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The purpose of this book is twofold. First, it teaches the rudiments of how to prepare a proposal. The components that you need are listed and described.

However, components are just a collection of pieces unless they can be assembled in a meaningful manner. Thus, the second, and more important, purpose is to explore the exciting realm of persuasion: making the proposal into a winner. To be a successful persuader, you need to know why people agree to things. I describe how persuasion works and present guidelines that will help you convince people to accept your proposals and ideas.

This book goes beyond what other books offer in proposal writing — it provides not just formulas and recipes, but also the psychology that is needed to make your proposal a winner.

The psychology of persuasion, the foundation for winning proposals, is rooted in human nature, which does not change. Thus, I thought it would be a very long time before an updated edition of Winning Proposals would be necessary. The second edition of Winning Proposals was prepared a scant five years after the first, not because there had been some unexpected change in human nature, but because of the extraordinary revolution in communications brought about by the Internet and the Web, which have had an impact on virtually all aspects of life — including proposal writing. The second edition added relevant websites for obtaining Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and that provide technical assistance in writing proposals.

One aim of this third edition, which follows the second by a decade, is to update those aspects of proposal writing that are affected by the ever-growing, ever-changing Web.

The first and second editions focused on formal proposals typically used by consulting firms. The secondary objective of this third edition is to expand discussion of other forms of proposals — specifically, the unsolicited proposal — and other areas of life where persuasion is relevant.

The motivation for this book arose from my long involvement in the consulting business and also through my association with the academic world. A consulting firm’s lifeblood is the proposal. They must write and win a reasonable share of proposals, or perish. University researchers are in the same position; they must prepare good grant applications or wither. One would imagine that consulting firms and universities would devote considerable resources to ensuring that their staff can write proposals of high quality.

Sadly, this is not the case. Effective proposal writing is an overlooked discipline; it somehow falls between the cracks. All too often, individuals are left to fend for themselves with little or no guidance. When instruction is provided, the emphasis is generally on the components that make up a proposal and the mechanics of assembling those components, rather than on strategy and psychology.

This is akin to giving a soldier the tanks, guns, and other equipment needed to fight a battle without teaching the tactics and strategy that are necessary to out-manoeuvre the opponent. This book corrects that glaring oversight. It outlines the strategies and methods for turning an ordinary proposal into a winning proposal.

When proposals require less time and effort to produce, considerable savings are realized. Describing how proposals can be prepared more efficiently forms an important part of this book. For organizations that submit many proposals, these savings will directly improve the bottom line.

Your proposals will be more convincing, and they will be less costly to prepare. Your competitors had better beware!

Given that it focuses on the magic of persuasion, this book will be of special interest to:

• Consulting companies competing for contracts

• University and college researchers competing for research grants

• Businesspersons seeking venture capital or other forms of financing

• Salespersons selling the myriad of things they sell

• Fundraisers

Because persuasion plays a role in almost all facets of human interaction, this book is intended to help all those who want their bright, innovative ideas to come to reality.