Eight Things that Make Your Business Pitch Weak

1. Boring. Even though the market’s needs and your solutions aren’t boring, bring them to life through stories that resonate, rather than by merely recounting “facts.” Tell us about people with passion and intelligence, great ideas, interesting Continue reading Eight Things that Make Your Business Pitch Weak

Writing a Winning Business Proposal

Business Proposals — To know how to write a winning business proposal, ask your customer (i.e., the party requesting the proposal) what they need to know; learn what informs their decision making. The purpose of business proposal writing is to persuade the customer or prospect to select you. The best way to do this is Continue reading Writing a Winning Business Proposal

A Strong Business Writing Culture is Good for Success

Few Business Leaders Pay Attention to Their Company’s Business Writing Culture

For years I’ve been telling everyone I can that quality business writing, and a supportive business writing culture, are essential to business success. Frankly, many don’t find the topic very engaging or exciting—it’s just not something that grabs their attention or interest. They nod approval and feign understanding, but usually don’t really know what I mean. Just a casual bit of courteous respect, I suppose.

Sad, but true, businesses for the most part pay lip service to the subject of quality business writing—it never tops their list of priorities. I have yet to hear a business owner or executive say, Continue reading A Strong Business Writing Culture is Good for Success

Business-Writing Process — Brilliance or Hard Slog?

Business-Writing Process is Not a Single Flash of Uninterrupted Brilliance — It’s a Hard Slog

Occasionally business writers get it all down in just the right way in a flurry of inspiration. But for most of us writing usually doesn’t happen like that. In fact, the process is commonly a regularly interrupted slog. Ideas come, are written down, rethought, organized, edited, more ideas, refinement, ah-hah moments; dead ends are deleted; we move on, rethink, edit, polish. Repeat several times and maybe you’ll have a great piece.

So don’t think for a minute that creating business prose, copy or documents will be a seamless one-time gig, or that your entire piece will fall out of your head onto the page in a single flash of clarity or brilliance. If you’re waiting for this to happen, you’ll probably get little writing done.

Crafting very good material occurs by not doing it all at once. Continue reading Business-Writing Process — Brilliance or Hard Slog?

Simple Process Pointers for Struggling Business Writers

It’s amazing that so many smart, experienced people don’t think they can write, struggle to write, or don’t write well when they try. When I’m asked for advice on how to get started on, and finish, a business-writing project I usually try to reduce it to a few understandable and easy-to-remember essentials.

I guess the big trick is recognizing that there’s really no magic involved—writing is thinking. Thinking requires focus, reflection, imagination, deliberation, concentration, and an orderly process. Continue reading Simple Process Pointers for Struggling Business Writers