Writing Persuasive Government Proposals
This self-paced course shows how to develop compliant and highly persuasive proposal sections in half the time it would normally take—helping increase your Government proposals’ win probability (Pwin).
It covers detailed methods for structuring proposal sections to ensure full compliance, brainstorming effectively both individually and collaboratively, improving flow and organization, and applying efficient proposal writing and planning techniques. But this course goes beyond compliance—it focuses on how to make your content truly compelling.
You’ll learn the science of proposal persuasion by creating vivid mental imagery for evaluators and using storytelling techniques that make proposals engaging and memorable.
The course also explains the difference between effective and weak proposal language, introduces advanced self-editing and automation tools, and provides strategies to overcome writer’s block, improve readability, and increase writing speed using methods many proposal professionals have never been taught.
Writing Persuasive Government Proposals
Original price was: $1,195.00.$777.00Current price is: $777.00.
You will gain techniques and tools that can transform even the most reluctant non-professional writers into confident, effective proposal writers. You’ll also be able to apply this knowledge within your organization to help Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) produce stronger proposal sections—reducing the time spent rewriting and lowering overall stress levels.
This self-paced course includes approximately 40 percent instructional content, 50 percent exercises, and 10 percent reflection. The exercises are designed to significantly increase your writing speed and enhance the quality of your proposal content, giving you more time to refine and polish your work. The outcome is faster, clearer, and more enjoyable proposal writing.
The experts who developed this course are experienced, currently practicing proposal professionals with decades of success in Government acquisition and training. The course reflects their practical insights and proven methods based on current industry standards. You can learn more about our instructors on the About Us page.
Course Curriculum
Learning Objectives
Upon course completion, the participants will have learned and be able to put into practice:
- Understanding the goals of proposal compliance and persuasion.
- Analyzing the RFP requirements applicable for your proposal section.
- Determining writing focus.
- Infusing persuasive argument structure.
- Annotating a proposal section.
- Shifting the unhelpful beliefs about proposal writing.
- Positively impacting proposal team’s and individual performance psychology.
- Brainstorming and planning a section in a group and individually.
- Speed-writing proposal sections.
- Successfully managing writer’s block.
- Understanding the elements of proposal persuasion and how to apply them effectively.
- Being able to develop at least one of the 11 types of proposal story.
- Applying four steps for developing a metaphor.
- Editing proposal section for content, structure, grammar, and spelling.
- Applying readability metrics to your proposal sections.
Day 1 Highlights
Module 1: Introduction
- Introductions and learning objectives.
- Importance of compliance and persuasion in proposal writing.
- Class roadmap.
Module 2: Detailed Outlining Within Sections
- Understanding compliance at the section level.
- How to analyze RFP requirements for proposal section.
- First steps of outlining proposal sections to be compliant and compelling.
Exercise: Analyze the requirements for the practice section, determine section focus, and identify key components.
Module 3: Infusing Flow for Higher Persuasion
- Annotating proposal sections.
- Understanding proposal content flow for higher persuasion.
- Infusing proper proposal section flow to form a compelling argument.
- 8Ws and their order.
Exercise: Annotate a proposal section outline.
Module 4: Proposal Speed-Writing System
- Three elements of the proposal speed-writing system.
Module 5: Overcoming Unhelpful Beliefs about Government Proposal Writing
- The psychology of performance.
- Questions to uncover self-limiting beliefs about writing.
- Myths and truths of Government proposal writing.
- Seven techniques to resolve specific psychological hang-ups and overcome self-limiting beliefs.
- Where dealing with psychology fits in the proposal process.
Discussion: Apply concepts learned in class to the unhelpful personal beliefs and discuss ways to overcome them.
Module 6: Stage 1 of the Correct Proposal Writing Process
- Correct writing process to write better and faster.
- Stage 1 of the correct writing process, and where it fits in the capture and proposal process.
- Intelligence gathering to answer the 8Ws.
- Three steps for successful group brainstorming.
- Helping your group become more creative in generating ideas.
- Tools and techniques for brainstorming individually and preparing to write.
Exercises: Brainstorming in a group. Brainstorm individually and plan the actions.
Module 7: Stage 2 of the Correct Writing Process
- Stage 2 of the correct writing process.
- The main secret to writing Government proposals fast and well.
- Writing rules.
- Speed-writing tools.
- Where Stage 2 fits in the capture and proposal process.
Exercise: Speed-write the proposal section.
Day 2 Highlights
Module 8: Beating the Writer’s Block
- Elements of proposal writing procrastination.
- Four categories of methods to break free from the writer’s block and help your proposal team.
- How to manage writing time.
Discussion: Methodologies participants will use to deal with their writer’s block.
Module 9: The Dark Art of Proposal Persuasion
- The dark art of proposal persuasion.
- Proposal language: what sells.
- The anatomy of proposal persuasion.
- Understanding Government evaluators’ individual drivers.
- Proper structure of the argument for better proposal persuasion.
Discussion: Integrate the material learned in the module and apply to the specific customer situations.
Module 10: Use of Story in Proposals
- How to use story that makes boring proposal writing come alive.
- Elements of a strong proposal story.
- Eleven story types appropriate in a Government proposal.
Exercise: Develop a story for the practice proposal section.
Module 11: Harnessing the Power of Metaphor
- Types of metaphors.
- Metaphor rules.
- Four steps for building an effective metaphor appropriate for Government proposals, and useful during the capture process.
Exercise: Create a metaphor for the practice proposal section.
Module 12: Stage 3 of the Correct Writing Process
- Stage 3 of the correct proposal writing process.
- Where Stage 3 fits in the proposal process.
- OST’s four-part proposal editing checklist.
- Exercise: Apply editing checklist parts 1 and 2 to the proposal section draft.
Module 13: Copy Editing and Editing Automation
- How to configure and apply proposal editing tools.
- Readability and its tools.
- How to avoid sentence bloaters and reduce wordiness.
- Enemies of clear proposal writing.
- Language that kills proposal persuasion.
- Configuring MS Word for editing.
- Writing efficiencies in MS Word.
- Additional editing tools and techniques for proposal editing automation.
Exercises: Configure MS Word. Watch the editing demo. Apply editing checklist parts 3 and 4 to finalize the draft.
Module 14: Summary and Recap
- How It All Maps to the Proposal Process.
- Summary.
- Recap.