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TITLE: Business proposals: writing an executive summary

AUTHOR: Tim North

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Business proposals: writing an executive summary
by
Tim North, http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com


When writing a business proposal, the executive summary is
arguably the most important component. You should write it as if
the success of the entire proposal rests upon it.

Consider:

* If your proposal is one of many (or if time is short), a poor
executive summary may mean that it's tossed into the reject
pile with the remainder unread.

* If many people are going to read your proposal, some may read
the whole thing, but others may make their decision after
reading the executive summary alone.

* Some personality types like to make quick decisions and see
this (wisely or not) as being decisive. These types of people
may deliberately choose to concentrate on the summary and only
flick through the rest.

* People who lack the technical or financial knowledge to
understand the body of your proposal may make a decision based
on the executive summary.

* Readers might not be prepared to say "yes" to your proposal
after reading just the executive summary, but they might be
prepared to say "no" on this alone.

So given how important your executive summary is, it's important
to set out some guidelines for writing it.


GUIDELINE ONE: USE THE CARROT-AND-STICK APPROACH

(Note: The "carrot and stick" metaphor refers to creating a
situation where you are motivating someone with both a reward
and a punishment.)

Your executive summary should briefly point out the severity of
the problem facing the client, the dire consequences of not
fixing it, the key features of your solution and the key benefits
to the client.

By briefly covering these four things in the executive summary,
we're setting up a highly effective carrot-and-stick scenario.
That is, we:

1. Show them the problem.

2. Tell (or remind) them how terrible it is.

3. Dangle a solution in front of them.

If you do it right, your executive summary can generate great
enthusiasm for reading the rest of your proposal.

This is all material that you'll cover again in greater depth in
the main body of the proposal, but you should write your
executive summary as if the success of the whole proposal depends
upon it. It may.


GUIDELINE TWO: KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Your executive summary should be understandable by anyone. This
is not the place to start sprouting financial and technical
gibberish.

Keep in mind that people with widely varying backgrounds may read
the executive summary (even if they don't read the rest of the
proposal). Write it so they can all understand it. If they want
more details, they'll look for them in the body of your report.


WHEN USED

Every long proposal (i.e. anything with a title page and a table
of contents) needs an executive summary. It's a critical
component of your proposal.


LENGTH

It's called a summary for a reason. Don't try to trick people
into reading more than they intended by being long winded. A
reasonable rule of thumb is as follows:

----------------------------------
Proposal Executive Summary
----------------------------------
Up to 50 pages 1 to 2 pages
51 to 100 pages 2 or 3 pages
Over 100 pages 3 pages
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