Price-To-Win Analysis & Consultation Services
In this competitive contracting environment having a superior technical proposal that is compliant is simply not enough. Too often, bidders are beat on price and all the effort and resources that went into developing the proposal is wasted; at least until the opportunity presents itself again on recompete.
SAS-GPS is committed to creating an equally compelling pricing strategy to increase your chances of an award. If you’ve experienced too many losses recently due in whole or in part to pricing, let our team support your next effort.
We know that getting a foothold on your pricing is a complicated task. Our experts are up to that task and can walk you through the process from start to finish.
Overview Of Our Pricing Services
All companies, small, medium or large, can apply for government bids. If you are looking to improve your revenue streams with government contracts, SAS-GPS writers have ample experience in various industries to help you write compelling bid responses.
If you need to merge the nuances of CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement), SCA (Service Contract Act), and exempt labor classes together into a cohesive model that stays true to the characteristics of each category, the SAS-GPS team can provide the solution.
We use the unique cost elements related to your company and the opportunity you are pursuing to develop a full pricing model that meets the solicitation requirements.
Elements of this model will often find themselves in the Pricing Volume as the Wrap Rates or FBLR (Fully Burdened Labor Rates) in addition to being submission-ready if the opportunity requires evidence of the rate buildups as many so often do.
We’ll handle scheduling and leading calls to collect data from your business and your proposed subcontractors. No headache for you, and a more likely win from your proposal.
Facing a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable opportunity and want some guidance on how to bid it? We can help! Knowing where and how to trim cost elements and bid an LPTA contract can make the difference between your proposal never being reviewed and being the first one selected for evaluation.
Increasingly, the evaluation of LPTA opportunities is as simple as reviewing the lowest bid for price realism, and if the technical and past performance are found to be acceptable, the evaluation process is over…no other proposals are reviewed regardless of how superior their technical or past performance may be or how close the pricing.
Many companies have a misimpression that a superior technical approach will allow them to price as they wish on a Best Value (BV) opportunity; many of these companies continue to lose out to other bidders that understand there is a range and better yet, how to bid within that range for the win.
The first step is to know what the floor is so the BV range can be identified. We’ll take the guesswork out of this process by calculating that floor and the optimum BV bid range to enhance your chances for an award.
Want to know what to pay a certain labor category at a certain level for a certain location? We can assist with the time-consuming and often frustrating task of arriving at a salary to pay an individual.
SAS-GPS will pull the important aspects of a solicitation-provided position description and conduct research on those elements to arrive at a proper salary or salary range for a given location.
Though there are many factors to consider for salary targets, location, experience, education, direct report aspects, and clearance levels are some of the more common and important criteria that affect pay.
Make informed decisions regarding your bid based on the competitive analysis SAS-GPS can perform. We’ll work to identify interested companies likely to bid on your opportunity, construct a competing model based upon the solicitation constraints, and suggest strategies to mitigate a competitors’ likely approach.
Incumbents often choose our service to better understand how a competitor will work to unseat them during recompete.
This service is for those who’ve done all the work but are still unsure of certain cost elements or would simply like a professional review of their model and pricing strategies before submission.
We’ll review your model and assumptions, offer suggestions for improvement, and ensure your model is complete, compliant, and competitive.
Overlooking a cost element, such as Clearance costs to be borne by the contractor, can make a significant impact on profitability if unaccounted for.
Are you confident your pricing is competitive?
Pricing is one of the most important factors when it comes to deciding whether you are competitive for any given contract.
COMPETITIVE
SAS-GPS will assist you in achieving the competitive range for the type of opportunity you’re pursuing.
Though the client has the ultimate decision in regards to price and the various cost elements, as your advisers, we will team up with you to review any components that could be approached differently to better your bid.
STRATEGY
There are certain strategies and methods that can be applied to ensure the price is appropriate for the opportunity.
For LPTA, having any non-required cost elements as part of a proposal will most likely lead to a loss.
For Best Value, knowing how to assess your differentiators is just as important as ensuring you are bidding within the competitive range.
ACCURACY
We review all pricing to ensure its integrity. Depending upon the complexity of an opportunity, different formulas must be used appropriately and consistently while any information pulled from other areas in the model must be precisely targeted to ensure an accurate price.
COMPLIANCE
All cost elements are identified and appropriately accounted for during our review of the opportunity.
These elements are then populated into a uniquely prepared pricing model for our clients. The typical output of the model is either a direct submission requirement or is used to complete a provided evaluation model such as a government price evaluation model.
Speak with one of our pricing
consultants about your next project:
BEN WHITE
Pricing Consultant
Email: info@salescampaigns.com
Office: 262-754-8712
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
SAS-GPS offers a full suite of government pricing services: Pricing Model Development, price-to-win analysis, LPTA and Best Value bid guidance, salary surveys, competitive analysis and intelligence, and pricing model review. Each service is designed to help contractors build a compliant, competitive, and financially sound price for their government bid, whether as a standalone engagement or as part of full proposal development.
Price-to-win analysis is a research-driven process used to estimate the price most likely to win a government contract. SAS-GPS gathers data on incumbent contracts, labor rates, agency budgets, and competitor profiles to define a target price range. From there, the team works with you to reach that target by identifying efficiencies, adjusting your approach, or determining whether the pursuit is financially viable before you invest further resources in the bid.
Pricing Model Development is a service where SAS-GPS builds a complete, submission-ready pricing model tailored to your company and the specific opportunity you are pursuing. This includes integrating Collective Bargaining Agreements, Service Contract Act wage determinations, and exempt labor classifications into a cohesive model. The output is typically a set of fully burdened labor rates or wrap rates that are compliant, competitive, and ready to drop into your proposal.
SAS-GPS identifies the companies most likely to bid on your opportunity, builds a competing pricing model based on solicitation constraints, and recommends strategies to counter their likely approach. This service is especially valuable for incumbents facing a recompete who want to understand how challengers may try to undercut them on price, and for new entrants who need to understand the competitive landscape before committing to a pursuit.
Yes. SAS-GPS can research and establish the right salary or salary range for a specific labor category, level, and location. The analysis accounts for factors including geographic location, experience level, education, supervisory responsibilities, and clearance requirements, drawing directly from the relevant position descriptions in the solicitation to produce a defensible and competitive salary target.
Yes. The SAS-GPS Pricing Review service is designed for contractors who have completed their pricing work internally but want a professional review before submission. The team evaluates your model and assumptions, identifies gaps or overlooked cost elements, and confirms the model is complete, compliant, and competitive. This is particularly useful for catching items like contractor-borne clearance costs or benefit loadings that are easy to miss and can significantly affect your profitability and competitiveness.
Yes. SAS-GPS works with both prime contractors and subcontractors on pricing as a standalone service. For primes, the team works with subcontractor rate structures and incorporates them into the overall pricing model, often in an advisory capacity where the sub retains control of their own numbers. For subcontractors bidding into a prime’s team, SAS-GPS can help you develop a competitive, defensible price to bring to the arrangement.
In an LPTA evaluation, the lowest-priced bid that meets minimum technical requirements wins. If your price is not the lowest, your proposal may never be fully reviewed. In a Best Value evaluation, the government weighs technical quality and price together. SAS-GPS helps you identify which evaluation type applies to your opportunity and builds a pricing strategy accordingly, whether that means cutting costs aggressively for LPTA or finding the optimal bid range for a Best Value award.
Most contractors underestimate how narrow the competitive pricing range actually is. A strong technical proposal earns you a seat at the table, but if your price falls outside the competitive range, even the best technical score will not save the award. SAS-GPS helps you calculate the pricing floor, identify where the competitive range sits, and position your price to win rather than simply to justify your costs.
Recompetes require a different pricing lens than new pursuits. The incumbent has a cost baseline the government already knows, and challengers will attempt to undercut it. SAS-GPS builds a competitive model that accounts for the incumbent’s likely loaded rates, wage determination changes, and any scope shifts in the recompete solicitation, so you can position your price to either defend or displace, depending on which side you are on.
As early as possible. Pricing strategy work can begin as soon as the RFP is released, and earlier engagement gives you more time to analyze the competitive landscape, evaluate your approach, and build a model before deadline pressure sets in. Note that a complete pricing model cannot be finalized until the solicitation is in hand, since requirements, labor categories, and evaluation criteria are all document-dependent. SAS-GPS can engage at any point in the proposal cycle, but the earlier you start, the stronger your position.
Every pricing engagement begins with a scoping phase: SAS-GPS reviews your solicitation documents and meets with your team to understand your needs, competitive positioning, and level of engagement required. From there, the team establishes a structure for the engagement and identifies the specific artifacts, inputs, and meetings needed to move forward. The solicitation documents are always required upfront. Everything else, including labor data, existing rate structures, and teaming information, is determined during the scoping meeting based on the opportunity, the industry, and the scope of work.
A price-to-win analysis typically takes 5 to 10 business days. The timeline depends on the complexity of the opportunity, the availability of competitive data, and the scope of the engagement. Turnaround is confirmed during the initial scoping meeting so you know what to expect before work begins.
Pricing support is billed hourly, with scope and estimated cost determined at the start of the engagement. Total cost will vary based on the complexity of the opportunity, the scope of work, and the timeline. Pricing is discussed during an initial consultation before any work begins.
No. The final pricing decision always belongs to the client. SAS-GPS serves as your advisor, providing competitive research, pricing intelligence, and strategic recommendations so you can make an informed decision. The team helps you understand the landscape, the risks, and the tradeoffs, but the number that goes on your bid is always yours to approve.
A wrap rate is a multiplier applied to a base labor rate to produce a fully burdened rate that covers fringe benefits, overhead, general and administrative costs, and profit. In a government bid, your wrap rates directly affect how competitive your labor pricing is. A wrap rate that is too high can price you out of the competitive range, while one that is too low may signal a compliance problem or hurt your profitability if you win. SAS-GPS builds pricing models with wrap rates that are both competitive and defensible.
FAR compliance is built into every pricing model SAS-GPS develops. The team applies applicable FAR cost principles, incorporates Service Contract Act wage determinations and Collective Bargaining Agreements where required, and structures cost elements to align with the solicitation’s pricing instructions. For contractors subject to cost accounting requirements, cost classifications and allocations are structured to be defensible under scrutiny.