An Offer You Can’t Refuse By Doug Allston President, Advantage Consulting An enthusiastic client reported getting a call from someone in the government who encouraged them to bid on a project – “a bluebird opportunity.” I have had this happen several times to clients over the years. So how do you make sure you do not waste your time while not missing out on a real “bluebird?” Most of the time the government is only looking for bidders; in other words, you do not have any chance of winning the contract. You are “cannon fodder” – just one more bidder. But there are those few occasions when it is real and the government for some reason has singled you out. My advice is very simple. If the government is looking at your company just to get another bid and you are “cannon fodder,” they will not spend much time with you. After you get the initial call, a senior manager should call the contract specialist back to ask questions about the contract. My experience has been that when you are “cannon fodder” they will spend no more then 20 minutes talking with you and will not give you any other contact points. If they are willing to talk with you for more then 20 minutes and they give you additional contact points, such as the government project manager, then this is a real opportunity and you should bid it. In one example, a contract involving 54 people, the government contract specialist spent more than three hours on the phone and then gave my client the contact information for the project manager. The project manager ended up talking with my client for another three hours. My client won. They won because the government wanted someone other then the incumbent. They picked my client because there were government people involved who knew about my client from a previous life – in other words our business development Golden Rule number one – Know and be known by the government. In this case being known was all that was necessary. Doug Allston can be reached at dallston@acibiz.com or 703-627-5820.