Welcome to Advantage Consulting

Recently, the Obama Administration expressed a desire to help American businesses boost exports and create new jobs, and, hopefully double exports in five years. The Administration wants to focus on companies that export to more than one country, and plans to spend nearly $150 million in the next year to promote trade; projecting expenditures in this endeavor to about $2.4 billion through 2015.

Over the years Advantage Consulting has concentrated in two areas: helping our clients penetrate and be successful in the U.S. Federal marketplace, and helping select non-U.S. firms do business in America. Marketing abroad (with the exception of the marketing area known as FMS - Foreign Military Sales - a very successful venue for many U.S. corporations) is an entirely different "kettle of fish."

Finding and opening up foreign markets involves many of the same factors as finding work in the U.S. Federal marketplace: good reputation, good products and services, responsiveness, and building trust and confidence, but there are others that will likely be very difficult to deal with - the high level of skill that already exists in some of those marketplaces, language differences, and, frankly, the one that may be the most challenging, cross-cultural issues.

The Administration hopes to help develop new markets in Asia, India and South America, and may be successful in market promotions, removing non-tariff trade barriers, and so forth, but overcoming cultural issues is an entirely different matter. For example, some years ago I attended a meeting with a corporate president who hosted a foreign trade minister at dinner. The Minister, from a small Asian nation, wanted very much to do business with us. He expected us to come to his country and spend several days with him learning about and visiting cultural sites, and, of course eventually discussing our business proposals. The corporate president said he appreciated the invitation, but his schedule was such that we needed to fly in, have the meetings, and move on to another stop. Our plan for doing any business in that country was dead in the water before we got to dessert.

Does the topic of developing business overseas interest you? Would you be receptive to a one-day workshop on the subject? Are there particular topics you would like to see addressed such as the cross-cultural matters? If so, please email me with your thoughts. Mike Berger, mberger@acibiz.com, 703-642-5153, cell 703-861-0726.

Knowing the Client's Dream
By Sid Jaffe, President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.

There are four types of proposals and responses to RFPs. Bad Proposals lose because they are generally not compliant, and probably never should have been written. Good Proposals may be compliant, but lack distinction and rarely win. Outstanding Proposals have the distinction of being compliant as well as compelling; yet they too often lose. It is the Right Proposal that wins.

The Right Proposal is not only compliant, and compelling, but also contains in it the Client's Dream. It reads to the decision maker as if they wrote it. They relate to it. They want it. You cannot write to the client's dream if you have not established a trusted relationship with the client so they will share the dream with you. They have to want you to know their dream. You won't read the dream in the FedBizOpps or hear it at a bidder's conference. You earn the right to hear the dream by developing a position with the client over time.

In coming weeks we will present a series of "Brown Bag" discussion topics that are fundamental to the training we have delivered to more than 16,000 Government Contractor professionals to assist them in ultimately delivering the winning proposal. To learn more about the training contact Sid Jaffe at sjaffe@acibiz.com or 703-642-5153.

Brown Bag Session 1: The Organization Chart Exercise
By Sid Jaffe, President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.

We will present over the coming months a variety of Brown Bag /Training Topics on Customer Service that leads to task order growth.

A Brown Bag Session with your "on-site" project team is an opportunity to provide tactical planning and direction to them. It is the starting point in developing stronger relationships with your clients and contacts that leads to task order growth. In some instances "on-site" Brown Bag meetings for your team can be difficult to arrange based on the work and availability of conference rooms. The exercise of holding regular Brown Bags (Staff Training) may require going "off-site" at lunch hour or after work for a pizza, but the effort to discuss better ways to serve your customer is always worthwhile.

An interesting initial conversation with your staff revolves around their client's "organization chart." Discuss with your team who they have regular contact with, socially as well professionally. Determine who the client perceives as their points-of-contact in your firm and if the customer makes regular use of the relationship.

Look at the organization chart to determine that you, in fact, have relationships at the top, middle and technical levels of the organization, using all of your on-site staff. When you find people in the customer organization that your people do not know well you have likely also determined a customer who you haven't listened to about their needs, problems and helped to educate them on your potential solutions. You need to decide how your people will make the contact with this person and then follow-up to build a value-based relationship.

For more information on relationship-building tools, tactics and techniques for your staff contact Sid Jaffe, sjaffe@acibiz.com or 703-642-5153.

A Good Coach Can Be The Key To Your Next Win
By Bill Hamilton, Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.

As short time ago, a client called to ask for assistance in growing their Federal business development practice. During the initial discussions, goals and objectives were discussed and the client stated simply that they were "looking for a good coach to lead them."

This was a powerful statement of need that goes beyond the point that many companies consider as their goal. Too often companies will come to us for a quick fix. They are looking for a golden "nugget" that will improve their chances of success. This client was asking for a continuing relationship to guide them in their development efforts and assist them in efficiently conquering the challenges of Federal business development.

The golden nugget concept is not always successful. While there is a place in business for quick fixes, successful long-term business growth is not one of them. A quick fix is usually tactical in nature and successful business development depends on creating and implementing a sound business strategy with sound tactics to support it.

I have written about the long-term relationship more in proposal augmentation than full business strategy development but the idea works well here as well. One key to business success is continuity of planning and direction. The client's statement that they were looking for a good coach was right on target. In our approach, we develop a contract that provides a framework for the planned consulting efforts. This contract establishes a relationship that is long-term in nature to address client needs in strategic and tactical development and allows for necessary changes in direction to meet the client's evolving situation.

The program begins with two to four hours of mutual exchange to get client and consultant fully up to speed. After that, meetings are held sequentially to address specific interests in the client's business strategy and tactical development. Most meetings are formally scheduled and have agreed upon agendas. The result of each meeting is development of formal action items for the client or consultant to accomplish before the next scheduled meeting. This practice reduces client costs while keeping the client very much involved in the process. Additional consultant tasks may be established at additional costs but the basic sequential meeting format keeps the client's basic cost low and controllable. The major goal here is to establish and maintain a long-term positive relationship between the client and consultant that results in the continuing development and growth of the client's business.

Want more information or want to discuss your business strategy problems? Contact me at bhamilton@acibiz.com or by telephone at 703-405-8912 and let's talk.