260 P E R S UAS I V E B U S I N E S S P ROPO S A LS Graphics Expert. This is the person most likely to be missing from a fully staffed proposal team. Often, proposal units draw on the marketing department for graphic support, or they contract with outside vendors on a one-off basis. From a budgetary standpoint that might make sense, but ideally you should have someone on the team who thinks visually and who can translate proposal-specific messages into crisp, interesting images. A good graphics person needs to be skilled in page design and layout issues, as well. Subject Matter or Technical Experts. Technical experts usually don't think proposal writing is part of their job and don't have a clue as to how to communicate in language that's appropriate to a customer. If you can find a technical resource with the ability to see things from the customer's perspective and to think creatively, you will have an enor- mous asset. Just be sure to store whatever contributions your technical experts make so that you don't have to go back and ask them to do it again. They hate that. For many employees, particularly those in sales, marketing, and con- sulting functions, a rotation through the proposal center will be an ex- tremely valuable part of their normal career development. Given the skills they will acquire, employees should see an assignment in the pro-