Page 108 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Analyzing the Buyers 99

Anil Gupta, Vice President of Operations

You clearly see Anil Gupta as a user buyer because he has overall responsibility
for manufacturing operations and because the study will recommend the best
alternative for increasing capacity. Your notes indicate that Gupta has concerns
about adding that capacity at the current site because the available space may not
be adequate for expansion. Furthermore, even if sufficient space were available,
Gupta believes ABC would be vulnerable by having the majority of manufactur-
ing resources centralized at one location. Gupta also suggested the possibility of
adding capacity at the satellite sites, although he expressed some doubt that all of
ABC’s expansion needs could be provided there. Recognizing the wide range of
possible expansion alternatives and the capital-intensive nature of the proposed
project, Gupta knows that they need a thorough and convincing study.
As vice president of operations, Gupta has the responsibility for producing qual-
ity products at competitive costs and for meeting customer delivery requirements
in a timely manner. With inadequate capacity, delivery performance will deterio-
rate, quality could suffer, and costs could rise because of overtime and schedule
interruptions to meet rush delivery dates. Gupta’s expectations from the study are
rather straightforward: He wants the consultants’ analysis to produce a well-doc-
umented, convincing plan for providing additional capacity. For him, achieving
S2 means that he and his manufacturing team will have a comprehensive plan for
providing the additional capacity in the most advantageous manner. Your analy-
sis of Gupta’s buying role and benefits is shown in the second row of Figure 6.7.

Marcia Collins, Vice President of Marketing

You conclude that Marcia Collins is a technical buyer because she wants to make
certain that the study’s methodology uses customer-service levels as a criterion
for selecting and evaluating the expansion alternatives. By doing so, Collins
believes that customer service must be maintained or improved after additional
capacity is implemented. She undoubtedly will also play the role of user buyer
because the results of the study will most certainly affect her marketing func-
tion and her desire to gain market share. At present, Collins is anxious to see
that additional manufacturing capacity is provided to remedy the shortfall that
her forecasts predict in just a few years. Without that additional capacity, service
levels will deteriorate. She also believes that capacity should not be added at the
present site for two reasons: first, because of the shift in product demand away
from ABC’s current location in the U.S. Midwest; second (and, in this, she agrees
with Gupta), because with most of the manufacturing resources in one location,
ABC could risk its hard-won reputation for excellent customer service if there is a
catastrophe or labor stoppage that disrupts production at that location.