How does a company constantly win more business than its rivals? A key factor is the ability to create proposals that outshine those from even the strongest competitors. Powerful Proposals helps businesses maximize the selling power of their proposals, with proven strategies for going beyond "this is what we do" documents in favor of customer-centered offers that highlight the tangible benefits your company offers. This powerful process offers tools and techniques that will let any firm: * assess their "winner or loser" proposal status and take proactive steps to become a winner * address the ""Big Four"" questions that a proposal must answer to be successful * create "A+" proposals in less time with less wasted effort via a simple, repeatable process * neutralize the issue of price when the firm is not the low-price provider Powerful Proposals takes readers step by step through designing executive summaries, writing themes, and generating the text. There is also valuable information on strategy, graphics, callouts, and other visual elements.

Powerful Proposals presents a step-by-step plan for creating informative, engaging documents that satisfy your clients' needs and feature the solutions your firm can provide. It's an invaluable tool for winning contracts in any market.

Use the latest technology and techniques to craft winning proposals.

Whether bidding on a $5,000 project or a $10 million contract, the way a proposal is written and presented can mean the difference between winning or losing the bid.

Successful research requires effective and thorough preparation. In this expanded and updated Second Edition of Developing Effective Research Proposals Keith Punch offers an indispensable guide to the issues involved in proposal development and in presenting a well-considered plan for the execution of research. Dealing with both qualitative and quantitative approaches to empirical research across the social sciences, the Second Edition comprehensively covers the topics and concerns relevant to the subject and is organized around three central themes: What is a research proposal, who reads proposals and why? How can we go about developing a proposal? and What might a finished proposal look like? New features of this edition include: -Expanded sections covering research strategy, research planning and academic writing -Examples of successful research proposals from across the social science disciplines -A more comprehensive discussion of ethics -A brand new glossary and chapter summaries The Second Edition will be welcomed by all those preparing or evaluating research proposals, and will be invaluable across all areas of social science, both basic and applied, and for students undertaking quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method studies.

The text covers the three key phases of a business proposal--preparation, writing, and presentation--and includes examples of different types and styles of business proposals, such as sales proposals to clients, letters and memos as business proposals, proposals to government entities, internal proposals to top management, and business plans as a special type of business proposal.

The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.