Convincing Writing

[BorisoftheStars]

Earlier today, I had an idea and looked to see how to write to the company the idea involves; unfortunately, I'm not very good at expressing how the idea would be great for them. I mean, I can say "It'll make you a lot of money!" but I'd have to explain how it would make them money and how/why the effort, cost, and labor would be worth it and that it wouldn't actually be a waste of money/ How would I go about writing something convincing?

[A Smug Dill]

20 minutes ago, BorisoftheStars said:

How would I go about writing something convincing?

 

That depends on whom you are trying to convince. In the context you described, even though you're writing to a company, (you'd hope!) it's still going to be one or more humans who will be reading the content of your proposal, so the personality and preferences of the reader(s) will still matter.

• Structure your argument such that the recipient's values and objectives will be satisfied and/or promoted by the logical and most probable end-point of what you propose. The prerequisite is therefore that you know the recipient's values and objectives. Don't argue from your perspective, why you're passionate about the idea, or how the group with which you personally identify will stand to be a primary beneficiary.
• Outline the known and/or possible risks, issues and obstacles. Better yet, demonstrate that you've (however rudimentarily) appraised the risks and thought about how to prevent, circumvent or mitigate them. That shows you're not one-eyed and gung-ho about the idea because of how its realisation will benefit you while you have nothing to lose one way or another, having offloaded all the costs and risks to someone else (i.e. the entity you want to convince). Even if you're writing to the CEO who is known to be an ‘ideas person’, he or she will still likely hand the thing down to a team of (commercial, legal and/or technical) specialists and business analysts to review and consider. In my own experience as a business analyst by whichever job title at the time, whatever an idea proposer seems to omit, gloss over, downplay, or evade discussing is where I'd usually direct my attention. You may as well just pre-empt that.
• If you want them to do something optional that creates benefit, then use empowering language and make them feel they're in charge. If you want them to do something mandatory to avoid adverse consequences, then focus on the weight of the extrinsic powers-that-be that will be brought to bear if they don't voluntarily choose the easy way (i.e. what you propose) to avoid an ugly battle of wills they're unlikely to win.
• If you know who your human audience is, match the phrasing of your argument to (the sequence of steps in) their personal decision-making strategies, and the modalities (e.g. visual, kinaesthetic) they respond to best.

[scrivelry]

If your idea is the sort of thing that could make you  money, or you hope it is, you would be well advised to seek advice from an intellectual property lawyer before you start any of this.  If it's just something you think is a good idea but can clearly see will not be affecting a bottom line, you might still want to consult one.  I am not a lawyer, so I can't say, but better safe than sorry.

 

That said, you could go about the writing in the following manner:

 

You may have to write this twice, which is a common thing to have to do.

 

The first time you write it you will be finding out what you know/think/have to say.  You may read this draft and get discouraged - do not.  You will have a lot of good stuff there.

 

In your first paragraph, state what your idea is and that it will do whatever it will do - save money, save time, increase customer satisfaction, whatever.  You seem to have several things to say, put them all in this first paragraph.

 

Then write a paragraph for each thing the idea will do.  If you said in your first paragraph "Gooflickying the amplitude will make elephants fly, increase customer satisfaction, and save 4 billion dollars a year" then your second paragraph can start with "Gooflickying the amplitude will make elephants fly,"  and you will tell them how.    The next paragraph will be about how it will increase customer satisfaction, and the next will be about how it will save them 4 billion dollars a year. 

 

If you need to explain why having elephants flying, satisfying customers or saving billions are good for their business, you can add a paragraph before or after the one saying how it will do it in which you explain why doing this is good for them.  I would tend to put that first, but that is not a hard and fast rule.

 

At the end of the explanation, you sum up.  "Gooflickying the amplitude will make elephants fly, make your customers happier, and save you 4 billion dollars a year"  Then you chat for a sentence or two about how this will make them as a company happy, say, but you are not introducing any new ideas at this point.

 

Then you have a final paragraph with whatever you want from them, or wish for them, or whatever, and end with the usual thanks for their time and hopes to hear  from them soon, and end like any other business letter.

 

OR you could do this in some totally different way, but when I had to teach kids who did not even want to write their names on the paper how to write a persuasive essay so they could graduate high school, this was the general plan.  If you are already beyond this, just laugh at me and keep going!!!

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, BorisoftheStars said:

Earlier today, I had an idea and looked to see how to write to the company the idea involves; unfortunately, I'm not very good at expressing how the idea would be great for them. I mean, I can say "It'll make you a lot of money!" but I'd have to explain how it would make them money and how/why the effort, cost, and labor would be worth it and that it wouldn't actually be a waste of money/ How would I go about writing something convincing?

Think of why YOU would buy it and how it would benefit you as a buyer.  That is your starting point.

[A Smug Dill]

Just now, ParramattaPaul said:

Think of why YOU would buy it and how it would benefit you as a buyer.  That is your starting point.

 

Haha, that's the opposite of the approach I advocate!

[langere]

For any proposal, the idea always needs to be phrased to show why it fits the reader's goals.  @A Smug Dill is correct. 

 

That does not mean that you can't put yourself in the position of the customer and think why you would want to buy your product.  That might be a good way to then try to understand how you can convince the person/organization you are trying to persuade.

 

Erick

[BorisoftheStars]

On 10/9/2021 at 7:02 PM, A Smug Dill said:

 

That depends on whom you are trying to convince. In the context you described, even though you're writing to a company, (you'd hope!) it's still going to be one or more humans who will be reading the content of your proposal, so the personality and preferences of the reader(s) will still matter.

• Structure your argument such that the recipient's values and objectives will be satisfied and/or promoted by the logical and most probable end-point of what you propose. The prerequisite is therefore that you know the recipient's values and objectives. Don't argue from your perspective, why you're passionate about the idea, or how the group with which you personally identify will stand to be a primary beneficiary.
• Outline the known and/or possible risks, issues and obstacles. Better yet, demonstrate that you've (however rudimentarily) appraised the risks and thought about how to prevent, circumvent or mitigate them. That shows you're not one-eyed and gung-ho about the idea because of how its realisation will benefit you while you have nothing to lose one way or another, having offloaded all the costs and risks to someone else (i.e. the entity you want to convince). Even if you're writing to the CEO who is known to be an ‘ideas person’, he or she will still likely hand the thing down to a team of (commercial, legal and/or technical) specialists and business analysts to review and consider. In my own experience as a business analyst by whichever job title at the time, whatever an idea proposer seems to omit, gloss over, downplay, or evade discussing is where I'd usually direct my attention. You may as well just pre-empt that.
• If you want them to do something optional that creates benefit, then use empowering language and make them feel they're in charge. If you want them to do something mandatory to avoid adverse consequences, then focus on the weight of the extrinsic powers-that-be that will be brought to bear if they don't voluntarily choose the easy way (i.e. what you propose) to avoid an ugly battle of wills they're unlikely to win.
• If you know who your human audience is, match the phrasing of your argument to (the sequence of steps in) their personal decision-making strategies, and the modalities (e.g. visual, kinaesthetic) they respond to best.

They are family friendly (for the most part) oriented company, I know that. I realize it could cost them a lot of money if they were going to produce the stuff I'm wanting to convince them to make, though I could try and say "It could be made from cheap stuff", but not sure yet because... well, it'd be a themed pen... for Splatoon. It's more of an optional thing, though I'm not sure how I'd be able to make them feel in charge other than sounding indifferent rather than sounding confident in the product. You have made some excellent points, though! Not sure how to do the last point, though... since I don't know their decision making process.

On 10/9/2021 at 7:04 PM, scrivelry said:

If your idea is the sort of thing that could make you  money, or you hope it is, you would be well advised to seek advice from an intellectual property lawyer before you start any of this.  If it's just something you think is a good idea but can clearly see will not be affecting a bottom line, you might still want to consult one.  I am not a lawyer, so I can't say, but better safe than sorry.

 

That said, you could go about the writing in the following manner:

 

You may have to write this twice, which is a common thing to have to do.

 

The first time you write it you will be finding out what you know/think/have to say.  You may read this draft and get discouraged - do not.  You will have a lot of good stuff there.

 

In your first paragraph, state what your idea is and that it will do whatever it will do - save money, save time, increase customer satisfaction, whatever.  You seem to have several things to say, put them all in this first paragraph.

 

Then write a paragraph for each thing the idea will do.  If you said in your first paragraph "Gooflickying the amplitude will make elephants fly, increase customer satisfaction, and save 4 billion dollars a year" then your second paragraph can start with "Gooflickying the amplitude will make elephants fly,"  and you will tell them how.    The next paragraph will be about how it will increase customer satisfaction, and the next will be about how it will save them 4 billion dollars a year. 

 

If you need to explain why having elephants flying, satisfying customers or saving billions are good for their business, you can add a paragraph before or after the one saying how it will do it in which you explain why doing this is good for them.  I would tend to put that first, but that is not a hard and fast rule.

 

At the end of the explanation, you sum up.  "Gooflickying the amplitude will make elephants fly, make your customers happier, and save you 4 billion dollars a year"  Then you chat for a sentence or two about how this will make them as a company happy, say, but you are not introducing any new ideas at this point.

 

Then you have a final paragraph with whatever you want from them, or wish for them, or whatever, and end with the usual thanks for their time and hopes to hear  from them soon, and end like any other business letter.

 

OR you could do this in some totally different way, but when I had to teach kids who did not even want to write their names on the paper how to write a persuasive essay so they could graduate high school, this was the general plan.  If you are already beyond this, just laugh at me and keep going!!!

I'll laugh with you because I found your post to be funny. I loved your example of gooflickying amplifiers too... you've made some excellent points too. If the company did go with my idea, I'd be losing money... possibly, since I'd be buying the product if I had the money.

On 10/9/2021 at 7:15 PM, langere said:

For any proposal, the idea always needs to be phrased to show why it fits the reader's goals.  @A Smug Dill is correct. 

 

That does not mean that you can't put yourself in the position of the customer and think why you would want to buy your product.  That might be a good way to then try to understand how you can convince the person/organization you are trying to persuade.

 

Erick

I suppose you're right.