How might this affect your customer base (expand it, maintain it, make up for problems?)
For this week, I am asking you to write and turn in these things:
- A transmittal letter giving me background information. The letter should be in the standard letter format, with the body focusing on these things:
- Introductory paragraph telling me what I have–early proposal document to company president, final proposal being presented to an external client, letter/memo to team members explaining the prototyping and seeking input
- Body paragraph where you tell me what I need to know — remember I am an English professor, so you probably have to tell me the stuff I don’t know even though your client or an executive at the company you are proposing to will already know those things. If you are proposing offering a detailing service at an auto shop, your boss will know exactly what you are talking about, but it was just last year I found out that detailing was not painting flames on the side of a car. Remember that in your field, you are the expert–explain things to me like I was your aunt (unless your aunt is an expert in your field, then explain it to me like I’m your other aunt).
- A concluding paragraph with any questions you might have.
- The proposal/recommendation memo. Look to the second page of this file for the model. It should be formatted as a memo and include these sections:
- Purpose Statement(this will be a paragraph or two where you state the objective of the report –it will resemble the information given in the transmittal letter, but here the audience is the president of the company you are working with (not me). So this is where you might say this is a feasibility report on offering service X, or this is a proposal for marketing product Y on a national level, or a proposal to expand to a new location or to include more services/products or to release an upgrade or to change to a different system of inventory or accounting or whatever it is that you are proposing.
- What is being proposed
- What is the timeline
- What is the cost (estimate)
- Needs Statement in this section you will give the reasons this proposal should be accepted (use only what is appropriate–you might have three different audiences you new product would appeal to but have no need to change for legal reasons)
- How might this affect your customer base (expand it, maintain it, make up for problems?)
- How might this affect the company’s bottom line (new income stream, keep up with competition, enhance reputation, simplify administration)
- How might this affect the perception of your product or services (rehabilitate and image, generate excitement, break into new product territory, appeal to a new audience)
- How might this protect the company from lawsuits or legal problems
- Discussion of the project— can be borrowed from your product description from week #4, but modified
- Conclusion recommendation. This is where you state what you want–permission to move to a prototype, funds to build the new store, approval to commission an app, etc.
- Purpose Statement(this will be a paragraph or two where you state the objective of the report –it will resemble the information given in the transmittal letter, but here the audience is the president of the company you are working with (not me). So this is where you might say this is a feasibility report on offering service X, or this is a proposal for marketing product Y on a national level, or a proposal to expand to a new location or to include more services/products or to release an upgrade or to change to a different system of inventory or accounting or whatever it is that you are proposing.
I expect this assignment to contain at least 500 words in the memo. It should be single spaced. Consult chapter 17 for some help, although the example in there is a full proposal; we are doing the short form.