A national commercial contractor was struggling with the quality of the “boilerplate” portions of their proposals. They were brilliant at customizing sections that were specific to individual clients. But, business proposals can run several hundred pages, and no one had time to tailor sections about items like cost estimating, BIM or procurement. The result? Proposals filled with a lot of blah-blah language and ho-hum design.

The marketing director had tried everything, including hiring an outside writer, to improve their proposals, but all her efforts stalled. Then, she discovered Gracewriting’s Whole Brain^® Thinking approach to proposal writing. The marketing director brought in a Graceworks trainer to work with teams of people from different departments. After learning the foundations of Whole Brain^® Thinking, the trainer and teams spent the afternoon brainstorming ideas on how to overhaul proposal content and design so people with different thinking preferences would be able to quickly absorb and appreciate the firm’s processes.

In the midst of a flurry of magic markers, whiteboards, flipcharts, computers and sticky notes, there was loud discussion and paper ball throwing as teams kicked into creative gear. They created clear action plans to get their proposals on the right track and headed off to write rough drafts. Did they create amazing new boilerplate material? The drafts are due in April, so stay tuned!