Win Strategy Development
January 19, 2023
Executive Summary
February 22, 2023
Graphics are one of the most effective ways to persuade the customer to select your solution. Graphics convey both facts and emotion, equally important aspects of effective persuasion.
High-level readers of proposals, those either making or influencing the selection decision, often only skim proposals, looking at the graphics that stand out, then reading the captions, headings, highlight statements, and the executive summary. These readers must be able to see why you should be selected without reading body text.
Evaluators reviewing each question and requirement will often get together and ask two questions:
- “Did anyone find anything about . . . ?”
- “Which proposal is the best proposal?”
Graphics have a multiplier effect on your message. Done well, your message is remembered vividly; done poorly, your message is obliterated.
Effective graphics leave overall positive impressions and can make it easy for evaluators to find detailed answers to questions.
Studies of retention show that after a single reading, evaluators will remember twice as much of what they see in a graphic as what they read in text. In addition, when evaluators both see and read the same point, they recall six times as much. The key elements in retention were repetition and dual modes of acquisition.
Writers of winning proposals tend to both visualize and state why they should be selected.
Too many proposal writers still think that their customers are different or that their readers might be turned off by graphics. Such writers justify their lack of graphics with statements like, “Our evaluators are scientists, engineers, or accountants. They just want the facts.”
Graphics done well are the facts. Poor, inappropriate graphics are an insult to the evaluator.
Today’s readers see professional graphics in business documents, magazines, newspapers, TV, and movies. They expect similar quality graphics in professional proposals.
The wide availability of high-quality graphics, graphics generation software, and color printers make it feasible to create eye-catching, professional graphics and integrate them into a proposal.
The most successful sales people save time and stay on message by using similar graphics throughout the sales cycle. Reuse essentially the same graphics in sales presentations, white papers, executive summaries, proposals, and finals or short list briefings. Repetition increases retention. Just adapt graphics to the situation and medium.
