Unlike the situation a year ago, the second half of the fiscal 2013 contracting year includes the added dilemma resulting from sequestration. The pain and turmoil your small business is facing due to contract cuts or lack of funding is real.

So while it may look ever more daunting to win contract awards as in years past, there are a recommended set of marketing and business development functions that should occur, or continue to occur, especially through July.

Over the next two months, your marketing and business development efforts should become laser focused. Let’s discuss the “what” and “how to”:

Strengthen Agency Relationships

Articulate your business capabilities relative to an agency objective or project outcome. Circle back to existing contacts or create new relationships (i.e., small business, contracting specialists, program managers, stakeholders.)

Determine if the agency uses its own small business database and upload your capabilities. Is the agency on track to meet its small business objectives? Is your SAM (System for Awards Management) listing active and updated?

Develop Prime Contractor Relationships

Target an upcoming contract at a target agency where you have an established presence as a current contractor, or have performed substantial marketing, or understand the agency requirement.

If this is your first outreach effort to the prime contractor, ensure that you open your conversation with a general benefit statement about “why” the prime would benefit from adding your company to their team. Do you offer institutional knowledge? Will you be heavily involved in the proposal response?

If this is a Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), what plan does your company have to assist the prime with post award marketing efforts?

Make it easy to do business with your company

Identify the agency’s planned acquisition strategy. Understand what contracting vehicles are going to be utilized. Are you a GSA Schedule contract holder? Are you currently on a GWAC Team? If you do not hold the contract vehicles, identify a potential teaming partner that would be willing to include you on their team. It won’t matter if you have a great solution if there is no way for the agency to quickly and easily access your product or services.

Respond to RFI and Sources Sought Notices

Market research conducted through Sources Sought Notices or Requests for Information gives the government the opportunity to identify potential small business sources. It is imperative that your company respond, in order for the procurement to be set-aside for a small business.

When sufficient viable Sources Sought responses are collected, the solicitation can be set-aside, avoiding a full and open competition. Address the Sources Sought response as directed. Don’t elaborate. Don’t simply upload your standard corporate capability statement.

Proper responses serve as a major way to market your capabilities. They should be concise, grammatically correct, and spelling error free.

After the Sources Sought responses are collected, your company should follow up with the contracting office or program office, if you do not receive any feedback or notice that a solicitation is going to be released on FBO.gov.

One-on-One Agency Meetings

Perform your due diligence on upcoming agency requirements and structure your capabilities presentation to address the “value” your company brings to the table. Prior to your meeting, review the agency’s acquisition forecast and select at least one opportunity that your company would like to pursue.

Present your company as having done its homework. Your meeting should always result in a “next step”. For example, you could request a meeting to perform a detailed solution or capabilities briefing with a program official. Or, it may simply be a request to follow up within the month to see if your company can do something to help the agency.

Communications

Your written and verbal communication should be concise, emphasizing key bullet points. Many listeners “actively listen” for the first twenty seconds, and a reader needs to know within the first couple of sentences why they should continue to read. So, ensure that you convey the important content at the onset of your conversation or email.

If you are making a telephone call, always assume that your call is an interruption. Ask the receiver “is this is a good time for a brief conversation”. If they respond yes, briefly state “why” you are calling and what it is that either they can do for you, or what you would like to present. Leave a voice message only if you are asking for a specific action.

Finally, there are many funded acquisitions that will occur in the final two quarters of FY 2013. Follow the funds.

Lynn Jenkins is CEO of Celero International, a professional services training and capture management firm located in Silver Spring, MD. Celero supports small, minority, woman owned, and veteran owned businesses in achieving their revenue goals. Celero International also delivers professional service to the federal, state & local government market. She can be reached at lkjenkins@celerointernational.com.