Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts

10. Presenting a Winning Value Proposition

In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote,

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.

Not to put words in Adam’s mouth, but what I think he’s saying is unless you can offer your decision maker a compelling value proposition, winning is a game of chance. You must demonstrate that your solution offers the greatest rate of return to the client and his or her organization—an appeal to the so-called estimation heuristic or, in Adam Smith’s terms, to the client’s “own ...