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I share John Posada's reaction that you should 'run away' from
management's push-button proposal plan. Do they want winning proposals, or
just cheap and easy-to-produce proposals? The company I worked for had a
similar idea, but abandoned it. We often gathered information and reworked
old information, so the idea of a database for retrieving useable
information seemed logical. A database does save writing time ONCE YOU
KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO SAY, but it cannot replace the research and analysis
that goes into determining WHAT and HOW you will actually meet the
customer's needs.
Of course, if I were working for one of your competitors, I'd love to see
your company adopt a push-button approach. I think anyone who has read
more than 1 or 2 mail merge letters can tell the difference between those
and a personalized letter. Push-button proposals are mail merge on larger
scale and they don't fool many proposal reviewers.
If your company markets a product that has set configurations for specific
requirements, you may be more successful with the push-button approach.
But, if you're selling services, or need to demonstrate an understanding
of the customer's business, I doubt this approach will work.
