Helping small businesses win contracts- BD and Capture for IT firms (see contract wins in LinkedIn Recommendations) Helping feds transition to private sector.
Meeting with Small Business Representatives - Best practice #1 – Make sure you don’t sound like a newbie. I have heard companies complain that Small Business Representatives (SBRs) don’t help them. They want the SBRs listen to their capabilities briefs and then: ❎ hold their hands, ❎ find a problem for the solutions they say they can provide, ❎ identify the people with those problems, and ❎ make introductions. It’s probably too much. But to get even close to that, you can’t behave and introduce your firm as a newbie. Sometimes companies that have decades of experience with government contracting don’t present themselves the right way. If you show up to the meeting unprepared, the SBR will treat you as a newbie, even if you are not. They may still help you a little bit, because that’s part of their job, but in my experience their job is also to filter out companies that they don’t think will: ☑ behave professionally, ☑ make things as easy as possible to everybody involved, ☑ fulfill the requirement they are targeting. It’s hard to imagine a Small Business Representative, just as an example, introducing a company to a PM when that company is not doing a good job of presenting themselves as experienced professionals. You’ve got to show yourself to be confident and knowledgeable during the interaction, and you need to show that you understand the agency: their mission, their culture, the projects they’re working on, their hierarchical structure. You can find this information online or consulting with people you know. If you are in contact with someone at the agency, like a CIO or a PM or a branch chief, you can mention them to the SBR. Another way to show that you’re not a newbie is to demonstrate that you understand the environment: program, systems, requirements, forecasts, events. I think the concept is simple, and almost anyone can do this, no need to be a genius. It’s just a matter of being intentional: don’t show up unprepared, don’t show up as a newbie! -- All this and more in my upcoming book: Business Development for Government Contractors #smallbusiness #8a #smallanddisadvantagedbusiness #businessdevelopment #governmentcontractors #governmentcontracting #govcon #federalacquisition #federalprocurement #CEOsGuide
