Page 165 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

156 Writing Winning Business Proposals

Background Section, Closing
Background Section, Closing
Logics Worksheet, Cell 6, “Benefits”
Logics Worksheet, Cell 6, “Benefits”
Component
Component
Implementation Benefits: After you implement this plan,
After you implement this plan,
Implementation Benefits:
‡ More cost-effective operations ABC should enjoy:
‡ More cost-effective operations
ABC should enjoy:
‡ Improved product quality ‡ more cost-effective operations
‡ more cost-effective operations
‡ Improved product quality
‡ Improved service levels ‡ improved product quality and
‡ Improved service levels
‡ improved product quality and
‡ Maintained/increased share service levels
service levels
‡ Maintained/increased share
‡ Continued good reputation of ABC at ‡ maintained, if not increased,
‡ maintained, if not increased,
‡ Continued good reputation of ABC at
Consolidated market share.
market share.
Consolidated
‡ Continued autonomy
‡ Continued autonomy
‡ Increased productivity
‡ Increased productivity
‡ Protected compensation levels
‡ Protected compensation levels
‡ Better flexibility for implementing
‡ Better flexibility for implementing
business and marketing strategies
business and marketing strategies
‡ Decreased maintenance costs
‡ Decreased maintenance costs
‡ Higher morale/retention rates
‡ Higher morale/retention rates
‡ Decreased training costs
‡ Decreased training costs
FIGURE 9.9 Writing the Closing Component (cont.))
FIGURE 9.9 W riting t h e C l osing C omponent (c ont .
There you have it: a background section in five minutes! Although what I’ve
written is just a first draft, please note these two important points. First, I could
“write” the section as quickly as I did because I wasn’t starting from a “blank page.”
Second, the page I was starting from contained fully aligned, well-strategized
information that, together with my map, I could use to construct a persuasive
section.
The Situation Slot and Competitive Advantage
The Story, Questions, and Closing Components allow you to present not only an
interesting story but, more important, a thoughtful, logical and persuasive argu-
ment. They can help you project an image of yourself as competent, organized,
logical, analytical, knowledgeable, thorough, relevant, coherent, insightful, and cre-
ative. These are generic attributes of a good problem solver, characteristics that can
be presented to me long before a logically written methods validates them and a
relevant qualifications reinforces them. You are showing me, not telling me, your
capabilities within the context of my situation. Showing always trumps telling.
Moreover, after using these components in proposal after proposal, you’ll find
that you can compose the situation and objectives slots more easily and quickly
because you will have developed a schema, an internal formula or “script,” just
as you probably have developed a script for proposals in general. Many proposal