Page 312 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Notes and Citations

Preface

1. The term buyer refers to decision makers or decision influencers—those people
who must agree that you are the right choice to support them in a proposed project.
Therefore, a buyer is your potential client, whether that person exists within or outside
your organization. Chapter 6 examines this concept of buyers.
2. Throughout this book, the terms proposal-development process and business-
development process are often used synonymously. In conventional usage, the former
term is viewed as less comprehensive than the latter because proposal-development
process usually refers to the set of activities that begin with composing the proposal
document or presentation. However, my conception of “the proposal” is much broader.
Proposal includes the set of activities beginning with the first discussion between the
consultant and potential client and ending with your potential client saying “Yes” or
“No.” That is, “the proposal” is not the document itself but the entire courtship.
Also note that above I have used the term potential client rather than client. Even
if you have worked for your “client” on dozens of projects or engagements, for this
project he or she does not become your client until the project has been authorized.
By using the phrase potential client, you will constantly remind yourself that the
proposed engagement has not yet been sold.

Chapter 1

1. A great many people and a great many textbooks on writing confuse proposals,
which propose a method for answering a question, and recommendation reports,
which provide an answer to that question. That’s why I’ve written Appendix D, which

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