The answer is a resounding, yes! Over the past fifteen years the Government Contractors Association has worked with thousands of companies helping them win over $2 billion in government contracts.
To put that into perspective, if you stacked $100 bills flat on top of each other, one million dollars would be about 18” high. One billion dollars would be 250 ft…, higher than the Empire State Building, a total of 1500 feet. Most of us can’t even conceive a billion dollars, yet the federal government spends about $750 billion dollars per year with companies just like yours. Isn’t it time you got your fair share?
Winning Formula:
If you have a desire to win government contracts this formula could be just what you’ve been looking for. The formula is pretty straight forward. It is P+P+P+P=P. Now that you have the formula you are good to go. Good Luck!!
Okay, fine, here’s the formula in depth.
Preparation + Promotion + Proposal + Performance = Profit
Preparation:
In the preparation phase, you assess where your business is. When you use a GPS or phone for navigation, the first thing it must do is to determine where you are. The same thing is true in your government contracting business.
Did you know that labor laws and communication rules are different, even the way you’re allowed to market to government agencies has specific rules.
What is your strategy to be successful? Will you start at the federal level or maybe the state, city and county level? Will you be a prime contractor or a subcontractor? Will you deliver products or services, or both? Which one will be the fastest way to be successful in the government market?
Are you educated in the language of government contracting? “We call that language governese.” If you moved to a foreign country and did not speak the language, it would be very difficult to be successful. The same is true in the government market. If you don’t know the meaning of acronyms like IDIQ, GWAC, BPA, OTA, UCC, CFR, NADA, MATOC, SATOC and WAWF, you will look risky to government agencies, and they won’t want to do business with you.
Lastly, in the preparation phase, are you registered with the proper entities? Do you know what certifications will be best for you and which ones might be a waste of your time?
As you can see, being prepared, will help you achieve success, much more quickly in the government market.
Promotion:
The promotion phase of the formula helps you understand three specific concepts that are critical.
First, how do you build a brand or an image that is attractive to government buyers. It is completely different than the commercial market. Many of the tools that you’ve used in the past to build a brand will not be applicable when trying to win government contracts.
Once you build an attractive brand what are the rules around marketing to government agencies? Are you allowed to send them gifts? If so what’s the dollar value of those gifts you’re allowed to send? What’s the most effective way to find the people that you want to market to?
The third, and the most important, section of the promotion phase, is relationship building. Building relationships will be the most important thing you ever do in your government contracting business. You probably have heard, people buy from people they know, like, and trust. The biggest challenge for many businesses, new to the government market, is they have no idea who to build relationships with, and how to develop those relationships because it’s completely different than the commercial market.
Proposal:
In the proposal phase, you will need to decide what type of opportunities you’re looking for and where to look for them. For many businesses, the problem is not finding enough opportunities to bid on, it is that there are too many opportunities to bid on. Understanding how to choose the best place for you to look for opportunities will make your journey much easier.
Once you find an opportunity that is good for you, how do you write a proposal that speaks to government buyers? Do you know what’s most important to them? Do you know how to write a proposal that follows all the rules? I was on a call with several government contractors a few weeks ago, one of the people on the call said he was part of a proposal team that spent millions of dollars creating a proposal for a huge government contract. When they submitted it, the administrative contracting officer sent them a response, saying it was non-compliant, and would not even be reviewed. OUCH!
Performance:
In the performance phase, there are three areas to think about.
One-How do you perform in a way that an agency wants to do business with you over and over?
Two-What are the communications and paperwork rules that you need to follow?
Three-How do you do billing in a way that makes it easier for the contracting officer to get you paid?
Just because you’ve been successful, delivering your product or service in the commercial market, doesn’t mean government agencies will be happy with the way you’re doing business. ☺ It is important to understand the rules and regulations.
Another part of the performance phase is compliance. In the commercial market, if you violate OSHA rules or EEOC rules or even labor laws, your customer will probably never know or care about it. In the government market that is not true. Cybersecurity is an area that the government is very serious about, especially if you’re working with the Department of Defense. They have very specific rules around how you keep information secure that you receive from, and share with, the government. The standard is called Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. If you don’t have your CMMC certification there will be many contracts you’re not even allowed to bid on.
The last part of the performance phase Is called closure. In the commercial market when you finish a job you send the final invoice and you’re done. The government market is different in that the contracting officer has a great deal of work to do during the closure of a contract. You need to communicate with the contracting officer, several weeks or even months in advance, depending on the size of the contract, before contract completion. You want to make sure they have everything they need from you, so their job is easier. That way they want to do business with you again. If they have to keep asking you for documentation or information, they will not want to do business with you in the future.
Profit:
The last “P” in our formula is profit. While all businesses need profit to continue to operate, that cannot be your primary focus. Hopefully, you don’t do what you do just for the money, but you do it because you believe in it and you’re good at it. Government agencies want you to be profitable–if you give them good service, they would like to do business with you over and over again. They much prefer to use a contractor they know than to find a new one.
Conclusion:
The US federal government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world and there are many opportunities for you to be able to be of service. When done well, government contracting can provide you the opportunity to earn millions of dollars. When done poorly government contracting can take a lot of time and money without any return on your investment.
I hope this article has provided useful insight for you and will help you to be amazingly successful on your journey into government contracting.
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