br />Backing up sales calls with good written communication reduces the selling cycle by as much as 86%! <br /><br />This is an insight that has also been offered by some of the leading sales training organizations. In fact, the Solution Selling curriculum emphasizes the importance of putting every step of the sales cycle into writing. <br /><br />Why does it work? And how can you take advantage of this insight to reduce your sales cycle? <br /><br />It works because good written communications eliminate ambiguity. That's very important in a situation where you're selling to a team, because people often listen with filters on their ears. They hear what they expect to hear or what they want to hear. Sending a document that summarizes the key points of a meeting, identifies responsibilities, establishes the next steps, confirms a timeline, and so forth, clarifies the content of the call and confirms the decisions the team has made. <br /><br />It works because good written communications reinforce your selling message. Even if the communication is simply intended to confirm the date and time for a meeting, it gives you a chance to demonstrate competence and reliability. And you may be able to slip in a sales message, too. At the very least, a written message extends your "mind share" and helps the decision team remember you. <br /><br />The best way to take advantage of the power of written communications is to automate the creation of the types of documents you need most often. Be careful not to use boilerplate text or static "templates." Those will actually do more damage than good, because they smell like complacency to the customer. <br /><br />Instead, implement an automation tool that enables you to build a compound document that contains client-centered, unique content each time. <br /><br />To see exciting ways to automate the creation of good written communications at each step of the sales cycle, visit santcorp.com/demo.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-49676961038975010522009-06-03T09:09:00.002-05:002009-06-03T09:12:22.813-05:00The Structure of Persuasion<span style="font-style:italic;">“It ain’t what you say; it’s the way that you say it.” <br /><br />At least, according to the words of an old song, that’s the story. Is it true? Not entirely. A sales presentation or proposal devoid of content isn’t going to do very well, no matter how brilliantly it’s put together. <br /><br />But in one respect, that line is true. There is a way to say—or write—that will create maximum impact on the audience. And it has nothing to do with using fancy words or pretty pictures. Instead, it’s a matter of using the right structure. By using the structural pattern of persuasion, you will get the customer’s head nodding a lot quicker. <br /><br />That’s our subject this time: Saying the right things in the right order to get the right response. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Structure of Persuasion</span> <br /><br />In the world of business, people write for one of three reasons—to inform, to evaluate, or to persuade. For each of these purposes there is a structural pattern which will produce the best results. Think of the structural patterns as templates for delivering content in the right order. Use the wrong pattern and you will get the wrong results. It’s like trying to drive a nail with a screwdriver—you might eventually get the job done, but it’s going to be a lot harder than it has to be. <br /><br /> The first and most common reason people write is to inform. They’re writing to share factual content with somebody else who needs it. The ideals of informative writing are clarity and conciseness, and to achieve those goals we should start by getting right to the point and stating the key fact that the reader will find most important. For most people, writing to inform is the easiest writing task and the one they feel most confident in handling. <br /><br />The second reason business people write is to evaluate something or somebody. A performance appraisal, a competitive analysis, an appraisal of an asset—in all of these cases, simply presenting the facts is not enough. What we want to know is what you think, because we assume that you are a person of experience and training who has dealt with similar issues before. (Or we recognize that you are in a position of authority so that your opinion matters, even if it’s not terribly well informed.) To write an effective evaluation, we need to define our subject—what (or who) we are evaluating—and the criteria on which we are basing our evaluation. Then we need to present our observations and evidence. Finally we need to offer our opinion. If we follow that structural pattern, our opinion will sound logical and our evaluation will be easy to follow. <br /><br />The third reason people write is to persuade. Persuasion means we are attempting to influence what somebody else thinks or feels or does. We’re trying to change our audience in some small way—to get them to support our policy, to care about an issue as we do, or to sign a contract and give us their business. Effective persuasion requires more than simply delivering a bunch of facts, and our opinion alone isn’t going to persuade a customer to buy from us. Instead, we have to structure our message so that we deliver the content in a way that produces the change in our audience’s thinking or beliefs or action that we want to produce. <br /><br />There’s nothing sneaky or deceptive about the process of persuasion. Sometimes people confuse persuasion with manipulation or deception. They think it involves “tricking” the reader into doing something. Maybe negative attitudes toward advertising and political campaigns have led them to regard persuasion with suspicion. In my experience, technically oriented professionals—the same people who are most comfortable writing informatively—are very suspicious of persuasion. <br /><br />In reality, persuasion is a straightforward process of identifying the reader’s needs, issues, or concerns, acknowledging their importance in terms of meaningful outcomes, then positioning your solutions in the context of the customer’s needs and outcomes, and finally presenting evidence that you can deliver the solution. That’s it. <br /><br />I used to call this pattern the persuasive paradigm, but lots of my clients began calling it the NOSE pattern because the four elements of persuasive structure create the acronym NOSE. Let’s take a look at each element of persuasive structure in more depth: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">NEEDS:</span> Focusing on the customer’s needs or problems or business pains wins their attention. They’ll probably be surprised that a vendor has actually listened to them. They’ll also be less anxious to move forward. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">OUTCOMES:</span> Every business has lots of problems, most of which will be ignored. Why? Because management doesn’t see enough of a payback from solving them. You don’t want your recommendations to fall into the category of ideas that “just aren’t worth it,” so spell out clearly the outcomes or the impact on the organization that solving the problem or meeting the needs will deliver. Focusing on the customer’s pains will grab attention, but focusing on the potential gains will create motivation. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">SOLUTION:</span> Recommend specifically what you think the decision maker and his or her organization should do. Link your recommendation back to the client’s needs and desired outcomes. And actually use the words, “We recommend…” If you sound like you believe in your solution, the decision maker can feel a little more confident believing in it, too. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">EVIDENCE:</span> What makes you the right choice? How do I know you can deliver the solution you’re recommending on time and on budget? Have you thought through everything? Your goal in providing evidence is to differentiate yourself and demonstrate your competence. You might include product information, cost details, management plans, project plans, training options, documentation, delivery schedules, resumes, case studies, references, testimonials, awards your organization has won, whatever. Avoid throwing evidence in just because it’s available. If it's not clearly relevant to the deal and of interest to the decision maker, leave it out. For example, most of your prospects just won’t care about your company history beyond seeing that you’re reasonably experienced and solvent. <br /><br />And that’s it. Putting your content together in terms of these four steps will produce a persuasively structured message. The important thing to remember is that persuasion doesn’t have to be a mystery. In fact, the key to effective persuasion is as obvious as the NOSE on your face. Visit santcorp.com to learn how you can automatically create persuasive proposals using Sant Suite.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-53464721723881075322009-05-18T08:54:00.003-05:002009-05-29T10:12:28.882-05:00The Seven Best Books on Persuasion<span style="font-style:italic;">A while ago someone alerted me to a review of my book, Persuasive Business Proposals, on Amazon.com. The anonymous reviewer called it “the best book ever on persuasion.” <br /><br />Look, I’m about as arrogant and self-delusional as anybody you’re likely to meet, but even I don’t believe that. But it did get me to thinking. What are the best books on persuasion? <br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />The Seven Best Books on Persuasion </span><br /><br />Actually I first started thinking about this subject when Brian O’Connor, a friend and client who manages marketing communications and CRM for Scandinavia for a multinational corporation, asked me to recommend some books on persuasion. Which ones did I think were the best? <br /><br />I responded off the top of my head, but since then I’ve been giving it more careful thought. Now, I’m ready to share—ta da!—my list of the seven best books (or at least seven books worth reading) on the topic of persuasion. <br /><br />1. Robert Cialdini, <span style="font-style:italic;">Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion</span> is a classic. It’s fun to read, it’s based on solid research, and it’s easy to make the connections to business. Besides, Cialdini is Regents' Professor of Psychology and Marketing at my original alma mater, Arizona State University, so that’s kind of cool. Since the first edition of Cialdini’s book came out, there have been others that walked the same path but his is still the most interesting and complete, in my opinion. <br /><br />2. Dale Carnegie, <span style="font-style:italic;">How to Win Friends and Influence People</span>. Yeah, the old chestnut. It’s actually quite insightful, particularly on the relationship side of persuasion, and it remains relevant today. What he says still makes sense and it’s backed up by empirical data from recent research in psychology. What did Carengie say? Make the other person feel important. Develop a genuine interest in them, take a positive attitude, use the other person’s name, listen more than you talk, and when you do talk, talk about what the other person finds interesting. Simple stuff, but valid nonetheless. I wrote extensively about Carnegie and his ideas in <span style="font-style:italic;">The Giants of Sales</span> because he’s extremely important to the development of modern sales. He was focusing before anyone else on the role of trust in persuasion—if we don’t trust someone, we’ll never buy from him or her. David Maister, T<span style="font-style:italic;">he Trusted Advisor</span>, and Jagdish Sheth and Andrew Sobel, <span style="font-style:italic;">Clients for Life</span>, are solid examples of more recent books that cover the same territory, but Carnegie is just great fun to read. <br /><br />3. Gerd Gigerenzer, Peter Todd, et al, <span style="font-style:italic;">Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart</span>. It’s not the most enjoyable read, particularly compared to the first two. <span style="font-style:italic;">Simple Heuristics</span> is written in an academic style that’s often too dense by half. But it’s worth the slog, because it contains extremely useful and profound insights into decision making. And, after all, decision making is fundamental to what we do professionally. As proposal writers and sales professionals, our efforts at persuasion are meaningless if they don’t culminate in a decision and/or action from our client. Simple Heuristics explains the hierarchy of processes most of us go through as we make a decision, from simple recognition (I’ll take the one I’ve heard of before) to criterion-based (this one meets our specs) to rate-of-return analysis (I’ll take the one that delivers the most value to my group). These simple processes expl ain respectively why (1) you have almost zero chance of winning a bid if you’re responding to a blind RFP, (2) your proposal should contain a compliance matrix, and (3) you must include a value proposition backed up with evidence in every proposal you write. A similar book is Gary Klein, Sources of Power. Klein’s book is a little less structured, much less academic, and more focused on the seemingly intuitive processes of making decisions. It’s still relevant. Likewise, the new book from Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational, deals with decision making and draws on research by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman on decision making in the midst of uncertainty, for which Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in economics. <br /><br />4. Malcolm Gladwell, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Tipping Point</span>. The books I’ve mentioned above are mainly focused on what goes on inside the skull of the individual who is being persuaded—the psychological aspects, if you will. Gladwell moves the discussion into the social sphere. How do social networks influence us to accept or reject an idea, a project, a person? As social networking becomes more of a structured tool for businesses to use in marketing, understanding this aspect of persuasion will become increasingly valuable. <br /><br />5. Jay Levinson, <span style="font-style:italic;">Guerrilla Marketing</span>. Speaking of marketing, I have always loved this book because it was the first one to show us that even the little guy could establish brand recognition, generate leads, and build customer loyalty—all without buying Super Bowl ads. Levinson was so far ahead of his time that he’s probably lapped all of us by now, but with the rise of the Internet many of his concepts have become even easier to implement. He has lots of followers and disciples. I put Seth Godin in this group [<span style="font-style:italic;">Permission Marketing</span> and lots of others, many with goofy titles], along with Chip and Dan Heath [<span style="font-style:italic;">Made to Stick</span>], for example. But the original is well worth reading. <br /><br />6. Mack Hanan, <span style="font-style:italic;">Consultative Selling</span>. In terms of sales processes, books that recommend a consultative methodology are built on a basic understanding of persuasion. I love Neil Rackham’s <span style="font-style:italic;">SPIN Selling</span> and I learned a lot from Bosworth’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Solution Selling</span> and Miller and Heiman’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Strategic Selling</span>. But the first book I ever read on the subject and one of the clearest by far is Mack Hanan’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Consultative Selling</span>. Once you finish reading Hanan, you’ll never again think it’s smart to focus on product features or to start your sales presentation with an overview of your company’s history. Focus on the client’s problem, quantify what it’s cost them, and show them how you can solve it: that’s Hanan’s method in three phrases and it’s dead on if you want to close business and gain a reasonable margin. <br /><br />7. Edward Tufte, <span style="font-style:italic;">Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information and Visual Explanations</span>. Okay, I’m cheating—I’ve listed three books by one author. But you need to look at them together to get the full impact of Tufte’s thinking. For many of us—especially if we’re writers by trade—the right hemisphere—the visual side of our brain—is a bit anemic. That’s something we have to address, however, because our customers process our message on the left (verbal) side of the brain, but they make decisions on the right (visual) side. Clip art, cluttered Excel tables, and other junk graphics just don’t work. Tufte has gained some notoriety in recent years for his vehement attacks on PowerPoint and similar programs. In his view, they corrupt the power to communicate and may lead to misunderstanding, superficial thinking, and manipulation. He rather convincingly cites the s pace shuttle <span style="font-style:italic;">Columbia </span>disaster as an example, showing how the 28 slides presented by Boeing engineers misled NASA into a false sense of security. Chilling stuff, but it shows how subtle things, like the font size of a bullet point, can persuade, inform, or mislead an audience. <br /><br />Some of the books I’ve listed here have nuts-and-bolts practicality and some are a little more theoretical. Their value to me is that they provoked new ideas. They’re the kind of books that make you look up from the page and say to yourself, “Hmmm… That’s interesting. I wonder if…” and then off you go. <br /><br />Now it’s possible you may not have time to read all of these books. Or it’s possible that you won’t find them as interesting or as inspiring as I did. That’s okay. Call us. We’ve figured out some very practical ways of helping our clients create persuasive proposals and presentations and we’re happy to share them. In fact, we have a really great PowerPoint presentation we can show you that outlines all of our products and services.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-5880162511311216232009-03-25T11:00:00.000-05:002009-03-25T11:04:21.780-05:00Automating for the Right Reasons<span style="font-style:italic;">The old joke about proposal automation was that if you didn’t do it right, you achieved the dubious reward of producing bad proposals much faster. <br /><br />But what if you did it right? And for the right reasons? <br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Tom Sant</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Automating for the Right Reasons </span><br /><br />Years ago I made a sales call on a public utility in Pennsylvania, one that was wrestling with the newly competitive, deregulated marketplace. I was there to present our proposal automation system. I had set up my computer and projector in a second floor conference room and was chatting with the division head who was our host when I heard a group of people stomping up the stairwell outside our door. One voice rose above the rest, a strident female voice, vehemently insisting, “I don’t care who else is using it, it won’t work here!” <br /><br />In marched a small knot of people. At the head was the woman who had just bellowed her defiant prediction. She scowled, radiating all the warmth of a middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears. The division head cleared his throat and looked a little embarrassed. “Allow me to introduce you to the manager of our proposal operations,” he said. <br /><br />I’d love to tell you a story about how I turned this situation around, but the truth is—No, it didn’t get better. Nothing she heard and nothing she saw mattered. She had already made up her mind. Oh, she had her reasons: “It won’t work because our business is different.” “Because our clients don’t want a fancy proposal.” “Because our industry requires that we do things the way we’ve always done them.” “Because…” “Because…” Just because, that’s why! What a fearful, closed-minded attitude! <br /><br />Some people are just digital Luddites who try to save their jobs by defeating innovation. Generally, though, that kind of behavior is less common than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Instead, in today’s society people are more likely to be cynical about technology. And why not? They’ve seen millions poured down a porcelain chute called CRM and gotten very little back. Why would proposal automation be any different? <br /><br />The problem with CRM has been that traditionally it’s been too abstract and amorphous a tool to be applied in a concrete way to specific problems. That’s not the case with proposal automation. Proposal automation, unlike other technical innovations that have been ballyhooed by the business and technology press, actually works. In fact, proposal automation is a paradigm example of a technology that produces improvements in both efficiency and effectiveness. And in today’s economic climate, every business needs to be more efficient and effective. <br /><br />Efficiency is all about driving waste out of the sales and proposal process. Typical problems include finding the right content, assembling a draft quickly, coordinating the activities of a team of contributors, and getting the whole operation to follow a reliable methodology. Efficiency issues are not trivial. For a medium-sized company they can add up to hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars of effort spent in non-value adding activities. And I’m willing to bet that no sales manager in the world wants his or her sales people sitting in front of a computer, hunting and pecking, cutting and pasting, wrestling with the word processor. So automating the writing of proposals eliminates a major area of waste. <br /><br />Other sources of inefficiency include: <br /><br />1. Loose to non-existent control over the information going into proposals: One of our clients found they had 11 different databases containing product information and pricing, seven of which weren’t even being maintained any more! Unfortunately, sales people still went to them to cut and paste information for proposals—thereby offering products and services that couldn’t be delivered. Yikes. <br /><br />2. Corporate Alzheimer’s: Somewhere somebody has the answer to the questions in this RFP. But nobody can remember where it is or who has it. So we’ll just reinvent the whole thing one more time, okay? No, not okay. It’s a waste. <br /><br />3. The “ask Betty” syndrome: This form of inefficiency is common in smaller and mid-sized companies. One person, call her “Betty”, knows where everything is located—all the answers to all the RFPs ever answered in the past, all the case studies, all the team bios, everything… God forbid that Betty should ever get the flu, take a vacation, or retire. <br /><br />4. Too many steps: In manufacturing environments, waste comes from handling a product without adding value to it. The same thing happens in proposal environments. By automating one of our clients, we moved them from 28 different steps involved in producing a finished proposal down to 13. That eliminates a lot of wasted effort. <br /><br />Effectiveness? What about effectiveness, you ask? Well, the ultimate test of proposal effectiveness is whether it wins or not. Saving time is nice, but winning business is crucial. The greatest value of using proposal automation technology comes from improving win rates by implementing a consistent, structured process. By using a simple automation tool you give everybody the ability to put the right content into the right order so it delivers the right message—every time. In fact, that’s a key reason why our clients have experienced an average 29% improvement in win rate. They’re also able to create sales documents 36% faster. <br /><br />If you’d like some help in making sure proposal automation improves both your efficiency and your effectiveness, give us a call. Our roots are in best practices and proven methodology. We know what it takes to write a winning proposal. And we know how to automate the process successfully. Trust me. And ignore that woman bellowing on the staircase. It will work here! See a demo of Sant Suite at santcorp.com/Demo.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-56713872310995619882009-03-05T12:17:00.002-05:002009-03-05T12:19:57.819-05:00Pictures Really Are Worth A Thousands Words<span style="font-style:italic;">One of my favorite graphics is printed on shiny paper, folds up small enough to fit in my pocket, and is given away free. It’s the London subway map. It’s a brilliant graphic because it gives you a clear, information-rich view of an unbelievably complex system. Imagine trying to write a handbook describing the London underground for tourists and travelers and you’ll see what a hopeless task it would be. <br /><br />That is our topic this time. <br /><br />Regards,<br />Tom Sant<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Pictures Really Are Worth A Thousands Words </span><br /><br />In the 1920s, Fred Barnard, an advertising executive, tried to convince his customers that adding pictures to the placards in streetcars would make their ads more effective. As evidence, he cited a Chinese proverb: “A picture is worth ten thousand words.” Thus a cliché entered the English language—although the ratio of words to picture was mysteriously reduced by a factor of 10 along the way. <br /><br />What the Chinese characters that Barnard showed actually state is something a bit different. They literally say, “A picture’s meaning can express ten thousand words.” That’s a different claim, one that emphasizes the interdependence of words and graphics. Properly chosen, words and graphics can combine to create a powerful message that transcends either medium alone. <br /><br />For years I’ve cited a study done by the University of Minnesota that showed adding a graphic to a piece of text increases the perceived persuasiveness of the text by 47%. I’ve urged people to include graphics in their proposals, particularly in the presentation of their value proposition. There’s nothing you want to be more persuasive than your value proposition, so that’s the place to show the bar chart, the trend curve, or the pie chart to illustrate the positive impact your solutions will have. <br /><br />The value of good graphics has long been understood in other fields. Attorneys spend huge amounts to create video simulations and graphic displays to influence juries. In one notorious instance, John Gotti’s defense attorney stood before the jury with a simple table showing the names of all seven witnesses who had testified against the mob boss. All seven had become government informants, receiving immunity in exchange for their testimony. In the table, Gotti’s attorney listed all the crimes they had committed, including multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery, and more. In total they had 69 different convictions. The graphic’s meaning was clear. The witnesses were sleazebags, felons and thugs; their testimony was worthless. Interestingly, this chart was the only piece of evidence the jury asked to review during their deliberations. Gotti was acquitted. <br /><br />This vivid and disturbing example of the persuasive power of a good graphic comes from Edward Tufte’s Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. This is one of the four books he has written on the art and power of effective visual display. (The other three are The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information, and Beautiful Evidence.) Tufte has become almost a cult figure for his insightful and provocative opinions about the potential for excellent graphics—charts, illustrations, and so on—to convey content quickly, persuasively and powerfully. <br /><br />Tufte can be cranky in his opinions. He has attacked PowerPoint as evil, argues that most of the illustrations in the New York Times and USA Today are filled with “chartjunk,” and rails that most graphics assume the reader is stupid. On the other hand, he has demonstrated the impact that poor design can have, including a convincing analysis that poorly designed charts misled NASA engineers into believing the 1986 launch of the space shuttle Columbia was safe. <br /><br />As a thorough-going left brainer, I struggle to think visually the way Tufte does. But I do understand his key points and I no longer feel satisfied using the typical garish charts generated from a spreadsheet or the cheesy clip art that comes with our slide-generating software. Some of the things I’ve learned from Tufte that can help us as persuasive communicators: <br /><br />1. Graphics should be interesting in their own right. <br /><br />2. Graphics should be content rich, dense with information, and should include multiple dimensions and variables. <br /><br />3. Graphics should force us to make “wise visual comparisons” and should show causality. <br /><br />4. Words, numbers and images should be integrated on the page, never broken up by lodging all the graphics at the end of the document or on a different page from where they are discussed. <br /><br />Another important point that Tufte constantly reiterates is that your presentation—both the words and the graphics—succeeds or fails based on the accuracy, quality, and relevance of your content. This fundamental truth takes us back to the wisdom of the Chinese proverb: it’s the harmony of word and image that creates the most powerful impression. <br /><br />With Sant Suite you can integrate graphics with your words easily and quickly. We even provide a built-in means for demonstrating your value proposition visually. Check out the interactive, Web-based demos on our site, www.santcorp.com. With the right graphics, you may be able to save 10,000 words, and won’t that come in handy when you have a tight page limit?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-12491105720813291992009-02-11T11:15:00.000-05:002009-02-11T11:15:00.901-05:00Two Keys To Survival<em>Take it from somebody who has survived more than one economic bubble bursting: your survival depends on two things. <br /><br />Your cash and your attitude. <br /><br />And sometimes it’s not the cash that’s the biggest challenge. <br /><br />That is our topic this time. </em><br /><br /><br /><strong>Two Keys to Survival </strong><br /><br />The number one business killer is lack of cash. More new businesses fail from lack of capitalization than any other factor. Of course, this is especially true in times like these, when credit is harder than usual to get and much more expensive. <br /><br />Oddly enough, profit is not as important during a downturn as cash. It seems like a paradox, but you can run an extremely profitable business that still fails because it doesn’t have enough cash. Cash is the blood that has to pump through the business to keep it viable. A profitable business with no cash flow will soon be a dead business. <br /><br />Given that cash flow is vital, your attention should be focused on doing the things that generate cash—especially closing deals quickly and collecting deferred payments—or that reduce its outflow. Reduce expenses where you can, but beware of making cuts that hurt your potential for closing deals and bringing new cash in. It may not hurt to reduce your building maintenance but cutting back on lead generation could have a serious negative impact on your future. <br /><br />My friend, Dr. Reed Holden, author of Pricing with Confidence: Ten Ways to Stop Leaving Money on the Table, argues that survival must be the number one goal in difficult times. “Survival pricing focuses on immediate pricing actions businesses need to take in order to make it through a deep and potentially long financial crisis,” he says. He recommends using incremental cost pricing to keep money flowing into the system and searching for services that will keep customer costs low and service levels high. You can read his nine other specific recommendations for avoiding death by cash strangulation at http://reedholden.wordpress.com. <br /><br />But most smart, experienced business people know how to manage their cash. A bigger challenge is figuring out how to manage our attitude. <br /><br />In a financial downturn, panic is the enemy of good thinking and good manners. We find business owners and managers forgetting to treat employees with respect, failing to be patient and empathetic with clients. <br /><br />A positive attitude goes a long way to establishing the momentum for success. If you treat clients and opportunities without desperation, if you maintain an optimistic outlook, you pull others toward you. That’s exactly the kind of attitude your clients and employees want to be near. Not anger, not resentment, and certainly not fear. No, they want to be near somebody who exudes confidence and a positive frame of mind. <br /><br />Plus, it’s worth making the effort to treat clients and employees with respect. One thing we all know is that the economic climate will change again, and when it does you want your clients to have strong, positive memories of working with you through the bad times. You want them to come back eagerly when things turn around. <br /><br />Sadly, maintaining an upbeat, respectful attitude is sometimes more difficult than maintaining cash flow! It may be easier to track the numbers and make appropriate choices on pricing and cost containment than it is to monitor our own emotions and resist the temptation to succumb to fear or negativity. <br /><br />One way to generate more cash is to generate more proposals and to do it more efficiently and effectively. Take a look at the tools we offer and you’ll see that they are ideal for helping you accomplish more with less and for transforming opportunities into cash. The price is right—the demos are free! And if you request information, we promise to be upbeat and friendly when we respond. See the demos at www.santcorp.com/demo.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-15208115136497480162009-01-21T11:00:00.000-05:002009-01-21T11:00:02.539-05:00Efficient or Effective?<span style="font-style:italic;">Is it better to be efficient or effective?<br /><br />Most of us would probably choose to be both. But for many years now, the focus in sales and marketing operations, including proposal centers, has been on measures of efficiency.<br /><br />And for years it hasn’t worked.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Efficient or Effective?</span> <br /><br />Is it better to be more efficient or more effective? Before we answer that question, perhaps we need to define our terms.<br /><br />Efficiency is a function of the volume of work we do. By doing more work in the same amount of time, we increase our efficiency. Efficiency goes up when we implement tools and processes that increase speed—the throughput rate—or when we save time by eliminating steps that are unnecessary. <br /><br />The focus of Lean Production as developed by Toyota and implemented by hundreds of companies around the world is making the operation more efficient by eliminating waste. In fact, Toyota identifies seven forms of waste—quality defects, production in excess of market demand, transportation of products during the manufacturing cycle, idle time or waiting, excess inventory, and over-engineering the design. Obviously, these forms of waste are specific to a manufacturing environment, but the concepts underlying Lean Principles have been applied to knowledge work as well.<br /><br />Effectiveness is a function of the results we get. For people who regularly read these messages, effectiveness is most likely to come from improving the way the sales organization (including the proposal operation) works. By implementing best practices, by working in ways that generate measurable improvements in results, we increase the size of the deals we’re working on, we decrease the duration of the sales cycle, or we increase the percentage of deals we win.<br /><br />Efficiency improvements are worthwhile. There’s no debating that fact. But the risk is that the improvements to work methods—the increased efficiency we achieve—fails to produce the right results, which for a sales operation would be winning business. In that case, we are efficiently moving ourselves toward failure.<br /><br />Recent surveys of senior executives have found widespread dissatisfaction with the millions invested in software intended to make the sales process more efficient. These sales force automation (SFA) or customer relationship management (CRM) systems were bought with the hope that they would automate and streamline major chunks of the sales organization’s work, making them more efficient. <br /><br />They did that, all right. The problem is that the kinds of efficiencies they introduced had virtually no impact on effectiveness. With these SFA/CRM systems we can now create a pretty picture of the pipeline or produce a management report much faster. But we’re not able to close deals any better than before. In fact, research published by the Gartner Group, Aberdeen Group, and Yankee Group all indicate that most senior executives do not believe the investment in SFA or CRM has produced better results. For example, a Yankee Group found that 77% of the respondents said they would like to create more persuasive proposals, only 34% thought their SFA/CRM system helped them do a good job of that. Similarly, 49% rated their sales team’s ability to find appropriate marketing materials for a specific customer situation as very bad or bad, even though 86% thought that doing so was highly desirable.<br /><br />For sales organizations the real breakthroughs come from improving effectiveness. For too long we have wasted time and resources in pursuit of the wrong goal. Merely automating an aspect of our work without also improving the results we get is a short-term gain. Applying the right methodologies to generate better results is the foundation for sustainable competitive advantage.<br /><br />In a slow economy, senior sales executives want to help their sales people increase their closing or win rate, improve their ability to sell solutions, increase the value of contracts or the size of deals being sold, and shorten the length of the sales cycle. Those are measures of effectiveness, and if the typical sales manager can achieve even one of those, that manager won’t care a bit if efficiency is less than optimal. However, in the ideal world you would be able to get both: greater efficiency and improved effectiveness.<br /><br />As you might imagine, we’re proud to say that our proposal automation tools within Sant Suite increase efficiency and dramatically improve effectiveness. And we have the research to prove it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-78088078514890763492008-12-30T11:00:00.002-05:002008-12-30T11:00:01.756-05:00Cut or Run?<em>Cut or run? That sounds like the kind of question you might hear during a Presidential debate. But this has nothing to do with “staying the course” or “raising the white flag of surrender.” <br /><br />It has to do with managing your business, particularly in tough economic times. What I’m getting at is whether it’s better to focus your efforts on cutting expenses or on running after every bit of new business that’s out there. </em><br /><br /><strong>Should You Cut or Run?</strong><br /><br />The predictions are frightening, the reality is sickening. A tracking graph of the recent performance of the world’s stock markets looks like a real-time image of your kid playing with a yo-yo. <br /><br />The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the collapse of Bear Stearns, the near collapse of AIG, the failure of Washington Mutual, the $700 billion bailout package, the automakers' bailout: well, you’ve been reading the headlines. Maybe you’ve been living the headlines. Even if you’ve done nothing but glance at the quarterly statement on your retirement accounts, you’ve shared in the experience. It's difficult to find credit, venture capital is scarce, and many businesses—perhaps your customers’ businesses—are about to start cutting back on discretionary spending. It’s enough to make you want to collect firewood and hunker down behind the desk in your cozy corner office for a long, cold winter. <br /><br />What to do, what to do? Should we focus on cutting costs as much as possible, driving every shred of waste out of the operation? Or should we focus on winning as many new deals as possible, throwing ourselves into business development with all the energy we can muster? <br /><br />As you can probably tell from my picture, I’m old enough to have lived through a couple of recessions in the past. In each of those downturns, the money people took over and started cutting—payroll, benefits, capital projects, energy consumption, raw materials, anything and everything that might show up on the balance sheet as a cost of doing business. Wall Street tends to like cuts. Just ask Al Dunlap. <br /><br />It was during one of those earlier recessions that the colorfully nicknamed Chainsaw Al Dunlap first gained notoriety as a uniquely enthusiastic and ruthless job cutter. Stock prices soared as he slashed jobs and shuttered whole operations. It turned out, though, that Chainsaw Al’s cuts really weren’t as effective as they appeared, at least at Sunbeam, his last stop. It turned out he had also engaged in more than a little hanky-panky with the books to inflate earnings reports. As a result, he agreed to pay $500,000 to settle SEC charges he had defrauded investors, agreed to pay $15 million to settle a class-action lawsuit from shareholders, and agreed never to work as an executive at a public company again. Oh, and Sunbeam went bankrupt. <br /><br />Admittedly, Chainsaw Al is the worst example of dealing with a crisis by mindlessly cutting jobs. But even without the whiff of fraud in the air, cost cutting alone seldom produces positive results. During the recession of the early 1990s, the Kepner-Tregoe consulting firm analyzed the cost-cutting behavior of more than 300 executives. Among other findings, the study found that executives who implement aggressive cost-cutting programs were four times more likely to cut costs again, but even after the second round of cuts still didn’t rate their attempts as successful. <br /><br />The problem was that they were making blanket cuts—“Ten percent of the total workforce, no exceptions, Bumstead!”—rather than looking for ways to drive waste out of the system. Across-the-board cuts neglect to look for opportunities to achieve growth or at least lay the foundations for fast growth when conditions improve. Customer service, R&D, and sales are particularly damaged by that kind of an approach—the very areas that are likely to yield big dividends downstream. <br /><br />An economic downturn is frightening, but it can also be an opportunity. People are eager for hope and open to change. As a result, a recession is a great time to begin initiatives that would have provoked fierce resistance in better times. <br /><br />We’ve talked for years about proposal automation’s value in driving waste out of sales. Just last week I spoke with a senior manager at a major IT firm who admitted that his sales force had very few tools to help them manage deals and write good proposals. In fact, he thought they could probably handle a much larger number of accounts if he could take away a lot of the time-wasting administration that they had to do. So isn’t it possible that investing in the tools that make them more productive and eliminate a major source of waste be as smart as cutting jobs? <br /><br />Cut if you must, but also invest in the tools necessary to run after more business and close it faster. Focus not merely on reducing headcount, but on reducing complexity and waste. If you’re interested in not merely surviving the current economic downturn, but actually thriving, take a look at your operations. Cut the waste, not just the people and resources. <br /><br /><strong>If you’d like to explore how you can cut waste and increase productivity in your sales organization, call us. We have proof that, on average, Sant Suite customers realize a 29% win rate improvement and create sales documents 36% faster. See a demo of Sant Suite at www.santcorp.com/demo.</strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-43232184198593215492008-12-04T08:49:00.001-05:002008-12-04T08:56:38.747-05:00Are You a Shark?<span style="font-style:italic;">So, are you a shark? <br /><br />No, I don’t mean a lawyer. And I don’t mean a member of a gang in West Side Story. <br /><br />I mean are you like the shark in that you (or your business) must keep moving forward or you’ll die? And if that does describe you, what do you do when everything around you is paralyzed into immobility? <br /><br />That’s our topic this time.<br /> </span><br /><br />Somebody once said that a business is like a shark. It has to keep moving forward or it will die. The analogy is less than perfect, but it seems to make a point. If we don’t continue to grow, to innovate, to close deals and invest in the future, we’re not likely to make it. <br /><br />But what do you do when everything around you has fallen into narcoleptic immobility? Nothing is moving. Nobody is buying. Money has dried up, funding is limited, and decisions are being postponed indefinitely. How do you keep moving forward in that kind of environment? <br /><br />It’s a big problem, one of the reasons that economies get stuck. Recessions become self-perpetuating because so much of economic behavior is predicated on economic attitudes. <br /><br />Well, here’s a little known fact: Sharks don’t have to keep moving all the time. That’s a myth. People believed it for a long time, but scientists discovered not too many years ago that many species of shark can stop swimming, resting quietly on the ocean floor, and still breathe. Apparently they choose spots where the ocean currents are strong enough to pump water over their gills so they stay alive. Think of it as a Blue Ocean strategy for sharks. <br /><br />The equivalent behavior for our business might be to remove ourselves as much as possible from the economic turmoil and allow the natural waves of economic activity to help keep us afloat? How do we do that? <br /><br />Carter Schelling, a consultant and economic advisor, recommends taking specific steps to protect your business during a recession. Here are a few of his ideas: <br /><br />First, fire some of your customers. Which ones? The customers who are most likely to struggle themselves during the recession. Identify the customers (it’s usually a pretty small list) who provide you with 80 percent of your gross profit. Which ones are likely to survive or even thrive during a recession? Focus on doing business with them. Which ones are likely to see their sales or cash take a precipitous drop? Which ones are too far in debt, too leveraged, too dependent on the bubble? Drop them. They’re not going to make it anyway, so don’t tie your fate to theirs. <br /><br />Second, take a look at the products and services you offer. Now is the time to focus more than ever on making your customers successful. Mack Hanna, author of Consultative Selling Skills, has argued for years that if we are going to run a successful sales organization we need to understand what our customers do, how their customers benefit from what they do, and how we can strengthen the relationship between them. If we can give our customers a competitive advantage in a recession, they will give us their business. <br /><br />Third, thin the herd. During prosperous times it’s hard to find good people. As a result, we sometimes put up with poor performers, including sales people who never make their numbers. Now is the time to make changes. Drop the ones who don’t produce and enlarge the territories of those who do. <br /><br />Fourth, look for opportunities to drive waste out of the organization. Schelling recommends implementing Lean Principles so that you can lower your price without lowering your profit. I recommend looking at the waste in your sales organization and getting rid of non-value adding activities. A decade ago, George A. Smith published Sales Productivity Measurement through the American Society of Quality Control. He found that on average sales people spent about half of their work week in activities that kept them from talking with clients or prospects! Mostly they wasted time traveling, doing price checks, handling correspondence, and preparing proposals. Does anybody think that travel is less time-consuming today? That our e-mail is less burdensome? Or that creating a winning proposal is easier? <br /><br />Well, actually, proposals are a lot easier if you’re using Sant Suite, which automates the creation of client-centered persuasive proposals, presentations, and other sales documents. And that’s a great example of how you can drive waste out of the organization. <br /><br />So be a shark! Keep moving. Or slow down if you must and take advantage of the ripples of change washing over us during the current economic slowdown. But do it in a way that assures you can flash into action instantly and become the mighty predator of the deep waters of business that you were always meant to be. <br /><br />Take a look at our proposal and presentation automation tools. If you’re not using them already, you’ll be amazed at how they can drive waste out of your operation. In fact—dare we say it—once you see them in action, we’re sure you’ll be in a “feeding frenzy” to implement them for your team.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-3740150194957008512008-11-17T12:51:00.001-05:002008-11-17T12:53:33.444-05:00Selling Fast in a Slow Economy<span style="font-style:italic;">The economy has slowed down. There’s no question about that.<br /><br />But you need to keep selling, right? So what’s the answer?<br />I think we can learn an important lesson from one of the pioneers of human psychology, Abraham Maslow.<br /><br />That’s our topic this time. </span><br /><br />When the economy slows down, selling becomes more difficult. People feel vulnerable and they become reluctant to spend money or allocate resources to anything new. From a psychological standpoint, they are moving down Maslow’s hierarchy of needs toward the basics—the survival issues.<br /><br />Maslow believed that when any two needs were demanding satisfaction at the same time, it will be the need that is more “prepotent” (to use Maslow’s jargon), the more biologically urgent, that will take priority. Needs that are less prepotent are pushed into the background, delayed, or ignored. For example, a person might be dying of hunger, but he or she will forget all about food if you choke off the supply of oxygen!<br /><br />So what does this mean regarding our customers? It means that because they feel threatened in a declining economy, they will tend to hoard what they have. They will pull back from completing mere “transactions.” They will be reluctant to exchange the organizational equivalent of oxygen—money—for any product or service that doesn’t meet their basic needs. As a result, when you try to sell a product or service for a particular price, the customer may perceive doing business with you as purely transactional. And they want to minimize the number of transactions they do in order to hold on to scarce resources.<br /><br />There is some good news, though. In a down economy, decision makers are eager to find solutions. They want to do those things that will help them cope with changing circumstances, that will meet their basic business needs for revenue and stability.<br /><br />Selling solutions is consultative, not transactional. Selling solutions requires:<br />• A broad business perspective<br />• Alignment with the customer’s objectives<br />• An ability to demonstrate value that matters to the customer<br /><br />If you ask most sales people, they will tell you that they are writing proposals and delivering presentations that are solution oriented. But in reality they are not. The customer perceives their offers as transactional and pulls back from making a decision to buy.<br /><br />Why do many solution-oriented proposals and presentations fail to communicate themselves that way to the customer? They fail because they are NOT client centered, value based, or decision oriented.<br /><br />Often, sales people resort to “clone and go” proposals. They think that it’s enough to provide a boilerplate, “checkbox” proposal, one that focuses mainly on their products or their company. But to be seen as a solution-oriented proposal, the document must focus on the customer’s needs—the most “prepotent” ones, to use Maslow’s term—and link whatever is being recommended to meeting those needs.<br /><br />Similarly, many proposals do not contain any value proposition. They present a price, but they don’t contain any calculation of return on investment or any other measure that is linked to survival and coping in a tough economy.<br /><br />Finally, many proposals are not organized to help the customer make a decision. They tend to be information dumps. They fail to differentiate the offer from alternatives and fail to provide grounds for moving forward with the decision.<br /><br />To sell faster in a slow economy, we need to make sure we focus on what matters to the customer, spell out the concrete benefit they obtain from doing what we recommend, and present our recommendations using a structural pattern that leads logically to a decision.<br /><br />One way you can sell faster is to automate the creation of proposals that actually win more frequently. Sant’s proposal automation software will do exactly that: increase your win rate and slash the time it takes to issue a proposal. Check out the interactive, Web-based demos of them at our site, <a href="http://www.santcorp.com">www.santcorp.com</a>.Brian Vasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04997728653978935117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-72016366715321230142008-09-30T08:38:00.001-05:002008-09-30T08:40:31.116-05:00Entering Your Evidence<font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="2"><span style="font-style:italic;">Evidence is crucial in a courtroom—it’s the basis on which the judge or jury makes a decision.<br /><br />It’s just as important in your sales process and your proposal. The kinds of evidence you use and the way you present it can make a huge difference in whether the verdict goes in your favor or against you.<br /><br />That’s our topic this time.</span><br /><br />We’ve been talking about persuasive structure in our recent messages. We said that effective persuasion follows the NOSE pattern: Needs, Outcomes, Solutions, and Evidence. We start by restating the client’s needs because that gets their attention and reduces their anxiety. We then outline the potential outcomes the client will achieve by solving their problems or meeting their needs, because that creates the motivation to go forward. Third, we recommend a solution, but we do it in a way that’s client-centered rather than product-centered. <br /><p>I hope that so far you’ve been gulping down the Kool Aid and are in full agreement. Anyway, all that remains is the final step, presenting our evidence. <br /><p>What are you trying to prove with your evidence? Basically, you are trying to show that you can and will keep your promises. You are trying to show that you can deliver the solution you have proposed on time and on budget. You are trying to convince the decision maker that this is your area of expertise. You might even be trying to establish that your firm is financially stable, properly managed, and well prepared. <br /><p>Providing evidence is usually the part of the persuasive job that most proposals handle pretty well. But there are two ways we can do the job better. First, we can be thoughtful in selecting our evidence, choosing items that are most likely to appeal to the specific decision maker and to be relevant to the opportunity. And second, we can present our evidence in the most effective way possible. <br /><p>In future messages we’ll deal with the second issue, covering the best ways to write typical kinds of evidence, such as team member bios, case studies, company histories, and so forth. In this message I want to discuss briefly what kind of evidence to use. <br /><p>The first rule is that just because you have a particular bit of evidence doesn’t mean you should throw it into a proposal. Just because you have a map of North America showing all 78 of your company’s office locations, don’t use it unless it’s relevant. If you’re trying to sell to a company that also has numerous locations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and they closely match your locations, then it’s relevant and helpful. If you’re selling to a prospect who only has one location, forget it. <br /><p>The second rule about choosing evidence is to consider the source. There are three kinds of evidence—things you say about yourself, things your clients say about you, and things independent third parties say—and each has a different level of credibility.<br /><p>Among the things you can say about yourself, you might include information about product features, about the members of your team, about your project management methodology, or about your quality control philosophy. Those things are relatively noncontroversial, and a prospective client could check for accuracy if he or she really wanted to. These forms of evidence help establish your competence. They answer a key question in the decision maker’s mind, namely, “Can these people really do what they claim?”<br /><p>Another form of evidence you can offer about yourself—a type of evidence that helps minimize the client’s sense of risk or enhances their perception of the value of your offering—focuses on measurable performance indicators and special financial terms. For example, you might provide evidence relating to unique contractual terms that you are offering. Or you might outline a “gain sharing” or “risk sharing” program based on specific performance guarantees or service level agreements.<br /><p>The second source of evidence is your previous clients. What they’re willing to say about you is often more convincing than what you say about yourself for the obvious reason that they presumably have nothing to gain from it. You can provide evidence to a new prospect from a prior client by including references in your proposal. Just make sure you check with the reference to make certain they’re still happy with you. Sometimes yesterday’s glowing reference becomes tomorrow’s flaming law suit and we didn’t even know it. You might also include testimonials, including images of letters of praise from previous clients. But one of the most convincing forms of evidence you can offer is the case study. As long as your case study is from a client similar in nature to your prospect, who had a similar problem, who had that problem alleviated by a solution similar to the one you’re proposing, and who achieved measurable positive results from your work—then you’re in great shape. However, if your case study just rehashes the history of some project in chronological fashion, forget it. That’s boring.<br /><p>Finally, third-party evidence comes in the form of awards, rankings, recognition, articles, analyst reports, and so on. Although that form of evidence used to be the most convincing of all, the fact that so many analyst firms are willing to sell their “approval” to the highest bidder has made them somewhat suspect in recent years. All the same, if you were named the “best place to work” or an “industry innovator” or “Five Star Quality Award Winner” or some such thing, take advantage of it when you can. That’s still good stuff.<br /><p>The Sant Corporation has all kinds of evidence to back up our claims that we can save you time and increase your win ratio through our proposal automation systems and services. And we’d love to share that evidence with you! Give us a call and let us prove it.<br /></font>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-69647723107350379102008-09-15T09:51:00.004-05:002008-09-26T10:01:38.828-05:00Getting Out of the (Information) Dump<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cnmiller%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">Even proposals that start with a great executive summary often lapse into the information dump mode when it comes to presenting the solution.<span style=""> </span>How can we get out of the informative pattern so that our proposals are more effective in delivering a persuasive message?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">The heart of the proposal is, of course, your solution.<span style=""> </span>Your clients will be eager to hear your solution, if you have whetted their appetite by first discussing their needs and the probable outcomes of meeting those needs.<span style=""> </span>But you can’t just lapse into the technical “info dump” style of writing that characterizes most solution write-ups. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Take a look at some old proposals, particularly the sections where you describe products or services.<span style=""> </span>Do you see long lists of bullet points, the so-called “features” of your solution?<span style=""> </span>If so, the solutions are informative, not persuasive, and most of your readers are probably skipping these parts.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">To present your solution in a more customer-friendly, persuasive way, start by presenting your recommendations in two to three strong, focused paragraphs.<span style=""> </span>You want to start by presenting the solution in general terms, focusing on business fit rather than details of execution.<span style=""> </span>Emphasize why this solution is right for the client.<span style=""> </span>Mention a couple of strong differentiators that set your solution apart and make your recommendations the right ones.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">To focus on what matters in your solution, write from the customer’s point of view and move from general to specific:<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Recommend the solution in a single sentence.</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><span style=""> </span>Focus on functional impact, not operational or technical issues.<span style=""> </span>In other words, in the first sentence, tell the customer what your solution will do for them.<span style=""> </span>By the way, if you have a branded product or service, do not use the product name at this point.<span style=""> </span>Product names are jargon and no one knows them outside your company (unless your product is as well known as the iPod or the ThinkPad).<span style=""> </span>Tell the customer what they are getting and why it’s the right approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Explain the recommendation in another sentence</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">.<span style=""> </span>In the next couple of sentences, focus on at least one detail that relates to your intellectual capital, unique methodology, relevant expertise, or depth of experience.<span style=""> </span>Focus on how you will do the work and what the results will be.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Differentiate your recommendation. </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><span style=""> </span>Provide two sentences that state relevant differentiators that set your company apart from others who provide this kind of solution.<span style=""> </span>Indicate why these differentiators add value for the client.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Present the features of your solution in the context of the customer’s needs or problems.<span style=""> </span></span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Remember that customers do not automatically recognize that the solution you are proposing will give them the results they want.<span style=""> </span>Particularly in a highly complex or technical environment, you must link the outcomes of what you are proposing to the elements of your solution.<span style=""> </span>Imagine the client asking after each mention of a feature, “So what?<span style=""> </span>Why should I care?”<span style=""> </span>This means you should not mention a feature without linking it to the customer’s issues and to the benefits that feature will provide.<span style=""> </span>(The benefits should also be linked to the customer’s issues, needs, or goals, of course.)<span style=""> </span>Remember:<span style=""> </span>a feature is a component of the solution, but a benefit is an impact on the client’s operations that the client will find desirable.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">In fact, the details of your solution will be much more persuasive if you don’t focus on features at all.<span style=""> </span>Instead, start by mentioning one of the customer’s key needs.<span style=""> </span>Then mention the feature(s) of your solution that address that need.<span style=""> </span>Point out the benefit the feature offers, and conclude with a brief proof statement showing how this feature of your product or service worked in another account (a mini case study).<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Then start with another key need, link that to one or more features, show the benefit, and conclude with proof.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">This pattern will make it easy for your customer to see instantly that what you are offering truly is a solution, because it’s presented in the context of the customer’s problems or needs.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">After you’ve shown how the customer’s needs are being addressed, you can move into a more traditional description, going through the important details of your product or service in some logical order.<span style=""> </span>Now if the customer starts to skim, we don’t mind because we’ve already made our point persuasively.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">You can store persuasive descriptions of your products and services in the content library that comes with ProposalMaster and RFPMaster.<span style=""> </span>That way you can pick and choose the right details to present at the right time and keep yourself from falling into the information dump.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-61995779290902293612008-08-29T11:18:00.000-05:002008-09-26T11:19:33.894-05:00Does it Sizzle?<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cnmiller%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p.PMtextBullet, li.PMtextBullet, div.PMtextBullet {mso-style-name:PMtextBullet; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.25in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-indent:-.25in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; tab-stops:list .25in; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Ever hear the expression, “Don’t sell the steak—sell the sizzle?”<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">No, it wasn’t Snoop Dog who first said it.<span style=""> </span>(He said something about “f’shizzle” which I have never understood.)<span style=""> </span>It was Elmer Wheeler, a man who’s scarcely remembered today but who was <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s number one sales guru for more than twenty years.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">“Don’t sell the steak—sell the sizzle,” said Elmer Wheeler.<span style=""> </span>And he went on to say, “The sizzle has sold more steaks than the cow ever has, although the cow is, of course, mighty important.”<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">What Wheeler meant by a “sizzle” is the detail that has primary appeal for the customer—the aspect of our product or service that grabs their imagination and gets them excited.<span style=""> </span>It’s the feature that’s most closely linked to the customer’s interests or motivations.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Wheeler described “sizzles” as being the “best selling arguments” we can come up with, factors that have a real gut-level appeal to the buyer.<span style=""> </span>Wheeler thought this kind of appeal was spontaneous and irrational, and he used lots of food analogies to make his point—the sizzle of the steak, the bubbles in the wine, the tang of the cheese, the aroma of the coffee.<span style=""> </span>A good “sizzle” will have the same immediate impact on us as walking into a restaurant and smelling something delicious, like hot pizza.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Wheeler’s point is a good one.<span style=""> </span>Customers want to know, <i style="">what’s in it for me? </i><span style="">Unfortunately, the vast majority of sales presentations and proposals focus on facts.<span style=""> </span>They cover details of the product or service or, even worse, the vendor’s history.<span style=""> </span>No sizzle there!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">A good sizzle should answer the one question every customer has rattling around in their head when they are listening to our sales presentation or reading our proposal:<span style=""> </span><b><i>So what?<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">According to Wheeler, the rule to remember is this: “What is a ‘sizzle’ to one person may be a ‘fizzle’ or a whole bonfire to another person. Therefore, fit the ‘sizzle’ to the prospect on hand!”<span style=""> </span>Figure out your client’s hot button and lead with that.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">A technique I recommend to clients is to itemize their differentiators.<span style=""> </span>What is it you do that nobody else does?<span style=""> </span>What are the unique features of your products or services?<span style=""> </span>What separates you in terms of methodology, management techniques, facilities or resources from the competition?<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Once you’ve got your list of differentiators, put them down the first column of a table.<span style=""> </span>Across the top, put the kinds of value customers look for—increased productivity, reduced operational costs, improved quality, whatever.<span style=""> </span>This gives you a matrix of differentiators and value orientations.<span style=""> </span>Now you can rank each differentiator in terms of its ability to prove to your customer that they’ll get that kind of value if they choose you.<span style=""> </span>If it’s a terrific proof statement, give it maximum points.<span style=""> </span>If it’s basically irrelevant, give it one or none.<span style=""> </span>When you’re all done, you’ll not only have your sizzles, you’ll know when to use them.<span style=""> </span>If you’re selling to a customer who’s looking for guaranteed compliance with regulatory standards, and you have three or four differentiators that help assure that, those are the ones you mention.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">The next time your mouth starts watering at the smell of a onions sizzling in the pan or the aroma of chicken roasting on a spit, remind yourself that your sales presentations and proposals need to create that same kind of quick, visceral impact on your prospects and customers.<span style=""> </span>Start looking for the hook, the sizzle, the appeal to the customer’s interests that will make them excited and eager to hear your message.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="PMtextBullet" style="margin: 12pt 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">You can integrate your best sizzles with Sant Suite.<span style=""> </span>To see an interactive, Web-based demo of our software in action, visit our Web site, <a href="http://www.santcorp.com/">www.santcorp.com</a>.<span style=""> </span>Or you can request more information from me by sending an e-mail to <a href="mailto:tomsant@santcorp.com">tomsant@santcorp.com</a>.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="PMtextBullet" style="margin: 12pt 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="PMtextBullet" style="margin: 12pt 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-78643920012398740302008-08-15T10:13:00.001-05:002008-09-26T10:22:13.447-05:00Formulas for Solving Word Problems<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cnmiller%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h3 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:3; font-size:13.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">Clarity is the first rule of persuasion.<span style=""> </span>If our customers don’t understand what we’re saying, they’re not going to reach for their wallets and offer us wads of cash.<span style=""> </span>When people are confused, they slow down the buying process or shut it off completely.<span style=""> </span>So it’s in our best interests to make sure our message is easy to understand.<span style=""> </span>That’s our topic this time.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">I was working with a group of engineers recently and mentioned that many editors use mathematical formulas to determine if a piece of text is readable.<span style=""> </span>Their faces lit up like children who just saw grandma and grandpa pull up in a car full of presents.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">“Formulas?” they asked.<span style=""> </span>“There are formulas to show us how to write better?<span style=""> </span>Why didn’t anyone tell us this before?<span style=""> </span>We understand formulas.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">So we spent the next half hour looking at readability formulas, why they work, and how they can serve as a rough but reliable guide to the clarity of your writing.<span style=""> </span>I honestly believe those engineers will now write better, because they have a tool to help them measure how well they’re doing.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">Most readability formulas (and there are lots of them) measure how long your sentences are and how many big words you use.<span style=""> </span>The underlying assumption is that long sentences and big words are harder to decode.<span style=""> </span>Obviously, long words aren’t <i>always</i> hard to understand.<span style=""> </span>And long sentences aren’t <i>always</i> difficult to read.<span style=""> </span>There are exceptions.<span style=""> </span>However, as a rough guideline, these underlying assumptions work pretty well.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">The easiest way to calculate readability is to let your computer do it for you.<span style=""> </span>There are two other formulas that are simple enough you can do the calculations in your head.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3 style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Measuring Readability with Your Word Processor<o:p></o:p></span></h3> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">If you use Microsoft Word, open the “Tools: Options: Spelling and Grammar” box and select “Show Readability Statistics.”<span style=""> </span>Now the word processor will calculate your readability each time you run a spelling check.<span style=""> </span>If you want to check the readability on just a portion of a document, simply highlight the portion you want to check and click on the spell check icon.<span style=""> </span>When it asks if you want to check the rest of the document, select “No.”<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">Microsoft Word presents your readability in a chart titled “Readability Statistics” that gives you lots of useful information.<span style=""> </span>(WordPerfect users have a similar tool that also yields a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level index.)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">There’s a lot of useful information here.<span style=""> </span>I can see that my average sentence length is about right (around 15 to 17 words is a good average sentence length for adult readers), and I see that I’ve completely avoided passive voice constructions.<span style=""> </span>But what about the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level numbers?<span style=""> </span>Are they good or bad? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">The Reading Ease score is based on a standard of 100.<span style=""> </span>The higher the number, the easier the writing is to understand. <span style=""> </span>In business writing, which includes proposals, of course, a good score would be somewhere between 50 and 70.<span style=""> </span>Based on that score, my paragraph is all right, but it could be simpler.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level measurement correlates the complexity of the writing with the equivalent <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> grade level of education the reader needs to read the particular passage easily.<span style=""> </span>(Note that this is strictly a measurement of the complexity of the writing.<span style=""> </span>It does <b>not</b> mean the content is appropriate for someone at that level.<span style=""> </span>Readability and content are different issues.) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">What is the right level for your proposal?<span style=""> </span>For your executive summary, aim for a grade level equivalent of 10 or less.<span style=""> </span>That’s approximately the level of front page articles in the <i style="">Wall Street Journal </i>and the <i style="">New York Times, </i>which are clearly intended for well educated adults.<span style=""> </span>Other parts of the proposal could creep a little higher than 10, but 12 is the danger line.<span style=""> </span>If the grade level is higher than 12, you must simplify the writing.<span style=""> </span>Unfortunately, I’ve seen executive summaries that had readability scores above 20!<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">Sometimes you can’t use the word processor to calculate readability.<span style=""> </span>Maybe you have hard copy only, or maybe the text is stored in Adobe Acrobat.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Retyping an entire passage just to measure its readability is not a task most of us would gladly undertake.<span style=""> </span>The good news is that you can still calculate readability easily by using either of two simple techniques: Gunning’s Fog Index or the SMOG Index.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3 style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Gunning's Fog Index<o:p></o:p></span></h3> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">Robert Gunning first published his measure of readability in 1952.<span style=""> </span>Half a century later, people still produce “foggy” prose, so his tool is still relevant.<span style=""> </span>To calculate the Fog Index, follow these three steps:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in 12pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><span style=""> </span>1.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Choose a passage of about 100 words and determine the average sentence length for that passage.<span style=""> </span>(You just divide the number of sentences into the total number of words.)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in 12pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><span style=""> </span>2.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>In the same passage, count the number of big words—which, by definition, means words with three syllables or more.<span style=""> </span>Do not include proper nouns (like <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on"><i style="">Cincinnati</i></st1:city></st1:place>), words that are combinations of short, easy words (compound words like <i style="">bookkeeper</i> and <i style="">understand</i>), or verb forms that acquire three syllables by the addition of <i style="">-ed,</i> or <i style="">-es</i> or <i style="">-ing</i> (like <i style="">created</i>, <i style="">trespasses</i>, <i style="">traveling</i>).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in 12pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>3.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Add together the average sentence length and the number of big words.<span style=""> </span>Then, to determine the Fog Index, multiply this sum by .4.<span style=""> </span>This will produce a number that is a grade level equivalent, just as you got from the Flesch-Kincaid index.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3 style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">The Smog Index<o:p></o:p></span></h3> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">Like the Fog Index, the Smog Index measures the murkiness inherent in a piece of writing.<span style=""> </span>It uses a slightly different method to arrive at the final answer, which is again a school-grade level that indicates the relative difficulty or ease of reading the given passage.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;">To use the Smog Index, count the number of big words (same definition applies) in a passage of 30 consecutive sentences.<span style=""> </span>Then find the square root of that number.<span style=""> </span>Add 3 and you’ll have a grade level equivalent.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">I know these formulas probably sound goofy to you if you’ve never heard or them or tried them before.<span style=""> </span>But if you try them a couple of times, you’ll see that they’re both easy and helpful. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Another way to improve the readability of your writing, of course, is to hire people who can write clearly to do it for you.<span style=""> </span>That’s where the Sant Corporation can help.<span style=""> </span>We have writers trained in persuasive communication principles who know how to produce clear, simple prose for your proposals and presentations. <o:p></o:p></span></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36651087.post-26276348261491783612008-08-07T11:20:00.000-05:002008-09-26T11:21:33.255-05:00Words That Make Me Wince, Part 2<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cnmiller%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Probably no message that I have sent out in the past few months has generated more e-mail in response than my tirade about misused words. It seems that many of you have your own pet peeves.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">So here is the sequel: another installment of Words that Make Me Wince.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">In an earlier message, we commented on some words that are frequently misused, including impact, parameter, affect/effect, serve/service, and simple/simplistic. These are words that writers often use incorrectly and, speaking strictly for myself, the errors make me wince. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">For example, a proposal recently stated:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">"All communications, which effect the technical aspects of the project, must be directed through the Project Manager."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">The obvious error is the word "effect." The writer meant "affect," a verb. In addition, the idea of directing communications "through the Project Manager" is an intriguing one. A lot of communications could leave that Project Manager looking like a sieve.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Well, there are a few other words and mistakes that bug me. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">First, why do people write, "There are more than 114 sales managers attending the conference." Why not a round number like 100? Or 110, even? Why "more than 114?" And what is that, anyway? 115?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Another goofy thing-a phenomenon I call "drive by capitalization." It's the apparently uncontrollable urge some people have to throw in a capital letter every so often. The result is this kind of passage:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Nova Technology's long term Strategy is to contribute significantly to our customers' Competitiveness by becoming world-class in Reliable and Responsive.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">There are at least eight things wrong with that sentence, but one of the most pointless mistakes is the capitalization of strategy, competitiveness, reliable, and responsive.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Here are some other mistakes that undercut our credibility:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">IT'S/ITS/ITS': It's pretty embarrassing to misspell a three-letter word, but people do it all the time. I-T-apostrophe-S is a contraction. It means "it is." I-T-S without the apostrophe is a possessive pronoun. For example: "The company and its board of directors...." I-T-S-apostrophe doesn't exist. There's no such word. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Maybe it will help people who make this mistake to think about other possessive pronouns, such as "yours," "hers," "ours," and "theirs." None of those words get an apostrophe. I guess the confusion stems from the fact that we show possessive case with nouns by adding an apostrophe-S: "The company's managers..." "The building's exit..." The customer's decision..." (Using the apostrophe that way is a mistake that goes back so far in the history of English that it has become accepted.)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">PRINCIPAL/PRINCIPLE: Most of us remember that "the principal is our pal." What about the main partners in a law firm? It's the same word. The main person or main thing is the "principal" element. "Principal" can also mean "leader" or "head." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">On the other hand, a "principle" is a code, a standard, or an axiom. Thus, we could say, "Some principals have no principles" and make perfect sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">IMPLY/INFER: To imply something means to suggest it. Inanimate objects can imply things. For example, we could say, "The laboratory tests imply that the new compounds are safer than the current formulation." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">To infer requires mental activity. It's an activity. Thus, we would say, "Sherlock Holmes inferred from the evidence that the crime had been committed by a disgruntled proposal writer."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">COMPLIMENT/COMPLEMENT: To "compliment" means to say something nice, to flatter someone. To "complement" means to go with, to fulfill or augment something. If the menu says each entrée includes "a dinner salad to compliment your meal," we may be interested to hear what those compliments will be, but we're likely to find that the salad is just as mute as any other plate of lettuce.<o:p></o:p></span></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0