Does Your Firm 'Price To Win' or Just 'Price' Federal Bids? (08-08-2003)

Recent statistics show that 80% of all Federal IT contract awards are made to the lowest priced, acceptable offeror.

We at CAI/SISCo have long known that proposals rarely win bids outright, but can be responsible for outright losses. Notwithstanding, most bidders still spend like drunken sailors preparing 'acceptable' proposals and much more frugally on identifying the competition and developing a winning price by means of a formal Price To Win (PTW) process. To underscore this imbalance, the Association of Proposal Management Professionals' (APMP) emerging Business Development Capability Maturity Model (BD-CMM) process presently deals exclusively with proposal development as if proposals alone, not their prices, were responsible for 80% of recent wins. Food for thought?

A successful proposal should always:

• demonstrate that the bidder understands the customer and the problem to be solved;
• provide a comprehensive overview of the solution and a credible process for implementing it successfully; and
• provide a solid, believable plan for actually doing the work post-award.

When all is said and done, however, it appears to be the bidder's price that really turns the customer's head. During the past 25 years, CAI/SISCo has specialized in performing PTW studies to facilitate wins for complex Federal IT, C&E and S&T opportunities. The 'Corporate Overview' page of our Web Site now contains a downloadable version of our corporate capabilities presentation and details of some of the major recent wins we have supported. We have the processes, the tools, the experience, the expertise and the pre-positioned databases required to rapidly develop credible 'design-to' and other PTW analyses. Our firm also provides training and consulting services to help customers better understand and incorporate PTW disciplines into their business development processes.

Please call us with questions or comments. We look forward to having the opportunity to serve your company and help your improve your win rates.