Welcome back.

So now let's switch gears and discuss how to package your plan or proposal.

Adhering to professional standards is very important to your overall packaging.

It's similar to what I said about the title page.

You want to lay out your document in such a way that it creates

a particular impression.

Think of the packaging as a sales and marketing of your research.

How you package your piece demonstrates your understanding of your potential

client, as well as the potential audience that you're going to do research on.

After this lesson, you'll be able to create and submit a package proposal or

plan to your client that will showcase your professionalism.

Let's begin.

There are many things you can do to package your proposal either better or

differently or in a way that's more appealing to the client.

It's persuasion tactics and researchers don't typically like to do that.

The business development people do like to do that.

I think every proposal must have good content, good flow and

good storytelling but it has to go beyond that.

How a company puts it together to be persuasive to get an advantage and

to communicate with very closely with a potential client all matters.

There's an art involved here.

And the packaging and organization of the proposal is where the art comes into play

just as the science in methodology and researched it earlier.

You need to understand the reader and build the story, telling it in steps.

It maybe called a simple art of persuasion but

this persuasion really needs to be delivered in strategic.

How a researcher uses logos, fonts and graphics and even colors,

is very important.

Ultimately, style and format need to support the story and plan.

It needs to enhance and not distract from the story.

Each situation's different though.

You may see a potential client or decision maker as a visual learner and

you may want to use more graphics.

In another situation, you might see a potential client as being very scientific

or academic, and you may need to structure your proposal in a more rigid scientific

manner leveraging the methodology section more than the entire story.

Researchers often underestimate the importance of the story in packaging,

relying on confidence that they have the best science.

But you need excellence across the board.

Of course, you will need to make sure that you've followed directions and

addressed the expectations of the potential client.

They are expecting accuracy and answers under the constraints.

You have a plan or methodology in mind and you know how you might do it.

Now, you need to communicate in the most effective way.

You need to, at minimum, follow directions and

then place it into a design style or format.

Style and format are really the preferences or

brand of the researcher or company.

Most importantly, your proposal or plan must be free of errors.

Errors are the enemy of researchers and error undermines your credibility.

It's like having an error on your resume when applying for a job.

It will almost always disqualify the proposal.

So put a process in place to make sure that there are zero errors.

You can also use standard book editing type of error extracting, proofing and

copy checking or the like.

It's a bit more challenging when delivering scientific content.

Many researchers put together the methodology but

fail to focus on the format.

Researchers tend to be quantitative in nature, but don't let that be an excuse of

falling short, in terms of excellence in packaging your written document.

That causes clients to lose confidence in your ability to collect information, and

analyze information.

So use a quality control process worthy of any publication or print piece that leaves

an organization, or is about ready to leave an organization.

You should never underestimate the value of editing,

even if it is a simple research plan.

Every research plan or proposal needs to go through this rigorous process that any

organization goes through when it releases a public document.

Packaging the Research Plan or Proposal

Research Proposal: Initiating Research

Meet the Instructors