Fering Communications Blog: proposals

Showing posts with label proposals. Show all posts

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Don't Let Your Sales & Marketing Look Like This Oatmeal

Inspiration for what to blog about can come from the most unlikely places. One such example came last week from a Hampton Inn in northern Wisconsin: One morning, as I wandered down to the hotel breakfast area in search of some nourishment, the burger that I had for dinner the previous evening sat like a rock in my stomach. I wanted something healthier and hoped that the breakfast offering included oatmeal.

Happily, the breakfast bar did include oatmeal. Unhappily, this is what it looked like:

In an instant, my taste for oatmeal vanished and I decided to see what else was available.

OK, I get it, it’s a hotel, not a restaurant. I don’t expect a gourmet menu. But is it possible to make oatmeal look any less desirable? Upon sharing this picture with my wife, she compared it to the compost bin we keep in the kitchen for fruit and vegetable peelings and leftover scraps. Not exactly the comparison the folks at Hampton Inn were shooting for, I’m sure.

Let’s see if we can’t draw some food for thought (pardon the pun) from this most unfortunate food presentation.

The Importance of the First Few Seconds

In his book “Blink”, renowned author Malcolm Gladwell describes that our rapid recognition subconsciously make a series of conclusions about something within the first few seconds of seeing it. It’s why we dress nicely for a job interview, why we shave and comb our hair on a first date, and why we make eye contact and smile when we meet a prospect for the first time. All because we want the person we’re engaging to like us and give us what we want, whether it’s a job, a relationship or their business.

Sales & Marketing Materials

Here’s the reason the look of your sales & marketing materials (brochures, case studies, whitepapers, etc.) is so important: It’s often the first impression prospects and customers will have of your company and you want them to subconsciously conclude that you’re a professional and reputable company and make them comfortable with the prospect of doing business with you.

Website & Blog

Thanks to Google and other search engines, your website is very likely the first impression prospects will have of you and accordingly it should have a clean format so visitors are able to quickly determine what you do. Graphics should be clear and relevant, headers should logically break up your pages so the viewer can quickly scan and decide if you can provide what they’re looking for.

Your blog should have the same characteristics: an appealing look that makes the reader want to explore and read deeper. Relevant graphics and images make your blog posts more readable, and headers break up the body of the post, make it more reader-friendly and allow the reader to identify the highlights and decide if they want to read more.

Sales Proposals & Quotations

Sales proposals and quotations are notoriously poorly formatted. Many companies simply list quantities and prices for what they will provide, expecting that to be enough to convince the reader that they can solve the problem at hand. Images and headers are important here, too, and if your document exceeds ten pages you might want to think about adding a table of contents so readers can quickly locate what they’re looking for.

A professional title page clearly showing the title of the proposal, who the document was written for and by, and the date would all help create a positive first impression.

Conclusion

A bag of oatmeal doesn’t provide the most appealing first impression for someone with an appetite for a healthy breakfast. Your sales & marketing materials shouldn’t make this same mistake: your website, blog, sales proposals and quotations and other materials should have a clean, concise and professional look, lest your prospects and customers take a pass on dealing with you or your company and consider some other options.

Monday, 26 November 2012

Why Your Company Needs a Style Guide

A few years ago when I was working as a salesman for a different company I sat across the desk from a customer while he was engrossed by a report. I was immediately curious about what he was looking at and after he put the document down and we began chatting I tried to discreetly steal glances to find out what he had been reading. After we chatted for a while we were interrupted by one of his colleagues and he stepped out of his office to discuss an issue that had just occurred. Alone in his office, I finally got the chance to freely look at the report and I was surprised to find that it was a production report generated by the computer system that I had sold him a few months earlier. I was shocked that it took me so long to identify something created by the company that I worked for. Instead of using the logos, fonts and colours consistent with our sales materials our technical team had used the default attributes chosen by their programming tools.

It is so important to build your brand into your business and everything that is associated with it. Every piece of sales & marketing material should have the same look and feel that is central to your company’s image. This includes your website and blog, whitepapers and case studies and product specifications. The same look and feel should extend through your training manuals, installation guides, specification documents and other technical documentation. On a whole, every piece of written or visual material your customers will see should look and feel the same and a style guide plays a key role in delivering that.

A style guide is a document describing the fonts, colours, style, voice, tone, layout and other attributes of your brand—everything that the various people and departments will need to adhere to so your branding is consistent and uniform. You want your prospects and customers to know that they are looking at something produced by your company without having to search for whom it was written by. Written and visual communications that are not consistent can look unprofessional and leave your customers confused.

Below is an infographic covering the basics of what a style guide is, why it is important, who should use it and how to go about creating one if you don’t already have one:

Establishing a style guide can be difficult in the early going—especially if multiple people or departments are involved. Start the process by appointing someone to champion the process and engage key individuals to invite their input and win their support.

You should also keep in mind how your style guide affects resources outside of your organization like bloggers and content curators—the standards described by the style guide will need to extend through their work, too.

Conclusion

A style guide is a document that defines the appearance, voice, formatting and other aspects of a company’s written and visual materials. Having a well-defined and consistent look and feel will make your company look professional and customers will feel comfortable doing business with you. If you need help creating or updating your style guide give us a call, we’d be more than happy to help!

Monday, 15 October 2012

How to Write a Great Business Letter

Emails are by far the most common form of written business communication and are becoming shorter and more abrupt. Text-speak is slowly but surely making its way into the business lexicon (OMG! LOL … :). People are becoming accustomed to communicating in bursts of 140 characters or less.

It seems like the ability to craft a well-written, well-formatted, convincing and persuasive business letter is a dying art. However, at some point in your business life you’re probably going to have to write an important business letter: to get a sales appointment with a prospective customer, to close a sales opportunity, to be considered for a promotion, or to engage someone in creating a strategic partnership.

Here are some points to keep in mind when you’re faced with the daunting task of writing a great business letter:

Understand the Purpose: Before you even open up your favourite word processor you must understand what the purpose of the letter is – if you don’t then the letter will lack focus and effectiveness and you could lose credibility with your reader.
Focus on One (and Only One!) Point: Your letter will be more effective if you only focus on one key point. Every word of the letter should support your key point. This could be difficult if you feel that you have several things that the reader will be interested in, but isolate the most important point and focus on it.

Make Your Letter About Them: It makes little difference to them if your company has over 1,000 employees worldwide, offices in nine countries and has been in business for over 50 years. None of this helps them at all. If you want them to read past the first few lines then you’ve got to quickly get to the point where it’s all about them.
Focus on Value: Quickly establish what value they could get by dealing with you. In the business world the value that most people are looking for is financial: they want to either increase their revenues or decrease their costs. Many people focus on features – like how their product is so much faster or smaller or newer than the competition’s – but if you don’t emphasize the value that translates into (… our machine works 20% faster and can reduce your labour costs by the same amount …) then your reader won’t be motivated to engage with you. There are other values that you could deliver, such as an emotional value, a social value or an environmental value but in the harsh world of business (and please excuse the pun) you’ll get more bang for your buck by focusing on the financial value.

Use a Professional Tone & Format: The only acceptable tone for a professional business letter is a formal one. Refrain from using abbreviations and use a professional format (click this link for an example and check out our blog post on writing tone). Typically you would print, sign and mail the letter but it’s becoming more common to send the letter electronically as a PDF or other non-editable document.
Tell the Reader What You Want Them To Do Next: In the final portion of the letter, set up what you want to happen next. This could be a call-to-action to get them to do something (“Call us now …” or “Visit our website …”) but it could also be something less actionable (“I will call you next week to discuss this further …”). Either way, the letter is only one part of a longer process and you should finish your letter with what the next steps in the process are.

Conclusion

If you’re in the business world you’re going to need to write a great business letter sooner or later. If you truly understand what your reason for writing the letter is before you start, use every word in the letter to support that key point, focus on the value that the reader will get by acting on the letter and finishing with a direct and definitive path for moving forward, then you’re on the right path to crafting a professional, engaging and persuasive letter that’s got a good chance of achieving your objectives.

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

What Tweeting Looked Like Before Twitter

I know, I know, boo @ the cheesy title! I thought I’d use this platform to share a neat story that happened to me as I left a client’s office last week. As I headed through the parking lot toward my car, I noticed what I originally thought was a large stone a few yards ahead. As I got closer, I saw that not only did the large stone have eyes but it was moving its head. The large stone was actually a bird sitting in the parking lot watching the world go by. As I got closer, I thought that this little guy might be injured so stooped down and gently put my hand on the ground beside him. He hopped onto my hand and I snapped the above picture while I pondered how one determines if a bird is injured or not. While I thought about this he flew away, making the conclusion a moot point.

So how can I tie this into professional writing and presentation services? Well, I’m not sure if I can directly. However, I can offer that one of the goals of your company blog might be to make you and your company human and likeable.
In the story above, I’m hoping that people see me as a kind, caring possibly-hurt-animal-loving kind of guy. And I’m also hoping that I hit a soft spot with some of the readers of this blog and maybe they’ll like me and my company just that little bit more. And if they like me that little bit more and have professional business writing and presentation needs, maybe they’ll decide to visit our Contact Us page and connect with us.

Conclusion

Your company blog can be used to achieve a great many goals: increasing traffic to your website, showcasing industry expertise and thought leadership, converting blog or website visitors into leads. But your blog can also provide softer benefits, including adding a personal touch to your business and letting your prospects and customers know that there are human beings behind your corporate machine, which may differentiate you from your competition and give you the winning edge.

Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Sunday, 5 August 2012

The Importance of Tone in Business Writing

Writing is one of the most common tasks that you’ll find yourself doing during a regular workday. In 2011 the average corporate user sent and received an average of 112 emails every day. And that’s just email, it doesn’t include the sales proposals, technical documentation, business letters and other documents that you’ll work on.

Just as important as the content of business writing is the tone – the writer’s opinion and emotion toward the reader and subject matter. Just like your tone of voice in a spoken conversation, the tone of a written conversation is as – and sometimes more – important as the actual content.

When crafting a piece of business writing – a quick email before you dash off to a meeting or a hundred page sales proposal that you and your team slaved over for weeks – you certainly have to make sure that the content is appropriate but you have to make sure the tone is, too. You can’t take chances when you’re communicating through writing – you can’t read facial expressions or body language and you might not get a second chance if your content and tone miss the mark.

Not Good: Joe, get me the final specs quick or you’ll cause us to deliver late.

Better: Joe, we really need the final specifications before we can finalize delivery. Would you be able to send them over at your earliest convenience to avoid delays?

One of the most important considerations in establishing the tone of your writing is to be honest, authentic and sincere. Most readers will pick up if you’re not being true and you might lose your credibility. If the reader doesn’t trust you there isn’t much of a chance that they’ll be convinced by your writing.

Your state of mind plays a large role in your tone: if you’re in a bad mood, if you’re feeling playful, if you’re feeling happy – all of these emotions will come out in your writing. If you are in a bad mood or feeling stressed, you might want to stay away from your keyboard – those grumpy feelings will seep into your writing whether you like it or not.

At all times, you should maintain a professional tone, even if you are very comfortable or have a friendly relationship with the recipient. Talking about the baseball game you went to, how your kids are doing in school or your kitchen renovations might be appropriate for the person that you’re writing to directly but not for those that the recipient could forward it on to and you can’t count on them deleting the friendly chit chat before they do.

Finally, you should favour a concise and precise tone in business communication over a verbose and flowery one. The person reading your writing doesn’t have time to wade through ~~linguistic pyrotechnics~~ fancy words and filter out your message. Also, there’s a good chance that instead of coming off sounding eloquent you’ll end up sounding pretentious.

Not Good: We would like to inquire about your upcoming availability to arrange a mutually convenient brief conference call, if possible on next Wednesday morning, so we might gain some additional insight into your requirements for the upcoming project.

Better: Are you available for a short call next Wednesday at 10:00am? We have some questions about the project that we’d like to ask.

Conclusion

The tone of a piece of business writing is just as important as the content. If you’re in a positive frame of mind, are honest and sincere and keep your message concise then you’ll infuse a positive tone in your writing and generate a readable and convincing piece. And if you decide that you need help with any sales and marketing, technical or business writing projects that you’re working on, we’re only an email or phone call away.

Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.

Amanda Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: amanda.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Friday, 15 June 2012

Social Media and Content Marketing: In-house or Outsource?

There are lots of different opinions on whether you should use in-house resources to quarterback your social media and content marketing presence or whether it’s better to use an outside company. At Fering Communications, we humbly submit that using an external company gives you the best advantage. Here are five good reasons why:

You’ve Got Better Things to Do: Honestly, you do. If you’re like most people I know, you’ve got a million things to do and that’s when you’re not busy. Setting up and implementing a social media strategy is seldom going to make it to the top of your to-do list. Luckily, if you work with an external company they’ll give you a content calendar with 30, 60 or 90 days of content activity and all you have to do is make sure that they do as they say they will.

You’re So Close You Might Miss the Obvious: Sometimes, people are so passionate about their businesses that they suffer from tunnel vision and only focus on what is most near and dear to them. In the meantime, all sorts of good and marketable stuff can be going on that you might not notice or might neglect to recognize the significance of. By keeping in reasonably close contact with your social media and content marketing company they will pick up on things that should be spun into new content and broadcast across the social media spectrum.

Don't Overwork Yourself: One of the first things an outside company will establish is your content marketing and social media strategy and activity calendar. This will contain a schedule for when you can expect premium content pieces, blog posts, Facebook posts and tweets. But what happens if something unexpected happens in your company that should be shouted from the rooftops? If you’re managing your own content in-house you have to find time to incorporate this on top of everything else that you’re working on. If we’re doing it we can reorganize our resources and priorities to fit you in.

Benefit From A Fresh Perspective: We spend a considerable amount of my day talking about, thinking about and doing social media and content marketing. On any given day we can touch any number of people who have different ideas and perspectives and where appropriate we can bring apply these ideas and perspectives to work for you. Your internal resource is so tied to one strategy (yours) and is going to see the same set of faces (your team) day in and day out that the chances of fresh ideas or new perspectives creeping into the picture is smaller.

This Writing Thing Isn't As Easy As It Looks: Sure, we all learned how to write when we were young, but I learned to swing a hammer when I was little and as my wonderful wife can attest, being able to swing a hammer doesn't mean I know how to finish a basement. You rock at what you do and that’s why your customers buy from you but unless you’re into social media and content marketing (and I’m puzzled by why you would hire us if you are) then we’re probably better. When I want a computer I buy a Dell laptop running Windows 7 because those are the best tools available for my needs. When we’re hungry we head out to the local Pita Pit and grab a pita. You could probably do a decent job yourself, but who shoots for decent when great is just a phone call away?

Social media and content marketing is a low-cost-high-return way to market your business. Like anything else, doing it poorly can do more damage than good and can be worse than doing nothing at all. Involving an outside company to create a consistent stream of content and social media activity will help establish you as an expert in your field, engage your customers and keep them coming back for more, and boost your lead generation. Fering Communications provides social media and content marketing services so if you are convinced that an outside company might be right for you give us a call, we’d love to talk to you.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner

Fering Communications Inc.

Website: www.feringcommunications.com

Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Saturday, 2 June 2012

Don't End Up Like Killface: 5 Grammatical Errors to Avoid

In the series premiere of Frisky Dingo, Killface wanted to use a direct mailing campaign featuring the following postcard to publicize his plans to annihilate mankind.

Unfortunately, several episodes later he was mocked on national TV because of the grammatical errors on his postcard. This probably wasn’t the publicity he was looking for. Luckily, you’ve found Fering Communications to make sure you don’t make similar types of errors that will make you look less than professional. Here are five common grammatical errors explained so you can avoid the “DOOM!” making them will surely bring.

Your vs. You’re – “You’re” is a contraction of “you are” and is used to describe the person you’re talking to, as in: You’re so wonderful because you’re reading our blog! A quick way to check if you're using “you’re” correctly is to replace it with “you are” and your sentence should still read correctly. “Your” is a possessive adjective and is used to describe something that is yours, as in: Your postcard mailer has grammatical errors, Killface. If you want to get tricky: You’re probably reading this blog on your computer. If your not sure what’s wrong with this sentence you should call you’re friends for help.
They’re, Their and There – “They’re” is a contraction of “they are”, so you should be able to replace “they’re” with “they are” and your sentence should still make sense. Remember those kids who jaywalked in front of you today? They’re going to get themselves hurt! “Their” is a possessive adjective and is used to refer to something that belongs to them, so you might have thought about telling their parents. “There” refers to a location (real or abstract), like over here or over there. “There” is also used with the verb “be” (is, am, are, was, were), as in: There was a crosswalk a little further down they could have used!
Its & It’s – Starting with the easier of the two, “it’s” is a contraction of “it is” or less commonly “it has” or “it was”. As above, replace “it’s” with its longer forms and see if the sentence makes sense still and if it does you’re (as in “you are”) in good shape. It’s (as in “It is”) really quite easy! “Its” is a possessive noun and describes something that belongs to “it”, where “it” is a previously defined object. Remember that funny video you saw where the dog chased its tail around and around? The dog is the previously defined object and the tail belonged to the dog.
Dangling Participles – No, this has nothing to do with the punch line of a raunchy joke, it’s what happens when you order your sentence in a confusing way. Try this one actually taken from a newspaper article: The burglar was about 30 years old, white, 5’10”, with wavy hair weighing about 150 pounds. That’s some heavy hair! Maybe they were trying to describe a burglar who was about 30 years old, white, stood 5’10” tall, weighed about 150 pounds and had wavy hair. Cancel the APB on the white male with incredibly heavy hair.
Me and I – If you’re describing what you and someone else will be doing, when do you use “me” and when do you use “I”? Take the other person out of the sentence and see if it still makes sense. For example, “Bob or me will call you next week” is wrong because if you take Bob out of the sentence you’re left with “me will call you next week”. This might have been acceptable tens of thousands of years ago but isn't not today. Alternately, “Freddy told me and Jim that he’d send the order across tomorrow” still reads properly if you take Jim out of the sentence.

The English language is a cruel and unforgiving language full of weird rules and nuances. Making grammatical errors in a business environment can confuse your audience, dilute your message and make you and your company look sloppy. Being able to write and communicate effectively are so important that taking a little time to re-read what you’ve written to ensure that you’re clearly and concisely communicating your message is a worthwhile exercise. If you find that you’re having difficulty crafting or refining your message then give us a call, we’d be glad to help.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website:www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

P.S. For something a little more risqué, check out this link.

Monday, 16 April 2012

Do Your Sales Quotations Leave a Positive and Lasting Impression?

I recently purchased a new car and found it mind-boggling how many different makes, models and options there are. Keeping everything organized was something of a Herculean task.

What struck me through the process was the huge discrepancy between the quality and style of the sales quotations I received. I received everything from a computer generated report listing the year, make, model, features and multiple payment options to literally a year, model and price written with a Sharpie on the back of a folded up piece of paper. In the latter experience I asked for a price on an earlier model year and had to write it down myself. It wasn’t all bad - the sales rep did let me use his marker. (I’m not even going to mention the sales rep who wouldn’t even write prices down – I had to do it myself but he too did let me use his pen.)

Crafting a well-written and eye-catching quotation or proposal is a vitally important part of the sales process. Here are some points on why your sales proposal or quotation is so important and why it needs to look perfect and read flawlessly:

It may be your first impression. While you have hopefully built a good rapport with some of the decision making team, there might be others involved who you have never met. Your proposal will be the first and only impression that your organization makes and will need to engage and convince them on it’s own.
Convince your prospect that you understand their needs and that you are fully capable of meeting them. This is not the same as describing how great your product is – sure, you have a great product but your proposal should be all about your prospects need and how you can satisfy that need. If you don’t someone else will and you’ll be left on the outside looking in.
Make your proposal about your prospect. Too many times companies want to talk about themselves. They describe their long and illustrious history, describe the plethora of awards they have received, name-drop some of their prominent clients. Before you know it, they’re pushing onto page 7 without even a mention of the prospects need and how they can meet it. Good proposals immediately address how thoroughly the vendor understands the prospects problem and how their products or services can address that need. All of that other stuff might have a place near the end of the document as an appendix. Better yet, keep the document concise and precise by holding this type of information on your corporate website where the whole world can see it and include links in your proposal.
Think benefits, not features. Proposals that are framed from a benefit viewpoint are far more impactful than those that list product or service features. Your prospect might be interested in your feature list but they’re definitely going to be more interested in how you can help grow their revenue, reduce their expenses, or benefit their business in some other way. Always keep the commercial value as a central theme in your proposal.
Make sure it looks great. As vain as it sounds, appearance makes a huge difference. In his best selling book “Blink”, Malcolm Gladwell argues that a person’s mind makes a series of conclusions within two seconds of them seeing something. If your proposal doesn’t look appealing, or worse looks unapplealing, then there’s a good chance that’s how it’s going to be perceived even if it describes the best product or service that the prospect is looking for. Adding colour, using a clear system of headings and subheadings, including pictures, flowcharts and other graphics and making sure the document contains a balance of white space are some ways to ensure that your proposal is going to read well and look great.
It may be your last impression. Chances are your sales team has impressed your prospect – they’ve shook the appropriate hands, smiled at the appropriate people, made a great pitch and feel great that they’ve won the prospect over. But every bidder has probably done the same and unless you are really, really good all of this feel-good will fade as the prospect gets closer to making a decision. You want to make sure that your proposal is well written and formatted beautifully so it stands out on its own.

Conclusion

Sales quotations and proposals are the centerpiece of your entire sales process and you should go to any lengths necessary to make sure that your quotations and proposals stand out from the pack. Fering Communications has crafted hundreds of well written and eye catching proposals. Visit our website, fill out our a contact form or email me directly to find out how we can help you. We offer a no-obigation review of your existing material and we’d be happy to offer some points for consideration or other helpful feedback.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Fering Communications Blog

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Don't Let Your Sales & Marketing Look Like This Oatmeal

The Importance of the First Few Seconds

Sales & Marketing Materials

Website & Blog

Sales Proposals & Quotations

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Monday, 26 November 2012

Why Your Company Needs a Style Guide

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Monday, 15 October 2012

How to Write a Great Business Letter

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

What Tweeting Looked Like Before Twitter

Conclusion

Sunday, 5 August 2012

The Importance of Tone in Business Writing

Conclusion

Friday, 15 June 2012

Social Media and Content Marketing: In-house or Outsource?

Saturday, 2 June 2012

Don't End Up Like Killface: 5 Grammatical Errors to Avoid

Monday, 16 April 2012

Do Your Sales Quotations Leave a Positive and Lasting Impression?