Page 136 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Identifying, Selecting, and Developing Themes 127

Themes Development Worksheet

1) Selected Theme 4) Qualifications 5) Benefits
“What repeated messages will “Given those methods, how are you “Given those methods and
increase your probability of qualified to perform them, related qualifications, how will the buyers
winning?” to that need?” benefit by your meeting that need?”
State as good reasons State as good reasons
Source*
Theme HB EC CC (Focus on You) (Focus on the Prospect)
Our team understands the range of Because the final decision will be
1 Well-defined and
agreed-upon potential criteria and is adept at based on agreed-to criteria, the
evaluation criteria leading strategy sessions to secure selected alternative will be
consensus. “owned” by your management
team.
2 Teaching/Training Our people are experts in ABC management will have the
transferring knowledge, building ability to update the study and
teams, and managing and assess capacity needs as business
implementing change. conditions change in the future.

3 Urgency We can immediately commit a By our conducting this study
project team with the practical expeditiously, you will have more
experience to develop and execute time to manage customer service
a work plan that will minimize the and other important issues during
study’s elapsed time. the transition.

s
’
dev
p
elo
orksheet
p
elo
ed themes (c
ment W
olumns 1, 4, and 5)
Dev

7.12
FIGURE
FIGURE 7.12b The Themes Development Worksheet’s developed themes (columns 1, 4, and 5)
b
T
hemes
he
T
In the first column of each row, you record a theme; for example:
Well-defined and agreed-upon evaluation criteria
In the second column (Situation; Figure 7.12a), you state ABC’s needs related
to that theme, follow the worksheet’s prompts, and therefore use the sentence
structure “Because . . . you need. . . .” In this column, the focus (and therefore the
subject of the sentence) is the prospect, what the prospect needs given the current
situation:
Because of the many and varied proposed expansion alternatives, you need
well-defined and agreed-upon criteria for evaluating them.
In the third column (Methodology; Figure 7.12a), you explain how your study
will address that need. In this column, the focus is on you, on what you will do
to move the prospect away from the current situation and toward the desired
result: