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By B. Michael Berger,
Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
". . . know when to walk away, know when to run . . . "
Kenny Rogers was, of course, singing about a hand of cards when he wrote
these lyrics, but they can be easily applied to other aspects of our
lives.
For example, in the
present government market environment firms win contracts, obtains task
orders, and successfully markets goods and services via GSA schedules,
and with luck, this won't
change any time soon. As a result, many firms seem to be “walking away” from
one of the most important things they need to do to sustain long-term
growth – and that's developing
"new" business.
Sure We're Doing That, But We’re Overloaded With Work
and We Don’t Need To!
That’s a standard
excuse. Some executives say they can hardly keep up with work orders, taskings, and demands for more staff, and to suggest
they should ask their people to even superficially add business
development to their work load just doesn’t make sense.
Doesn’t it? Well,
let’s take a look from another perspective. Without question the
government markets – Federal, State and Local – are, right now, a pretty
good place to be. Why is this? Well, in order to become, or appear to
become efficient, or because of funding limitations, agencies are cutting
back on one of their most expensive resources, people, and replacing
staff with outside support so they can continue to accomplish their
missions. This has been going on now for some years but two questions
arise – how long will it continue, and is there a limit as to how many
companies the process can continue to support?
Competition
Well, we really can’t
predict the future, but we know that one of the most important elements
of continued success in virtually every market is the ability to beat the
competition. That having been said, winning business has always involved
several factors:
- Knowing the client
- Being known by the client
- The ability to
continually demonstrate your capability
- Having a competitive
price, and
- Earning the client or
potential client’s trust and confidence
These factors have
held true regardless of the currently popular method of awarding
contracts - sole source, single competitive award, IDIQ (indefinite
delivery/indefinite quantity), GSA Schedule, or whatever. Further, it is fair
to say that of the five factors, the single most important is the last,
earning a client or potential client’s trust and confidence.
No matter what the
“selling” environment – buying a new suit or groceries for the family,
acquiring 5,000 replacement PCs in a Federal agency, or farming out
development and integration of a new Local Area Network, people buy from
people they know and trust…period! Oh sure, price is often an issue, but
the bottom line is that when buying almost anything (a wrist watch for
example) you want to know what you are getting. You can, for example be
rather confident that the watch you buy at a jewelry store is going to
work a heck of a lot better and last a lot longer than the “genuine,
knock-off, imitation” some guy is selling out of cardboard box at the
street corner.
Government project
managers and procurement officials have an inordinate “fear” of making
mistakes or being embarrassed. They can’t afford to wind up with a
“genuine, knock-off, imitation” of what they really need. That being the
case, the best (not necessarily the only) way to prevent that from
happening is to have great confidence in the firm that provides them
urgently needed goods or services.
So What's the Bottom Line?
Well, we began by
saying that people tend to overlook the need to reach out for new
opportunities. We say that business development is "important"
not "urgent," and that it only becomes urgent when things get
tough - like when you can't
assure your staff that they are "covered" for more than the
next couple of months. Not only is that bad for them, but its bad for the
company since those folks start "baling" out.
You Got My
Attention - Help!
OK, how about
starting with action planning, figuring out what your skills and
capabilities are and where you need to go to win new business. Then you
need to evaluate your goals, BD skills, process, methods and management
and see how you can get your people involved.
The first step is to
ask your people to participate in the BD process. When you do, however,
be ready to get them motivated, train them in how to do it and commit to
a support structure that will make it seem like BD is a normal part of
what they do every day - working with, talking to, and most importantly
listening to their clients.
We believe in a team
concept - with a small group of carefully selected people focused on a
current or prospective client. We also suggest using business tools that
allows the team and corporate top staff to manage opportunities and make
some educated decisions on probability of win.
The key to success,
however, is recognizing that you never "walk away" from
business development - it’s one of the business functions that you always
"hold."
For more information,
contact Mike at 703-642-5153 or e-mail: mailto:mberger@acibiz.com
About the author:
Mike Berger's specialties are business development,
training for corporate and government personnel, and collecting and
analyzing information. He also supports clients wishing to obtain or make
better use of their GSA Schedules and handles issues relating to
corporate security. Mr. Berger completed 27 years service with the
Federal government, and also retired as a Colonel from a parallel 31-year
career in the Active Army and the Reserve Components. He holds a BA from Syracuse University
did post-graduate study at the Syracuse
University School
of Social Work, and holds an MA in Management and Supervision from Central Michigan University.
He is a graduate of the US
Army War College,
and published author in field of Military History and Occupational
Analysis. He has edited and published numerous works including
biographies and historical texts
Advantage
Consulting, Inc. ™
7611 Little River Turnpike, Suite 204 West, Annandale, VA 22003-2407 USA
VOICE: 703-642-5153, FAX: 703-658-0159
dgiles@acibiz.com
© Copyright 2008
Advantage Consulting, Inc.™
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