Page 187 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

178 Writing Winning Business Proposals

but also an actual proposal to Consolidated that justifies the cost of the expan-
sion by articulating the compelling reasons to move forward with urgency.
Second, because of the many and varied proposed expansion alternatives, you
need well-defined and agreed-upon criteria for evaluating them. Therefore, we
will conduct strategy sessions with all relevant ABC managers to gain consensus
on and establish the proper quantitative and qualitative criteria. Quantitative
criteria worth considering include ROI, investment incentives, taxes, and costs
related to labor, service levels, distribution, construction, and utilities. Qualitative
criteria could include labor supply, union climate, workforce characteristics,
productivity, environmental regulations, vocational training capabilities, man-
ufacturing support services, risk, controllability, the ability to develop and
promote employees, and the flexibility to react to unanticipated changes.
Finally, because this will be a cross-functional study, ABC needs a senior, multi-
faceted consulting team with a broad range of business capabilities, including
marketing, manufacturing strategy, facilities planning, logistics, financial
analysis, and human resources. These capabilities are necessary to ensure that
all relevant options are surfaced and evaluated in a practical manner, that the
most desirable options and their attributes are clearly identified and defined,
and that ABC’s management not only has the ability to make the right deci-
sion but that Consolidated is convinced of its appropriateness. Therefore, we
will form a joint ABC/Paramount study team with ABC’s managers playing an
integral role, thereby providing the additional benefit of training ABC’s man-
agement to analyze and plan for additional capacity in the future.

Specifically, our methodology consists of the following five major tasks:

[note to myself: insert Gantt chart here]

Please note that the five-month estimate for completing the study is conser-
vative. Working with your management team, we will make every effort to
accelerate the completion of the tasks discussed in greater detail in Appendix A.

After composing this P-slot, you turn your attention to the five major tasks that you
developed by using a logic tree. Your purpose is to build persuasiveness into the meth-
odology by providing beginning and ending P-slots for each of these major tasks.

Composing the P-Slots for Task 1: Confirm
ABC’s Long-Term Product Forecast

The opening P-slot for this task will be particularly important. Without pro-
viding a highly persuasive rationale for confirming the forecast, you run the