Page 276 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

APPENDIX D

Internal Proposals

(Make Certain They’re

Not Reports)

et’s consider a situation that might have occurred at the ABC Company,
Lthe appliance manufacturer we’ve discussed throughout the work sessions.
Let’s assume that Marcia Collins, Vice President of Marketing, has completed
her market forecast and therefore believes that ABC will soon run out of manu-
facturing capacity. Consequently, she has several meetings with Paul Morrison,
the Chief Industrial Engineer, to discuss manufacturing and distribution costs,
customer service as it relates to capacity utilization, and various scenarios for
increasing capacity. As a result of these discussions, Collins decides to “propose”
a different way of utilizing existing capacity, and so she meets with Anil Gupta,
Vice President of Operations, to discuss her ideas. Very much interested in and
intrigued by that discussion, Gupta suggests that Collins develop a proposal that
the two of them could present to President Ray Armstrong.
Gupta suggested a proposal. Will Collins, in fact, be preparing one? To answer
that question, we need to understand the major difference between proposals and
reports. Proposals argue: “This is how we would go about answering your over-
riding question.” Reports (more specifically, final or recommendation reports)
argue: “This is our answer to your overriding question.” That is, proposals look

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