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The
Advantage Consulting Network
"Profit Oriented Business
Solutions"
TABLE OF CONTENTS
· BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.
· NEWS.
· NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY.
· ARTICLES.
· PREFERRED PRICING FOR OUR
CLIENTS
· POINTS OF CONTACT.
· PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING SCHEDULE.
· NETWORKING CALENDAR.
Link
to December Newsletter
The
Advantage Consulting Network provides information on business
opportunities, teaming opportunities, events, and services that may help
you in your business development efforts. If you do not wish to be on our
Network, e-mail Debra Giles and we will
remove you from the Network. Advantage Consulting, Inc. makes no
warranties, direct or implied, regarding the accuracy of the information
presented.
___________________________________________________
Business Opportunity:
The following opportunity summary has been provided by
epipeline.com, a government contracts database subscription service. The
opportunity is the best available public information and has been
verified within the past few weeks.
Operation
of the Glenmont Job Corps
Center, Glenmont, NY
– 1-28-08
1. If
you want the free full summary of this target go to http://login.epipeline.com/limitedDisplay?ID=FOMCUSA3232&FLAG=SUMMARY.
This target is only available for a short period of time.
2.
If you need help designing and executing your capture program or proposal
to win this procurement contact Doug Allston,
at dallston@acibiz.com of
Advantage Consulting or call 703-642-5153
______________________________________________________
News:
Upcoming Event of
Interest – 1-28-08
The
Set-Aside Alert and John Tolle, Esq. managing partner of the McLean law firm of Barton, Baker, McMahon, &
Tolle are putting on a series of seminars dealing with common government
contractor issues. The first of
these seminars is Winning Strategies in Teaming for Federal Contracts:
Subcontracts, February 13,
2008 1:00-4:00 PM Tower Club, Vienna VA.
This
seminar will be followed by such topics as Federal Procurement
Intellectual Property Rights on April 16, 2008, and What, When,
Where and How to Protest Federal Procurements on May 15.
We
have known John Tolle for many years and respect him as one of the most
competent legal experts in the federal government arena. The Set-Aside Alert is one of our
recommended vendors and excellent source of information for the small and
set-aside companies. There is a
charge for these events, $295, but I am sure it will be well worth the
expense. For additional
information or to register contact Tom Johnson at tjohnson@setasidealert.com .
_____________________________________________________________________
“Thank You” Maryland
from the Bottom of our Wallets – 1-28-08
In an attempt to help the
State spend more money on a whole lot of obscure projects, in 2007 the
State Legislature passed a new tax, which takes effect in July, which
will put many Maryland information
technology businesses at a severe disadvantage vs. their competition in
Virginia and Washington,
DC. It is normal for firms
to pay taxes on products they buy, but this new 6 percent tax will be
imposed on IT services as well, and Federal and commercial clients who might
otherwise have turned to Maryland
firms for support will likely turn to companies outside the state rather
than pay that premium.
Is this a big deal? You bet.
In 2006 alone, the Federal government spent about $21 Billion in Maryland while spending over $40 Billion in nearby Virginia. Looking
at the top 5 product/service codes, Virginia
received about $11.5 Billion to Maryland’s
$4.5 Billion, better than 2.5:1. With imposition of the new tax that
ratio can’t do anything but grow.
So what can you
do? Well, one of the first things Maryland
firms can do is visit http://marylandneedsit.org/ and join the
campaign to repeal that tax. The website provides links where you can
register to determine your State legislators, information about events
you can attend to
tell your story, and the tools, with templates and coaching, that will
may your voice heard in Annapolis.
The “11th Hour”
action by the State Legislature has the potential for great damage to the
IT industry in the State. It makes no difference if you are a Maryland entrepreneur or have been in business for years. Take
action now to protect your future.
Comments to Mike Berger, mberger@acibiz.com.
_____________________________________________________________________
Commentary
- DOD Contracting Officers and Industry Must Communicate – 1-14-08
By Doug Allston,
President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
On 4
January FCW carried a story by Matthew Weigelt, http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151203-1.html,
which relates the position of Shay Assad, DOD’s director of Defense
procurement and acquisition, on industry communications. Assad
wrote a memo encouraging DOD contract officials “to fully engage with
industry at all stages of the competitive process.” The article
goes into further details on this topic and it is all good. I am
all for greater communications in the federal procurement process.
The only problem with the contracting officer communicating with industry
is that they probably communicate even less with the user community.
Within the procurement process we face an on-going war between the
contracting officer and user community because of differences in their
agendas.
The
typical contracting officer has two basic agendas. First, encourage
competition because competition is innately good. The reason it is
innately good is because it leads to their second and most important
agenda and that is low cost. Since most, if not all, contractors
bidding are capable of doing the work reasonably well; the federal
government would be best served by selecting the low cost provider.
Am I
being a little hard on the contract officers? No, the
contracting officers actually have very good reasons for their
agendas. It is a fact that most, if not all, of the bidders can do
the project and probably do it very well. Contractors are pretty
good at opting themselves out if they cannot do the work. So the
logic of selecting the low bidder makes sense to the contracting
officer. The problem is that they seldom know much about or
understand the work being contracted.
The
operators also have two agendas. First, they have a “mission” to build something, do something
or provide something. In the case of their mission, the operator
knows something that anyone who has ever been a project manager knows and
that is that the project is not going to go as planned. That is a
fact of project management life! Because of that fact the operator
is not looking to hire a contractor who can do the project.
Instead, they are looking to hire the contractor they want to be working
with when the project does not go as planned. This changes the
procurement process. The contracting officer does not understand
how this changes the procurement process nor do they usually care and
this is further exacerbated by the fact that they do not understand the
work or its importance to the user community.
The
second agenda is that the operator has a number – a budget to perform the
contract. The way the budget process works in the federal
government operators are incentivized in a number of ways to spend their
budget. They seldom gain anything by getting a better deal from a
contractor and in fact they face a number of personally negative
repercussions if they do not spend their budget.
It is
great that the head contracting officer for DOD recognizes the need for
improved communications between his contracting officers and
industry. Unfortunately, unless the contracting officers
spends some time with the operators and understands the importance and
subtleties associated with the work and understands their concern for
venting contractors, the contracting officers really have nothing
worthwhile to communicate to industry. Until the procurement
community comes to realize their purpose in life is not to buy stuff from
contractors but to assist the user community in buying stuff, we will
never truly improve the quality and effectiveness of government
contracting.
Questions
and comments to Doug Allston at dallston@acibiz.com.
_____________________________________________________________________
Networking Opportunity:
Nothing at this time!
_____________________________________________________________________
Articles:
Government
Bureaucracy – 1-28-08
By Doug Allston,
President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
Hating
bureaucracy and writing nasty stuff about it has been an American pastime
for as long as bureaucracies have existed. I don’t doubt the early
Roman and Greek bureaucrats had their critics. Of course if it was
not for them there would never have been a Greek or Roman Empire or for
that matter an Egyptian or British Empire.
Steve Kelman in his December 21 article in FCW jumped on Jack Welch’s, of
GE fame, Business Week column calling for the “Death of
bureaucracy”. Welch states that bureaucracy…”It turns normal
people…into rule-bound technocrats.” Welch says, “leaders can fight
bureaucracy by letting people fail. Not too often, of course!”
It is
always the qualifier that I love. You see we do not need
bureaucracy when everyone makes the right decisions. This
anti-bureaucracy argument is the same one for laws in general. We
do not need laws, police, judges, courts, and prisons as long as everyone
behaves and makes good decisions. The problem is that left to their
own devises people will not always make the right decision. That is
the reason bureaucracies have rules and societies have laws.
In my
35 years working with government and company bureaucracies I have not
seen anything that makes bureaucracies or bureaucrats innately bad.
What I have seen are people with a mission who do not know the rules and
bureaucrats who do not know the mission. Successful people and
companies working for the government who want to get things done learn
the rules and work those rules to their benefit. It is funny;
ignorance of the law has never been a defense for breaking the law in
society. However, mission people will often use their ignorance of
the rules as a defense for their lack of success. Successful
government employees and successful companies learn the rules and work to
accomplish what they want done. Successful government leaders push
the bureaucrats to understand their mission and work with the bureaucrats
to be successful. So maybe we should stop blaming the bureaucrats
for our own failures. The people and companies that do the hard
work are the ones that succeed.
Questions
and comments to Doug Allston at dallston@acibiz.com.
_____________________________________________________________________
Utilizing Proposal Resources – 1-28-08
By Sid Jaffe, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
Proposal resources are always scarce in contractor businesses
and it seems that proposals come in bunches instead of one a time at a
predictable pace. Companies with a well-managed proposal process tend to
get the best "bang for the B&P buck" from their proposal
budgets and teams. While "boilerplate" will not help you
discriminate your firm for competitors or tell a compelling story, a
strong proposal library will help to give your people the time they need
to focus on win themes, discriminators and your firm’s compelling story.
Train several people in your firm in the skills of proposal management
and train your people who respond to RFPs in the techniques of effective
writing. Make sure that every win and every loss is followed by a lessons
learned session and begin assembling the best practices for your firm. The best way to utilize proposal
resources is to make good pursue/no pursue decisions, update your
knowledgebase as you go forward and make a sound bid/no bid decision
based on empirical data you have collected. For more information on the
Capture and Proposal process contact Sid Jaffe
at sjaffe@acibiz.com.
_____________________________________________________________________
Thoughts for the New Year – 1-28-08
Mike Berger, Vice
President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
During the course of every
Professional Development workshop I conduct on the topic of Business
Development, the matter of prioritization of work activities usually
arises. As part of that conversation I generally ask how many emails the
attendees receive. Responses of 100 or more per day are common.
The
internet and instant messaging significantly eats into our time to do
other things (our work, business development, family activities, and so
forth). A recent study estimated that checking and responding to emails
may “cost” the business world as much as $650 Billion in time a year.
That’s amazing.
Consider
how often you check your email on your computer, PDA or other device.
Ten, thirty, fifty, a hundred times a day? Do you check it every time it
“dings”? Does it make any difference where you are (at your desk, in a
meeting, in the car, at a party)?
We’ve
all begun to react in a rather “Pavlovian” manner to that sound and,
honestly, maybe at the start of this New Year it is time to do something
about that, so here are some ideas.
-
Turn off the “ding.” Once it is off, perhaps you set a schedule
for checking email, and cut it back to once an hour or even less
frequently
-
If you get a “group” message don’t automatically “reply to all.”
Not everyone needs to hear from you just because they were in the group.
-
Get over feeling compelled to “thank” everyone who sends you
something or responds to your email. It simply adds to your and their
work.
-
Consider adding NRN (No Reply Needed) or NTN (No Thanks Needed) to
your emails when appropriate.
-
Get the best SPAM filter available; consider one that has an
automatic delete function. Yes, you may occasionally lose an email you
wanted, but if you check the junk mail for a while you’ll have a sense of
how well you can trust the application.
-
If you have an address list for “fun” or “joke” items, send an
email to make sure everyone really has the time for the stuff. It’s no
problem to delete an email, but every one of those unwanted emails takes
a little bit of time.
The
“bottom line” is to learn to set priorities for everything you do,
including, of course, your Business Development activities. While you are
finding time for your email, find time as well to reach out to those
friends, associates and customers you haven’t spoken with in several
months and find out how things are going. Never can tell, that call might
be the one they were waiting for – and you’ll have that task order,
contract, or GSA Schedule purchase they’ve been dying to give to the
company in which they have trust and confidence.
Mike
Berger, mberger@acibiz.com, (703)
642-5153, cell (703) 861-0726.
_____________________________________________________________________
Networking Begins at
Home – 1-28-08
By
Bill Hamilton, Vice President, Advantage
Consulting Inc.
We
have talked a great deal about networking, but most of the articles we
write are concerned with external networking or interaction with people
in other organizations. There is
another version of networking that is no less important and is frequently
overlooked or ignored.
I am
referring to the continuing need for networking among people in your
company or organization. A good
internal networking program, begun early in a business development
process, can be invaluable in your business development efforts and
ultimately in support of capture. In the capture process, different
members of the team have different functions, but the more they all know
about the intelligence collection process and current events as well
prospective events, the more effective each of them can be in their
information gathering.
Sometimes, communications between
individuals can break down because of such things as one person’s lack of
understanding of the importance of one person’s efforts in the
development process, arrogance of one or more parties based on their
perceived knowledge of the customer and what the customer needs, or lack
of a clear understanding of the company’s strategies to win. These and other problems can be reduced
or eliminated by more effective communications.
True business development is a team sport; one
person teams don’t really exist. A company has a better chance of winning
if all parties begin to openly discuss what is known and what is
happening very early in the process. I recommend you begin early to
establish a continuing communication program that includes all key
parties on the pre-capture teams and on the ultimate capture team.
Periodic communication events can be formal or informal. An extended coffee break is a good way
to start and conference calls can be used to update people later. Whatever works to make early and timely
communications meaningful should be considered. Key participants should
include a senior member of management, the current or prospective capture
manager, key technical people and the most client knowledgeable business
developers or information sources.
The agenda is simple: What
is going on? What is expected? What is our next step? Each session in the early days should
be short, no more than 15-20 minutes.
As the RFP release approaches you may need longer sessions but
these should be kept to a minimum.
Later, when you activate the formal capture process your in place
network will directly support capture team efforts. Early networking and
communications in place will enable you to build solid marketing
intelligence before the formal capture process begins and enhance your
opportunity to win. Want to discuss
internal networking or explore your needs and requirements, call me at
(703) 405-8912 or send an e mail to bhamilton@acibiz.com
and let’s talk.
_____________________________________________________________________
How to
Help Your Business Developer be More Successful, Part 1 – 01-14-08
By Doug Allston,
President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
Ok,
you hired a “professional” business developer. You are paying big
bucks; probably more then just about anyone else working for you.
You have two choices. You can either help them be successful or you
can end up firing them in 12 to 18 months, hiring another and repeating
the process. We would estimate that more then 75% of all the
business development professionals in small to mid-size companies never
pay for themselves. Ironically, their lack of success is often as
much senior management’s fault as theirs. In this series of
articles I am going to write about how to help your professional business
developer be successful. That does not mean that all of them will
be successful. There are people who claim to be business developers
who are never going to be successful and so I will also write about how
to identify when you have made a poor hiring choice.
Let’s
look at titles. You went out and spent a lot of money for the
professional business developer. You expect them to get
appointments and talk with government decision makers and to negotiate
teaming agreements with major prime contractors and qualified
subcontractors and what do you do? You give them the title
“Director of Business Development”. First, everyone knows that
“Directors” are mid-level managers neither running projects nor running
the company. It is an in-between title. Lose the title “Director”
for everyone and especially anyone who interfaces with the government or
other companies. Vice President is the appropriate title because VP’s
have authority, control, and can make decisions. This is not
necessarily true but it is the perception of the people who are important
to your company’s success – the government and other companies.
Next,
drop all Business Development related aspects of the title and any other
reference to marketing or sales. Now you may get an argument from
your business developer on this but that is why you get the big
bucks. Sometimes you have to help people to do the right
thing. The title of business developer is viewed by the government
and other companies as someone who is unlikely to be technically
competent and someone who has no control over relevant assets - people
who can solve problems. I once knew a business developer who
referred to himself as the “head peddler”. He was very proud
of this role and he was reasonably good at it. But can you think of
a single reason why a government decision maker would ever want to meet
and talk with your “head peddler”? When you stick that reference to
BD on the title that is exactly how your prospect client sees your BD
person.
The
appropriate title is Vice President; nothing more and nothing less.
By the way, for all you Directors don’t expect a pay raise with the
title. Titles are only important as to how they affect relationships
with people outside the company.
Next
time I will write about the Business Plan your VP should give you.
Questions and comments to Doug Allston at dallston@acibiz.com.
_____________________________________________________________________
Is FedBizOpps Your Best Source for
Leads?- 01-14-08
By Sid Jaffe,
Advantage Consulting, Inc.
Time and again we are
contacted by Business Development professionals whose message of woe is
something like the following: "The boss says we don’t have enough in
the pipeline. I have been told to look through FedBizOpps every day and
find things to bid on. The boss says we have to bid to win and we have to
bid a lot to win. We need to bid more." Their next statement is,
"But we aren’t winning the bids we find on FedBizOpps." Going
through FedBizOpps in that manner is akin to responding to every job in
the want ads that interests you whether you would be of interest to the
employer or not. Can you get hired? Sure. Are you likely to get hired? I
think not. There is of course a correlation between pipeline and success
and bidding and the ability to grow the business. But like a job search
the best opportunity to win a job, or contract, is where you have done
the homework and found the right opportunity and then earned it. What is
the alternative to unproductive bidding from FedBizOpps? It is four
steps; first is to do more research on projects and future agency needs
using public domain information and services. Second is to verify the
opportunity by meeting the sponsors and following up. Third is to have a
system, like WinAward to track opportunities and help you to make
supportable pursue/no pursue decisions and finally put the right,
trained, people on the opportunity to follow-up. For more information on
implementing the four steps to success contact Sid
Jaffe, sjaffe@acibiz.com at 703-642-5153.
_____________________________________________________________________
Marketing From Inside Out – 01-14-08
By Mike Berger, Vice
President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
In a
conversation with a client a few weeks ago he mentioned how the Advantage
Consulting business development philosophy matches his view of marketing
from “inside out.” He noted that old ways of finding business (relying on
professional business developers, or “chasing” FedBizzOps listings, and
so forth) just don’t work in today’s highly competitive environment,
particularly when there seems to be less money out there.
Comment
such as that give us confidence that our view of the Federal marketplace
is accurate, and that the message we’ve been putting out there for many
years is getting through to our client-group. We went on to talk about
the importance of getting as many of the company rank-and-file as
possible involved in the BD process since they almost always have the
best information about what customers need, want and require.
That
being said, that same rank-and-file often needs a bit of convincing that
(1) they have a role in the process, and (2) that can participate without
having to sell or market anything – the two things they generally refuse
to do.
As
I’ve noted in the past, one of the first things I do when I being a Business
Development Workshop is to ask attendees what they think of the BD
process. It’s rather interesting that regardless of the group (top
executives of large firms, technical staff members, or any other
combination), the answers are ALWAYS the same. Going into the workshops
they believe BD is not their job, they don’t have the time, they don’t
know how, they don’t see any value to them, and, of course, that it is
“selling” and that’s something they don’t want to do. The good thing
about our workshops is that by the end of the 8-hour session about 98
percent “get it.” Assuming their corporate leadership provides the
support from the top that is the real key to business success, good
things will come of it.
So,
as we approach the New Year, if you’ve been struggling about how to light
a fire under your BD program, now’s the time to get your people involved.
Give me a call and we’ll see what we can do to make 2008 a bigger and
better year for you. Mike Berger, mberger@acibiz.com, 703-642-5153,
cell 703-861-0726.
_____________________________________________________________________
The Proposal Team has to Accomplish
Several Functions - 01-14-08
By J.P. Richard,
Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
You
may be blessed with all the resources to assign an individual to each of
the following tasks, or, more likely, one person may have to wear several
hats in your proposal organization. In either case, we will look at what
jobs have to be done to put out a winning proposal over the next several
weeks. First let’s see how the Proposal Manager and the Capture Manager
divide their responsibilities.
Proposal Manager
-
Manage the entire proposal development process
-
Prepare the writers instructions for all participants
-
Develop the proposal schedule and budget
-
Run the kickoff meeting
-
Monitor adherence to schedule and budget
-
Be personally responsible for the development of the Executive
Summary
-
Conduct daily reviews on the progress of the proposal
-
Conduct the Pink and Red Team reviews
-
Manage the proposal production and delivery process
-
Conduct any post-delivery activities required
Capture Manager
-
Understand the client needs, desires and organization thoroughly
-
Develop the Capture Strategy that will win the business
-
Identify themes and key decision factors
-
Provide the proposal team with insight into the client’s needs and
decision process
-
Assess early on what resources will be needed to perform on the
proposal and on the execution of the project
-
Acquire subcontractors and suppliers to partner with on this
project if necessary – they should nominate subcontractors but the
actually teaming mechanics should be left up to the BD staff or Business
Manager. Their time is too
valuable to have them do this.
-
Monitor adherence to the strategy throughout the proposal
development cycle
-
Participate in the kickoff meeting and all the formal review
sessions
-
Serve as a continuing resource to the proposal team on the client
information
-
Mold the procurement document so TSC will win
Comments
to J.P. Richard, jprichard@acibiz.com.
_____________________________________________________________________
Plan For Spring, It’s
Just Around The Corner!
By
Bill Hamilton, Vice President, Advantage
Consulting, Inc.
Finish
your taxes? Probably not, but many
of us are already thinking about them.
Income tax software is competing with Valentines gifts and 2008
has just begun. Last summer we discussed an alternative to the ever
present panic process that accompanies most proposal preparation and
suggested ways that prior planning could reduce the problems during the
actual proposal development process.
Since that time, we have met with clients and discussed ways each
of them could improve their specific proposal efforts.
I have
not talked with any company that did not agree that longer range planning
and incremental implementation of the development process could help
them. Every company also gave specific reasons why they did not think
“they” could do it. These are the same companies that indicated they
thought that other companies did use the system or should be using
it. We have all heard the reasons:
“My people are all on DL projects and fully booked;” “I have two other proposals due at the
same time and I am over extended;” and my favorite, “I can’t think about
proposals due in three months, we are looking at one due the end of this
month.” While there is a little
tongue -in-cheek here, the message is clear, most of these companies are
in a reactive mode instead of being pro-active.
We
are not suggesting a full time commitment to a future proposal. Several months out, you don’t need to
do that. What we are recommending
is a paced, incremental approach to proposal development beginning
several months prior to the RFP release. There are several areas that can
be addressed incrementally as mini-tasks that would only require portions
of days not full days. We recommend bringing a consultant such as Advantage Consulting to participate in the
planning of resource augmentation and providing an interested bystander
guidance and information source.
We have also suggested that program staff can review such areas as
past performance and potential resume data bases on a non-crisis and
non-intensive basis. Get these
routine and very basic requirements up to date before the proposal
development clock starts running.
The above three areas are examples of developmental problems that
almost always occur in proposal writing, particularly in writing a
services based proposal. They are
also problem areas that can be addressed before the action really
begins.
No
company has a large number of people on the bench. Most of your good people are fully
committed. However, most good
people can manage time well enough to devote a small amount of time to a
future business development opportunity and still meet their current
project delivery requirements.
Want more information or want to talk about your future needs,
call me at (703)405-8912 or send an e mail to bhamilton@acibiz.com and let’s talk.
_____________________________________________________________________
The
Ethics Of Developing Business – 01-07-08
By Doug Allston,
President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
Ethics
and ethical behavior on the part of government contractors is becoming a
hot topic. We even have a new rule requiring the contractor to
report the unethical behavior of his government customer. Now this
is a situation I would not want to be in.
Of
course when the subject of ethics comes up in regard to business
development most people immediately think of the “used car
salesman”. Selling is not viewed by many people as very
ethical. I think the reason for that is that “selling” involves
manipulation of other people and manipulation is fertile ground for
unethical behavior. There is nothing inherently unethical about the
sales process but that is the perception.
The
perception that selling is manipulative and unethical are two of the
reasons why most technical staff and line managers will not participate
in the government contractor’s “sales” process. By the way, they do
not care what you call your “sales” process – marketing, business
development, or whatever – technical people and line managers know
selling when they see it. The simple irony that the reason why they
have a job and collect a pay check is the direct result of someone
selling, marketing or doing business development is lost on most of them.
You see benefiting after the fact is OK. It is OK to be a scavenger but
not OK to be a hunter.
As I
discuss in my workshops, I do not make the rules. I just help
people figure out how to win within those rules. To win business
from the federal government you do not have to do anything illegal,
unethical, or immoral. Those that do should go to jail as much for
their laziness as for any other reason because what they tried to do is
cut the corners or find an easier way to win. Winners typically do
the hard work that leads to winning.
For
14 years we have taught a workshop called Business Development Technical
Staff and Line Managers. Over 16,000 government contractor
employees have taken that workshop. The objectives of that workshop
are:
- Define what is a winning
business development process
- Convince your technical
and line management staff to participate
- Show them how to identify
where to look for winnable business
- How to recognize winnable
business
- How capture the business
- How to properly prepare
the winning proposal
- How to grow business from
existing customers
The
demographics of our students are that the vast majority do not volunteer
for this training. Over 95 percent of our students are technical
people and line managers with little or no business development
experience. Over 95 percent have a full time billable job so any
business development activities will have to work around their schedules
and will probably result in some over-time.
In
over 98 percent of all the workshops we have held we have asked the
student to fill-out an evaluation form at the beginning and again at the
end of the workshop. At the beginning of the workshop we ask the
student to rate their knowledge and attitude towards business development
using a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being very low and 5 very high. The
average rating for our students is a little more then 1 for both
knowledge and attitude. As we would expect based on the
demographics of the typical workshop, our students know very little about
how to do business development and more importantly they are not very
positive toward the subject. In fact they are fearful of the
training.
At
the end of the workshop, we ask the student to rate their knowledge and
attitude once again. The typical response is 4+ in both knowledge
and attitude. One would expect a significant improvement in
knowledge after 8 hours of training but what is more remarkable is the
improvement in attitude. Once people understand what developing
business actually is and what they have to do to be successful at it,
most people not only can do it but they will do it with the proper
management support.
We
ask a third questions at the end of the workshops. We ask the
student whether or not they would recommend our training to their peers
in the company. Over 95 percent of everyone who have taken our
workshop have responded that they would recommend it to their peers in
their company.
Can
business development be done ethically; the answer is yes. Can
technical and line management staffs successfully participate in your
business development process; the answer is yes.
Questions
and comments to Doug Allston
at dallston@acibiz.com.
_____________________________________________________________________
Twelfth
Annual Ten Hot Topics from Last Year – 01-07-08
By Sid Jaffe, CEO, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
By
popular demand (Demand is a relative term, for that matter so is Popular)
we are updating our Ten Hot Topics List, which was first published in our
January 1996 Newsletter.
During
any given week the consultants at Advantage Consulting, Inc. network and
meet with many business, and specifically technology, leaders in the
Metro area. We have compiled our list of the Ten Hot Topics of
2007. As a “service (?)” to our readers we are sharing the list
with you.
1.
Ins and Outs in Washington; make that in
the U.S.
The Democrats are in. Enough said.
2.
Filling up ID/IQ Vehicles and Multiple Award Contracts. Few
companies are maximizing the potential on the opportunities they have at
hand using the many vehicles available. It almost seems as though
the marketing effort ends at the contract award, when it should really be
beginning. Building the relationships is the challenge. Working the
relationship at the Project Manager level is the key.
3.
Acquisitions and Roll ups. It doesn’t appear to be slowing although
valuations are in flux with the economy. The trend to big companies
in Government contracting, and other sectors continues. Many large
companies are looking at smaller companies to fill niches. Many
companies are looking at teaming as a “dating” period to get to know a company
that may become an acquisition.
4.
Getting Compensation in Line with Performance. With the continuing
shortage of technology workers as an issue, performance based
compensation is increasingly a tool that keeps good people rewarded and,
as importantly, encourages them to stay with their company. It also
is a tool for managing an important cost center in a fair and equitable
manner.
5. Gadgets.
Duracell and Energizer have replaced Nuclear as our energy source for the
future. The average car has more computers than we had to put a man on
the moon.
6.
Improving Profit Margins. This one is on the list for the ninth
year. Businesses are always trying new ideas to add profits to the
bottom line. This past three years there has been an emphasis on
acquisitions to grow the business, but the issue is whether acquisitions
increase revenue or in fact grow the margin as well. Every
conversation about prospective program and corporate revenue should
include a discussion on margin and margin improvement.
7.
Acquisition reform. RFPs are coming out with less clarity, more
confusion and with the need for revision after revision. The
challenge for contractors is to assist prospective clients in developing
clear and well-defined requirements.
8.
The Washington
Redskins. At the time of this writing, we are watching for the results of
the Dallas
game. If only they had won one more… hmmm seems like there have been
a lot of “if only” years in a row. Can somebody please help?
9.
The Washington
Nationals. They played where the Senators used to play and play
LIKE the Senators used to play. (Shall we discuss the Wizards and
Capitals? I think not.)
10.
The Stock Market. Arrrgggh!
Best
Wishes for the New Year from Sid Jaffe.
_____________________________________________________________________
Using The OSDABU – 01-07-08
By Sid Jaffe, CEO,
Advantage Consulting, Inc.
Many small and start up
Government Contractors fail to fully utilize the Office of Small and
Disadvantaged Business Units (OSDBU) at the agencies they are targeting.
The OSDBU does not control funds or award contracts. They are frequently
the gatekeeper into a Program Office. The OSDBU can often suggest
potential companies with work at an agency who would be well served to
have additional small business relationships. Companies should take
advantage of industry days, small business events and opportunities to
meet with the OSDABU Directors who may be attending conferences.
Set-Aside work must be earned through strong relationships in the same
manner as full and open work is won. Train your people to make contacts
and to follow up in building a strong relationship. For more information
on small business marketing contact Sid Jaffe,
sjaffe@acibiz.com
at 703-642-5153.
_____________________________________________________________________
What Does The Proposal Manager Do…
And Not Do? 01-07-08
By J.P. Richard,
Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
The best
way to address that question is to create a set of goals for the ideal
proposal manager. The closer a proposal manager is to this ideal, the
more successful he/she is likely to be. Here are the qualifications:
Qualities of the Ideal Proposal
Manager
-
Excellent Communications Skills
-
Basic Understanding of the Business of TSC
-
High Tolerance for the Unexpected or Unplanned
-
An Analytical Mind
-
Able to Accept Criticism and Take Positive Action as a Result
-
Patience with the Abilities of Others
-
Ability to Organize Well
-
Discipline to Adhere to Schedule
-
A Good Team Builder and Team Player
-
An Understanding of the Competition
-
An Understanding of the Federal Procurement Process
-
Able to Express Thoughts Clearly in Writing
-
A Strong Desire to Win
Is
this you? If so, I’ll bet on your next proposal. If you need to hone up
on some of these skills, consider taking ACI’s proposal management
course, generally offered every month in our Annandale office.
For
additional information contact J.P. Richard at jprichard@acibiz.com
_____________________________________________________________________
Know Thyself Is A
Start; Know Thine Audience Is Better – 01-07-08
By
Bill Hamilton, Vice President, Advantage Consulting Inc.
Most of
us have attended the workshops given by AFCEA or other associations where
one or more presenters discuss the mission and virtues of their service
or agency in very broad terms. This is frequently done for security
considerations but also because the presenter does not know the level of
knowledge of the attendees. If the
attendees number in the hundreds, the presenter has to assume some people
know very little about the organization and the general basic presentation
can fit very well.
If
you have been given the opportunity to present to one or more key people
in an agency, you have a far different task. You must know the audience’s
level of knowledge in the field you are going to discuss but more
importantly you need to know what would interest the audience and
particularly interest the key players in the room. Start by asking one question, “Are you
the best person to give the presentation?” While bringing in your chief
technologist to meet the general may be a good contact, it also may not
be a good contact. Unless the general is a technologist in the same
field, the presentation probably would be more effective if your company
discussed a successful application of the technology in terms of cause
and effect and presented it in layman or non technical terms. In the same sense, I would not use your
vice president of marketing to discuss a technology breakthrough, unless
he or she is in the field.
For
any presentation, you need to develop the strategy for the presentation
and address the following questions...
What is its purpose? What do you want to achieve? And how will you
measure success? Who is the best
person to give the presentation? Is the desired speaker a good presenter? If possible, do not use a speaker with
a heavy non-American accent in a formal presentation, particularly one
before a large audience. Many
people have difficulties understanding such speakers and particularly if
they are not knowledgeable about the subject or technology. Is the presenter comfortable giving the
presentation and speaking before a large audience? If the most qualified person has public
speaking problems, how will you correct them? This is particularly important during
oral proposals where, for example, the desired program manger is not a
good speaker but the government wants to see him present. Finally, determine who should be in the
presentation party as support to the speaker. Make sure the presenter and the support
people practice their presentation and or discussion items at least four
times. After your presentation
team is in place, rehearse and present to someone in your company who has
not been involved in preparation.
This person’s task is to determine if the presentation does
address all major concerns and does “answer the mail” for your company.
Want more information or want to discuss presentations? Call Bill Hamilton, bhamilton@acibiz.com at
703-405-8912 and let’s talk.
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