Page 184 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Writing the Methods Slot 175

More or fewer P-slots need to be filled depending on . . .
Your relationship with the Your competition Your sales objectives
buyers • How many firms are • To prequalify for the
• What is the quality of that competing? next opportunity?
relationship? • How qualified are the • To get to the next
• How many previous studies competitors? level?
have you done for their firm, • To what extent have • To win?
and what was the result? these competitors
• What studies, known by worked for the
them, have you done for other prospect before?
firms, and what was the • Is one of them the
result? incumbent?

FIGURE 10.12 Considerations to determine if and how much the P-slots should be filledd
FI GU RE 1 0. 12 C o nsi d er a ti o ns t o d et ermine i f a n d h o w m u ch the P -sl o ts sh ou l d b e fi lle
In short, you’ve sold the job, and I’ve asked you for nothing more than a con-
firmation letter. As a result, you need to do very little with the P-slots. On the
task level, there might be little need to provide a rationale for each task and to
indicate the benefits of completing it. In fact, you might need to do nothing more
with the tasks than include them in a Gantt chart. On the methods-section level,
there might be little need to discuss the rationale for your specific approach. At
the document level, you might not even need to provide a rationale for why the
study should be done nor argue the benefits that will accrue from its doing.
Conversely, if five firms are competing and some of them have capabilities
equal to yours, and if they, not you, have worked successfully with me, your pro-
posal will have to be very persuasive indeed. Many of the P-slots will have to
be filled—and filled well. At each crucial point, you may have to explain why a
task is important to perform—and the results of its performance; why you have
designed your approach precisely as you have—and the value of your conducting
it; and why, from your point of view, the study should be performed—and the
benefits to be gained from your performing it.
In this second case, however, you should seriously consider not writing a pro-
posal at all, especially if my issue doesn’t play to your strengths or if I am not one
of your target clients or am not in one of your target industries. Instead, redeploy
your resources for some other battle you have a better chance to win.
The third category in Figure 10.12, “sales objectives,” is important because too
many proposal writers view the written proposal as having only one sales objective:
to close the deal. A good example of this proposal-as-last-effort viewpoint is the
requirement at some consulting firms (sometimes by fiat, sometimes by institutional