Page 186 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Writing the Methods Slot 177

CHAPTER 10 REVIEW
Writing the Methods Slot

1. The methods slot consists of your methodology (as discussed in Chapter 5) plus your
good reasons for performing it.
2. These good reasons take two forms: first, a rationale for why you will do what you say
you will; second, the results or benefits that will accrue from your doing it.
3. The good reasons can go into persuasion slots (P-slots) that precede and follow
information slots (I-slots).
4. The opening P-slot explains why you will do something. The I-slot explains how you
will do it. The closing P-slot explains what will result from your doing it. Hence, PIP.
5. PIP can be used to organize the methods section at the task and section levels.
6. How many P-slots should be filled depends on your relationship to the buyers,
the competitiveness of the situation, and your sales objective for the document or
presentation.

WORK SESSION 8: Writing the Methods Section for ABC

In your estimation, the individuals on the ABC buying team are a rather diverse
lot with solid but rather narrow functional capabilities. In evaluating your pro-
posal, some will look for a technically precise methodology that also addresses
their individual, varied concerns and needs, that is, one that responds to their
different perceptions of ABC’s current situation as well as their sometimes similar
but often different hot buttons. Your Themes Development Worksheet addresses
these hot buttons as well as some of the competition’s exploitable weaknesses.

Composing the Opening P-Slot for the Methods Section
In fact, the Situation and Methodology columns of that worksheet provide (as they
always do) most of the persuasive material for the opening P-slot to the section.
You use those claims and follow them with a statement that forecasts the five major
tasks. Your draft of the opening P-slot to the methods section looks like this:

We have designed our methodology for three important reasons. First,
because forecasted demand will soon outstrip capacity and because building
new capacity will require long lead times, you need a study that leads to a
decision quickly. Therefore, we will involve ABC’s management to expedite the
retrieval, development, and analysis of relevant information, thus reducing the
time for analysis. We will also work with your management team to prepare the
final report. This document will be not only a recommended expansion plan