Ten Ways to Win More Bids, Part 4: Use plain English

Neil Southwell is the Strategic Bid Director at Vision, and is an expert on which are the best techniques to use when writing successful bids. 

In the fourth part of the series, Neil explains to UK Construction Media the importance of using plain English and how crucial it is in ensuring a bid is successful. 

Have you ever read something from a technical author and had to read it again, and again, and again to begin understanding what they mean? I’ve become so used to getting pseudo- technical narrative from contributors to my bids that I’ve long since stopped worrying about how it is written and just get on with translating it into plain English that us mere mortals can understand. 

We first learn to write in school and that’s where bad habits start. As we progress through college and then university we read more technically orientated textbooks about our chosen subject that are often written in a particular style. We accept this as a familiar and generally accepted way of communicating…and we start to copy!

As we become more proficient in business we use previous reports or bids so our writing is accepted by our peers and doesn’t seem out of place, and so it goes on. 

But when you look back at these sources they are often riddled with jargon and long, highly technical explanations when simple ones would have done just as well. The author may think that writing like this makes them look good (perhaps?) but it has the potential to alienate your audience. You risk appearing to be too clever or elitist to care whether your audience understands something that you probably know more about. 

This is when we start to accept Construction-eze and Engineer-ish as the norm we fail to realise that most people, and particularly non-specialists, use plain English. 

Getting beyond the technical, I find that this ‘professional-eze’ style extends into general writing too with people using excessively long sentences to sound as though what they are saying has more gravitas when a much shorter and more direct one would have done. Phew, that was a bit long!

The problem is that messages become woolly and the outcomes your client wants to know about may not be clearly stated. This is poor technique but our authors are copying it because they don’t know any better! We address this issue in ‘Mind Your Language’ in our online bid training programme http://ift.tt/1JvULgG 

It’s important to remember that you’re not writing a school essay but rather trying to sell the benefits of what you do in a way that will engage and connect with your client. So, write in a way that is simple to understand, interesting to hear and tells a story in a way that engages your reader and provides information that they want in the way they want to read it. 

Of course, it’s always best to answer the question, so when you’re asked: “How will you manage X?” you can start your answer with: “We will manage X by…” and this is the start of your response. Your response should always follow the order of the question(s) to make it easier for assessors to use their score sheet and mark you higher because its easy to find the information they need. Use headings if you like but remember that you need to take your client on a journey of discovery moving from their problem to your products and the purpose they will fulfil.

Answering questions is one thing you must do but doing it in a way that sells your services is just as important – check that your writing style induces your client to take action. Work out what it is about your bid that will most excite them, and accentuate it, really accentuate it!

So throw out that rulebook, strip off that straitjacket and write in a way that connects simply, clearly, quickly and powerfully. The results will amaze!

Top Tip

Have a look back at a previous bid and see if you can easily understand what is written – then pass it to someone outside your business (your husband, wife, partner, trusted friend, etc.) and see if they get what you’re talking about too. And why not try the tools and techniques outlined in ‘Mind Your Language’ at http://ift.tt/1JvULgG to improve your approach?

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