Developing a Winning Cost Volume (On Demand)

$995.00

This is a two-day course on developing a winning federal Government cost volume. This Government contract pricing training discusses all aspects of winning cost volumes, aimed at both finance professionals and capture and proposal managers who are just starting to delve into the intricacies of Government pricing.

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Description

This is a two-day course on developing a winning federal Government cost volume. This Government contract pricing training discusses all aspects of winning cost volumes, aimed at both finance professionals and capture and proposal managers who are just starting to delve into the intricacies of Government pricing.
This course is composed of 50 percent lecture, 40 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion.

The experts who teach our business development, capture, and proposal training are highly experienced currently practicing proposal professionals whose years of successful experience in Government acquisition and training allow them to offer valuable insights to our students. Our instructors can answer tough questions as they come up during the course. They can also tailor the material to their students’ specific challenges, and share their experience based on the most current realities.

Cost volume development training starts with cost proposal literacy. it shows differences between cost, price, price strategy, and price to win, and delves into such cost buildup elements as fringe, overhead, G&A, and fee. It covers allowability, allocability, and reasonableness of Government costs, and a slew of other important rules. It then dives into how the Government evaluates cost proposals so that you know what happens “behind the curtain.” It discusses cost proposal management during capture, including competitor price analysis and price to win fundamentals. It then dives into assumptions to set boundaries around cost, and techniques for bridging the gap between proposal manager leading the technical proposal team, and those in your company who are pricing Government contracts.

The second part of the class focuses on less practiced cost volume techniques such as developing a highly persuasive cost proposal narrative, developing basis of estimates (BOEs) and work breakdown structure (WBS), specific strategies for developing winning cost volumes while maximizing your profit and reducing risk given the specific contract type, refining your cost proposal, and more.

Most often, price is the most important part of writing proposals for Government contracts, as it differentiates you from competition that may be technically equal. It is especially true when the Government uses Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) evaluation criteria instead of Best Value. Even when it is a Best Value procurement, the lowest bidder will most likely get the award. Most companies, however, miss the most important elements of process and deliverable for the cost volume, and fail to shine in an area where they could dominate. Take this course to maximize your Government price proposal win probability.

  • Understanding the basics and principles of creating a cost volume.
  • ​Understanding how contract type influences Government proposal pricing.
  • ​Implementing proposal pricing strategies for best value versus lowest price technically acceptable proposals.
  • ​Winning on price.
  • ​Handling cost volumes if someone is not a numbers person.
  • ​Understanding how cost proposal evaluation affects the development process.
  • Influencing Government evaluators to grade your cost volume most favorably.
  • ​Developing a price-to-win (PTW) analysis that incorporates competitive analysis, program intelligence, and maximizes win probability (Pwin).
  • ​Using your proposal resources most effectively on the cost volume.
  • ​Applying tools of persuasion for the cost and business volume.
  • ​Refining the cost volume for maximum polish and punch.
  • ​Developing and collecting the best assumptions out there to put clear boundaries around your price proposal.
  • ​Developing Work Breakdown Structures (WBS).
  • ​Using Bases of Estimate (BOE) to ghost your competitors and discredit low-ballers who are seeking to buy their way into a Government contract.

Course Curriculum

Module 1: Cost Proposal Training for Non-Finance Professionals
  • Roadmap to winning in cost volumes.
  • Cost literacy – differences between cost, price, price strategy, and price to win.
  • Cost and price components basics, and cost proposal examples.
  • Example of pricing to build comfort of non-finance professionals with the cost volume.
  • Contract cost principles and procedures.
  • Cost accounting standards.
  • Cost and pricing data.
  • Contract types important to pricing.
Module 2: Important Details About Cost Proposal Evaluation that Impact Cost Proposal Development
  • Cost proposal evaluation factors, including understanding the difference between pricing strategies for best value and lowest price technically acceptable evaluations.
  • Evaluation criteria weighting to allocate proposal resources correctly.
  • Understanding proposal evaluators to address their key concerns.
  • Cost proposal evaluation process, and how adherence to the process figures into cost proposal preparation.
  • Understanding evaluation intricacies.
  • Why the Government doesn’t end up evaluating the price you bid – and how to avoid the pesky plus-ups.
Module 3: Cost proposal Management During Capture
  • Cost team’s involvement during the capture process.
  • Proposal manager’s involvement into capture from the cost proposal perspective.
  • Determining different options for a solution.
  • Determining your price competitiveness.
  • Exercise: perform price analysis using a case study.
Module 4: Price to Win (PTW) Development
  • Price to Win (PTW) development process.
  • Top-level flow to create the win.
  • Questions the technical team can help answer for PTW analysis.
  • PTW information sources and their use.
  • How to integrate competitive analysis with a pricing model.
  • How to perform labor rate analysis.
  • How to create the win using the PTW.
  • Exercise: Apply strategies in the case study to arrive at the PTW
Module 5: Managing Cost Volume Development During the Proposal
  • Resource planning for the proposal to resource your proposals to win, reduce stress, and establish better control over the proposal budget.
  • Cost volume development process steps.
  • Cost inputs into a Bid-No-Bid decision.
  • How a proposal manager can facilitate the cost development process and work closely with the cost team.
  • Cost volume manager’s role.
  • Immediate tasks for the proposal manager to oversee while managing the cost team at the proposal start.
  • Cost team kickoff tasks checklist.
Module 6: How to Develop a Highly Persuasive Cost Proposal Narrative
  • ​Best practices for how to write a cost proposal narrative.
  • ​Cost proposal narrative content.
  • How to use graphics to depict key pricing themes and discriminators.
  • How to write a persuasive cost volume executive summary.
    Exercise: develop a cost proposal template for a compliant and compelling cost volume.
Module 7: Cost Volume Refinement Techniques
  • Ensuring that cost volume and technical volume agree.​
  • Strategies and techniques to tweak the technical and management solutions to bring down costs and achieve your price to win.
Module 8: Developing the All-Important Assumptions for Better Price Optics and Modifications After Proposal Award
  • How to develop and collect assumptions and proposal basis that help increase cost-competitiveness.
  • ​Usual assumptions.
  • ​Additional assumptions that help with price optics.
Module 9: How to Develop a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for Better Proposal and Cost Controls After Award
  • How to develop the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
  • ​PWBS and CWBS.
  • Considerations in CWBS development.
  • How to scrub the CWBS.
  • Relationship between CWBS and cost accounts.
  • How to develop a WBS Dictionary.
    Exercise: Construct a WBS for the contract.
Module 10: How to Develop Basis of Estimate (BOE) to Ghost Competition and Provide Greater Confidence to the Customer in Your Cost Proposal
  • ​Developing the dreaded BOEs that are perfect for ghosting low-ballers.
  • Pros and cons of estimating methods such as analogy, crosschecks, parametric, and the detailed engineering bottom-up method.
  • ​BOE template.
Module 11: Price strategies to Win in the Price Portion of Your Cost Proposal
  • How to sharpen the pencils and apply price strategies appropriate for different contract types.
  • Price strategies for cost-type, fixed price, and other contracts.
  • How to win in LPTA competitions.
Module 12: Final Tips on Winning in the Cost Volume
  • Cost volume reviews.
  • Final tips on how to not be intimidated by cost proposals even if you are not a numbers person.
Module 13: Summary and Recap

Meet Your Instructor

Olessia Smotrova Profile Photo 2024 Updated OST Global Solutions Inc

Olessia Smotrova, CF.APMP Fellow

Olessia has more than 25 years of experience in business development. She led winning bids for four out of the top five Government contractors, winning more than $26 billion over the course of her career in single award contracts. She is an AI developer and strategist, pioneering the use of generative AI in Government contracting. She has created and implemented AI tools for business development processes, proposal strategy formulation, and competitive analysis. She is an AI super-user and thought leader in the practical application of generative AI in synthesizing complex data, generating innovative solutions, and driving decision-making in high-stakes Government BD environments.

She is the author of the book How to Get Government Contracts: Have a Slice of $1 Trillion Pie and seven other books. She has taught a graduate course for the Stevens Institute of Technology, and she provided training to Treasury and NASA. She has served for 2 years as the President of the National Contracts Management Association (NCMA) Bethesda/Medical Chapter and for 2 years as the President of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) National Capital Area Chapter.

Olessia is recognized as an APMP Fellow for her contributions to the field of capture and proposals – the highest honor in the business development profession. Her skills span every aspect of business development, sales, and marketing. Prior to supporting Fortune 500 companies and small businesses as a proposal consultant and growing OST, she worked as a business developer for Raytheon and Lockheed Martin and wrote for the Financial Times of London.

Student Reviews

Anthony Needam Avatar
Anthony Needam
12/10/2024
This was new to me. It was very I formative. We received our packets late. I was not aware of how interactive this would be.
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Nao Gamo Avatar
Nao Gamo
11/07/2024
I highly recommend the "MASTER AI TO ENHANCE BD, CAPTURE AND PROPOSAL PROCESSES" course! Not just a high-level overview of AI and its capabilities, the course is full of practical tips that you can apply immediately. All the courses I have taken with OST Global Solutions have been well worth it!!
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Francisca Celmer Avatar
Francisca Celmer
11/07/2024
The "Master AI to Enhanced BD, Capture, and Proposal Processes" class given by OST Global Solutions was truly outstanding. The instructor was incredibly knowledgeable and engaging. She made the material easy to understand and directly applicable. I highly recommend this class.
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Jay Yudof Avatar
Jay Yudof
11/06/2024
The BD and capture using AI course what is comprehensive and effectively taught.
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andre downey Avatar
andre downey
11/06/2024
The class taught alot of useful information on ai & working it in to our proposal development process
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Lilliana Reyes Avatar
Lilliana Reyes
9/20/2024
Great course! Clear information and great pace.
The information was very helpful for someone getting started in the proposal world or someone just trying to learn how to easily transition from InDesign to Microsoft Word.
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Aislinn Berge Avatar
Aislinn Berge
9/20/2024
Took the full day training on Desktop Publishing For Proposal Writing with Phillip Pettet. I learned so much! Phillip was fantastic at explaining things and gave lots of tips and tricks for using Word. Thank you!
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TC Phil Avatar
TC Phil
8/28/2024
I recently completed the year-long Business Development Apprenticeship with OST Global Solutions, Inc., and it exceeded my expectations! The program is comprehensive, covering BD, capture, proposal skills, and so much more. It’s clear that OST is the best in the business—they have addressed the real skill gap in this field.

Their curriculum, aligned with Department of Labor standards for Federal Government Business Development, is TOP-NOTCH and the first of its kind in the nation! The training was practical, directly applicable to our business, and provided the expertise needed to succeed in this competitive industry. I highly recommend this apprenticeship to anyone looking to advance their career in Business Development. I plan on taking many additional courses over the next few years as they continue to stay ahead of the curve. Thank you, OST!
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George Franz Avatar
George Franz
6/13/2024
Great course from OST Global Solutions! Olessia's vast experience in this area shines through and the course is chocked full of tips, tactics, and information sources to consider to perform competitive analysis and determine price to win for opportunities.
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Tiffany & Jay Jackson Avatar
Tiffany & Jay Jackson
4/29/2024
I've taken multiple classes with Olessia of OST Global Solutions and the classes are always well-structured and informative. The lastest course on AI is phenomenal - highly recommend it if you're looking to enhance your BD, Capture, and Proposal processes via AI!
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LaKeisha Thomas Avatar
LaKeisha Thomas
4/25/2024
Alexia was a very engaging instructor. The AI class was mind blowing! The capabilities using AI to assist with BD processes are endless. I'm looking forward to implementing all of these new tools.
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Erica Blue Avatar
Erica Blue
4/25/2024
Olessia did a wonderful job of teaching how to use AI for all stages of the Biz Dev process. She had practical examples and hands on practice. Helped change my perspective of AI overall, including its capabilities and limitations.
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