Everything I needed to know about proposal writing I learned from writing the introduction paragraph

As soon the introduction to a proposal is written, it becomes obvious whether it's going good or bad. Right from the start. The first draft of the introduction tells you a lot about the maturity of a company's proposal process. Writing a good introduction demonstrates what you know about what the customer really wants.

If you can't write that, then you don't know what you're proposing. And if the introduction consists of nothing more than information that can be found in the RFP, you know that the proposal will lack differentiators or solid reasons why the customer will select you. If the introduction is plain and lacking insight because no one gave it much attention, the odds are that it is not the only thing in the proposal that was put there without thinking much about it.

Writing a proposal introduction is not like other kinds of introduction. It's basically a description of what you are proposing to do for the customer that is condensed all the way down to a single paragraph. What you need to do to write a great proposal introduction is similar to what you do to every other paragraph in the proposal. You don’t need to spend years studying every aspect of proposal writing. If you just learn how to write a great proposal introduction, you can write a great proposal.

From learning how to write the proposal introduction, I learned to:

1. Frame the entire proposal as fulfilling what the customer wants. In a single paragraph, you need to make your offering the customer’s best alternative. That doesn’t leave much room for describing your company, claiming understanding, reciting history, or talking around the issue. It means you must summarize your entire offering, what makes it superior, and how it best delivers what the customer wants. What the customer wants to get out of your proposal is more important to talk about at the beginning than some dry description or claims of greatness. When writing proposal introductions, I have learned to focus on giving the customer a reason why your offering could be their best alternative and then make the rest of your proposal about proving that.

2. Deliver customer awareness to the start of the proposal. You can’t write about what makes you the customer’s best alternative if you don’t understand how the customer makes their decisions and what matters to them. I learned to make understanding these things my highest priority before I start writing. I learned that when I start a proposal with other people, I have to attain consensus on these things before we can write to achieve our bid strategies. I learned to build my proposal process around the things that need to happen and what writers need to know in order to write an effective introduction. I learned that if you don't have sufficient customer awareness, you can't write a competitive proposal introduction, and it shows right from the beginning.

3. Jump right into things from the very first sentence. I learned that the conclusion I want the reader to reach needs to come first and not last. I learned that the many ways people talk around things in the first sentence have nothing to do with the point you want to make. I learned to drop all that noise and make my point. 

4. Skip slogans and bragging about unsubstantiated claims. Claims to greatness don’t make your point. They also hurt your credibility. So I learned to simply drop them. Instead of claiming greatness I simply offer something that makes my proposal the customer’s best alternative. Others can brag, talk about themselves, or sound like a commercial. I prefer to win the proposal. 

5. Differentiate. It does no good to make your points if everyone else can make the same points. Winning by being the same but only a little better is not a highly competitive strategy. I learned that it is always possible to differentiate. I learned to think through what makes my proposal completely different and perfectly well suited to being the customer’s best alternative. Then I write the proposal to present and support those points, starting from the introduction.

6. Talk about understanding in the right way. I learned that reciting the customer’s description of themselves does not make any points and is a waste of space. What the customer needs to see is that you will deliver the results they are looking for in a way that will succeed in their environment. If you can tell them how you will do that, you clearly understand them. So when I need to prove I understand the customer, I do it by differentiating in a way that makes what I’m offering tailored to the customer. Then I explain why I tailored it that way and what the customer will get out of it. I prove understanding instead of claiming it.

7. Write only about what matters. I learned that a long introduction paragraph defeats the purpose. So I also had to learn that I only have room to talk about what matters to the customer. This in turn made me a much better proposal writer. I stopped writing to make sure I said everything anyone might want to hear, and now only talk about what matters and why. If you say things that don't matter, then your proposal doesn't matter. I learned to aim for insight instead of encyclopedic coverage. 

8. Write only from the customer’s perspective. I learned that the introduction isn’t about my company or what I want to say. It’s about what the customer needs to hear. This requires writing from the customer’s perspective. It’s about how they evaluate proposals and make decisions. It’s about helping them through that process. I learned that talking about yourself and being self-descriptive is bad proposal writing. I learned to write by putting everything in a context that matches the customer's perspective and how the customer will read what I write.

9. Combine all the different goals and ingredients into a single statement. You need to write about what makes your offering better. But you also need to explain what that offering is. And how it fulfills the customer’s goals. And write it all in the language of the RFP, especially the evaluation criteria. I learned not to write until I have all the ingredients lined up and how to connect them. 

10. Say it in fewer words. Summarizing the entire proposal into a paragraph is a challenge. I not only learned to be direct and focus on what matters, I learned to say things succinctly. It’s a paragraph, not a page. 

11. Think many times. Write once. Thinking by editing doesn’t work. You don’t start with a thought and then edit it until it becomes the thought you want. You have to think about what you want to communicate and what the best way to express it is many times. Once everything is in alignment, then write it. Editing can improve your wording and presentation, but you’ve got to think things through first. Writing to discover what you should have been thinking will not get you there.

Finally, I learned that every sentence is an introduction paragraph. Every. Single. One.

Every paragraph needs to make a point.

Every paragraph needs to differentiate.

Every paragraph needs to be written from the customer’s perspective.

Every one of these 11 points applies to every paragraph of the proposal.  Every paragraph of a proposal is the introduction of a thought. And every paragraph needs to be thought through and presented with just as much care as the introduction. If you know how to write the proposal introduction, you know how to write the winning proposal.