Page 277 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

268 Appendix D

ahead to a methodology that will be performed; reports look back to a method-
ology that has been performed. Therefore, to determine whether the product of
Collins’s efforts will be a proposal or a report, we need to know what Armstrong’s
overriding question is and whether Collins’s presentation will answer it or already
has answered it.
Let’s assume that Armstrong’s overriding question is similar to the one
Paramount Consulting has defined: “How should ABC provide the additional
manufacturing capacity needed within the next few years to meet forecasted
demand?” Will Collins’s presentation answer that question? Because she has
already determined “a different way of utilizing existing capacity,” the answer is
“Yes.” Armstrong’s question is “How?” Collins’s answer is, “This is how.” Collins
will be preparing a report, not a proposal.
Why is all of this important to you? Because proposals and reports are tools
that attempt to achieve very different purposes: for proposals, to explain how you
will answer a question; for reports, to present the answer. You would no less want
to write a proposal that actually answers a reader’s overriding question than you’d
want to use a chain saw to pound in a nail. Unfortunately, many people confuse
these two common genres (or kinds of communications) for at least three reasons.
First, the two genres share several common elements. Proposals and reports
both contain situation, objectives, methods, and benefits slots, though the tense
in these slots is different. For example, a proposal presents me with your under-
standing of what the situation is; a report reminds me what that situation was. A
proposal presents the objective yet to be achieved; a report reminds me what that
objective was. A proposal describes the methods that will be used to achieve the
objective; a report describes the methods that were used to achieve it.
People also confuse the two genres for a second reason: the similarities between
the terms propose and recommend. You can propose a solution, and you can rec-
ommend a solution. However, given the concepts we have discussed throughout
this book, you can’t really “propose” a solution; you can only recommend one.
If you propose a solution, you’ve already found one, and therefore you’re not
proposing at all; you’re reporting. You are recommending, on the basis of some
analysis or study that you have already completed, the answer to a question. You
are not, as you would be in a proposal, proposing a method—before a study—that
will derive the answer. Because of the similarities between the terms propose and
recommend, many managers ask their subordinates for a proposal even though
they are, in fact, requesting a report. So if you’re asked to prepare a proposal, as
Gupta asked Collins to do, consider whether your task is to cut down a tree or to
sink a nail. Then you can decide whether you need a chain saw or a hammer.
Third, people confuse the two genres because although they have completed
a study and answered an overriding question, they’re often not aware of having