Pricing is a critical part of a governments decision of awarding Contracts and can be a cost driver for companies bidding. In recent years bid and proposal (B&P) costs have increased the overall project cost. Coupled with the intense competition between companies, it has become even more costly to derive a defined proposal that follows the contracting agency’s “Best Value” criteria. As a result, great pricing may not always win a proposal, but bad pricing will most likely eliminate your chances of winning.
Good pricing involves as much art as it does science. Much of pricing is the science of adding, subtracting, and multiplying. However, a key pricing differentiator is the art of pricing, which combines expert technical skill, competent understanding of the requirements, and in-depth customer knowledge. Knowing your customer’s comfort zone and risk tolerance combined with the art of pricing makes the difference in a winning bid.
TMST’s pricing capability isn’t just science but a masterful blend of science and art that has proven highly successful. Claiming to have the best pricing capability can only be so if proven by winning. Recently, TMST has contributed to numerous proposal wins, which were heavily supported and backed by our pricing expertise and current subject matter experts (SMEs).
One of the keys to TMST’s pricing success is our “Internal Team Collaboration” approach. This approach is accomplished with the use and reach back of over 40 TMST SME consultants, who have impeccable credentials in Computer Science, Finance, Contracts, Program Management, Government Acquisitions & Procurements, and subject matter expertise in training our country’s Warfighters. Our experience provides us an excellent ability to assist our clients with strategies, customer interface, and winning business in the DoD training sector.
This approach also allows us the ability to price (design to cost) strategy that beats the best competitors while supporting the best profitability. This access to multiple SMEs provides cost certainty, simplifies management, and allows us to use the right person at the right time and in the right amount needed. Success is greatly enhanced by working as an integrated team instead of individual departments meeting at a proposal review and then determining that risk mitigation strategies and costs are non-negotiable, etc. TMST brings the “science” and the “art” to the process, which has proven unbeatable as a successful pricing strategy.
For example, in support of a recent proposal, the technical solution contained labor categories that included a highly skewed ratio of labor category levels and proved to be very top-heavy. While this guaranteed the solution would work with minimal risks, the costs would drive the proposal out of the competitive range. In consulting early with the technical writers, our pricing expert determined that the risk could be equally mitigated by proposing a blending of labor rates based on the level of effort and a phased approach initially using lower category labor costs graduating to high labor categories as needed—this satisfied Technical, Risks, and Cost considerations early in the process. By working together, the team presented a proposal for review that had already incorporated key factors and didn't require going back and reworking labor categories and costs.
The unmatched experience and ability of our pricing experts integrated early in the process results in tremendous savings in costs, time, and frustration during the proposal process and dramatically enhances proposal winnability. Due to our success, we have added an additional pricing expert to the staff and now have more capacity to support our clients.
If you seek expertise other than the science and art of pricing government proposals, TMST offers various Program Management Office (PMO) functions after contract win. These services include but are not limited to financial analysis and tracking, program management, and contracts management. So, whether you need a high level of effort support with Capture efforts or Business Development or a low level of effort support in proposal pricing, PWin analysis, or PMO support, TMST can help in various support levels and skillsets.
TMST’s core belief is to empower our consultants to develop strong long-term personal and professional client relationships to understand better the needs, requirements, and demands of the client. Once the needs and demands are understood, it is essential to formulate a plan to satisfy these demands and execute solutions to address them.
The company is 100% veteran-owned with real experience and real connections. We are in touch with critical information and key decision-makers coupled with multiple years of experience in Military and Defense Acquisition in Live/Constructive/Virtual Technology and Training and are focused on YOUR SUCCESS!
Please visit TMSTconsultants.com to tap into our network of extraordinary expertise and knowledge plus get a full understanding of what we can do for you and your business.
