Media Share 9/MEDIASHARE_09.ISO/business/propose.zip/MANUAL.DOC

Text File | 1992-02-22 | 24KB | 623 lines

Copyright 1991, David A. Works






                              Propose It!tm























                         David A. Works
                         Grand Universal
                         7061 East Wesley Avenue
                         Denver, CO   80224

                        Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________


Introduction                                           1

Requirements                                           1

Shareware                                              2

Usage                                                  3

Files                                                  5

Preparation                                            6

Getting Started                                        8

Cover Letter                                           9

Large Proposals                                        9

Letter Proposals                                       9

Overview                                               10

REGISTRATION FORM                                      11


                             Introduction
_________________________________________________________________


A couple of years ago when I was between jobs, I worked for a
temporary employment agency.  One of my assignments was with a
large telecommunications company as an administrator in the
corporate sales department.  I supported the correspondence of 60
sales people who were working accounts ranging from Mom & Pop to
the Fortune 500.

The first day on the job I was given an overview of the job -
generating all the correspondence necessary for the sales people
to close the sale.  One of the first things to cross my desk was
a proposal.  I asked around for the format they wanted it in and
looked for some template files to generate the project.  To my
surprise, there was nothing available.  What they had done up
until that point was to take old proposals and just change a few
things and out the door it went.  It was all done manually.

Faced with the number of people I supported and the amount of
correspondence generated, as soon as I got the pressing work out
of the way, I started digging up boilerplate from wherever I
could find it.  I took the best from about five proposals that
were on the computer and set about to automate the process.
Rather than retype everything manually as had been done up till
then, I set up a series of files as "search-and-replace"
documents.

From that beginning, I have put together more files and ideas and
developed "Propose It!tm" for those who may need a helping hand.
By putting together a professional looking document with "Propose
It!tm", you will make yourself and the people you work with more
valuable.



                         Requirements
_________________________________________________________________



All you need to use "Propose It!tm" is a word processing program.

Nothing else is needed, except a desire to create professional
appearing proposals.

Although not required, I think the best output will come from a
laser printer rather than a dot matrix printer.  Ideally you
should be able to choose from a variety of fonts and font sizes.


                        Shareware
_________________________________________________________________


DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE

Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software
before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue
using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs
differ on details ─some request registration while others require
it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you
get anything from the simple right to continue using the software
to an updated program with printed manual.

Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software,
and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific
exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished
programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are
of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs
and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of
distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy
and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a
specific group. For example, some authors require written
permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their
Shareware.

Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You
should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook,
whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes
fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy.
And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware
has the ultimate money-back guarantee ─ if you don't use the
product, you don't pay for it.

DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT

Users of "Propose It!tm" must accept this disclaimer of warranty:
""Propose It!tm" is supplied as is.  The author disclaims all
warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation,
the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose.
The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or
consequential, which may result from the use of "Propose It!tm".

"Propose It!tm" is a "shareware program" and is provided at no
charge to the user for evaluation.  Feel free to share it with
your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part
of another system.  The essence of "user-supported" software is
to provide personal computer users with quality software without
high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to
continue to develop new products.  If you find this program
useful and find that you are using "Propose It!tm" and continue
to use "Propose It!tm" after a reasonable trial period, you must
make a registration payment of $25 to Grand Universal.  The $25
registration fee will license one copy for use on any onecomputer at any one time.  You must treat this software just like
a book.  An example is that this software may be used by any
number of people and may be freely moved from one computer
location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it
being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just
as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same
time.

Commercial users of "Propose It!tm" must register and pay for
their copies of "Propose It!tm" within 30 days of first use or
their license is withdrawn.  Site-License arrangements may be
made by contacting Grand Universal.

This program is produced by a member of the Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP).  ASP wants to make sure that the
shareware principle works for you.  If you are unable to resolve
a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
member directly, ASP may be able to help.  The ASP Ombudsman can
help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but
does not provide technical support for members' products.  Please
write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442
or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe mail to ASP Ombudsman
70007,3536.

Distribution of "Propose It!tm" by shareware vendors is
permitted.  However, the author would be grateful for an
acknowledgement that a vendor is distributing the program.

You are encouraged to pass a copy of "Propose It!tm" along to
your friends for evaluation.  Please encourage them to register
their copy if they find that they can use it.  All registered
users will receive a copy of the latest version of "Propose
It!tm".


Grand Universal
David A. Works
7061 East Wesley Avenue
Denver, CO    80224

CompuServe-70400,153
Delphi - DAVIDWORKS
GEnie- D.WORKS3
America OnLine- DAVIDW2959



                        Usage
_________________________________________________________________



Good writing takes time and preparation.  In the beginning, you
may just use "Propose It!tm" verbatim.  That's okay.  But the
real goal is to improve on these ideas and make them your own.
Not to scare you, but I change my correspondence about every two
weeks because I get new ideas or I get bored.  I am constantly
looking for a better way to present my ideas.

You may even want to look at other programs, books or other
sources.  Frankly I think books are dumb because you have to
retype the whole thing and the prices are outrageous.  I know, I
have bought a couple over the years and I spent a fortune.
Unfortunately, I didn't get that much for my money as most of the
authors seem to to pretty stuck on themselves and seemed to
believe their own marketing hype.

Here are some ideas to get the most out of "Propose It!tm":


*    Print out this documentation file and bind it.

*    I have designed "Propose It!tm" to be used as a set of mail
     merge documents.  I learned after a few "interesting
     experiences" that global search-and-replaces can get weird.
     Besides, by using a mail merge you can put in the letters
     you will need with the proposal at the same time.  The idea
     is to save time.

*    Always follow any standards or formats that your company
     has set up.  Just because "Propose It!tm" is neat and will
     save you time so that you can play computer games doesn't
     mean you should ignore any corporate standards.  "Propose
     It!tm" is written in Times or Helvetica fonts and the
     margins are all changeable to suit your needs.

*    Familiarize yourself with the "merging" capabilities of your
     software package.  To spare you the agony of reading a
     manual, I have included a section on "Merging".

*    Incorporate your own material into "Propose It!tm".  If you
     are in a corporation you should have enough marketing mumbo
     jumbo to last you an eternity.  If you are in a small
     company, you still must have a few brochures lying around
     that you can cannibalize and incorporate.

*    Print out the "Sample" files to use as another reference.
     These files have the letters *sam.txt in them.


*    Give your secretary a raise or a piece of the action after
     she starts using these templates.  She or he is making you
     look better than you are so show some appreciation you old
     skinflint.




                        Files

_________________________________________________________________



Coverltr.doc

Use this letter with larger proposals.  It isn't good form to
just send out a proposal without a cover letter.  People like to
know what they are receiving.


Manual.doc

This file - full of wonderful ideas.


Largepro.doc

[Large Proposal] Template for proposing large or more complicated
projects.


Letter1.doc

[Letter Proposal] Templates for proposals in letter form.  Also
includes an overview template which I have found very useful to
include along with a letter proposal to larger companies.


Register.doc

A separate file for registration form.


Cvltrsam.txt, Largesam.txt, and Letrsam.txt

Samples of Cover Letter, Large Proposal and Letter Proposal.

     All of these files and their particular usage are explained
in more detail below.



                        Preparation
_________________________________________________________________


Note:     Ignore everything else if you want to, but please read
this!!!


This is frankly the most important part of your work.  It's even
more important than the "Propose It!tm" templates.

The old line, "Plan your work and work your plan" applies doubly
in proposal writing.  How would you like to spend weeks sweating
over a proposal only to find out yours was not accepted as you
didn't really solve the problem the customer wanted solved?

True Story #1

A company I worked for spent about two months and thousands of
dollars in travel, computer rental and aggravation designing a
telecommunications proposal for a large defense company.  My
group was responsible for designing the network.  We frankly just
did as we were asked by the account team.  Part of good design is
getting the best cost for your network design.  In working with
the pricing and the RFP (Request for Proposal), it became obvious
to us that what the client wanted was not a network with all the
bells and whistles (which is what we had been told to design) but
in actuality they wanted the lowest price.  Hundreds of people
spent months on this project when in fact the account team and
our little group of six could have done it all in about two weeks
time.  Needless to say, we did not win the proposal.

Remember that you are solving a customer's problem so you had
better know exactly what the problem is.  Your solution may be
the best thing since sliced bread, but if the client wants dinner
rolls...

Also, be brave enough to give up if you can't really handle a
project or if you don't want to deal with any hassles.  I
recently gave up on a government proposal because of the
bureaucratic paperwork nightmare.  It was about $40,000 worth of
business but the aggravation factor was the most extreme for any
proposal that I had ever seen.

Ideally if you anticipate being in an RFP situation, the best
time to inform yourself is before the RFP is written.  That way
you might have some influence in what actually will be asked for.

Most companies appreciate the insight of vendors and are bright
enough to know when you are trying to skew things your way as
well, so don't over do it.

Using "Propose It!tm" should come in at the last phase of your
proposal scenario.  If you start writing before you know the
problem or have developed a solution, you will end up with a very
muddled proposal.  (Of course, there are oftentimes many
questions which are a matter of routine which can and should be
answered before you get into the heat of proposal deadlines.)

I have found that the best way to prepare is the old boring way
of writing an outline.  You know, the old Roman numeral "I, II,
III, A,B,C" routine that we all learned in grade school.  If you
are lucky, your word processor will help you by having the
outline feature.  If not just hack away anyway.



True Story #2

A few months back I wrote a business plan for a wild-eyed
business idea that I had.  I must have revised the dumb thing
about 200 times before I got fed up, I started over with an
outline.  Finally I could understand what I was trying to say.  I
wish I could tell you the business was a rip roaring success and
that I am now on "Easy Street", but after playing with it for a
few months I gave up on it.  Frankly, I wouldn't have known to
give up had I not organized my goals and objectives well to see
that even though there was great potential, my comfort zone of
how much effort it was going to take versus the amount of money I
might theoretically make was invaded.  Anyway, wait for the
shareware edition of my business plan templates.  It really did
come out ok and the financials are great!

Customizing

One last bit of preparation to use these files is to customize
them for your company and product.  First open any document.  Do
a search-and-replace on [Your Company] and change it to the name
of your company.  You may also choose to do the same thing with
[product/service] in each document.  However, sometimes the usage
of the word may require a generic product or service name and
other times it may be specific.  For example, the difference
between "soda pop" and "Coca Cola".  Also you will want to change
"Your Name" to your name and change the "Marketing
Representative" to your title.



                        Mail Merging
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Doing a mail merge is different for every software package, so
check your manual to find out how to incorporate what I have into
the correct commands for your program.  (Don't ask me why no one
has bothered to standardize this part of computing.  Seems rather
obvious, doesn't it?  H'mm another shareware idea...)  Basically,
a mail-merge follows this way.

     1.   Open the merge file.
     2.   Enter the data requested (usually separated by commas).
     3.   Save the merge file.
     4.   Open the main file you want to merge.



                         Getting Started
_________________________________________________________________



After you have downloaded "Propose It!tm" and decompressed the
files, please copy them onto a floppy disk so that you have a
back-up.  You will probably goof them up a number of times, so be
prepared.  I accidently trashed this file a number of times
before I got it right.   Everybody does it so don't feel bad.
Don't believe anyone who says they never have - obviously an
incredible boor and not good company at a cocktail party.

Open your particular word processing application and then open
and save each file.

Please print out the "Manual" file.  I know this sounds
stupid since you have already gotten this far, but I guess I need
to say it anyway.  No go back and re-read the "Preparation"
section and do that first.

Now read through the next few sections and pick out a file which
you think will work best for you.

I much more a fan of substance over style, but style does have
its place.  Would you pay more attention to an idea on scratch
paper or one that has been neatly organized with some jazzy
graphics and type?  If you are honest, you will say that it
doesn't really matter if the idea is good.  But we are talking
about making it easy for your customer to get a handle on what it
is you are proposing.  I would much rather be bored looking at
someone's proposal in Times and Helvetica than some chicken
scratched refugee from McDonald's.

So what I am saying in a round about way is to get creative in
using fonts, font sizes, effects and some graphics.  In case you
haven't noticed, Courier died a quiet death a couple of years
ago.  Times and Helvetica are ok, but there are some really neat
fonts out there and a number of books to help you through the
muddle.  But start with Times and Helvetica and you won't go
wrong.




                         Cover Letter
_________________________________________________________________


It is good business form to include a cover letter (some people
call it a transmittal) to accompany a large proposal.  Not that
anybody pays attention to what you say in the letter.  Call it
protocol.  If you haven't done your homework and presentation by
this point, it won't matter what you have to say anyway.  If you
walk into IBM Headquarters with the best idea in the world, but
are dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, guess how many people
will listen to you?  Think of this letter as the "white shirt,
blue suit and conservative tie" of your proposal.  Once you get
past that it really gets interesting.

I have only included one example since it is such a formal
letter.  When you open this file, you will notice that it is set
up as a mail merge file.  Doing a mail merge is different on
every machine, so check your manual to find out how to
incorporate what I have into the right commands for your program.

(Don't ask me why no one has bothered to standardize this part of
computing.  Seems rather obvious, doesn't it?  H'm another
shareware idea...)  After you have changed this information, you
can do the merge and your cover letter is finished.


                        Large Proposals
_________________________________________________________________


These are the hardest to write and take the most preparation.
There is no set "standard format" so you are free to be creative.

I am assuming you have done all your investigating and all of
your research to make sure that the solution you are proposing is
in fact the correct solution for your customer and also one which
they will want.


                         Letter Proposals
_________________________________________________________________


I think these are the most fun to write and I change them
constantly.  For a sales type, I have found that this is the best
way to get your point across in a quick way and with a great
degree of success.

Here is a little hint.  In my line of work, I have found that I
never really get to the real "decision maker" (Hows that for
sales lingo?)  I end up talking to somebody else who really needs
what I am offering but has to get approval from someone else.
Didn't you get awfully tired of all that training on getting to
the decision maker?  What a bunch of junk for my situation.  I
just sell everyone along the way.  And I give them the power to
do my selling for me.  Susie secretary runs into the office with
my proposal and says, "Boss, I need this now."  So he looks at
this fine piece of literature and agrees because he know exactly
what his employee wants as it is in writing.  Here is another
silly sales word but it fits "Empowerment" (trumpet blast)  get
your contacts to sell for you.



                         Overview
_________________________________________________________________


This is a handy dandy document to go along with a letter
proposal.  This contains many of the items in the Large proposal.

You use this to introduce your company and to show off all the
wonderful things you can do for your client.  Sure you can tell
him all about it, but there is nothing like having in in writing.


I print up about 10 copies of my overview at a time, bind them
nicely using some nice cover stock for a cover and put it along
with my main sales literature into a folder to mail to my client.
Looks like I slave hours and hours creating this wonderful
document just for him.  I spent hours and hours on it years ago
when I first started writing these things, now it takes all of
five minutes to mail merge a letter proposal, organize a folder
with sales info and stuff the envelope.  This is the epitome of
computer productivity.


                        "Propose It!tm"
                         REGISTRATION FORM
_________________________________________________________________


"Propose It!tm" is shareware and is copyrighted by David Works.
You have 10 days to evaluate  "Propose It!tm".  After that time,
you are required to register the copy in your possession.  The
registration fee is $25.  When you register, I will send you a
disk with the most current version.

This wonderful piece of shareware may be distributed by anyone as
long as all of the files are sent along with it.  Obviously, you
can't turn around and sell it yourself as it is copyrighted.  But
if you are one of the national online services, shareware
distributor , BBS or even a propellor head, pass it around.


Name______________________________

Company Name_______________________

Address____________________________

City____________________State____________ZIP_______

P.O. #_________________

How many copies do you want?______________


Type of computer:
                              $25



Send to:

Grand Universal
David A. Works
7061 East Wesley Avenue
Denver, CO    80224

LOOK FOR MY OTHER SHAREWARE PRODUCTS ON ALL THE BEST BBS!

CompuServe-70400,153
Delphi - DAVIDWORKS
GEnie- D.WORKS3
America OnLine- DAVIDW2959