Welcome to Advantage Consulting

As many of you are aware Advantage Consulting has the privilege of serving many charitable organizations. We would like to highlight this years Annandale Lions Club Charities efforts for sight and hearing conservation, youth activities, community service and other charitable projects. The Annandale Lions Club Charities, Inc. is selling the Official 2008 White House Ornament at the same price as the foundation sells it for to retail customers, $17.00. This years Ornament honors the administration of President Benjamin Harrison (1822-1901), the twenty-third president of the United States. Inspired by the Harrison family's Victorian Christmas tree, this 24 karat gold finished ornament interprets the first recorded tree to decorate the White House.

The ornament's cost is $17.00 each, plus $3.00 shipping (while quantities last). For multiple orders the shipping will be adjusted based on quantity. The ornaments can be picked up at Advantage Consulting offices to eliminate shipping cost.

For more information or to place orders call John Landers 703-354-9227 or jlanders@cox.net or email to ornaments@annandalelions.org or order direct at http://www.annandalelions.org/ornaments.htm

The Annandale Lions Club Charities, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization. For more information on the Annandale Lions Club please contact Sid Jaffe at 703-642-5153.

If you are in the Vienna, VA area, be sure to stop in and see the new WWII exhibit at the Freeman Store and Museum just off the W&OD bike trail at 131 Church Street NE. Historic Vienna, Inc., owners of the Freeman Store, opened the exhibit Vienna Remembers World War II, on November 12. The exhibit is dedicated to veterans of World War II, their families and loved ones, and tells the stories of Vienna residents who offered to come forward and share their memories about this pivotal time in history. The Freeman House is open Wednesday to Saturday noon to 4 PM. and Sundays 1 to 5 PM.

Business Development

Business Development and Capture Processes, Part Two Strategic Organizations
By Doug Allston, President, Advantage Consulting

In my last article I re-defined the business development process as:

We re-defined the business development process because we found so many companies failed to implement anything related to a Capture effort. Because our clients are not stupid, we looked for a systemic problem. The first thing we found was our clients did well competing within organizations where they had existing work, but they seldom won outside of those organizations. Since the most important element in wining business is "access" to the prospective customer, we examined that factor and found our clients were bidding in the wrong organizations. They were bidding because they knew they could do the work, but they lost because they did not have the access to the government people that was essential to understanding the environment surrounding the government's problems.

The first aspect of effective business development is to focus your business development effort on "strategic" organizations, in other words, those where you have the best access. By focusing your efforts on these organizations you may lose a bid, but the effort will not be wasted. Your staff will meet more government people and the government people will get to meet you. An occasional loss may actually make you more competitive the next time.

A strategic organization approach helps avoid an error some companies may not even realize they make. When a company is a "drive by bidder", even if they bid with an excellent technical proposal they may actually looks foolish to the government because they missed the "real" requirements. This kind of bidding can poison your chance of a win in the future. When the company loses, which it often does, it seldom knows why it lost - unless, of course, they actually believe what they were told in the debriefing.

Next time I will write about "Find Qualified Buyers". Questions and comments to Doug Allston at dallston@acibiz.com or call me at 703-627-5820.

Business Development Team Worksheets
By Sid Jaffe, CEO, Advantage Consulting, Inc.

Advantage Consulting consultants have supported the organic growth efforts on existing Federal contracts for more than 500 companies. The support has been primarily for on-site managers and their project teams in their efforts to grow their business on multiple award, task-order based contracts. The tools, tactic and techniques we have provided for them comprise a process and system that energizes their project team toward building strong customer relationships. The process we teach and support results in the creation of task order opportunities. In the most recent revision to the process, we now supply clients with templates and documents that the teams use, following an orientation to the system, to analyze the client organization and opportunities, identify the key stakeholders and ultimately win business.

To learn more about how your firm can utilize this system, worksheets and templates, contact Sid Jaffe, sjaffe@acibiz.com at 703-642-5153.

"Bye and Bye, Hard Times Comes a Knocking," Don't Let Them In
By Bill Hamilton, Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.

At a recent meeting I heard a CIO give an excellent presentation describing in great detail the plans the agency had for information technology growth in the next year. Interestingly, not once was the topic of funding even mentioned. The presentation was well received and the audience was very interested in the plans the organization had and their thoughts on how their plans were going to be implemented. No one asked how they planned to implement their plans in the current financial climate.

In one view, the presentation could be considered unrealistic and a waste of time. With limited funding resources, the organization surely was not going to be able to accomplish their growth plans in the foreseeable future. Fortunately, that was not the only view of the presentation.

Every human, as well as every organization, has dreams as well as needs. For example, in the past, humans had dreams of building machines that fly. It took a long time but now machines that fly are commonplace. In the presentation, the agency listed their dreams as well as providing descriptions of their currently perceived needs. This was a wealth of information for contractors. With knowledge of their dreams, an astute contractor can better evaluate their needs and plans for the present day needs as well as prioritize agency dreams for the future.

The next step would be to meet as frequently as possible with agency contacts to ensure you fully understand the dreams and also why the dream was developed. By understanding the underlying cause of the dream, you may be able to move a dream to become a need that could be filled within the agency budget and which you can fill. By understanding the dreams, their cause, and current needs, you may be able to identify a way to fill a current need in a way neither you nor the agency had considered before.

Talk to your customer and learn more about them, their dreams and their needs. They will appreciate your interest, your concern, your advice and your help. By your interest you will strengthen the bonds that make you even more a part of their team.

No, the presentation was not a waste of time in any sense. It was the opening of a treasure chest that can only benefit the agency and its contractors. Want to discuss other ways to improve business during difficult times, contact Bill Hamilton, bhamilton@acibiz.com or by phone at 703-405-8912 and let's talk.