|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. Build your case in detail: |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Create or confirm a need. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Show how your idea, plan, service, or product will meet that need. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elaborate on the benefits overviewed earlier. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Discuss how your ideas, plan, product, or service will be implemented (the practical day-to-day how-tos). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4. Call for a specific action/decision. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In developing item 3, you have a plethora of arrangements for specific points: Move from problem to solution, point out the cause and the effect, move backward from the effect to the cause, compare and/or contrast two options, or compare options to the criteria. Just get a plan and stay with it. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A clearly organized presentation represents clear thinking and leads to a fast, favorable decision. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip 289: Use the bad-news-first approach. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You disarm people when you give them the downside of your proposal first. They're disappointed. Then you present the upside and things seem brighter. By the time you finish with your presentation, they've gained enough momentum to feel that the bad news wasn't such a handicap as they first thought. Keep the momentum moving upward rather than downward. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip 290: Calculate the minimum gain you would need to justify investing time or money in your idea. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many ideas languish on the table of indecision because we can't calculate "the hard dollars." If we invest in training our salespeople to write better proposals at a cost of $X, what will be the payoff? Do we keep track of how many more deals they close after the proposal-writing course? But what if the price of the product they're selling rises or a competitor changes the marketplace drastically? How do they pinpoint with certainty that better proposals alone will make the difference in their sales volume? We face such issues daily. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When it's difficult to quantify savings or gain in time or money on a new idea, consider what the minimum time or dollar savings would need to be to make the idea worthwhile. What if the training resulted in our improved proposal that won the $12 million contract with Universal, Inc.? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Getting people to agree on a minimum is easier than getting them to agree on a valid, "real" number. |
|
|
|
|
|