KISS Proposals

We all know by now that we need to love our customers. But kissing is important too. I mean KISS in the sense of Keep It Short and Simple, of course. How do you keep it short? Well, use short words for a start. Never say 'accelerates' when 'speeds up' will do. Also, limit your sentences to 15-18 words and your paragraphs to 2-3 sentences, with a clear topic sentence up front. Keep your proposal short too. 25 pages is enough for most proposals, even if the value is millions. In fact, [the person] who wrote 'The one page proposal' claims one page is enough for billions too. For smaller deals, write smaller proposals. 1, 4 or 10 pages feels right for the average simple solution. I suppose it's a bit like your elevator pitch. If you can't grab the client's attention on the way up from the 1st to the 10th floor, then you might as well get out of the elevator. Apart from short words, sentences and proposals, it's also important to keep your solution simple. People don't buy what they don't understand. Use pictures to explain complex ideas. Then use action captions to explain your pictures. Use stories or analogies to make your solution simpler. Then use headlines to tell the story and paragraphs with tables, pictures and bullets to expand on the headline. A classic story line for a proposal is 'how we get you from A to B via C while avoiding D'. But you can also try others, such as suspense or action. Remember to delete all that fluff, guff, geek and weasel and you'll do just fine.