#003 - In this episode, we are talking about cutting the fat out of our proposals so they can fit within our page limits.

How many times has a project manager given you a draft that is 10 pages long, but you only have a page limit of 5 pages? I know that’s happened to me on many occasions. They know it’s a page limit of only 5 pages but they just CAN’T cut anything else out. It’s all “critical” to their approach. 

If you have been faced with this, you might not even know where to start. Or, you might not feel comfortable cutting text from the technical professionals. You don’t want to remove a sentence that’s important to the technical approach or could put your firm at risk. 

So, where do you start? How do you cut the proposal fat, but not the meat? 

That’s exactly what we are going to talk about today. I am going to give you some ideas to edit the writing and some layout tips and tricks to help you reduce the original draft content to at least get it somewhat closer to your page limits. Maybe, even fit within those page limits.

Three things you'll learn in this episode:

1. Editing and grammar tricks - The most effective way to fit your content into strict page limits, is to edit the text. Actually cut text out. However, you can’t just start cutting without being scared of losing valuable content. But, yes you can! That’s what I call cutting the fat. These are the extra words, phrases, and repetitive information that shows up in almost every proposal draft. I share some tips to help you cut the fat when you edit your proposals.
2. Layout and typography tricks - There are several layout and typography tricks you can do as well. The obvious ones are reducing the font, margin, or header and footer sizes. Again, these may be dictated by the RFP. So, I am going to share some of the other tricks I have used in the past to fit into my page limits. 
3. Cut the Fat, Not the Meat Checklist - I have put together a free checklist that summarizes all of the tricks and advice I cover in today's show. You can get your copy by heading over to marketerstakeflight.com/3. 

Resources and Links Mentions in the Episode:

• Cut the Fat, Not the Meat Checklist

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