OST's monthly ezine "Turbo-charging Business Growth" is for people who seek to
hone their business development skills. You're receiving it because you subscribed.
If you like it, please consider forwarding it to your colleagues who can subscribe at
www.OSTGlobalSolutions.com.

Word count for this issue: 767
Approximate time to read: Under 2 minutes

Speak Your Customer's Language
by Olessia Smotrova-Taylor

If you are doing capture or preparing a proposal response, do not forget about
searching for articles on the topic of your pursuit. The reason articles are important
is that a lot of the times you get to hear the voice of your customer. Journalists
routinely interview government and corporate officials and often you will find out
exactly what keeps your customers up at night, and what they care about the most.

If you are pressed for time, you may not want to spend hours on generalized
search on the Web because it is oversaturated with information. Do take a look
at the links on the first couple of pages that the search engine yields, but then move
on to publications specific to your industry.

For example, if you are an IT company, you should have shortcuts to the following
specialized publications’ websites:

Government Computer News: www.gcn.com

Federal Computer Week: www.fcw.com

Infoworld: www.infoworld.com

Computerworld: www.computerworld.com

Washington Technology: www.washingtontechnology.com

Wired: www.wired.com/techbiz

All you need to do is use the search function on these websites for some key
words related to this procurement, not forgetting to search by the names of the
customer personnel who may be involved in source selection, issuing agency’s or
company’s name, and some opportunity-specific terms. Then, go ahead and
paraphrase or even regurgitate customer’s own words and ideas in your proposal,
so that you speak straight to their needs and dearly held beliefs.

If you found this newsletter helpful, feel free to forward this newsletter to your colleagues. If you would like to reprint or reference this article, please, contact us at http://www.ostglobalsolutions.com/contact.php first.

Copyright 2008, Olessia Smotrova-Taylor and OST Global Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.