“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work.” Thomas Edison
Those that wait for a Government solicitation (RFP) to land at their door miss their chance at giving critical input during the early stages of the government procurement process. Industry feedback advises the Government’s changes and adjustments to RFPs — PRIOR TO RELEASE, perhaps even customizing the solicitation to suppliers who do the job of responding. Continue reading
The Contracting Officer has just sent you the bad news – you were not selected for award. You get your team together to give them this news and you still try to give them the feeling they have done a great job. But, they start to ask, ”what did we miss?” “what segment/section was not compelling enough?”, “we couldn’t have been vague, we went through the Red Team and recovery process exhaustively”, “how could the government have scored the competition higher than us?”, “was our price too high?” These are questions that require specific answers. You turn your mind to trying to give open, honest answers, but you know you need more information. Continue reading
Bidding Jobs: Just Because You CAN Does Not Mean That You SHOULD
Swing for the Fences. Just Do It. Go Big or Go Home. These messages to strive for success at all costs work well on bumper stickers but not one of them is worthy of basing your business practices on.
Most times, recognizing a promising opportunity for getting new business involves nothing more sophisticated than having a gut instinct about being right for the job. But, make no mistake, even obviously promising bids need to be carefully scrutinized before proceeding. Continue reading
Your Proposal Has Been Submitted – Now What?
For the last month or more you put 110% of yourself and your team into preparing your proposal, pushing off other work and life activities in order to meet the submission deadline. Now that it has been submitted, what should you do next? Continue reading
Bridging the Gap: The Value of Hiring Consultants to Grow Your Business
Striving small business owners are often skeptical about the benefits of hiring consultants, “Isn’t outsourcing something that only top earning companies can afford to do? Why pay a consultant for services that my business can do for itself?” Even the savviest of small Government contractors can get caught in the trap of neglecting customer-focused core competencies to attend to the necessary day-to-day operation of their company. Continue reading
Helping Government Contractors Solve Top Business Development Challenges
Have you seen Deltek’s recent results from its 2015 Top Business Development Challenges for Government Contractors survey?
Of the top five challenges, two are critical to a firm’s ability to win:
Preparing for RFPs – Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late” – William Shakespeare
Who among us didn’t pull an all-nighter to write a college term paper? While most of us have improved our time management skills considerably since those days, juggling pressing business demands with the extensive work required to prepare for an upcoming RFP creates a familiar conflict shared by our clients. So often we hear business leaders state that there is plenty of time to prepare for an upcoming procurement – even when the RFP is due out in a matter of weeks. Continue reading
CPARS Evaluations
CPARS evaluations are a critical component of government-contractor communications. When properly utilized they can provide timely feedback on contractor performance, share performance evaluations among government agencies and elevate and resolve lingering issues. Continue reading
Win it, Then do it
I was in a proposal meeting the other day listening to team members discussing their first draft. When the discussion turned to how we were going to win the work – the focus turned to writing about our great technology. It soon became evident that most of the writers had not studied the evaluation criteria which government reviewers would use to decide who would win the contract. Continue reading
The Value of Debriefings – for Winning Teams
So you’ve just won that $500M Single Award Task Order Contract. Your team is celebrating, and rightly so, and you’re preparing for the kick-off meeting.
The furthest thing from your mind is asking for a debriefing. Why bother … you won! Debriefings are for the losers.
Or are they?
In truth – you need a debriefing when you win just as much as when you don’t. Continue reading