Page 157 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

148 Writing Winning Business Proposals

With this transition to a deregulated banking environment, your community
bank consortium has the opportunity to become more innovative and dif-
ferentiated among the competition in providing products and services not
formerly available in the regulated atmosphere.

Where do you get the content for your Story Component? As you might already
have guessed (and as you’ll see near the end of this chapter), from Cells 1 and 2 of
the Logics Worksheet.

The Questions Component

The Story Component grabs my interest by involving me in a narrative about
my organization’s current situation and about how we got to where we are today.
It also demonstrates your problem-solving skills by presenting your analysis of
my organization’s problem or opportunity. Now, by your asking questions, the
Questions Component helps maintain my interest and continues to demonstrate
your analytical skills. This component should answer the following question:
What key questions must be answered to address the problem or opportunity?
Questions encourage my interest because they help you create a dialogue with
me; they invite my engagement and my participation. A spoken statement such as
“It’s cloudy today” leaves little room for my response, but a question such as “Is it
cloudy today?” invites a response. A statement is convergent; it closes things off. A
question is divergent; it creates an invitational pause, allowing me to respond and
participate in the dialogue. Because reading or listening is a participatory rather
than a passive activity, questions encourage involvement and help me move more
thoughtfully through your document or presentation.
One of the most important qualities of a good problem solver (that’s one of the
characteristics I want you to possess) is the ability to ask the right questions. As long
as scientists believed malaria was caused by bad air (in Italian, that’s what the word
means), they were asking the wrong questions and couldn’t determine the cause of
the disease. When, however, they asked, “Could it be caused by a microorganism?”
they could begin to identify a specific organism and the process of transmission.
By identifying the salient issues of our situation and by phrasing them as questions,
you demonstrate to me that you can identify those issues and formulate those ques-
tions whose answers will help direct us to ensure a successful project.
Questions can provide yet another strategic advantage: They allow you to address
a buyer’s issue without your having to take a position on that issue. Consider the
situation at ABC. Metzger wants to expand at the current site. Of course, you don’t
know at the proposal stage if expanding there is ABC’s best option, but you can let
Metzger know that you’re sensitive to that option, that you have heard him, if you use
a question like this: “How much expansion potential exists at the current facility?”