Missing quotes? A trick of the trade
“But we can’t get any client quotes!”
Most proposal teams understand the value of using customer quotes in their proposals to substantiate their claims and add credibility to their story. You know the sort of thing:
“Our requirements were identical to yours. This supplier – or should I say, ‘partner’ – have done truly fantastic things for us. They delivered early, exceeded all expectations, and charged a pittance. Our users are delighted. Our customers are ecstatic. Our revenues have shot up, and our costs declined drastically.
We trust them completely. They’re a joy to work with. I’ve personally been promoted, twice, since they did the work for me. I would recommend them wholeheartedly: I think they walk on water. Please feel free to call me at any time of day; I’d be delighted to chat to you.”
But what if you’re writing a proposal and you simply can’t get a customer quote – or (perhaps as powerfully in some circumstances) a comment singing your praises from a market analyst, benchmarking report or press article?
One simple tactic – not ideal, but better than nothing – can be to use internal quotes. Consider the relative impact of the each of the following:
1
We are committed to ensuring that our project managers are trained to the highest standards.2
“We are committed to ensuring that our project managers are trained to the highest standards”
- Vic Williams, Senior Vice President, Programme Management Office
Neither’s a perfect piece of proposal prose – but the personalisation of the latter gives it a certain extra credibility and impact.
This article was written by Jon on 28 March, 2007 and filed under Processes & best practice. If you found it useful, you can with others. To receive automatic updates, subscribe to The Proposal Guys via 
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We’ve used this technique recently and had good feedback.
Another thing that worked well was including a quote from the director we knew was going to be the main evaluator of the proposal. We found one which fitted perfectly with our key themes and gave him his own words back. He loved it.