Written Proposals

The old advertising slogan “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” conjures up one image in the United States and another in North Africa. To a smoker in America, the statement is about a cigarette. To a desert traveler in the Sahara, the comment is about a mammal. Because of the different meanings in different cultures, the remark is a good example of a poor marketing message in international business.

For exporters, the creation of effective written communications is an essential part of sales. However, many American entrepreneurs admit they need to improve the quality of their written presentations to overseas companies.

Here are 10 tips to help you produce more powerful international proposals:

1. Use a single sales message. The most successful marketers break through the clutter in the global marketplace by emphasizing one memorable sales point. Examples in a presentation are fine. But the examples should always reinforce one central message.

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever,” Winston Churchill once said. “Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time.”

While proposal writers need to focus on communicating one major point, they also need to conform to the etiquette of target cultures. Executives in other countries often consider American bluntness offensive.

How do suppliers find the right sales message? “Clear and open communications are the keys to understanding people,” says one highly successful marketer in Florida. His advice: “Listen and ask questions.”

2. Write simply. Creators of international proposals should adopt a clear, concise writing style. They should introduce only one new idea per sentence. This approach makes written presentations easier to understand in English and easier to translate into other languages. Graphs and charts are useful. But they frequently need accompanying explanations.

3. Avoid slang expressions. Most non-Americans with knowledge of textbook English have difficulty understanding almost any American slang expression unless they have heard it in their travels or on television. To these individuals, a piece of cake is simply a dessert.

4. Tell the full story. Buyers in other countries often have limited access to reference books. Consequently, proposal writers need to provide background information in their documents.

5. Don't use unnecessary adjectives. Overseas executives are highly suspicious of American hype. In most cases they prefer crisp, factual presentations with few adjectives and adverbs.

6. Keep criticism of competitors to a minimum. Nasty remarks about competitors are tacky in nearly every culture.

7. Push pencils on prices. The easiest way to build sales quickly is offer the lowest prices. Big profits can come after the decline and fall of your competition.

8. Say the same thing in different ways. Marketers should translate written proposals into the native tongues of destination countries. In the case of dual-language countries, marketers should translate their presentations into both languages.

9. Maintain a professional image. Proposals should look like corporate documents, not like a high school student’s homework.

10. Pay attention to colors. Many colors have different meanings in different cultures. For example, purple is a color for royalty in the United Kingdom and a color for barbarians in parts of China. Sellers often can obtain guidance about the best colors to use in a country by looking at advertisements in the nation's business publications.