Page 243 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

234 Appendix A

ing capacity. Paramount has been recommended to ABC, and if Paramount is
interested in pursuing a possible relationship, it should contact Gupta.
Gilmore is eager to pursue this opportunity because he recognizes ABC’s
brand name as having an outstanding reputation for product quality and deliv-
ery performance and knows that ABC holds a significant share of its market.
Furthermore, Consolidated Industries is well known for acquiring and develop-
ing companies that hold dominant positions in their respective markets. Gilmore
is confident that Paramount can help.
Gilmore calls Gupta to affirm that Paramount can indeed provide the needed
consulting assistance and welcomes the opportunity to do so. According to Gupta,
ABC plans to meet separately with representatives from each of four consulting
companies that survived its initial screening. During those meetings, ABC will
discuss the need for the study and provide the basic information necessary for
the consultants to prepare their proposals. Gilmore asks who will represent ABC
at the meeting, and Gupta says that he and the following will attend:

◉ Marcia Collins, Vice President of Marketing
◉ Frank Metzger, Plant Manager
◉ Paul Morrison, Chief Industrial Engineer

They conclude their conversation by agreeing to meet the following week at
ABC’s division office in a large midwestern city.

February 2: Research

Gilmore calls in one of his group’s research associates and tells her he needs back-
ground data that will give him a better understanding of ABC’s operations. She
immediately embarks on a LexisNexis search, a review of Consolidated’s annual
and 10K reports, a study of S&P’s industry reports, and a review of an industry
report from the research department of a local brokerage firm.
As they analyze the results of the research, Gilmore can see that Consolidated
is indeed a very successful company. Headquartered in New York City, it ranks
in the upper quartile on most of the factors used by Forbes to measure the suc-
cess of major industrial companies, and ABC contributes significantly to that
success. ABC’s products are distributed through a strong national network of
distributors and dealers and also to major department store chains that market
them under their private labels. Its products enjoy high brand-name recogni-
tion and have a well-established reputation for product quality. Moreover, the
division is recognized within the industry for providing superior customer
service.