Page 133 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

124 Writing Winning Business Proposals

has a major strength: It has already worked successfully with ABC. An equally
important strength will be their cost. Since their proposed fees could be tens of
thousands of dollars less than yours, how will you be able to communicate value
for your higher-cost service? Since they aren’t full-service firms, these competi-
tors have definite weaknesses, you believe, because they don’t have expertise in
all the functional areas to be addressed during the project, including (among
others) customer service and supply chain analysis, nor do they have sufficient
experience and knowledge to properly evaluate the critical qualitative factors. In
addition, their staffs may be too small to enable them to initiate and complete
the study quickly, which is a major concern (a hot button, you hope) to key ABC
management.
Your proposal strategy will have to stress the comprehensive nature of the proj-
ect, which will demand a wide range of business skills that probably are beyond
the more functional capabilities of these two firms. But you also must stress your
considerable strength in the specialized skills of these smaller firms while con-
vincing ABC that it needs more than such skills. You can counter the one firm’s
successful experience with ABC by stressing Paramount’s successful completion
of similar studies for comparable companies. Above all, you will have to stress
the added value provided by your full-service firm and perhaps the risks to ABC
of choosing a consulting firm whose more narrow focus could result in a study
that is less comprehensive and thorough.
In these situations, there are always two other potential competitors: in-house
competition and other initiatives competing for the same resources that would
have to be used for your project.

◉ Concerning in-house competition: Morrison admitted to Gilmore that he
had volunteered to do the study in-house. For all you know, Morrison may be
working behind the scenes even now to sell this approach. Or, during the selec-
tion process, he could take one or another of the consultant’s methodologies
and try to convince Armstrong that Morrison’s team could use it. You consider
these possibilities unlikely, however. Besides, you undoubtedly will have good
themes to counter this in-house competition. Because you decide that in-house
competition is unlikely, you don’t complete that portion on Cell 5.
◉ Concerning other initiatives: It would be helpful if you knew ABC’s strategic
direction, but you note a red flag next to that item on Cell 1 of your Logics
Worksheet. By understanding ABC’s strategic direction, you could anchor
your proposal’s argument by clearly linking the proposed initiative with that
direction. Nevertheless, you are confident that this initiative is absolutely vital
not only for ABC’s health but also for its survival. You decide, therefore, not
to include that analysis in Cell 5, which, in modified form, looks like the one
shown in Figure 7.9.