University of Iowa Engineering Proposal Writing Seminar

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University of Iowa EngineeringProposal Writing
Seminar

• Rob McKillip Joel Otto
• Rockwell Collins

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Remember This About Writing Proposals

• Use lots of graphics with action captions
• Write backwards
• Conclusion fact, fact
• High level to low level
• Answer question - Why You?

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Why Should You Listen?

• Credible
• Joel and I have worked dozens of major proposals
• Just won major portions of the 7E7 avionics
• Im an engineer, not an English major
• Being good at this makes you more valuable
• Engineers arent naturally good at this
• Its NOT enough to have the best product or the
  cheapest price!
• Youll learn why I started backwards
• Winning is good, Losing is bad!

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Presentation Roadmap

• What is proposal writing?
• Why its Important?
• Hows it Different?
• Features vs. Benefits
• Keeping the customers perspective
• Pointers to remember

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Proposal Writing Is

• Quite different than normal writing
• Done infrequently
• More formal

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Most Engineers Write Using

• Email
• Brief, informal - may have many purposes
• PowerPoint
• Bullet style
• Similarities
• Graphics Good Too much text loses the reader
• Reports
• Fact, fact, factconclusion
• Instant Messenger
• Really brief ?

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What is a Proposal?

• Written offer to execute a project to create a
  product or service
• Includes Scope, Cost, Schedule, and often much
  more
• Typically Competitive
• Is a marketing document not a technical document.
  
• Creates a mental model of how youll satisfy
  their needs
• Must enable the customer to make a selection

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Its Serious

• The other companies have smart people who want to
  win too
• Not a competition against the Request for
  Proposal (RFP)
• Answering all the questions doesnt mean you win
• Someone wins and everyone else loses One
  Passing" grade, the rest Failing grades
• Losing is bad
• Means youre even farther behind your competitor
• Just like a reality show, the losers leave

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Proposal Part of Overall Pursuit

• Capability
• Capture customer Requirements
• Competitive assessment
• Strategy
• Create proposal schedule
• Assign team
• Create outline
• Storyboard proposal
• Create assignment for writers

• Write
• Review
• Revise
• Edit
• Final Review
• Publish
• Ship
• Pricing
• QA
• Negotiate

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Its Different in Several Ways

• Style
• Scope
• Team Writing
• Structure
• Time Frame

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Style

• Backwards
• Start with conclusion
• Then Prove it
• NOT fact, fact, fact, therefore conclusion
• Or Worse fact, fact, fact rest is obvious
• Persuasive
• Some Customers want just facts, Others expect a
  sales document
• Committing to too much could bankrupt your
  company
• Committing to too little means you never win.
• Focus on the Most Important Requirement
• Of the many requirements, which will they use to
  decide?
• Dont just use the text you have

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Style (Continued)

• Flow
• High level to low level
• Make it easy for the reader to follow your flow -
  graphics
• Graphics
• Goal is 50
• Action Captions are critical
• Themes
• Tell them why they should pick you
• Grammar
• Typically 3rd person and somewhat formal
• Call things what the customer calls them

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Scope

• Proposal sizes may vary widely
• May have many pages or very few to make your case
• Often many volumes
• Customer may already know you
• Customer may know your product well

Rockwell Collins does 100s of proposals per year
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Team Writing

• Tasks need to be identified, scheduled and
  assigned
• Lots of Coordination
• Strategies, Win Factors and Themes need to be
  developed and communicated to writers
• Words need to match bids
• Expectations of pages, content and schedule need
  to be communicated to writers
• Writers need to follow instructions
• Builds team like Boot Camp does for military
• Extensive editing, reviewing and rewriting is
  required (plan for it)

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Proposal Structure

• Needs to follow customers instructions and make
  it easy for reviewers to score you
• Generally the customer specifies format and
  structure to facilitate their review
• Follow it!
• May include several volumes Technical,
  Contracts Pricing
• Go from high level to low level detail
• Dont put the reader immediately into the gory
  details

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Time Frame

• May take from several days to several years
• Typically too little time
• Typically requires extensive hours
• Effort builds to a crescendo as the deadline
  approaches
• Plan the whole schedule
• Allow time to handle problems
• You cant be late
• You cant submit poor quality

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Features vs. Benefits

• Its too easy to talk about all the features of
  your offer
• Use benefits to tell the customer how it will be
  good for them
• Example
• Feature Our widget is made of a titanium alloy
  so it only weighs 10lbs.
• Benefit Your maintenance costs are reduced
  because you will only need one mechanic to lift
  our 10lb unit

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Action Captions

• Readers are busy
• Use an action caption at the bottom of every
  table graphic that tells them why they care
• Table 3.1 Dual Seal Pump
• Table 3.1 The innovative Rockwell Collins pump
  reduces maintenance costs by 43

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Themes

• Use theme boxes, or some method to summarize each
  section
• Tell the reader what you want them to think, when
  they think of you
• Most readers will just look at pictures and read
  these captions
• Readers wont find great ideas buried in big
  sections of text

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Know The Requirements

• Of all the requirements, which are
  discriminators?
• How do you beat your competitors on these
  critical requirements?
• Example Why did you buy your last car?
• Figure this out before you write
• Dont just use the text you have

Typically a challenge for Engineers
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Know your Customer

• Your competing all along, not just at the end
• Work them before the formal process starts
• Different parts of the customer may have
  different needs
• They are busy, make it easy for them and theyll
  give you the benefit of the doubt
• Cant lie, or you lose
• What type of proposal do they expect?

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Know your Reviewers

• They may divide the review between many
  specialists
• Why is picking you good for them - personally?
• They could lose their job if they pick wrong
• They may have to work with you
• Dont force them to read the text!
• They may read the Exec Summary and then skim the
  rest by looking at the pictures and reading the
  captions
• This isnt their normal job they still have to
  do their normal job

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Bad Proposal Are.

• What you want to tell them, not what they want to
  hear
• Mostly text
• Talks just about features of your product
• Dumps the reader into the details
• Leaves conclusions to the reader
• Dont emphasize your win factors
• Never states why they should pick you

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Good Proposals

• Have half text - Half graphics (including tables)
• Focus on the things that help you win, not just
  what you have lots of text
• Tell the reader in the captions what they should
  think then prove it
• Make it easy for them to find everything on their
  checklist
• Organize it like they did
• Use their words
• Win

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Cheat Note Summary

• Plan organize before writing
• Know what it takes for you to get your point
  across
• Highlight the positive discriminators
• Tell the story clearly
• High level to low level
• Lots of graphics, tables charts
• Each saying why the customer should care
• Make it easy for the customer to figure out what
  youre offering, and how picking you will help
  them
• Think from your customers point of view
• Company
• Personal
• Make it easy for them to pick you and then sell
  you to other decision makers

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Remember This About Writing Proposals

• Lots of graphics with captions
• Write backwards
• Conclusion fact, fact
• High level to low level
• Answer question - Why You?

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Questions?