Executive Summary Graphics – 3 Step Planning Process

Develop a Template Focussed on What You're Trying to Achieve

I mentioned in my last post that executive summary and proposal graphics is a large and important topic and that I would dedicate individual posts to it. This is the first of these. More will follow:

There are two principal objectives for graphics: the first is to communicate information; and, the second is to influence or motivate the audience to action in your favour.

When you are deciding how to present your proposal it is essential that you identify at the storyboarding phase which parts of your proposal require graphics and what their main objective is.  For example it is unlikely, but not impossible, that you will be able to achieve a good single page Executive Summary without the help of a good, compelling, graphic which describes how you address your customer’s primary hot button(s) in a clear and concise way. Many graphics will be easy to determine.  These are the graphics you include because it provides the assessor with a level of confidence in your proposal because he or she is reading what they expect to see.  These include graphics such as “house of quality” and similar graphics or all graphics for other “boiler plate” activities such as risk management.

A word of caution, though, is to ensure you tailor the graphic for the specific exam question being answered.  Assessors spot very quickly when they are being provided with pure boilerplate with no thought attached.  This will be detrimental to your proposal so don’t do it.

Any non standard graphics require a lot more attention. At the time of writing a proposal it can seem that this is a waste of your proposal team’s efforts. It isn’t. The opposite is true. Using key members of your proposal team in a “brainstorm” or workshop, use the following steps to generate your graphics:

• Step 1 – identify the primary objective of the graphic, the audience and the questions you need to answer to achieve the primary objective.

 

• Step 2 – develop visual and textual messages that support the primary objective.  The object here is to turn any idea you have into a clear communicative and compelling visual.

 

• Step 3 – produce and iterate drafts of the graphic.  It should be clean, concise, aesthetically appealing, error free and produced in a style appropriate to the audience.  For example, a cartoon style would not be suitable in a major company acquisition or a major procurement.

 

The key aspect of Step 3 is the iteration.  Initially it will be iterated to get it correct and make sure the message is clear but towards the end of the proposal writing period there may be many “cross reference” and “consistency” modifications as the whole proposal is brought together prior to submission.

Learn more about how to write a business proposal here.

Do you know of a better way?  Do you use this method? Comment below and share your experience with others.