Writing Reports and Proposals

Before you start a report or a proposal you have to adapt to your audience by being sensitive to your audience, building strong relationships, and control style and tone. To compose better reports and proposals select the best words, create the most effective sentences, and develop coherent paragraphs. The text of reports has three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion.


The introduction is the opening. The first section in any report of proposal. An operational introduction accomplishes four things:

1. Puts the report or proposal in a broad context.
2. Introduces the subject or problem, and explains the importance of the subject
3. Show the main ideas in the order they will be covered in the report
4. Establishes the tone and the relationship towards the audience

The body presents all the information gathered during the investigation. Analyzing each point of the evidence you searched.
The close or the conclusion has three important fuctions:

1. Emphasize the main points
2. Summarize the benefits or changes of the proposal you made in the report
3. Bring all action items together and use the who, what, when, where, and how.

The closing is the most important part of the report because it's the last impression you give the audience.

By:Karina Zuany

Writing the Best Persuasive Message

First, persuasion is the attempt to change an audience's attitude, belief, or actions. Whether it is to convince your boss in changing a company's rule or encourage customers to try your new product. With this message you have to get the audience to agree with you and have a choice.

In order to persuade a hostile audience, you  must convince the people with your credibility. Below are some techniques in how to improve your credibility in your persuasive messages.

• Use simple language
• Support your message with facts
• Identify your sources
• Establish common ground
• Be objective
• Display your good intentions
• Avoid the "hard sell"

 Once you have the idea in writing a well created persuasive message, you can start developing a Persuasive Business Message. Persuasive Business Messages comprise a more extensive and varied category, with audiences that involves a single person to a larger audience. Having good persuasive skills as a businessperson, like the ability to convince others to accept new ideas takes you into better positions of responsibility in your career. Effective persuasion involves four essential strategies: framing your arguments, balancing emotional and logical appeals, reinforcing your position, and aticipating objections. To make an ideal indirect approach it is helpful to use the AIDA model.

AIDA model:

• Attention- The objective to encourage the audience to hear about your main idea. Let yourself sound positive and confident and avoid making irrelevant points in that firs sentence.  
• Interest- Get your audience involved with your new idea. Explain a more detailed phrame of the issue you are planning to chage.
• Desire- Explain the audience how this new idea you want to improve can benefit them, either personally or professionally. Answer in advance any questions you think the audience may have in order to accept this new idea with credibility. 
• Action- Suggest the action you want everyone to improve in and make the action as easy as possible to benefit the organization.

After you had written you Persuasive Business Message with the AIDA model and have a confident idea how well you've convinced the audience, balance your emotional and logical appeals. Commonly speaking, persuasive business messages are more involved in logical appeals than on emotional appeals, because the main idea is to save, change, or improve a business problem. An emotional appeal is the audience's feelings rather than facts and arguments; when logical appeal is the evidence. When pleasing your audience's logic, you might use three types of reasoning:

• Analogy- specific evidence to specific evidence
• Induction- specific evidence to a general conclusion
• Deduction- generalization to specific conclusion

To avoid defective logic, follow this tips below:

• Avoid hasty generalizations
• Avoid circular reasoning
• Avoid attacking an opponent
• Avoid oversimplyfing a complex issue
• Avoid mistaken assumptions of cause and effect
• Avoid faulty analogies
• Avoid illogical support

After you've worked with your argument and use all the basic techniques go back and reinforce your position. Revise all the choices and ideas you gave the audience in order to convince them and provide additional benefits of your proposal.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/AIDA.htm

by: Karina Zuany

Building strong relationships with your audience

Successful communication relies on a positive relationship existing between sender and receiver. Establishing your credibility and projecting your company’s image are two vital steps in building a positive business relationship.

Audience responses to your message depend greatly on credibility, and how much trust you evoke in others. With audience that don’t know you and trust you already, you need to establish credibility before they’ll accept your message. To build, Maintain or repair your credibility, apply the following characteristics:

·         Honesty. Demonstrating honesty will earn you respect from your audience

·         Objectivity. Show that you are able to distant yourself from emotion and look at a situation in all angels.

·         Awareness of audience needs. Let the audience know they are important to you and you care to know their needs.

·         Credential, knowledge, and expertise. Audience needs to know you have what a takes to back up your message. This will also make them feel comfortable as you are an expert in what you are convening to your audience.

·         Endorsement. An endorsement is a statement on your behalf by somebody that the audience accepts as an expert.

·         Performance.  Showing your audience that you have impressing communications skills is not enough, audience wants to be assured that they can count on you to get the job done.

·         Confidence. Your audience is likely to react positive to your message when they have confidence in yourself.

·         Communication style. Support your points with evidence.

·         Sincerity. When you praise be more specific and less ambiguous.

In addition, audience needs to know that you believe in yourself and your message. If you don’t believe in yourself or your message you will exude uncertainty in your audience.

When you communicate with anyone outside of your company, it is more than just a conversation between two people. You now represent your company and therefore you play a vital role in helping build and maintain positive relationships. Most companies work hard to promote their image. As part of this responsibility, the interest and preferred communication style of your company must take precedence over your own views and personal communication style

Sources:
Excellence in Business Communication 9th Ed (Textbook by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovee)

By: Isabel Salcido

Achieving success in today’s competitive environment

No matter what career path you purse, communication skills will be essential to your success. In fact, if you want to have a competitive advantage against your competition, improving your communications skills may be the single most important step you need to take. Employers often express frustration at poor communication skills many employees have. If you learn to write well, speak well, listen well and recognize the appropriate way to communicate in various business situations. You’ll obtain a major advantage that will serve you throughout your career. The benefits include:

·         Stronger decision making based on reliable information

·         Faster problem solving

·         Early warning of potential problems

·         Increased productivity and lower cost

·         Stronger business relations ships

·         Greater employee engagement with their work, heading to higher employee satisfaction and lower employee turnover

Effective communication strengthens the connection between a company and all of its stakeholders. At every stage of your career, communication will help you succeed. Top managers spend as much as 85 percent of their time communicating.

Sources:
Excellence in Business Communication 9th Ed (Textbook by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovee)

By: Isabel Salcido

Don't let bad presentations cost you clients!

Some of you will be giving presentations in your jobs in the near future. These presentations may be to inform colleagues of a business plan or to report your findings on a particular matter.  If you get very good at it, you may find yourself giving a presentation on behalf of your company to potential clients.  Depending on the size of your company, these contracts may be worth thousands, millions, or even billions of dollars.  You may not feel comfortable doing that just yet, but with good strategies and enough practice, this may very well be something you can do in the future.  Additionally, being an expert in this art will allow you more leverage in your career path, as skilled presenters are in high demand.    

Applying the Three-Step Process

You can apply the three-step writing process to the challenge of planning, creating, and delivering presentations. 


Planning


Start by defining your purpose and developing a profile for your audience.  How will they react?  What will be their disposition?  You should ask yourself these and other such questions.

Determine your audience' needs and gather all the necessary information to satisfy them.  Are they expecting a thorough explanation?  Do they need all the small details?

Next, select the right medium or combination of media to deliver your presentation.  Consider PowerPoint, notes, handouts, and other supporting material.

The last part of the planning section is to organize your information.  Define your main idea and limit your scope in order to be the most effective.  Choose between the direct or indirect approach and outline your content.

Write


Adapting to your audience is crucial.  Adapt your presentation and environment to satisfy your audience' needs.  Be sensitive to their expectations and write with a "you" attitude.  Also, establishing your credibility is important in order for them to believe what you say.

The next step is to compose your presentation.  Outline an attention-getting introduction, body, and close.  Don't forget the supporting visuals and speaking notes.

Complete


Revise your  message by evaluating your slides, notes, and other material for errors and irrelevant or unnecessary information.  You do not want too much information in a slide.  Make sure your notes are legible.

Choose your delivery.  Practice, practice, practice to the point that your comfortable and ready to give the presentation like easily.

Verify all the technology stuff is up to par.  Make sure the sound is equipment, projector, your USB drive, etc. are functioning properly.  Presenting is hard enough without your technology failing.

Last but not least, you need to overcome your anxiety.  Take steps to feel more confident and appear even more confident on stage.

Be a Good Presenter


Presenting is a very difficult process for almost everyone.  As a matter of fact, I was horrible at it until just recently.  However, with these steps you can make your journey to mastering presenting easier and shorter.  Good luck!

By Luis Hernandez

Importance of business reports.

Preparing great reports and proposals is extremely important in the business world.  They are used to inform investors, employees, potential business partners, and others about your company’s goals, performance, etc.  Moreover, being able to write these documents successfully will make you more valuable to a company and hence more likely to be promoted.

After you have planned and wrote your message, it is time to complete it.  I have talked about the revision process in a previous post (Wait, you’re not finished).  However, the completion stage for reports and proposals requires considerable more work.

As you may remember, the revision process consists of four steps: revising, producing, proofreading, and distributing.  Since I’ve covered these extensively already, I will focus on the ‘producing’ step of creating reports, which includes some things that haven’t been mentioned.

Components of a Formal Report

The parts you include in a report depend on a many things: how long the report is, what your audience expects and requires, and what your organization dictates.  These components can be divided into three categories: prefatory, text, and supplementary parts. 

Prefatory Parts

Cover

Many companies have standard covers for reports which are made of heavy paper and display the company’s name and logo.  If your company doesn’t have these, you can find something suitable in a good stationery store.  Look for a cover that is attractive and appropriate for the subject matter.  Think about the title carefully; give the readers all the information they need.

Title Fly and title Page

The title fly is a single sheet of paper with only the title of the report on it.  It is not necessary; however, it adds some formality to your report.  The title page includes four pieces of information: (1) the title of the report; (2) the name, title, and address of the person(s), group or organization that authorized the report (if anyone); (3) the name, title, and address of the person(s), group, or organization that prepared the report; and (4) the date on which the report was submitted.

Letter of Authorization and Letter of Acceptance

The letter of authorization is the document in which you receive authorization to prepare the report.  It is something you may consider to include in your report.  If you wrote a letter in response to said document, you may also include that as the letter of acceptance.  In general, these are included in only the most formal reports.

Letter of Transmittal

This is basically where you introduce your report to your audience.  It says what you’d say if you were handing the report to the person who authorized its creation.  It typically starts with, “Here is the report you asked me to prepare on…” 

Table of Contents

This indicates in outline form the coverage, sequence, and relative importance of the information in the report.  Be sure your table is complete and accurate.

List of Illustrations

If you have many illustrations or wish to call attention to them, you can include a list of illustrations after the table of contents.   Be sure to include titles and page numbers.

Synopsis or Executive Summary

A synopsis is a brief overview of your report’s most important points.  It should be designed to give readers a quick preview of the contents.  The phrasing of the synopsis can be informative or descriptive.  Use the former to present main points of the report in the order in which they appear in the text.  A descriptive report, on the other hand, simply tells what the report is about. 

An executive summary is in essence a condensed form of the report itself.  It is designed for those who do not have the time or motivation to study the complete text.

Text and Supplementary Parts

The text consists of all of your information you have gathered and the conclusions you have reached.  It is the most important part of your report and will consist of an introduction, body, and close.  Supplementary parts include an appendix, bibliography, and an index. 

A More Effective Report

Using some of the elements discussed above can help your report look more professional and convey a more effective message.  The importance of this medium cannot be understated, as many times, this is the medium used to share critical performance information with investors.  

Flawed reports can cost a company millions, as was the case for Goldman Sachs. [1]  Although the report is ineffective because of ethical purposes, it still illustrates the importance of them and the impact they can have on a company.

[1] http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E2DC143CF932A25752C0A9679D8B63&ref=accountingandaccountants

By Luis Hernandez

Ineffective communication will cost you.

Did you know that two-thirds of consumers have ‘ended a relationship’ with a retailer because of one bad experience and that 61% of people have taken their business to competing brands?  This is what a report by analysts from Greenfield Online, Datamonitor/Ovum and Genesys shows.  The report indicates that more than $80 billion is lost each year because of bad customer experiences. [1]

In such a competitive market, this is the last thing you need happening!   Furthermore, providing good customer experiences should be paramount in your business strategy.  You can do this by communicating with your customers effectively.  Here are a few ways you can do this.

Responding to a Claim When Your Company is at Fault

First of all, make sure to know your company’s policies, which may dictate certain legal and financial steps to be taken.  Your message to your customer should do the following:

·         Acknowledge receipt of the customer’s claim or complaint.

·         Take (or assign) personal responsibility for setting matters straight.

·         Sympathize with the customer’s inconvenience or frustration.

·         Explain precisely how you have resolved or plan to resolve the situation.

·         Take steps to repair the relationship.

·         Follow up to verify that your response was correct.

Other steps you can take include to be sure to maintain a professional demeanor and do not blame anyone in your company.  Do not exaggerate or provide insincere apologies.  Also, do not promise more than you can deliver.

Responding to a Claim When the Customer Is at Fault

Communicating about a claim when the customer is clearly at fault is a complicated matter.  If you refuse the claim, you may lose the customer and his/her colleagues who will only hear one side of the story.  Moreover, you must weigh the cost of accommodating the customer’s request and the possibility of losing the business of one or more customer.

If you choose to grant the claim, you can just open with the good news.  The body of the paragraph, however, will be tricky to write.  You want to discourage the customer from making similar claims in the future.   Sometimes they don’t read the instructions to an apparatus, or they might not read the terms and conditions of a service.  Whatever the case may be, you want to steer them in the right direction by diplomatically reminding the customers of the proper usage or procedures without sounding condescending or preachy.  Don’t forget to close in a courteous manner and thank the customer for their business.

Responding to a Claim When a Third Party Is at Fault

Sometimes neither your company nor the customer is at fault.   Most companies don’t handle the deliveries of their product to the customers and use FedEx or UPS, for example.  In such circumstances, the customer is most likely to hold you responsible.  Therefore, you will have to explain to the customer what went wrong and how the problem will be solved.  It is important to remain professional and withhold from pointing fingers.  After all, the customers only care about their situation being taken care of.

Mending Customer Relations

No business is perfect.  There is bound to be miscommunication, errors in order processing, quality control, etc.  Many times, this will be at the expense of the customer.  However, what makes a company excel is its ability to mend its relationship with the customer by communicating effectively and professionally.  This is an indispensable skill that translates directly to high customer loyalty, a larger client base, and furthermore, a more successful business. 

[1] http://www.bizreport.com/2010/02/report_83_billion_lost_because_of_bad_customer_service.html

By Luis Hernandez