144: Jon Barker - Crushing the pricing game in government contracting

This week’s podcast is my conversation with Jon Barker Founder at PTW (plan-position-price | target | win) Solutions Inc., he helps companies figure out the correct pricing to win government bids. He has spent the last 15 years as Contract and Consultant Administrator, Contracts Manager, Director of Contracts and Deputy Director of Contracts for a slew of companies from 2k employees up to 90K employees. Additionally Jon provided strategic support for an emerging small business that eventually went public. Pricing is more of an art than science particularly when it comes to government contracting. You think it may be simple but the truth is pricing cost-plus or T&M contracts can be a bear. “Here’s the beauty of it. When you’re talking with larger companies, those rates are set. When you’re talking to smaller companies, they have a lot more flexibility. They’re not on the radars of these agencies... The smaller you are, the more of an art it is to be able to be clever with the numbers and figure out where you can ship those costs.” – Jon Barker In this episode we discuss Jon’s Go-to’s data sources for pricing. He shares the tools and systems he used to do contract management for large firms where he provides contract administration. Let’s welcome our next Giant, Mr. Jon Barker.