Princesses are Pretty, Not Proposals
Posted by ablack on Oct. 13, 2015 / Subscribe 0
“Marketing prettied up our proposal, so we can send it out now.” Ah yes, the true measure of a marketing department’s effort on a winning proposal and surely every top-performing marketer’s dream compliment. After working all week to perfect a proposal, there’s nothing I love more than to hear the phrase “thanks for prettying this up.” In case you haven’t picked up on it already, I’m being sarcastic.
Don’t get me wrong; I really do appreciate the ‘thank you’ as well as the recognition. But compliments like these mostly fall into the category of backhanded, although unintentionally…I hope. So I think it’s about time to speak plainly and set the record straight: if you tell me you are thankful for me “prettying” up your document, you are actually insulting me WAY more than you are endorsing me. Surprised? Let me explain...
Princesses are pretty…not proposals. If I really wanted to make your proposal look “pretty,” I would simply sprinkle some glitter on top and call it a day. But I’m not playing proposal dress-up with sparkling tiaras and shimmering ball gowns. “Prettying this up” makes it sound like my position is to snap my fingers and voilà! The proposal looks more attractive. Instead of acknowledging all of the hard work that went into the proposal, your “compliment” has elevated me to the esteemed status of…wait for it…a little girl running around her parent’s kitchen plastering tiny little bows all over every drawer and cabinet within her reach. Praise, indeed.
I’m so glad that I spent four years of my life studying in college and working towards graduation so that I could go on to a wonderful and glamorous life of… making things pretty. Yeah, that’s sarcasm again. Unfortunately for me, my Bachelor’s degree left me with absolutely NO beauty tips whatsoever. Zero, zilch, nada. In fact, “Making Proposals Pretty 101” was never an available class offered to me and I sure as heck never enrolled in “The Fine Art of Pretty Proposals.”
For those of you belonging to the baffled masses, the point of a marketer’s involvement throughout the proposal process ISN’T to make it “pretty.” The point is to make sure that the proposal’s message is strong and concise, that ALL the questions have been clearly answered, and that the client’s covert motivators (what they actually care about) have been adequately addressed. Without a marketer to quarterback the process, proposals would be all over the place: 100 pages long with no real sense of flow and riddled with grammar mistakes…everywhere. And they certainly would not look very “pretty.”
Note to the rest of A/E/C from us pretty-proposal-makers: there are rules when it comes to proposal preparation…and marketers know these rules like the back of our hands. So every time you send a draft our way and want toRandomly Capitalize words that don’t need to be capitalized…or inconsistently spell out “15” when it doesn’t need to be spelled out…we have to go in and fix all of that, sentence by sentence and word by word. And when we receive 10 pages of verbiage from four different people for a half-page proposal section, we condense it to fit…all the while ensuring that new verbiage reflects one singular voice rather than a big mush of various opinions and information.
Some may think that this process just makes the writing look better and therefore falls under the umbrella of “pretty.” But news flash: it does more than just make the writing look better; it actually makes the writing itself better. Let’s also not forget all those adjustments to font sizes and colors, all the reformatting of organizational charts and the careful selection of the most representative project photos. These efforts actually allow for a clearer message, better organization and sure…it’s more appealing to the eye. The final product might look shiny and attractive to you, but a lot more went into it than me just jazzing it up. In no way am I spending all that time on a proposal because – gee, I really want it to look super cute!
Does no one realize how demeaning this whole “pretty proposal” commentary is? And not just to an A/E/C newbie like me. This affects even the most talented of marketers…even a total marketing goddess, like my boss. She is a Certified Professional Services Marketer, has a ton of experience marketing in A/E/C, and is a terrific strategist and leader. She has shown direct success through her marketing tactics and has more than proven herself to the team. She also consistently gets feedback from the team which indicates that they appreciate marketing as an important aspect of the business. Then all of a sudden, BOOM! Her credibility is demolished in an instant when they open their mouths and ugh – pretty verbal vomit comes spewing out.
OK, I admit it…this all seems really negative…and I suspect that the rest of the team doesn’t understand how they really sound when these horrid words leave their mouths. Perhaps I am being too sensitive. After reviewing my lengthy rant, it has occurred to me that I might be looking at this all wrong. Maybe…just maybe…I have done such a great job on the proposal that the team sees it as seamless. Maybe the awesomeness of my efforts is too difficult to describe. Maybe the final product is so professional looking, that it is in fact “pretty.” And maybe the summary six letter descriptor just happens to send chills down my spine…
So the next time you find yourself on the verge of buttering up your marketing team with adjectives best reserved for fairy tale princesses, try to remember this: marketing departments do MUCH more than make things look “pretty.” If you want to show me real appreciation, first try to understand what it is that I actually do before handing back this “pretty proposal” to you.
About the Blogger: Blunt Newbie is a fresh face in the A/E/C industry. She knows what she brings to the table and isn’t afraid to speak her mind and shake things up a bit! And even though she is young and still finding her way, she wants to be taken seriously and will work hard to earn the respect of her peers.
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