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We are a corporate partner with Association of Proposal Managers Professionals National Capital Area

Self-study proposal courses and tools:

Blueprint for Winning Government Proposals
(comprehensive course with videos, manuals, slides, processes maps)

Executive Summary Secrets (manual and audio)

How to Succeed as a Proposal Consultant
(video course)

A Proposal Manager’s Essential Checklists
(laminated reusable toolset)

For more details on these courses and tools please go to self-study courses page.

To read more testimonials about our training and services please go to testimonials page.

Proposal Resources Estimating Guide

Guide for Determining Required Manpower and Hours
to Calculate How Much a Proposal Should Cost

For many, proposal estimating is full of guesswork:

- How do you know how many hours it would take you to develop a quality proposal?
- How do you know if an estimate is reasonable or unreasonable?
- How do you make sure that you are not set up for failure with an estimate that is entirely too low, or how do you know if you are wasting money on a proposal and jeopardizing your Return on Investment (ROI)?

Our guide is a handy reference to help you plan and track
proposal resources with confidence

This guide is for:

• Capture and proposal managers who are: 1) tracking how many hours proposal team members (including consultants) charge to the pursuit so they can gauge the proposal resources’ productivity, and measure performance; 2) developing a proposal budget to get the right amount of money and personnel allocated by their management; it is useful when seeking better support from the management to prevent burnout and avoid being set up for failure due to lack of resources.
• Proposal consultants bidding on a specific job, trying to develop a realistic estimate that’s attractive to both the customer and the consultants.
• Proposal writers planning the length of time it would take to develop the final product.
• Business owners and department heads planning budgets for the business development efforts and making educated bid-no-bid decisions, to determine whether they want to spend their valuable resources to prepare a proposal (and do it right, so that they are playing to win) – or spend the money elsewhere.

This guide is what OST Global Solutions uses internally to estimate our efforts and create consulting proposals to our customers. It came from years of collecting best practices and metrics, and vetting this information by the proposal field’s leading professionals to ensure accuracy.

This guide includes:

1. Three methodologies for proposal estimating, to “triangulate” a highly realistic estimate that does not lower your proposal ROI.
2. Guideline for how long it takes to create different proposal elements that involve technical writing, resume and past performance references development, different types of editing and graphics development, desktop publishing, and production. These charts include the scope for each proposal role, and variables to take into consideration to ensure your estimate is tailored to your specific circumstances.
3. Methodology for translating time into dollars, regardless of whether you use internal employees or hire consultants.
4. Methodology for tracking the time spent on your proposal, to manage resources to their estimates.

You will get immediate ROI on the very first pursuit where you use this guide, as you will be able to:

• Quickly calculate proposal needs.
• Reduce stress through more realistic resources and schedule.
• Eliminate waste of resources through more careful budget tracking.
• Make better use of your limited resources by deciding to bid (or not) on different proposals.
• And, most importantly, resource your proposals to win.

About the author. Olessia Smotrova-Taylor, has been winning multiple award contracts and Task Orders since 2001 (almost since IDIQ inception). During her last year working at Raytheon, working under a $450 million dollar per year vehicle, she brought Raytheon every single Task Order. She has collected best practices from consulting for multiple government contractors and has observed common mistakes (and best practices to overcome them) over the last 10 years, which will shared in this class. Olessia Smotrova-Taylor heads OST Global Solutions, Inc. She is a currently practicing capture and proposal manager who won more than $17 Billion in new business. As one of the proposal industry leaders, she is on the Board of Directors of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals' (APMP) National Capital Area (NCA) chapter and is the editor and chair of the APMP NCA Executive Summary e-zine that won the 2010 APMP Communications Award. She regularly presents at APMP's international and other conferences, roundtables, and proposal boot camps, and runs popular training webinars on business development. She has 16 years of experience in proposal and capture management, marketing, and communications. She is a prolific author, speaker, trainer, and blogger, and is well-known in the global proposal community. Her self-study course, Executive Summary Secrets, sells worldwide. Prior to starting her own consulting company, she won business for Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and wrote for the Financial Times of London.

Our unconditional guarantee. We are confident that our Proposal Resources Estimating Guide will be highly beneficial for you, and we are offering you an unconditional guarantee. If you are somehow dissatisfied with the content, please, return all the materials to us within 30 days upon receipt in a resalable condition, and you will get your money back. No reason needed.

Risk-free payment via secure payment portal

(10% discount for purchases of 5 copies or more)

$67.00 (+ $7.95 shipping & handling)

For additional questions please call 301-384-3350 during normal business hours. If you'd like to pay by invoice please send an email to service@ostglobalsolutions.com

P. S. If you think of someone else who could benefit from this course, please forward this invitation to them.