The Art of the Cover Letter

The cover letter is the first part of any proposal that any potential client will read. As such, the cover letter should be the most engaging, interesting part of your proposal. Too often, the cover letter is nothing more than a glorified transmittal memo. In its worst form, a cover letter contains legalese language that creates a negative impression for the reader. What a wasted opportunity! Sometimes, it’s the only thing a potential client has time to read and will read in any detail. Make it count.

There are three elements of any good letter: the content, the writing style and structure, and the formatting. While content is certainly the most important, all three elements combine to create a letter that gets read and leaves a positive impression.In its best form, the cover letter creates an image of your team and firm in the mind of the reader and encourages him/her to continue to read to learn more about your approach to the project.

The content of the letter needs to communicate a strong set of value propositions:  what the client “gets” as a result of hiring your team. The value propositions need to differentiate your firm and they need to be what the client wants or needs from his/her project. I believe that a strong letter should lead with the strongest argument for hiring your team. Consider the following two examples:

Pursuant to the Port’s Request for Proposals, RFP #12345, Communication Resources is pleased to submit the following proposal for consulting services.  Herewith this letter, our firm commits the necessary resources to perform the work for the Port on this project in a superior manner. [Note:  Unfortunately, I don’t have to make this stuff up; I really read this in a client’s proposal and changed the name to protect the truly guilty.]

The Port has an incredible ability to garner public support and engagement for a vibrant redevelopment of the Portland waterfront. As a regional leader in public outreach and engagement, Communication Resources is ready to be the Port’s partner in creating enthusiastic support for this project.

Which introduction would encourage you to keep reading? If you said the first one, stop here. I can’t help you. In the second example, the topic sentence transforms what our research tells us the Port wishes to achieve with the current project into a strong claim (a “value proposition”). The second sentence establishes us as a regional leader and a potential partner in getting the Port staff what they want (e.g., the message is, “You want the value from the first sentence, hire us as your partner.”).

The content of the cover letter should preview the major “Win Points” in the proposal.  The content should set the expectation for what is to come in the pages beyond the cover letter. As a result, the main points of the letter should be clearly articulated in the body of the proposal as proof of the claims that were made in the letter.

While from a style standpoint, I could write volumes, let me instead suggest three key writing skills. First, the cover letter should include strong topic sentences. The topic sentence represents the “announcement” of the topic of a paragraph and makes a strong claim that will then be supported in the body of the paragraph.  [Note:  For much more detail on this subject, any writer should reference the writing “Bible” – Strunk and White’s Elements of Style – really, read it; you’ll be amazed at how your writing improves!]

Second, the cover letter should use grammar and punctuation consistently. When you don’t know how to use a particular convention – such as the comma after the “and” in a list – either look it up or use/misuse it consistently. Nothing is more frustrating to me as a reader (and to other readers, I’m sure), than the inconsistent use of a grammar or punctuation convention.

Third (and there are so many more from which to choose), the cover letter should be checked for common mistakes such as “their” vs. “there” or that each pronoun has a referent (i.e., who is “they” or “he” or “it”?).

Finally, the third element of an effective letter is its formatting. An effective cover letter draws the reader in through a perception of clarity and ease of reading. The writer uses bullets and bold type to draw attention and highlight key claims. No formatting technique is over-used, inconsistent, or confusing. I recommend the “rule of three” – choose three formatting techniques for your cover letter, use them consistently, and use them throughout the entire proposal. This encourages the eye to land on content for which you want additional attention. 

Some writers leave the cover letter to the very end of the proposal writing process, thinking that they’ll write a great cover letter when they know all of the elements of the proposal. Big mistake! The cover letter should be written first as it sets the most important claims for the proposal. The proposal should support the letter, not the other way around.

Finally, the tone of the cover letter should be neither too formal, nor too casual. All communication is intentional; this includes your writing. Determine the tone you wish to convey, and then write intentionally to convey that tone. Choose words carefully and make your writing a reflection of who you are and the firm you represent.

A cover letter is like the first chapter of a novel; it either draws you in or makes you put it down. Write a cover letter as if it were an invitation. It’s an invitation to read more, to learn about your team, and to discover the opportunities your team brings to the client’s incredible project.

Another Call for Civility in Customer Service – and at Airports

I’d like to add my voice to the ranks of businesspeople calling for a renewed focus on civility in the workplace. Work should be a place where people are able to do their best work to the best of their talents and capabilities, not a place where they feel harassed, put down, or treated poorly. This topic comes to the top of my mind – and my blog – because I’m writing this entry while I fly back from O’Hare after a very negative encounter with TSA.

Let’s address the TSA issue first and why it made me think about customer service and civility. I travel a lot through most of the major airports in the country, so I have become very familiar with the challenges of traveling. Most TSA agents are quite nice; in fact, I’ve been amazed at the courteous and professional behavior at a couple of airports like Minneapolis and my hometown, Seattle. Both of these are very busy cities and hubs for a major air carrier. With few exceptions, I’ve found these agents to be comprehensive, courteous, and kind, despite the inherent challenges of doing a job most members of the travelling public don’t understand and don’t appreciate. These agents understand how to do their difficult job with grace and professionalism. They remind me that we should all work this way, regardless of the task or the audience.

Today at O’Hare, however, I encountered something totally different from what I hope is the norm:  an entire security checkpoint of what appeared to be unhappy agents, none of whom smiled at passengers and many of whom barked orders to get passengers to do what they were supposed to do. In the urgency to get to my flight, I forgot to remove my phone “ear-bud” from my ear, but no sirens went off and I proceeded through the checkpoint to gather my belongings. Moments later, from across the checkpoint, I hear a very loud and adamant, “You!  Madam!  Take that out!  Now!” I’m not sure O’Hare has had terrible problems with tall blond terrorists (madams?) of Scandinavian descent sneaking explosives into airports through ear-buds, but I was nonetheless subjected to a lecture on how I’d held up the line and how my ear-bud would now have to be rescanned through the belt – this was accomplished with much rolling of eyes by the agent for my apparent stupidity.  Risking being subjected to a full body cavity search for making a suggestion, I took the chance as an educator to calmly let the supervisor know that he might consider some training for his staff in basic customer service, starting with “Please”, “Thank-you”, and “I’m sorry." And, I’m using this rather unpleasant experience to think about how these basic customer service skills might apply to my work.

In most of our firms, we often must ask busy professionals to do things they’d rather not do – like write a section of a proposal, attend a strategy meeting, or “perform” in a presentation. And, we often have to ask for these things in chaotic and challenging circumstances. In public agencies as well, also a large percentage of my clients, city and county professionals often deal with members of the public who are not at their best.  And, they, too, must work under very challenging and chaotic circumstances while serving the public. It’s hard to be civil all the time, it’s hard to be nice, and it’s hard to be kind when we don’t get what we want or need. Despite this, most of the time, most of us do very well by way of civility, regardless of circumstance, but for those situations when it’s harder than others, I’d like to propose some basic guidelines that I hope you all will join me in adopting for our various organizations:

• ·       We don’t have to be like our customers all the time, but we do have to be polite and professional.  This is particularly challenging when our customers – internal and external to our organizations – are not at their best.

• ·       Basic courtesies of “Please”, “Thank you”, and “I’m sorry” will go a long way toward diffusing difficult situations.  Because human beings are natural mimics (we tend to unconsciously adapt our behavior to the environment), being courteous generally elicits more courteous behavior in response.  If you don’t believe me, find the sourest looking person at an airport and smile.  Chances are, you’ll get a smile back – most people can’t help it. Similarly, if you model courteous behavior, even in a challenging situation, most people will respond in kind.

• ·       Remember, someone else’s bad behavior isn’t about you, and you don’t have to respond accordingly.  I’m convinced some people were raised by wild animals because that’s the only way I can explain their behavior.  Despite this, I’m challenging myself and others to be consistently courteous – and even nice – even in the face of really bad behavior. 
  
  

Sometimes our customers are not from the outside; they are from our own firms and organizations. Just because these customers are “family” doesn’t give us a ‘bye’ on behavior. Courteous, civil behavior is the cornerstone of any successful business.  Organizations that support rudeness, harassing, or discriminatory behavior are bad places to work – and I suspect there are many other problems in those organizations that will eventually come to the surface. Great organizations support courteous and professional behavior, within their organizations and to their customers – all the time.

So, I have a proposal – one that I’ve made to my clients over the years. I think all of us should take initiative to drive civility and professionalism back into the workplace in places where it’s absent. In other words, I don’t believe we will create more courteous workplaces simply through policies or training. I think all of us – at all levels of our organizations – need to model civil/courteous behavior to each other, demonstrate consistently what we want from others. 

I think we should no longer tolerate bad behavior. This doesn’t mean responding in kind. But, it does mean making professional behavior part of our promotion and teaming decisions. It means requesting the behavior we want when we don’t get it – in a calm, professional manner. And, it means taking a deep breath in chaotic or challenging situations and responding to others in ways that are calm, professional, and reinforcing of a positive image for our organizations.

And, I think we should practice thanking people for the difficult jobs that we need to do ours. While it might not make people nicer, more courteous, or even more professional, we’ll feel better about our work and how we interact with others. So, to my TSA agent from ORD: Thank you for your service to keep the flying public safe. I know you have a hard job and I appreciate what you do, even when I have to take off my shoes, coat, watch, hair clip…..and ear-bud.

Father’s Day: Relationship Rules from Meg’s Dad

In honor of Father’s Day, I’d like to share some insights about relationships, writing, and communication from my mentor and father, Robert S. Gruhn.  Dad was an attorney practicing labor law for more than 50 years in addition to volunteering legal advice and services to a variety of public agencies and museums around the Puget Sound.  He was an old-school attorney, focused on helping his clients preserve relationships and reputation. 

Dad had three rules he lived by and that he taught his children and clients:

1) Never write anything you wouldn’t want read back to you in court.  This is sound advice in any context, particularly in this age of rapid email and social media that gives little time for contemplation and the development of a cogent, well-thought-out line of reasoning.  We should all think before we hit send, avoid use of the “reply all” button, and write each email or post as if our words could come back to us in some form, some day. 

In fact, my Dad took this “rule” a bit further in reminding us that there was one reader worse than any court of law, and that was my mother.  He reminded me never to write anything I wouldn’t want my mother to read.  Oddly, this was not because of the obvious maternal consternation over content, but because my mother is a linguist.  As a result, I am more careful than most to proofread carefully, and to avoid mistakes in grammar and punctuation.

2) Never do or say anything that might welcome the unwanted attention of the Coroner.  This piece of advice caused me no small amount of confusion when younger, but as I age, it makes perfect sense. Dad was trying to tell me to be aware of the repercussions of my behavior, even behavior that didn’t seem all that dangerous at the time.  He wanted me to think before I act, not to make me afraid of risk, but rather to consider the consequences and make sure I was willing to pay the price for my actions.  Again, sound advice. What if in business, leaders considered both the short and long-term consequences, for their organizations and employees, of the actions they take or recommend?

We should all take the long view, understanding how our corporate actions impact the world around us, including employees, clients, and stakeholders.  We should consider the risks, weigh them carefully, and then act with clear knowledge of risks, costs, and benefits.  In other words, we should “own” our decisions and be responsible for our actions.

3) Always preserve the relationship because in the end, that’s all that matters.  Dad was known as a “gentleman lawyer”, one who wisely advocated communication over litigation.  And, because he chose his battles wisely, when he did have to go to court, he rarely lost.  Over the years, I’ve learned that my Dad was right; relationships matter and we can win more in business through talking and negotiating than we can through steadfastly arguing for our own point of view.

Dad taught me how to look at conflict from different perspectives; he believed that everyone has a point of view and everyone deserves to be heard, no matter how strange or unconventional their perspectives seem at the time.  As a partnering and facilitation consultant, I’ve found this to be particularly true:  team members come to projects with a broad range of perspectives and needs.  If we take the time to listen and seek to build understanding of real needs and expectations, we can avoid conflicts and build stronger, more positive relationships across the duration of any project.

I’m a lucky daughter.  Though Dad passed away three years ago, I get to remember him through his wise words every day (and through the 22 boxes of law books in my garage).  By passing his advice on to teams around the Country, I’m helping him continue his goals of preserving relationships, building stronger teams, and keeping people out of the courtroom by negotiating in the board room.

Find the Pain; Make the Sale

The title of this blog, “Find the Pain; Make the Sale,” is an old marketing axiom – and it’s one of the most important things we learn in AEC business development and marketing. It’s also the super secret of developing client relationships and designing winning proposals and presentations. This seems so basic, yet time and again we hear of firms taking valuable face time with clients to talk about themselves and their history. Firms frequently write proposals that are generic and unfocused and deliver interviews that lack substance. If more business development and marketing professionals took the time and interest to “find the pain”, they would more often “make the sale”.

Finding the pain means that we have to start with a genuine interest in our client’s business, instead of simply trying to sell them services or respond to an RFP. It means knowing what problems a client is trying to solve with a project and what “pain” that client will experience in getting the work done.  Teams can differentiate themselves with how well they understand the client’s pain and in how well they target their responses to resolve it. Successful AEC marketing professionals should be more like surgeons; they don’t deal with surface symptoms. Rather, surgeons ask questions, they listen, and they devise effective strategies to resolve the patient’s real issue.

Clients have three types of pain:  product, process, and personal. Product pain deals with the tangible process needs of a project:  technical quality lapses, regulatory issues, schedule and budget challenges, and operational requirements. Process pain refers to the pain experienced by clients in getting work accomplished:  lack of teamwork, coordination with other departments/stakeholders, a need for responsiveness, team changes, and challenging procedures. Personal pain is the pain a client experiences on a project that hurts him/her personally by way of reputation, image, or engagement.

In the earliest stages of business development, BD professionals need to be asking good questions, and probing for detailed information from their clients. Then, marketing professionals need to translate that information into focused proposals that offer a clear value proposition – in other words, that articulate how their team will “resolve the pain.”

To get at product issues, I always ask my teams to “unpack” the selection committee, to understand the project technically at a much deeper level, going well beyond the obvious. I ask them, “Why would the client want to go through the effort it will take to make this project happen?” In other words, why is this project being done and why is it being done now? I probe further to ask my teams to think about what the client hopes to be able to accomplish with this new project that can’t be done now. We talk about funding streams, stakeholder requirements, and regulatory processes – three common areas of pain.

To get at process issues, I ask my teams to think about how we can work with the client to make his/her life easier. What tools, techniques, processes, procedures, etc. can we provide that would differentiate us from the competition? Sometimes the most painful part of any project has nothing to do with the technical, measureable aspects of the project; it has to do with the team and the team leadership hired to perform the work. I want my teams to demonstrate a different way of doing business that makes work easier and processes more enjoyable for clients.

Many of our clients are personally invested in their projects either through excitement for new changes, new processes, or new facilities. Others are invested by way of fear – fear of a loss of reputation or image in the organization or the industry. Savvy teams understand that for many of our clients, the Godfather was wrong – it isn’t just business; it is indeed personal. We need to understand that the potential for personal pain for many clients is very real and that these clients will hire AEC teams that understand how to make the client look good through their work.

While projects are exciting and fun to consider, in business development and marketing, we also need to focus on what’s painful about our business. Projects can be amazing and they can bring much excitement and joy to clients, but they can also be stressful, difficult and painful. We need to take a deep dive into our projects to understand what is and what could be painful to our clients. By finding our clients’ pain – or potential pain, clients will see us as their preferred solution to avoid or resolve the pain so they can become excited about their projects. 

Take Time to Win by Being Smarter

Even though the economy is slow, most of my clients are quite busy and are finding it harder to spend the time they need to prepare for winning proposals and/or short-list interviews. As a result, while marketing departments are churning out more proposals, many firms are not seeing their hit rates go up with the number of proposals submitted. I’d like to change that in three ways:  working earlier, working smarter, and working faster.

After some stunningly depressing second place finishes this year (as well as some happy first place wins), I’m more and more convinced that firms have to spend the majority of their marketing time before the RFP is released instead of expending intense effort to develop the best proposal and presentation. This doesn’t mean the proposal and presentation aren’t important; rather, it means that we have to be a strong contender before we get invited to the dance or we won’t have a reasonable chance of winning. Firms need to take time and effort to establish relationships, gain name and reputation recognition, and communicate specialized talent and resource expertise. Teams need to get in front of potential selectors through meetings, conferences, and other industry events. Great teams will take the time to publish, speak, and facilitate at the events that clients attend for their own professional development. The days of being able to wow a new client with a great proposal and take away the job are over; clients choose teams they know and trust. That knowledge and trust takes time to develop and grow. While a great proposal may get you to the shortlist, it won’t win the job.

Teams can work smarter, not harder in the proposal and presentation development process. As I’ve written and said before, the most important first step in any selection process is to actually read the RFP – make sure we have a plan to be compliant with all aspects of the request.  Treat the proposal response like a project.Teams that create a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the proposal with task leaders and clear milestone deliverables tend to be able to finish the documents with higher quality in the least amount of time. Teams that determine their core messaging strategy upfront – before they put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) are dramatically more successful than even the most artistic proposal designer.

Presentations are won in strategy, not in delivery. Teams that work diligently through the four stages of presentation development (alignment, strategy, choreography, rehearsal) are able to develop higher quality presentations in less time than teams whose leadership or marketing department creates a fabulous PPT presentation and gives team members the core messages. The best presentations of the last year have been created by teams that started thinking about the project and the client, then translated the results of their thinking into compelling content documented in a clear team outline. These teams were able to very quickly choreograph and rehearse very complicated and impressive presentations in a short amount of time right before the interview – even the day or night before. In this economy, I’m not just advocating for substantially better presentations – I want us to be able to develop them faster and better.

So, how do we work smarter, faster, and better? First, smarter teams think before they act – strategic thinkers gather the right information, develop the right plans for moving forward, and act strategically. They manage the business development and marketing process just like a project - maintaining scope, schedule, budget, and quality along the way. Second, faster teams work their plan, sticking to schedules and milestone deliverables throughout the phases of the marketing process. They don’t jump ahead to visuals or content before they have a strong strategic framework for the proposal or the presentation. Finally, better teams craft proposals and presentations that are aligned with the goals and aspirations of our owners. Smarter, faster, better proposals and presentations stem directly from the information we gather and relationships we build before the proposal/presentation development process ever starts.

Develop Your Team Strategy to WIN - Join us at SMPS Chicago!

Meg Winch, the principal of Communication Resources Northwest will be speaking at SMPS Chicago this month. If you are in the Chicago area on June 14^th, join us! Read below for details from the SMPS Chicago web site. You can register for the seminar here.

Please join nationally recognized strategy speaker and coach, Meg Winch, for a 3-hour workshop where she will share her approach for propelling your firm across the finish line.

Emphasizing that “Content is King,” Meg will present an integrated model for presentation preparation and delivery that results in consistently winning short-list presentations. Most importantly, her approach to presentation development and delivery helps teams improve their performance in a significantly faster and more cost-effective manner. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to better develop a message and differentiators that give the client something to vote for.

To more fully imcorporate the methods outlined, organizations are highly encouraged to send more than one person. To register, please visit:

Where:             Tuesday, June 14, 1011

                        8:30am  - Networking Breakfast

                        9:00am  - Start

                        12:00pm  - Finish

Location:           Pepper Construction, 643 North Orleans Street

                         Chicago, Illinois   60654

Member Price: $195 (2 or more at $175)

Non-Member Price: $225 (2 or more at $205)

*Workshop will be limited to first 40 people to register

Short List Interview Coaching: Why I don’t focus on individual speaker delivery

I’m a bit different than the standard presentation coach in that I don’t focus a great deal on how speakers hold their hands, articulate words, or stand in the room. Not only are these elements of presentations not particularly interesting to me, I don’t really think they matter all that much to selectors.  I believe that most selectors are more interested in the speaker’s approach to the project and how his/her experience indicates future performance. So, unless someone’s delivery is seriously getting in the way of the message, I tend to leave delivery issues alone. In my world as a coach, content rules the day; delivery is just the vehicle to get the content communicated.

This does not mean that I don’t care about delivery. I do. I just care more about team delivery than I do about individual performance. Teams that come across as collaborative and supportive, and that work together well, will always win over teams with excellent, polished speakers who aren’t well connected.  And, the coach can’t create a connected team by picking on individual speakers.

Everything I know about presentation skills in particular and communication in general, is that they are learned behaviors. This is good news for all of us who make our living coaching presentations – and it should be good news for presenters:  it means that anyone can learn effective presentation skills, no matter the skill level at which they start. However, the bad news is that speakers come to us with 20-30-40 years of learned behavior, which needs to be unlearned in order to make some delivery skills more effective. To think we can “fix” a speaker in a short period of time just doesn’t make sense.

The worst time to try and correct someone’s deep-seeded delivery issues is when the team is days or hours away from an interview. As a result, I’ve decided that delivery coaching right before an interview requires the coach to carefully choose her battles, and not mix training and coaching. In training, we try to help a speaker slowly improve his/her skills through repeated practice and trying new techniques. In coaching, we try to help a presenter give his/her best performance in a very short period of time. This means carefully selecting the minor corrections we can make in delivery and “ignoring” behaviors that we might otherwise comment on in a training context. For example, I coached a recent winning team where one of the key team members has a habit of loudly clearing his throat before beginning to speak. He does this repeatedly at the start of the presentation and at key pause points in his delivery. But, otherwise, his delivery is friendly, his content is well-organized, and his message is solid. I decided to let it go. The quality of the presentation was otherwise strong and I believed that trying to change this habit would have made him much more nervous, perhaps resulting in negative outcomes for his presentation overall. In other words, I chose my battles and decided to focus on the overall goal, which was a confident speaker with strong content.

I also believe in coaching with kindness, using humor when appropriate to get the best speaking behavior possible from each presenter. When a speaker feels picked on or ridiculed, it doesn’t help his/her ability to present with confidence. I try to tell speakers what I like about their delivery, helping them build upon those strengths versus continually pointing out and correcting deficiencies. I’ll adjust the presentation parameters to help a weak speaker be successful. For example, if a speaker is more comfortable speaking from his chair, I’ll try to accommodate that to make him more comfortable. And, if another speaker wants or feels she needs to use notes, I’ll find a way to help her use notes most effectively.

When I’ve got a delivery “train wreck,” and there have been a few, I always take the person aside and provide some one-on-one coaching, again choosing my battles to help the speaker be as confident as possible. There are always options for speakers with a great attitude, even when they have limited skills. These options include limiting time, having the team present in a conversational back-and-forth manner, using visuals as notes, and even creating directed response with a team leader. In only the rarest of occasions have I recommended someone be removed from a presentation team; in those cases, the problem was less about the speaker’s delivery and more about his/her negative attitude combined with extremely poor delivery. And, if that person is the project manager, project executive/principal, or lead designer, your options are much more limited.

As I get older, I’m more comfortable with the “quirks” speakers bring to teams –and I think that makes presentations more interesting. I’ve been professionally speaking for more than 25 years. I’m pretty good at it, but I know that I’m not ever going to make speakers deliver just like me, nor would I want to. Speaker differences make for more engaging and interesting presentations. My goal as a coach is to help each speaker give his/her best performance in the limited time we have to get a team ready. Ultimately, in short-list interviews, we want to be compelling, interesting, and memorable. But content still trumps delivery and real people speaking with passion about the details of the project always trumps scripted or overly polished presenters speaking in generalities.