There are so many skills associated with developing a first-class proposal: project management, team leadership, facilitation of each stage of the proposal process, design, document management and many more.
But what of writing? The longer I work on proposals, the more I come to appreciate that lots of the best people out there at managing proposals out there are actually pretty mediocre wordsmiths.
So: you work in the world of proposals. (At least I assume so! If not, the web’s full of far more interesting sites for you than The Proposal Guys!). What are you like as a writer? Honestly?
My test, I guess, is whether you write for pleasure. I find that most folks who can write proposal content that really flows invariably also write outside office hours – perhaps a blog, or fiction, or for some society or local journal.
Writers write – incessantly, addictively. And if you don’t – if your skills are in some of the other, equally critical elements of the proposal process – perhaps you need to surround yourself with a few wordsmiths if you want inject a little magic into your proposals.
If you do write cool stuff that’s online, why not add a comment with a link? We’re always on the hunt for cool stuff to read!