Sales and marketing materials aren’t always easy to create.  If they were, people like me wouldn’t really have, you know, a job.  Granted, it’s not all I do, but helping companies position themselves as more attractive partners is a big part of my thing.

In doing this I tend to spend an inordinate amount of time on relatively basic things while auditing proposals and presentations.  It’s okay, I don’t mind (again, job).  But, most of these don’t require crafty wordsmiths to fix.

So, let’s cut into my revenue to help grow yours.  These are six of the most common, yet easily-avoidable snafus I see that should be addressed without a hired gun like me.

1.  Typos

Forget anal-retentive grammar if you must, but for the love of Pete, make sure you spell words right.  There’s even a built-in tool for this, so little red squiggles all over the page are virtually unacceptable.

Typos aren’t just low-hanging fruit, they’re also the single-biggest indicator of attention to detail.  If you can’t be bothered to give your sales pitch a once-over while trying to get someone’s money, that doesn’t inspire confidence that you’ll pay attention once you have it.

By the way, Spellcheck doesn’t always catch everything, so it’s not a replacement for manual proofreading.  Case in point:  I’ve seen companies spell their own names wrong.  Not kidding.

2.  Passive Sentences

These are everywhere and admittedly take some practice.  In sentences using passive voice, the subject is acted upon by something else.  With active voice, the subject is taking the action.

Which of these is more powerful to a prospect:

• Passive: You will be supported by our SEO experts in achieving your goals.
• Active: Our SEO experts help you achieve your goals.

Direct is good, don’t dance around it.  Active voice also tends to tighten sentence structure.  Remember, if you’re wondering whether you need a word diet, then you do.

3.  Pretentious Language

Let’s knock off the verbal pyrotechnics.  If you try to sound smart, it’ll come across that way.  This can be eye-rolling and/or off-putting.

Take this real example (names changed to protect the innocent):

“A representative from NewCo will also be defined and serve as direct point of contact for the Acme representative as a direct outlet for any specific project or quality concerns that arise.”

Holy.  Moly.

How about this instead:

“You will have a dedicated contact for any project concerns.”

4.  Fluff and Redundancy

This often accompanies #3.  If something is obvious by context, get rid of it.  If you’ve already said something once, don’t say it again in a different way.

For instance, “We’ll reduce your costs and fees.”  Do we need both costs and fees here?  Can we replace them with one word like spend or investment?

Now, take our more complicated NewCo example above:

“A representative from NewCo will also be defined [that’s implied] and serve as direct point of contact [as opposed to an indirect POC?] for the Acme representative as a direct outlet [literally just said this] for any specific [fluff word, adds nothing] project or quality concerns [“quality” is a project concern] that arise [unnecessary filler language].”

5.  Irrelevant Information

A proposal full of crap does nobody any good.  Watch out for these red flags:

• It’s more about you than them. They know enough about you to take the meeting, right?  Then get to the point.  If half your presentation is on your background, grab the hammer and chisel.
• Unnecessary details. Does a local business in Iowa really care that your platform can be configured in 26 languages?  If something doesn’t advance the sale, cut it.
• Prioritizing your sales goal over their needs. Don’t focus on stuff they don’t want.  There may be some pay-to-play if they want a particular product or service, but if it’s clear you’re not listening, then they’re off to your competitor.

6.  Not Tying Features to Benefits

They don’t want the drill, they want the hole.  Classic quip.  Without putting too fine a point on it, your prospects don’t care about your solution.  They care about what it will do for their business.  Mention the features, but focus on the benefits.

Never, ever assume people will be able to connect the dots on their own.  What seems so obvious to you may not be to others.  Go back through your pitch and ask this question ad nauseam:  “So what?”

We have this feature.  So what?  It makes xyz easier.  So what?  That frees up time.  So what?  You can then handle more billable work to increase revenue.  SOLD!

These things are foundational if you’re serious about taking your sales materials from good to great.  And you can start ingraining good habits right away.  Create guides and checklists.  Use old proposals for practice and training.  Formalize a peer-review system.  Implement corporal punishment for multiple typos.

Hey, whatever works.

If you’re looking to upgrade your sales and marketing assets but don’t know where to start, let’s take a gander to see how we can iron out the light wrinkles first on your way to becoming best in class.