Proposing a Company Purchase

As this chapter points out, proposal writing can be not only a handy but also an essential skill. Whether youre seeking grant money, trying to land a contract, or requesting approval from your boss, knowing how to put together a convincing, well-written proposal can help both you and your organization succeed.

This activity will test your understanding of the types, goals, and main parts of proposals.

Read the case and answer the questions that follow.

As office manager of Jack 'n' Jill's Gym, a fitness club in an affluent and growing suburb of your city, you have decided that the time has come for the club to invest in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. You hope to convince your bosses, the owners of the club, to share your opinion and authorize you to pursue this expenditure.

The product you have in mind is Customation, by the software developer Vendix. Customation is a cloud-based application that stores subscribers information in a secure, searchable database. When a company purchases a license, it is given a password that allows access to the product via the Internet. Using its many different fields, the company can then input detailed information about its customers.

The customer-management possibilities offered by Customation are exciting. When you need to find out something about your customersfor example, which ones live in a certain neighborhood, bought a certain kind of membership, or attended a certain eventyou can query the database and instantly retrieve the information. You can also have Customation send you "tickle" notices on customers whose memberships are about to expire. And because it's compatible with your email program, you can set up Customation to send customers emails at certain times. It even comes with newsletter templates that you can easily customize. In short, Customation will enable Jack and Jills to keep and retrieve much more information on their customers and communicate with them much more extensively than they can with their current system, which is an inefficient hodgepodge of different applications.

Customation can easily be integrated with the companys website and social media platforms. It can even be linked to the companys accounting software, so that, for example, when customers purchase memberships and other services online, their information will go directly into the Customation database as well as into the bookkeeping database.

These benefits come at a price, however. There is a set-up fee of $1,500 as well as a $45-per-month-per-user service fee. Buyers also must sign a three-year contract, which is unbreakable after the 90-day trial period expires. And youll need to be trained on the product, which will cost another $300.

Unfortunately, the owners will be reluctant to take on a new expense right now. The club's business has expanded so much over the last eight years, as the surrounding community has grown, that they are building a new wing for the facility. This giant investment is not likely to make them receptive to a request for money.

You have occasionally mentioned a CRM system to your bosses when they drop by, but they seem to listen politely and then move on to more pressing concerns. You don't think that just sharing your proposal orally with them is going to work. Instead, you will carefully lay out your plan and send it to them as an attachment to an email that prepares them to receive the proposal positively.

4a. Which of the following would be ...

Which of the following would be the best title for this proposal?

• Modernizing Our Office Operations with Customation

• Proposal for Purchasing a License to Customation, a CRM Program

• Growing Our Business and Increasing Customer Loyalty through Customation

• The Benefits of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

• Sharpening Our Competitive Edge

4b. What type of proposal will this be?

What type of proposal will this be?

• solicited

• external

• unsolicited

• internal

• both unsolicited and internal

4c. The best place to include examples of how ...

The best place to include examples of how Customation can help the company will be the

• benefits section.

• introduction.

• background section.

• conclusion.

• needs section.

4d. Which of the following sentences is true?

Which of the following sentences is true?

• You should attach your complete rsum to the proposal to indicate your ability to follow through with the plan.

• You should avoid all personal pronouns in your proposal since proposals are formal documents.

• You should not say anything negative about the companys current operations.

• You can, and should, point out the flaws of the current system in the Need section.

• Your cover email for the proposal should describe your plan, including its cost.

4e. Which would be the best way to acknolwedge...

Which would be the best way to acknowledge that the owners are currently building an expensive addition to the facility?

• Say that the timing is perfect for CRM software so that the additional customers who will be accommodated by the larger club will be managed as profitably as possible.

• Say that the cost of the software isnt that high, compared to whats being spent on the addition.

• Say that you understand the extra expense being incurred but that the inefficient office operations cannot continue as they are.

• Say that you realize the timing is not ideal but that the company has needed better customer management for a long time.

• It would be best not even to bring up this topic.