Developing a Winning Cost Volume
This self-paced course on developing a winning Federal Government cost volume covers all aspects of pricing strategies for Government contracts, designed for both finance professionals and capture or proposal managers exploring the intricacies of Government pricing.
The course combines detailed instruction with hands-on exercises to help you apply cost development principles effectively.
The experts who created 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. Through the course materials, they share real-world examples, practical techniques, and proven methods based on current industry realities.
Cost volume development training starts with cost proposal literacy—it explains the differences between cost, price, pricing strategy, and price-to-win, and explores key cost buildup elements such as fringe, overhead, G&A, and fee. It covers allowability, allocability, and reasonableness of Government costs, along with other critical compliance rules. The course also explains how the Government evaluates cost proposals, giving you insight into what happens “behind the curtain.” You’ll learn cost proposal management during capture, including competitor price analysis, price-to-win fundamentals, setting cost assumptions, and bridging the gap between technical proposal teams and pricing professionals.
Developing a Winning Cost Volume
Original price was: $1,195.00.$777.00Current price is: $777.00.
The second part of this self-paced course focuses on advanced cost volume techniques such as developing a persuasive cost proposal narrative, creating Bases of Estimate (BOEs) and Work Breakdown Structures (WBS), and applying specific strategies to develop winning cost volumes that maximize profit while reducing risk for each contract type. You’ll also learn how to refine and finalize your cost proposal for maximum impact.
Price often becomes the deciding factor in Government proposals, differentiating you from competitors who may be technically equal. This is especially true under Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) evaluations, though even in Best Value procurements, the lowest bidder frequently wins. Many companies overlook key process elements and deliverables that make a cost volume stand out. This course shows you how to master those critical details and maximize your Government price proposal win probability.
Course Curriculum
Learning Objectives
- 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.
Day 1 Highlights
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.
Day 2 Highlights
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.