The $5 Focus Group:  Can 15 Minutes Make Your Proposals  15% More Persuasive? Chris Sant | chrissant.com APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Complete the "Business Preference" Survey Online at http://goo.gl/forms/rbWgQmuJYj or a paper copy near the door First-hand experience of what we're going to talk about APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Benefits APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE * a)"Business will get better, but we won't know it when it does" Henry Ford i.Now you can b)Build a great content library c)More persuasive d)Empirical evidence to justify changes e)A great way to think of your executive summary target audience anyway and practice writing the right way i.Target to a non-expert 1.People overestimate the level of knowledge of the reader

Testing your language for persuasiveness Fluff Guff Weasel Geek APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Fluff i. Cliché expressions ii. Grandiose claims iii. Minimal evidence iv. Lack of specificity or relevance to the client v. In our research, eliminating fluff increased persuasiveness by 11.9% APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Guff i. Long, complicated sentences ii. Big words, complex vocabulary iii. Overuse of passive writing iv. In our research, eliminating guff increased persuasiveness by 52.8% APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Weasel i. Weasel words—“might” and “could” rather than “will” and “can” ii. Hyperqualification of every statement iii. Hypothetical and conditional assertions iv.Avoiding responsibility or accountability v. In our research, eliminating weasel increased persuasiveness by 66.3% APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Geek i. Jargon ii.Acronyms the client doesn’t understand iii. Too many assumptions iv. Focus on technical details rather than business significance v. In our research, eliminating geek increased persuasiveness by 106.1% APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Amazon Mechanical Turk APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE * a)What it is i.How it works 1.Part of Amazon 2.Can do the questionnaire right in there or link to another survey ii.Cost 10 cents for 2 or 3 paragraphs and questions 1.You can pay more or less iii.Make sure the costs, descriptions and everything else are the same, so you avoid bias b)Research shows they’re basically completely average

Google Forms, Survey Monkey, etc. APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE * 5.Google Forms, Survey Monkey and other survey sites

How to write a question Change your name and product names “Imagine you’re a...” 1 to 10 scale Different ways of phrasing for Needs vs Outcomes vs Solution vs Evidence APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE * a)Change your name and product names b)“Imagine you’re a...” i.Base this on your real clients: 1.Who they are 2.What they’re deciding on 3.What they’re using to make their decision c)1 to 10 scale i.Allows you to tease out improvements ii.Most confusing to most clear iii.Lease persuasive to most persuasive Different ways of phrasing for Needs vs Outcomes vs Solution vs Evidence

How not to write a question Don’t tell them what answer you want, what the point of the survey is, or anything else that may bias the results Don’t call one A, one B or 1 and 2 Use generic names of the same length starting with different letters from the middle of the alphabet All of your characters should be male or female, but not a mix APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Statistical validity and what to do with the results Mean Median Shoot for above an 8 What if your text goes from bad to so-so? APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

How to ensure they’re reading the whole thing APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Targeting people like your client APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Using the same questionnaire type again and again APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Other tips Shuffle answers and questions Include an area where they can provide comments on the text APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Other things you can and should focus group Case studies Titles Differentiators Other types of evidence APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

How to focus group an entire executive summary APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Data mining and correlations APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Questions APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *

Contact Us APMP PO Box 77272 Washington, DC 20013-7272 Phone: +1 - (202) 450-2549 www.apmp.org Chris Sant Founder and President Christopher Sant Consulting chris@chrissant.com chrissant.com APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE *