Column: Column: Dive in to the year-end rush

      Here we are, just a few days after April Fool’s Day, and it’s already time to gear up for fiscal-year-end. (Coincidence?) Start working now to get ahead of the torrent of solicitations to be posted in the next five months.

Capabilities Statement

      That one-pager is your introduction to contract specialists and small business staffs. Are your address, identifications and NAICS/PSC codes correct? Have you updated the description of your products and services? Are you showcasing your best reference clients?

      The capabilities statement should have enough graphics to be attractive, but use most of the space to describe your company. Use positive words and bullet points. Fluffy language isn’t helpful. Keep it in Word format rather than a pdf format so you can quickly modify it for a specific recipient. You can always output it to a pdf at the last minute and send it to a buyer.

Identify your key contacts

      By now, we hope you have identified and focused on specific agencies and buying offices. You cannot effectively sell to the whole government, or even to an entire department. You can use Set-Aside Alert’s daily Contract Opportunities emails and the USASpending.gov and FBO.gov websites to research the contact information of the government specialists in the specific offices that you want to reach.

      Target the offices that are geographically close, but be aware that buying offices may be far away, and may change from time to time.

      Also target those contracts in which the responsibilities match your unique technical skills and for which you have past performance.

      You can use agency annual acquisition plans to tease out the recurrent requirements and when those opportunities will be up for recompete. The annual plans will also identify the specific contracting or program staff that can help you monitor the agency’s buying plan.

      RFP not on the street yet? Doesn’t matter. Reach out now to get to the buyer while the offer is still being developed. Advise the buyer that your company is a small business with the right capabilities to do the job, on time and at low cost. Ask that the requirement be set-aside for your socioeconomic category. If there are multiple small businesses capable of doing the work, state what you know about it.

      Send your capabilities statement by both email and postal mail to get it in front of those key contacts in targeted offices. Add a short cover letter stating why you think that buyer needs your products or services. If you identified a specific solicitation from the acquisition plan or your data searches, note that in the subject line or the first paragraph of your cover letter.

     Make sure your capabilities statement reflects your skills, capacity and why your company is an exceptional choice to do the work. Include assurances that your company is financially capable and responsible, and that you will be responsive with an offer. Show how your selection will provide best value to the government.

Persistence, persistence, persistence

      Contracting personnel are busy people. They usually have numerous balls in the air at any one time, and these may be distributed across a broad range of requirements. They may be in the midst of a source selection effort on another job or hung up responding to a protest when your capabilities statement drifts in.

      Follow up every two to three weeks with some new piece of information about your company, your skills, your understanding of their need. This may be an announcement of a contract won, an industry award or a new piece of equipment. Achieving ISO or CMMI certification or hiring an industry expert is a cause for contacting the buyer. Increasing your product warranty or giving a quantity discount is a great reason to reach out to the buyer. Use every possible reason to keep in front of the decision-makers.

      Don’t waste time complaining that the buyer is ignoring you. Use different techniques for reaching out: short emails, attachments, postal mail, phone calls, etc. You may learn that the best time to call is 7 a.m. or 4:10 p.m. or just after noon. You may note that a buyer responds to email at midnight. People have many different habits and you are not likely to change them, so learn how to work within their work schedules.

Grease your proposal machine

      The year-end rush is still in its early stages so you have time right now to make your proposal process a smooth-running machine. Update your examples of past performance. Edit all your staff resumes: do you need two or three versions available to suit differing job requirements? Refresh your company organization chart and client list.

     Do you have a capture management or project management system in place? Do you have a collaboration system so that multiple people can be reviewing and revising their pieces of the proposal? Now would be the time to select a new system, get it installed and get the staff trained so it works seamlessly during the rush.

Strategize on pricing

      Plan ahead on how you might sharpen your pencil and tweak your pricing. If you have had a good year already, and covered your annual indirect costs, you may be able to bid now at marginal rates and still make a good profit. On the other hand, if you have had a poor year so far, make sure you are not proposing discounts that drive you further into the red. It may be better not to bid than to bid at a loss and hope to make it up in volume.

Tom Johnson is the publisher of Set-Aside Alert. He may be reached at tjohnson@setasidealert.com.

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Column: Dive in to the year-end rush

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