One of the most important driver for the development of competitive products is the cost. Despite most of the companies are focusing at the procurement stage (strategic sourcing) to reduce the cost of a product, around 80% of the final cost is determined at the design stage. Several software tools are currently available for Design to Cost. On the other side, “should cost” software tools allow to support the procurement phase. However, scienitific and industrial communities are missing an holistic “should costing” framework (method and tool) that accompany the product development process from design until procurement. To overcome this limitation, the paper presents a holistic “should costing” approach that integrates “should cost” and Design to Cost methodologies, covering design, engineering and procurement stages. Since dedicated software tools for “should costing” are required for the right implementation of this methodology, the paper describes stakeholders' requirements for a benchmarking of such tools. The proposed “should costing” frameworjk has been adopted by a couple of companies (product manufacturers), describing their background, deployment process and achieved results. The manuscript ends with a list of the most important benefits of this approach.