Winning in the Cost Volume
Gain a strategic advantage by enhancing the skills of your proposal professionals who manage and prepare cost volumes by providing techniques and tools that support your claim to offer best value. Learn how to enhance your win probability, improve profit margins, reduce financial risk, and minimize cost decrements during contract negotiations with properly developed cost volumes.
Workshop Details
Pricing To Win
This 2-day workshop teaches skills for business development, marketing, capture management, pricing, and finance personnel, including:
- Understanding customers’ acquisition budgets, including sources and uses
- Understanding customer assessments of bidders’ proposed prices/Price-capability trade-offs
- Reviewing competitors’ probable solutions and likely pricing strategies and tactics
- Iteratively adapting your company's solution, price, and capture strategy to improve win probability
- Influencing customers to prefer your company's own solution and price over competitors’ prior to release of an RFP
- Guiding proposal pricing efforts to ensure the offer places your organization in a position to compete and ultimately win
- Securing the award after proposal submittal by refining and executing pricing strategies
Participants actively engage in hands-on exercises based on a real-world competitive opportunity. This fast-paced workshop builds skills and expands knowledge in this critical aspect of winning business.
Winning in the Cost Volume
Learn skills related to planning and writing sections in any portion of a proposal. Practice a proven process for planning content and layout of winning proposal sections. You will also learn how to ensure your section will score highly during evaluation through a government evaluation.
You will learn to:
- Plan content using a storyboard to be compliant and implement approved proposal strategies
- Incorporate effective graphics and captions to better communicate messages
- Mockup section layout
- Organize content to be persuasive, write the planned proposal section, and examine the section draft for effectiveness
- Collaborate and coordinate with other team members writing different sections of the proposal
Managing Federal Proposals
Learn essential skills for managing a full proposal or volume in the U.S. federal market space. Develop detailed understating of federal proposal evaluation processes and their impact on proposal planning management.
You will learn to:
- Assess your own proposals like a government evaluation team
- Convert action-based capture strategies into message-based proposal strategies or win themes
- Assign requirements to appropriate authors for coverage in the proposal
- Prepare for and conduct an effective kickoff meeting, including providing clear instructions to authors
- Lead high-performing proposal teams on fast-paced schedules
Writing Federal Proposals
Learn skills related to planning and writing sections in any portion of a proposal. Practice a proven process for planning content and layout of winning proposal sections. You will also learn how to ensure your section will score highly during evaluation through a government evaluation.
You will learn to:
- Plan content using a storyboard to be compliant and implement approved proposal strategies
- Incorporate effective graphics and captions to better communicate messages
- Mockup section layout
- Organize content to be persuasive, write the planned proposal section, and examine the section draft for effectiveness
- Collaborate and coordinate with other team members writing different sections of the proposal
Capturing Business
Learn to improve your competitive position before your customer releases a request for proposal. By learning how to select and pursue the most winnable opportunities, you can lower business development costs and increase revenue.
Working with a team representing one of several contractors, you’ll cover topics including:
- Analyzing and building knowledge about potential business opportunities
- Understanding competitors and their likely approaches
- Developing strategically sound solutions to the customer’s needs
- Influencing customers to prefer your solution over competitors’
Managing Proposals
Learn essential skills for managing a full proposal or volume in the U.S. federal market space. Develop detailed understating of federal proposal evaluation processes and their impact on proposal planning management.
You will learn to:
- Assess your own proposals like a government evaluation team
- Convert action-based capture strategies into message-based proposal strategies or win themes
- Assign requirements to appropriate authors for coverage in the proposal
- Prepare for and conduct an effective kickoff meeting, including providing clear instructions to authors
- Lead high-performing proposal teams on fast-paced schedules
Writing Proposals
Learn skills related to planning and writing sections in any portion of a proposal. Practice a proven process for planning content and layout of winning proposal sections. You will also learn how to ensure your section will score highly during evaluation through a government evaluation.
You will learn to:
- Plan content using a storyboard to be compliant and implement approved proposal strategies
- Incorporate effective graphics and captions to better communicate messages
- Mockup section layout
- Organize content to be persuasive, write the planned proposal section, and examine the section draft for effectiveness
- Collaborate and coordinate with other team members writing different sections of the proposal
Course Description
This interactive workshop delivered in-person or online builds practical skills through lecture, discussion, and issues-focused exercises. The training addresses critical issues needed to gain a strategic advantage by enhancing the skills of the people who manage and prepare cost volumes:
- Understand typical cost volume content and organization
- Understand how cost volumes are evaluated and what increases cost in evaluation
To best meet the specific needs of each client, this modular workshop may be tailored to a specific audience. For example, managers may want to focus on developing the cost volume and cost volume summary, while contributors may need to focus primarily on how to prepare BOEs, select estimating techniques, and justify the resulting estimates.
OnDemand Advantages
- Learn at your own pace
- Revisit prior modules, as needed
- Practice key principles with case study exercises
- Test understanding with quizzes and a final exam
- Work toward Shipley Business Winning Certification
- Earn APMP CEUs and PMP PDU units
Featured Modules
Completion Criteria
What you'll learn
- Accurate, acceptable, and clearly described pricing methodology and pricing techniques
- Consistency between the cost and non-cost volumes
- Supportable Basis of Estimates (BOEs)
- Narrative that includes strategic messaging that goes beyond simply explaining the numbers
- Including overall and cost volume executive summaries
Benefits of Shipley OnDemand
With no fixed schedule and ample time to go back and review topics as needed, our on-demand course offers you an effective use of your time and training investment. In addition, our OnDemand— Micro Course provides:
- Reinforcement of key concepts, principles, and best practices contained in Shipley training
- Access to Shipley’s best practice guidebooks for ongoing reference and guidance
- Convenient log-in to learning sites wherever you have web access
Who Should Attend?
- Account Managers
- Sales Professionals
- Proposal Writers
- Capture Managers
- Anyone who contributes to Cost Volumes
Topics Covered
Certification
Below are the credits earned for this course and remaining credits needed to complete Shipley Certification.
- Earned: 1 Elective Learning Unit for Winning in the Cost Volume
- Remaining: 6 Core Learning Units for Capture Management, Proposal Management, and Proposal Writing; 3 Elective Learning Units
Cancellation Policy
Change Policy: If you cannot attend a workshop for which you have registered, you may transfer to another workshop of equal value, or you may substitute attendees from your company without penalty.
Cancellation Policy: If you cancel your registration, a $75 processing fee will be charged on all cancellations made up to 14 days in advance of the workshop start date. For cancellations made 14 days or less prior to the start of a workshop, a Cancellation Fee of $400 will be charged. If you do not attend a workshop and do not advise us, the full price of registration will be charged. Shipley Associates may cancel a workshop if enrollment is not sufficient and will coordinate your attendance in another workshop.
Discounts
If you register 30 days prior to the start of this workshop, enter EARLYBIRD at checkout to receive $100 off your registration fee!
Active duty military, veterans, and those with certifications from the Project Management Institute (PMI) or Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) are eligible for an additional discount. Please contact mprice@shipleywins.com for details and discount code.
Workshop Length
- 1 Day
- 1 Elective Unit
Workshop Material
- Workshop reference materials
- Shipley Proposal Guide™
Module Length
Cost
Course Subscription
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OnDemand Course
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