Vic Sol · Decision DeskOne-page sheet · 5 min to use
Which number will change? The first line of the proposal
For anyone receiving or writing AI proposals for a committee who wants the business reason to come before the price and the feature list.
When to use it
Someone on the committee justified an AI purchase with "everyone is doing it".
A proposal arrived that opens with the price or the features and never says what will improve.
You have to write a proposal and do not know where to start.
The sheet
A one-page proposal, in this order. The first line decides whether the rest deserves reading.
#
Line
What to write
Illustrative example
1
Which number will change?
One only, and concrete: sales, response time or errors. It goes before the price and the features.
"Response time on quotes."
2
Value today and expected value
The current figure, the target and the date it gets reviewed.
"From 3 days to 1 day, review on 31 March."
3
Owner of the number
A person from the area that will use it, not from technology.
"Marta, sales manager."
4
How it will be measured
Where the figure comes from today and who takes it afterwards.
"From the sales system, every Friday."
5
What the tool does
Only what helps move the number in line 1.
"Drafts the first version of the quote."
6
What it costs in month 6
Licence, usage, integration and review hours at your real volume.
"See the month-6 cost sheet."
7
What happens if the number does not change
Cut-off date and how you exit.
"If it is still 3 days in March, no renewal."
Proposal for: ____________ · Write line 1 here: ______________________________________
How to fill it in 5 minutes
Write line 1 before anything else. If it takes more than two minutes, the purchase does not have a business reason yet.
Pick a single number. If three show up, ask which one would hurt most if it did not change, and keep that one.
Put a date and an owner in lines 2 and 3 in the same sitting. A number without an owner does not get measured.
Leave the features for line 5. If the original proposal has them on the first page, move them.
The most common mistake: accepting "improve productivity" as a number. It is not a number; it is a wish. Ask for the figure, the unit and the date.
The line that is almost always missing
The first one. Proposals tend to open with the price, with the feature list or with the phrase "everyone is doing it", and that phrase is not a business reason. The reason is a number that will change. If nobody at the table can write that line, the purchase is a trend, and trends get expensive when they renew every year.
Vic Sol · Decision Desk · vicsol.org/resources/ · Free to use with attribution. This sheet structures a conversation; it is not legal, financial or audit advice.
Open the .docx in Word (or the .xlsx in Excel) or print it before the meeting.
Fill the fields with the team; leave the blanks visible, they are the discussion.
Close with one owner, one date and one next action. Nothing else.
Prompt
Generate this sheet for your case
Paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini together with your proposal, process or policy. It reproduces the sheet with your data and flags what is missing.
Act as a general manager with experience on investment committees who reads many technology proposals and rejects any whose first line does not say which number will change.
Context I am giving you:
- Company and the area proposing the purchase: [e.g. logistics company, sales team]
- Proposed AI tool and what it claims to do: [ ]
- Reason given for buying it: [e.g. "competitors already use it"]
- Numbers that hurt in the area today (sales, response time, errors): [ ]
- Current proposal or draft, if any: [paste text or write "none"]
What I need: rewrite or build the proposal on a single page with exactly these seven lines, in this order:
1. Which number will change? One only, and concrete. It goes before the price and the features.
2. Value today, expected value and review date.
3. Owner of the number: a person from the area that will use it.
4. How it will be measured and where the figure comes from.
5. What the tool does, only what helps move the number in line 1.
6. What it costs in month 6 at our real volume.
7. What happens if the number does not change: cut-off date and exit.
Output format: a table with the columns Line · Content · Pending or verified, preceded by line 1 written as a single sentence. Maximum 300 words. No introduction.
Rules:
- Do not invent figures or names. If data is missing, write [DATA PENDING] and tell me how to get it.
- If line 1 cannot be written with the information I gave you, say so explicitly instead of filling it in.
- Do not accept "improve productivity" or "be more efficient" as a number; ask for the figure, the unit and the date.
- If critical information is missing, ask me at most 3 questions before answering.
- Answer in plain, direct business English, with no sales adjectives.
What to check in the answer:
Does line 1 have a single number with a unit, or did it turn back into a general sentence?
Is the owner in line 3 someone from the area that will use the tool, or did it default to "the IT team"?
Does line 7 say what happens if the number does not change, or is the proposal still without an exit?
Vic Sol