Page 198 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Writing the Qualifications Slot 189

desired result. It didn’t matter to the writer that I was reading the section. The
section wasn’t written to me and my world but to Generic World.
The subsection “Proprietary Methods” began this way: “The general operating
practice of QRS Consulting is to develop frameworks and approaches to client-
specific problems—not cookbooks that are simply transferred from client to client.
. . . We tailor each approach for each client to ensure a unique and competitive
solution to that client’s specific problem.” Would you trust someone who uses
boilerplate to assure you that you and your organization are unique? This pas-
sage is worse than insincere. It borders on the hypocritical. Don’t think I can’t
smell boilerplate. Don’t think I’m stupid. You are the one who comes off not neces-
sarily stupid but insincere, untrustworthy, unthinking, uncreative, uncaring, and
unworthy. This is no way to gain two to five points.

Use Your Themes Development Worksheet

to Structure Your Argument

Themes are related to the qualities of the seller as they intersect with my needs as
the buyer. So if you want to focus on your qualifications as they intersect with me,
you need to look to your themes. Specifically, you need to capture the information
in the Qualifications column of your Themes Development Worksheet. Why are
you the best qualified? Because, as that column will reveal, you can respond to my
hot buttons. Because your abilities and capabilities are in line with my evaluation
criteria. Because you can counter the competition against these criteria.
Let me be more specific. Assume that I and my organization want from our
consultants personal service when and where we demand it and that you are a
small firm bidding against two much larger ones. Why are you the best qualified?
Because your small size avoids levels of bureaucracy. You can move quickly if I need
you quickly. You’re lean and fast and therefore attentive. So if I ask you why you’re
the best-qualified firm, you can give me not a category but a good reason like that
shown in Figure 11.3.
Now you can discuss how big your firm is, not in a subsection called “Description
of the Firm” but in this one. That is, you will discuss the size of your firm because it
is relevant, in this case, to your ability to provide close personal service, which is rel-
evant to this project because it’s relevant to me. It’s an instance of your qualifications
intersecting with my needs. You are describing your firm not simply to describe
your firm but to provide evidence for your claim: “We are the best-qualified firm
for this project, in part because of our relatively small size. . . .” Now, you can also
discuss your consulting philosophy, but again, only as it relates to close personal
service, only as it provides evidence for your claim. And so on down (and across)
the logic tree. A fully fleshed-out logic tree will have many filled boxes, and every