Executive Summary – No one else mentions this!
Posted by admin on January 28th, 2012In case you are in any respect considering executive summary writing, you’ve probably already read several articles, internet pages – even books – about writing the ideal business proposal executive summary. Most of them offer an abundance of well-intended suggestions about all the stuff you need to include. They supply a helpful listing of the superior a hundred critical items you should cover, then tell you to be concise. However, most guides to writing an executive summary overlook this one fundamental point:
The purpose of the executive summary is to sell, not to describe.
Let’s think a little about who uses an Executive Summary, and why. Then it becomes self evident why it has to sell:
- The main Customer (Normally a project or programme manager). Typically, they are going to read the executive summary first, ahead of the rest of the documentation (barring the document that contains the purchase price – should they be permitted to see that). This satisfies their need to understand your offer quickly.
- The Customer’s proposal assessment team. Assessors often read an executive summary to orientate themselves along with your other proposal documents. It can be confusing – especially on larger proposals – to delve directly into the detail of your proposal. An executive summary allows these phones know very well what the overall picture is and how the element they may be assessing matches.
- Senior managers as well as other stakeholders in the customer community not involved in the actual business proposal assessment. Most organisations have an hierarchical chain of management who are required to sanction or endorse the best decision of who to award a legal contract to. They should also understand the bigger picture – particularly what your solution does to address their hot buttons.
- The person or those who are writing the business case – or the case for investment for your offering. Business cases, by nature, do not have to describe the detailed offering because they are primarily focused on financial aspects. But business cases do need to summarise the chosen offer and describe how it meets their primary needs; a well constructed executive summary that has been properly considered is able to drop right in to their business case unchanged (There’s a challenge for you!).
- Finally, the executive summary is ideal material to brief those who you deploy to market, position and influence on behalf of your proposal efforts. Capturing the win themes and customer benefits in a very succinct way ensures people who find themselves influencing on your behalf possess the right message to feed through to those whose opinion you need to influence.
Begin to think of the executive summary in terms of selling how your offering benefits the customer and it’ll dramatically change the way you structure an executive summary.
The executive summary really does have to sell and not describe.
Are you fed up with losing your proposals? Do you need to write proposals for your company? Have you received a request for proposal and want to know what to do next? Do you want to write good unsolicited proposals?
Find out how you can learn exactly what is involved in proposal writing, including what to put in the proposal and how to structure it by going to our website to learn more about how to write a business proposal at www.learnhowtowriteabusinessproposal.com.
Also, read more thought stimulating posts about executive summary writing here.
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