Don Debelak - Perfect Phrases for Business Proposals and Business Plans

Perfect Phrases for Business Proposals and Business Plans

Also available from McGraw-Hill

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Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases for Winning New Clients, Launching New Products, and Getting the Funding You Need

Don Debelak

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We live in a sound bite world today, in politics, in news, and increasingly in business. Sixty-page business plans are initially screened in five to 10 minutes and business proposals sell or dont sell in even less time. Bankers and investors scan plans and quickly capture their essence in three to four sentences:

ABCs space [the current popular term for market niche] is GPS (Global Positioning System) for truck fleets that allow fleets to provide their customers accurate tracking information. ABC sells equipment to fleets at cost, collecting per delivery tracking fees. ABCs edge is better tracking information than a Federal Express type system and an automatic e-mail system that advises customers of projected delivery dates. The extra cost to the trucker is $1.50 per delivery while ABCs per-delivery tracking costs are $0.75.

Writers of business proposals and business plans have two challenges:

generate enough interest so their documents survive the initial screening process and

convince people to accept and move forward on the actions requested by the proposal or plan.

This book will help readers create power paragraphs in their proposals and plans with high-impact phrases that can help them with both challenges. The power paragraphs are designed to quickly communicate a companys essential benefits in order to move past the initial screening process. The paragraphs and phrases are also designed to help pass the final evaluation of the target customer, investor, or other principal. Adding perfect phrases in each section of the document frames the section to the writers purpose and steers the reader to understand and accept the writers points.

The book is separated into two parts: business proposals and business plans. covers perfect phrases for business proposals. It is formatted to follow a typical scorecard, whether formal or informal, that clients or potential partners use when evaluating a plan. Part Two on business plans follows the same format as the business proposal section with each chapter covering a key item on the potential investors or banks scorecard. Each chapter deals with one of the items on the scorecard, offering phrases that position the business as a cant miss opportunity.

Finally, a formatting note: have black edges. This has been done purposely because these two chapters serve as the foundation for the perfect phrases sections on business plans and business presentations that follow. We added the black edges to make it easier for you to quickly refer to these chapters

This book is not meant to be a complete guide to writing a business proposal or plan. It is meant to add value to those documents by providing power paragraphs and phrases that quickly communicate points that will generate a positive response from readers. If you are writing a business proposal or plan for the first time you might also refer to a book that covers the basic points. Here are some of my favorites: