To
explore new territory, hire a guide who's been there and knows the
paths to take........and the pitfalls to avoid.
For organizations considering
Government contracting as a possible "safe harbor" to offset the
commercial or other business they may have lost in this challenging current
economy, preparation and understanding are essential given how different this
very "new territory" is.
Not Business as Usual Not understanding that prior success in commercial contracting is no guarantee of successfully bidding on government contracts can be an expensive lesson learned by companies that treat government as just another line of business. Stories are numerous of companies not located near major concentrations of government agencies and procurement that decide it's time to pursue this area. So they hire a VP of *Business Development to open an office in an area such as our Washington, DC and Northern Virginia metro area, then wonder why, after four or five months, they don't have any contracts.
All agencies
Critical Success Factors To have any chance of success in the government contracting arena, organizations must prepare and train to learn every one of the hundreds (some would say thousands) of factor areas where this business is like nothing they've ever encountered in the commercial business world. These range from the sales cycle -- to rules and regulations -- to terminology -- to a very different type of buyer. In addition, special staffing, hiring requirements and job responsibilities not typically found or required in commercial business are critical to government contracting success.
Terms such as "SADBU" or "Fed Biz Opps" or
"8a" or "IDIQ" don't exist in commercial contracting. In order for the newcomer to government contracting to have any chance of success, these and hundreds of other term and concepts must be understood. We provide training, from basic orientation on terms, rules, and processes to detailed workshops on how to develop and submit winning bids and proposals. As listed below, we also provide clients with the specific skill categories required to be successful. We also help organizations develop strategies on how to hire these positions when they're ready to do so.
Transmitting opportunity
For client success, we provide:
Oral presentation coaches
Proposal managers
Executive and Red Team reviewers
Experienced trainers
Communication coaches
Expert editors
Business development strategy developers
Special document consultants for
specific applications (web site, executive summary and presentation
packages for potential investors, business cards, and resumes for new jobs
and career change).
Our
guidance and support have helped clients win more than $6B worth of contracts in:
full and open
competitions
small-business set asides
sole source contracts
SBIR awards
Our clients include SDVOB-Service-disabled Veteran Owned Businesses,8a, SDB-Small Disadvantaged Business, SWOB-Small Woman-owned Businesses, and SBE-Small Business Enterprises that range in size from small with $1M in sales to very large prime contractors with over
$60B in sales. As a partial list, targeted agencies include:
Defense/Military
Services
Homeland Security
FAA
Civilian agencies( Justice, PTO, etc.)
National Park Service
USDA
A
partial list of products/services includes:
Information Technology
(I/T),
facilities and operations management,
engineering services,
training & simulation systems,
LAN/WAN, SAN
optical display information
systems,
TEMPEST workstations,
standard workstations,
hardware and
software.
Bid media have included white papers, written proposals, oral presentations, and video presentations.
Selling to the Government: Summary
Newcomers
to the multi-billion dollar but very complex government procurement
process are amazed when they realize how different government contracting is from the commercial world. Especially when they learn that 1" margins are critical, or that
government RFPs (Request for Proposals) may require bidding companies
to deliver an oral presentation as part of their bid and proposal submission, but also that the RFPs specify who must, and who may not, deliver the presentation and even who can and who cannot be in the room.
Contact us today at gov-plan@ccsincorp.com for team and individual proposal training, oral presentation skill development, Red-team reviewers for your critical bids, and business development strategies.
