Page 176 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Writing the Methods Slot 167

Task Level

Why should this
Why should this
task be
task be
performed?
performed?
I I

What will result
What will result
from this task?
from this task?

FI G U R E 10.5 P -slot q uestions a t the task lev el
FIGURE 10.5 P-slot questions at the task level

The informational part (the middle I-slot, shown as a circle in Figure 10.5)
is the action or activity itself. It explains how the task will be performed. If you
sense that I want to know why you are performing a task, you might decide to
provide some good reason, in the form of a rationale, for its performance; there-
fore, you’d fill the opening P-slot by providing that rationale. If you have a good
rationale for conducting the task, it’s because the task will produce some defin-
able end product, or benefit, some understanding or knowledge or validation
framework or decision point. If that end product is worth mentioning, you can
fill the closing P-slot by explaining what the task will accomplish or what ben-
efits or value will accrue from its accomplishment.
Imagine the difference in persuasion between a series of tasks that are
PIP-ed, like that one in Figure 10.6, and a series that omits all the P-slots. The
1
latter would contain only information related to how each of the tasks would
be performed. The PIP-ed series would also explain to me why you are doing
what you propose to do and what benefit or value I would receive from your
doing it.
Figure 10.6 obviously shows a PIP-ed task in a text proposal. In a slide presen-
tation, you can use PIP as shown in Figure 10.7. The opening P-slot, the task’s
rationale, is usually spoken, often as an oral transition before you reveal the
slide. The I-slot, where you explain how the task in the headline will be achieved,
is shown in the body of the slide. The closing P-slot can be revealed as a build in
what is sometimes called a “So What?” box at the bottom of the slide.