A Blog for the Comma Man

Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes: Quick Tips for Using Horizontal Lines

Seven Proposal Lessons from A Christmas Story

Six Tips for Faster Text Formatting in Microsoft Word

Six New Time-Saving Features of Microsoft Word

Halos and Pitchforks: The Power of a Positive First Impression

Halos and Pitchforks: The Power of a Positive First Impression

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. The adage is old, but when it comes to proposals and presentations, it’s as important as ever. In fact, even the briefest of first impressions can become the lens through which a prospect views all of your remaining messages. That’s right, the first messages your prospect reads or hears are more than just the ones they remember most—they’re the ones that have the biggest impact on your overall persuasion. How big? Let’

How Sequencing Can Improve Persuasion—and Win Rates

How Sequencing Can Improve Persuasion—and Win Rates

When it comes to proposals and presentations, order matters. In fact, studies have found that even with outstanding, prospect-focused content, changing just its sequence can have profound effects on a prospect’s understanding, recall, and impression of your key messages. So, in this post we’re discussing the connection between memory and order—and what it means for the structure of your next proposal or presentation. The Serial Position Effect When presented with a series of

Three Is a Magic Number (for Proposals and Presentations)

Three Is a Magic Number (for Proposals and Presentations)

Chances are your organization has lots of compelling features and benefits. Most do. But when crafting a proposal or presentation, how many should you highlight for your prospect? Five? Ten? According to cognitive psychologists, it’s probably less than you think. That’s why this week, in continuing our discussion of simplicity, we’re examining your prospects’ short-term memory capacity. How many features/benefits do they actually retain when processing your information, and w

Four Reasons to Keep Your Content Simple

Four Reasons to Keep Your Content Simple

Your prospects are bombarded with persuasive messages—400 a day, according to psychologist Kevin Dutton. Moreover, research shows that 81 percent of those messages contain more written or verbal content than is necessary, encouraging audiences to tune out, gloss over, and move on. It’s time to streamline. So before allowing the kitchen sink to be tossed into your next proposal, presentation, or marketing document, point out these four reasons to keep your messages short, shar

Five Tools for Averting Proposal Disaster

Five Tools for Averting Proposal Disaster

We all know that proper planning and communication can go a long way to preventing last-minute proposal chaos. But let’s be honest: Every proposal writer, no matter how prepared, has felt the stress of a down-to-the-wire proposal submission. It’s a terrible feeling, and according to a recent University of Washington study, that stress can make us especially prone to proposal-killing mistakes. Not good. So next time you’re in an eleventh-hour pinch—whether it’s because of a fi

Seven Tips for Working with Subject Matter Experts

Seven Tips for Working with Subject Matter Experts

Marketing and proposal writers are used to overcoming obstacles. Shifting deadlines, fluctuating workloads, snarky executives, and poorly written Requests for Proposals: they’re just part of the job. But as we found in our recent business writing survey, one challenge continually stands above the rest—working with subject matter experts. So, in this post we’re exploring seven simple steps for getting the content you need, when you need it, from your firm’s technical folks. On

PDFs Part Three: Five Time-Saving Tips for Proposals

PDFs Part Three: Five Time-Saving Tips for Proposals

In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, many professional services firms are submitting more proposals and dedicating more time to their research, development, and customization. For instance, in the legal field, a recent NexisLexis® study found that 42 percent of firms have increased their proposal volume over the last 12 months; only 7 percent have decreased. While this trend may seem like good news for proposal writers, few firms have made comparative increases in

PDFs Part Two: Four Ways to Streamline Proposal Reviews

PDFs Part Two: Four Ways to Streamline Proposal Reviews

The draft review and approval process can be stressful for any proposal writer. You just spent days crafting a clear, compliant document, and now various senior executives and subject matter experts—many with only a basic understanding of Microsoft Word formatting and review functions—are wading through it. Time is short and deadlines are closing in. What could possibly go wrong? Lots. We’re out to find a better way. So this week we’re exploring four ways that portable docume

PDFs Part One: Four Ways to Improve Electronic Proposals

PDFs Part One: Four Ways to Improve Electronic Proposals

Proposal professionals have long explored ways to optimize their hard copy submissions, from adjusting paper colors, tabs, and binding types to developing unique packaging materials. However, as many government and commercial organizations shift to electronic-only submission requirements, a new challenge has emerged: how to optimize a proposal file. That’s why this week we’re discussing four underused ways to improve the appeal and functionality of a proposal in portable docu

10 Downtime Activities for Proposal Writers

10 Downtime Activities for Proposal Writers

Proposal writing is time-consuming work, often with 16-hour days, nonexistent weekends, and deadline-driven chaos. Add in the effects of staffing shortages and industry fluctuations, and many writers have only occasional—and brief—lulls in workload. With idle time a rarity on most marketing and proposal teams, it’s critical that writers make the most of it. That’s why this week we’re discussing 10 key downtime activities that will improve your performance, fight burnout, and

101 Bad Business Buzzwords (And Why to Avoid Them)

101 Bad Business Buzzwords (And Why to Avoid Them)

Today’s marketing and proposal materials are littered with important-sounding words that have no real value. Seamless, top-notch, world-class, laser-focused, and best of breed: we’ve all been guilty of using terms like these in place of meaningful descriptors. Unfortunately, buzzwords can seriously weaken your persuasive messaging and give an impression of insecurity. In fact, a study by researchers at New York University and the University of Basel found that readers are sig

Nine Steps to More Effective Business Emails

Nine Steps to More Effective Business Emails

Email communication is a key part of nearly every project, client relationship, and business development effort. In fact, according to a study by the Radicati Group, this year the average corporate employee will dedicate 28 percent of each workday to email, sending and receiving more than 115 messages. Unfortunately, all too often the email messages we create are structured and sent in ways that confuse co-workers, annoy clients, and frustrate prospects. That’s why this week

The Ultimate Proposal Editing Checklist

The Ultimate Proposal Editing Checklist

Proposals are important. And with a growing focus on procurement transparency, a high quality proposal can mean the difference between a big win and an almost-was. So it’s no surprise that organizations are evolving, employing proposal specialists and adopting more mature capture and proposal practices. Unfortunately, many organizations are still missing a key step in the proposal process: editing. What’s the use of spending days and hours developing and writing a customized

Three Steps Prospects Take to Evaluate Your Proposals

Three Steps Prospects Take to Evaluate Your Proposals

Ever heard of a Red Team review? If not, here’s the deal: It’s basically a mock proposal evaluation, done to predict how the customer will score your document. It happens after draft completion and before production/submission, complete with checklists, evaluation spreadsheets, and the participation of employees outside the core proposal team. Sounds beneficial, right? It is, but with the exception of some federal contractors and large commercial proposal teams, we’ve seen fe

Four Quick and Easy Ways to Make Proposals More Persuasive

Four Quick and Easy Ways to Make Proposals More Persuasive

Reality check: Proposal evaluators don’t care about your company. Really. They’re not mean, they’re just busy, so they don’t want to comb through pages and pages of content about you: your company history, experience, qualities, and products/service offerings. Instead, they want a simple, straightforward explanation of how those things will affect them. They care about benefits, not features, and they want to quickly find them in your document. That makes sense, but you’re bu

Five Steps to Clearer Business Writing: The Bob Vila Edition

Five Steps to Clearer Business Writing: The Bob Vila Edition

Clear, straightforward business writing can do a lot: get you hired, get you promoted, save you time, make you money, and save you money. Lots of money. Think we’re exaggerating? Think again. Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey found that using a clear writing style would save the U.S. Navy alone $27 million to $75 million annually in time wasted reading and rereading. That’s a lot. Regardless of whether you’re a seaman or sales professional, chances are

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