Page 106 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Analyzing the Buyers 97

The logics necessarily focus on the ABC organization collectively. You’re not sell-
ing, however, to an organization but to people within it, people who will evaluate
your proposal through the lenses of their own perceptions, desires, and needs.
Now, therefore, you must begin to focus on the individuals on the consultant-
selection committee.
These are some of your thoughts as you review your notes from the initial meet-
ing with ABC’s consultant-selection committee and carefully study Gilmore’s
interview notes from his follow-up visit. You consult your Logics Worksheet to
review the current situation and desired result (from a collective, corporate point
of view). Then you complete Cell 1 of the downloadable Psychologics Worksheet,
on which you identify the various buyers, their buying roles, and the benefits
each will enjoy from having a plan for increasing capacity, as well as from having
that plan implemented in a subsequent engagement.

Ray Armstrong, President

You believe that Ray Armstrong is currently the economic buyer because he will
give final approval for the study. You realize, however, that if Armstrong has a
budget threshold beyond which he will have to gain approval from Consolidated,
then someone at Consolidated will be the economic buyer if your or your com-
petitors’ proposed fees exceed that limit. Not recalling any discussion of this
matter and not finding such a discussion in your colleague’s notes, you decide to
bring up this issue with Gilmore.
Armstrong appears pleased with ABC’s past and present performance. Success
has been heavily dependent on the ability of manufacturing to produce at low
cost, with high quality and with a high degree of responsiveness to the needs of
ABC’s customers. However, Armstrong’s warning bells are now ringing because
the division’s performance probably will deteriorate dramatically within the next
few years, when, as marketing’s forecasts show, product demand will significantly
exceed current manufacturing capacity. Armstrong has two other concerns, you
believe. One is that ABC must decide quickly on the amount and type of capacity
needed because lead times for additional building and/or manufacturing equip-
ment are quite long, perhaps six to twelve or more months. A second concern is
that however ABC decides to provide additional capacity, its plan must be thor-
oughly documented and justified. The plan must be understandable, logical, and
convincing to Consolidated, which will have to evaluate the ROI and provide
capital funding for the expansion.
Armstrong desires that the consultant’s study quickly shows ABC how to pro-
vide the capacity it needs by defining the amount and type of capacity required,
identifying and evaluating various alternatives for providing that capacity, and