Selecting Government Contracts for Bid

With tens of thousands of Requests for Proposals available to bid on, selecting government contracts for bid becomes vitally important.  The Federal Government contracting industry is different than other industries.  In this industry, you must adopt business development strategies that create and manage a pipeline of bid opportunities by selecting government contracts for bid that give you the greatest opportunities for success!

Strategies to Selecting Government Contracts for Bid 

Knowing how to write a winning proposal will help you win.  Selecting the right Government Contracts for bid will make you wealthy!

Don’t waste time, money and resources by pursing the wrong government contracts for bid!

Why is evaluating an RFP so important when selecting the right government contracts for bid?  Here’s why.

Would you rather take a test comprised of essays and “fill-in-the-blank” questions on a topic that you’re slightly more familiar or take a 40-question multiple choice exam on a lesser known topic?  Unless you enjoy pain and misery, you’d almost certainly choice the easier test where you automatically have a one-in-four chance of getting the correct answer by simply guessing!  It’s the same for selecting government contracts for bid.   And, here’s the really great news that many bidders realize too late.  If you know where to look, an RFP will tell you what the test will be and how it will be graded.

Understand the evaluation criteria.

Section M of an RFP provides the evaluation criteria used by the selection board to score proposals.  Reading Section M is the fastest way to assess your competitiveness.  But most small business owners largely disregard this section and focus almost exclusively on evaluating the RFP’s technical requirements.

Read Section M of an RFP First!

By knowing how to properly evaluate Section M, you efficiently assess your true competitiveness.  Section M should also guide your bid strategy, aligning the various sections of your proposal with how they will be weighted.

Most small businesses never realize that technical expertise may only represent as little as 15% of your total proposal score.

And, you can always team with a partner to augment your performance in areas where you’re weaker.

Government Contracting Academy will teach how to evaluate and select the best government contracts for bid.  Here’s a hint, it’s not always the ones that align the best with your service offerings.

Effective Pipeline Management for Tracking the Right Government Contracts for Bid

Pipeline management is like playing baseball.

Although it’s important to have a good swing, if you’re swinging at pitches over your head or in the dirt, you’ll never get on base.   Wait for the perfect pitch to come across the middle of the plate and then swing!  And don’t worry about running out of pitches to hit.  The Federal Government “throws tens of thousands of pitches” every year in the form of Requests for Proposals (RFPs).  And, remember…

You don’t have to hit every pitch, or even most pitches. You just need to make great contact when you do hit the ball!

Batting .100 (10% success) in the Major Leagues gets you sent back to the Minor Leagues. However, batting .100 in at proposal writing in the Federal Government market space can make you rich!

Do you know why?

Having No “Outs” in Writing Proposals Creates Amazing Business Growth

There are no “outs” in writing proposals. In this industry, there are costs to failing, but no penalties. Instead, the industry only rewards success.

Here’s how.

If you have the time and resources to bid on 15 opportunities per year with “significant” financial returns, then you have over an 80% probability of winning a contract every year!  Since most contracts are 4-5 years in duration, the win probability could likely result in winning 3 to 4 additional contracts before your first contract is ready to be re-competed!  This allows you to stack the profitability of each awarded government contract, creating wealth.  Choosing the right government contracts for bid can make you wealthy!

Choosing the Right Government Contracts for Bid to Create REAL Wealth

The “right” government contracts for bid have two equally important components.  First, these government contracts are the ones where you have a better opportunity of winning. “Better” means:

• Aligned to your specific credentials
• Relevant to your experience

As equally important, the “right” government contract for bid must give you something of meaningful value.  Otherwise, what’s the value in winning the contract?  This value may be:

• Significant profit
• Strategic access to a new customer or market
• Makes you more appealing for an acquisition.

The Right Business Opportunities

Your pipeline should only include the “right” government contracts for bid opportunities. Ideally, you want to be tracking three “right” opportunities for every time period.  RFPs are frequently postponed, rescheduled or even cancelled and re-released during future fiscal years.  Therefore, you don’t want to be sitting on your hands for an entire month when an RFP is postponed.  You simply want to start working on one of your contingency government contracts for bid!

Government Contracting Academy will help you develop and manage a robust pipeline based upon RFPs that are “right” for your goals and company.

#3  Adding Customer Value through Organic Growth

“Every dollar that you lose because you didn’t keep your customer happy is a dollar that must be replaced.” 

– Randy Wimmer, Government Contracting Academy

 

Promote Organic Business Growth

The easiest dollar to make is the one you keep by making your existing customers happy.  The second easiest dollar to make is expanding your services or offerings to customers who already know and love you.  In most cases, additional paid work through organic growth can be easily added to your existing contract through a simple contract modification.  There is NO COMPETITION!

 

In case you missed the subtlety of organic growth, the benefits are:

• You do not have to compete for this work!
• Without competition, you can typically price this work with more profit.
• The customer appreciates NOT having to write an RFP and sponsor a solicitation.
• When done properly, additional value is provided to your customer.

 

Simply stated, organic growth is a win-win situation.  It not not only generates additional revenue, it provides better customer support while “protecting” your existing dollars.

 

If organic growth is so great, why don’t more companies focus on organic growth as part of their business development strategies?  Simply put, most employees directly supporting customers have been conditioned to believe that “business development” is a necessary evil that doesn’t help their customers. However, they could not be more wrong.

 

Create a Customer Support Culture

The biggest challenge to having a strong organic growth program is developing the right customer support culture.  The folks directly supporting your customers know their risks, challenges and opportunities.  The trick is how to get their knowledge in front of their customers.  Industry “insiders” develop programs that put their contract teams “in front of their customers’ needs” and leveraging simple one-page white papers that lead to both increased customer value and organic growth.

 

Government Contracting Academy shares how to establish a customer support culture and an organic growth program.