Where and when is a little knowledge a dangerous thing? Sometimes, when it’s time to rebid a government contract in the federal marketplace, knowing more than your competitors do can be the beginning of the end. In other words, when you are the incumbent—that is, the company that currently owns the contract and who has […]
Read More… from When It’s Time to Rebid a Contract: Avoiding Incumbentitis
Developing Aggressive Pricing: Overhead vs. G&A The government contracting arena is filled with words, phrases, and acronyms that can be difficult for the less experienced to define, let alone distinguish subtle differences between. G&A (General and Administrative) costs and OH (Overhead) costs are two good examples. What do they mean and, more importantly, what are […]
Read More… from PTW (Price to Win) G&A vs. Overhead in Developing Aggressive Costs
When you’re looking for a ballpark estimate, an analogous (AKA “back of the envelope”) calculation may be all you need. After a quick look at the budget over the last five years, you can do a quick run rate, determine trends in play, and extrapolate those numbers into a rough estimate. Ultimately, this technique is […]
Read More… from Parametric Price to Win (PTW) Analysis: When & How to Use It to Win More Work
SWOT analyses have been around a long time, and continue to be popular in the business development community. Unfortunately, the vast majority of SWOT analyses are essentially useless—not because the tool is broken, but because it’s not being used properly. The ultimate goal of a SWOT analysis is to produce actionable intelligence—and yet that is […]
The way you handle sunk costs when attempting to break into a new market in the federal contracting arena can be the difference between success and failure. Deciding how best to treat these costs depends on how well you understand the difference between a “sunk cost” and a “relevant (or future)” cost, so let’s start […]
Read More… from Barriers to New Market Entry: Sunk v. Relevant Costs
A common misperception is that “competitive intelligence” is synonymous with “corporate espionage.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Corporate espionage is an illegal activity where companies steal valuable information from their competitors in order to gain a competitive advantage. It may involve tactics such as wiretapping or hacking into proprietary systems to gain unauthorized […]
Read More… from Gathering Competitive Intelligence Ethically
Riddle me this. If knowledge is power, is it ever possible to know too much? If you watch the 1956 blockbuster “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” you’ll find that Alfred Hitchcock apparently thought so, especially if that “man” was dabbling in the world of international espionage. But what about the humble government contractor? Is […]
Read More… from Is An Incumbent “The Man Who Knew Too Much?”
Capture teams in the government contracting world spend a lot of time trying to determine the right balance of solutions and strategies that will differentiate them from their competitors and make them more attractive to their customers. Deciding how best to position your company, understanding what your competitors know about you, and analyzing how that […]
Read More… from OutsideIn™ Analysis: Seeing Yourself As Others See You
A big part of winning a deal in the federal marketplace depends on how effective your PTW (Price-to-Win) strategy, or position, is. Keep in mind that a winning PTW position starts with a bottom-up analysis based on the requirements spelled out in the solicitation documents, but it doesn’t stop there. In order to arrive at […]
Read More… from Price-to-Win: The Trade-off Between Capabilities & Price
Winning government contracts requires a lot of preparation. Would-be contractors spend hundreds of hours developing capture strategies and crafting compelling proposals, as well as (hopefully) assessing the competition. A successful competitive intelligence effort will identify the overall approach, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each credible competitor, but this requires early identification of […]
Read More… from Identifying Your Competitors: How Wide Should You Cast Your Net?
