scope:

Target group of the guideline

This guideline is intended for the use of manufacturers of machines, installations and equipment. The main emphasis is on the design of the offer document for a particular scope of supply and services in the solutions business. Typical characteristics of the associated offer process and offer document include (although not all of them need apply equally):

• engineering costs incurred in processing the customer requirements or in preparing a customer-specific overall solution
• requirement to clarify explicitly the benefits of this solution
• structuring and classification of the offer on the basis of the scope of the offer

The recommendations which follow are only suitable to a qualified extent for offers relating to relatively simple devices, components, or spare parts.

The primary target groups of this guideline are:

• sales managers, marketing managers and other managers tasked with designing offers made by their company
• employees in marketing or product management who participate in designing offers or in formulating text blocks or other constituent parts of the offer or who set up or introduce a sales-related product configurator
• engineers and technicians who prepare offers independently and who design offer documents

Scaling the guideline

The structural organisation of the offer document which is described here is tailored to a comprehensive offer for a complex product, and one bound up with engineering tasks. In the case of products with a simple structure from the sales point of view, if no engineering services are required or if there is a relatively low level of complexity in introduction or commissioning, individual sections of the offer document may turn out shorter, be summarised or even omitted entirely.

Information in this regard is provided in the description of each section of the offer.

Signal effect

In this guideline the keywords "Signal effect" indicate comments on the psychological or advertising-related effect of the corresponding contents or design measures in the individual offer sections.