Is there life after SDB and or 8(a) Certification?

During the many years that the principals at EZCertify.com have been involved with the 8(a) and SDB certification programs, we have all too often heard that becoming certified is "just not worth the effort". Another of our favorites is "I've been certified for years and I have never gotten a contract". A good friend of mine, (unfortunate for all of us, now deceased), Bob Nichols, the former Deputy for Minority Small Business at the Baltimore District Office of the SBA told me a humorous, yet unfortunate story of a then recently certified contractor that called the Baltimore District Office to set up an appointment to examine the District's file of available contracts, so that they, the contractor, could select one or two to "kick them off" in the 8(a) program. Bob had a bit of convincing to do to inform the confused contractor that the SBA had no such file and that in virtually every circumstance, 8(a) contracts are "self-marketed" by 8(a) certified companies.

So just what does this "self-marketing" stuff consist of? Here are ten steps to life (i.e. business success) after certification, a simple formula for how to effectively and efficiently using the competitive advantages you have (or will have after certification), as shared with EZCertify.com by some of the most successful certified companies in the history of the SBA's 8(a)BD and SDB programs:

Step 1 - Survey The Market

The Federal Government marketplace is too large, even for the biggest, most prodigious contractors to tackle. You must narrow down and focus on a small number (e.g. 1-3) Federal Government agencies. To begin doing this, survey the top ten agencies (i.e. the ones that have the largest procurement budgets) and determine whether or not they have in the past, and will in the future, buy products or services similar to yours.

Step2 - Plan Your Attack

After having narrowed your agency focus, start building your marketing weapons. At a minimum, these should include a brief (i.e. emphasis on less is better) capability statement, brochure, and sample of your work for others, with special attention to letters of commendation and a list of satisfied clients. This information must be custom-tailored to fit at least what you know to be the interests of your future prospects at these target agencies. If you need some help with these marketing weapons, email us with your needs and we’ll refer you to some experts that can help you put these marketing weapons together quickly and at a minimum cost.

Step 3 - Locate Your Targets

Armed with your target agencies and even some of the above basic marketing weapons, it’s now time to begin exploring for real contracting opportunities. Marketing opportunities abound for certified companies. There are plenty to go around. Where can you find them? The quickest, simplest and most inexpensive source is available to you by accesing the the Annual Forecast of Contracting Opportunities for the Federal Government agencies that you have targeted. We strongly suggest that you look for real opportunities and not “brick walls”. By this we mean that alleged marketing opportunities can be found in such places as the Commerce Business Daily. CLICK HERE for access to this document.

Step 4 - Register Your Company

Unless you have an active marketing campaign already in place with your targeted agencies, it is rare, if not impossible for your prospects to buy from you, or even consider you for an opportunity unless they know of you and about you. To begin this familiarization process, we strongly suggest that you register your company with these agencies to become among the sources of vendors that many Federal Government buyers access to find qualified contractors. There are three primary lists that your company should be on. These are: (1) the SBA’s Pro-Net database, (3) the Department of Defense’s Central Contract Registration database and the GSA’s Electronic Posting System. You can click on any or all of these sources to find out more about them and to register, if you’re not listed already.

Step 5 - Visit Your Friends

Marketing your products or services can seem to be a lonely task, but it doesn’t have to be that way, either. There are countless Federal Government, prime contractor and trade associations that are looking out on your behalf, but, “they won’t read your mind” and you must contact them and visit them personally, if at all possible. These include the Business Opportunity Specialists at your local SBA District Office; the Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Specialists (SADBUS) at your targeted agencies, the Small Business Liaison Offices at every significant prime contractor location and the small, minority, and woman-owned business trade associations that can give you worthwhile marketing advice. You can click on any and all of these sources of assistance to find out what they can do for you and how you can connect with them for marketing purposes.

Step 6 - Visit Your Competitor

Why do this? Well, in addition to gathering valuable information (e.g. brochures, names of valuable contacts, and customer data), you must establish a network of companies and people who can help you exploit your new certification advantage. Large prime contractors must subcontract, by law, to small disadvantaged businesses. Many of these same contractors have outreach programs focused on woman-owned businesses as well. In today’s “short labor supply” market, many will also be looking for additional talent that your company may be capable of providing, as well as contracting methods (i.e. you) and your certified status to sell their own products and services, its crucial to your success to know that legally established “partnering deals” can be struck with your competitors.

Step 7 - Visit Your Prospects

One of the major advantages of the Federal Government marketplace is that your business prospects all have a compelling reason to talk to you, believe it or not! After all, they are mostly “civil servants” or military- uniformed persons, that you entrust (and pay) to seek out the best products and services for their agencies and if this were not enough, the Federal Acquisition Regulations require them to do this. But, you must give them a compelling reason to set aside the time to do so! Getting your first appointment to talk to the right person(s) is your initial challenge. Here are a few hints. (1) Use introductions from persons they know. Ask the SADBUS for the targeted agency to help you set up a first meeting, (2) All of the above persons are in need to do their jobs better, faster and less costly. We suggest that you would like to talk to them about how you can help them accomplish their mission while accomplishing these objectives. (3) Titillate them with a new method, product or service that is different from that they’re used to, and (4) Suggest that your meeting will be short and to the point. Lastly, don’t sell on your first visit. Your initial call on these prospects should be to:

1. Determine their needs, pains, and the time frame required by them, ask them to describe these to you.

2. Discover if they have a budget to meet these needs and how large it is.

3. Uncover the decision making process and decision makers in their organization; Find out if your prospect is one of them and if not, who is.

4. Determine their initial interest in proceeding (see next step)

5. Set up the time for a follow-up meeting at which time, you will share with them how your company can help them meet their needs.

Step 8 - Avoid Writing Competitive or Unsolicited Proposals

Many certified contractors has been disappointed or worse, "gone broke" by jumping at a prospect’s direct (or indirect) request to them to write a proposal for the prospect's consideration based on one of these first visits. In the “heat of the battle”, it is tempting to do so, because “at least we’ll know if they’re interested”. Don’t! If a proposal is requested by a prospect, here’s a way to find out before you do prepare it, whether they are sincere in their request, and also a technique to write one in just about 30 seconds, that won’t cost you much and will avoid the disappointment that often follows, days or weeks of hard work, only to find out that the prospect wasn’t really serious about it in the first place. You can change the words to fit your own style, but this is what the conversation should generally sound like:

(The prospect asks you to give him/her a proposal for their consideration, whatever that means) Mr. Prospect, we both know what you would do if we were to write a proposal that totally missed the mark. For example, if it didn’t meet your needs, took too much time to provide the needed product or service and was well above what you were expecting to spend. I suspect that you’d just throw it out, without question. Is that a fair statement? (Wait for prospect to agree) Thanks for your candor, Mr. Prospect. Both your resources to review and mine to prepare a proposal are scarce and expensive, and we wouldn’t want to waste your time or ours either. Let me ask you this. What would you do if we were to prepare a proposal that knocked your socks off, totally satisfied your needs, provided the product or service that you really need and was right on schedule, and did all of this at what you would consider to be a fair price? (Shut up and wait for prospect to respond). If the prospect says anything else other than they would buy your product or service immediately, they are probably not serious and in 30 seconds or less, you’ve saved yourself the agony and frustration of wasting your time, money and psychic energy on an opportunity that probably never existed in the first place.

Step 9 - Learn the Procurement Process And Make It Simple For Your Prospect To Buy

A Federal Government purchase of your product or service is not quite as simple as a commercial retail transaction, but its also not as draconian as it’s often made out to be. Needless to say, there are forms, authorizations, signatures and a number of different persons involved. You must know this procurement process intimately, and the best way to learn it is to follow the flow of paperwork that accompanies a Federal Government Purchase Request. Where do you find out about the paperwork process? My first suggestion is to ask the targeted prospect to explain it to you. If they can, great! If they can’t, its also great, but only if you can show him or her that you can help them “put the procurement package together”, and make it simple for them to buy from you and your company. My second suggestion is to talk to the Contracting Officer or buyer that supports that targeted prospect. In this case, we strongly suggest that you only ask about the process and do not infer that you’re helping or about to help the targeted prospect. You must know about all of the forms, who prepares them, who has to agree and sign off on each and you must get a complete acceptable example of a completed package. While you’re at it, this is the time to ask the Contracting Officer or buyer, how long it “typically” takes to process the paperwork and also what typically could “go wrong” to delay or untrack the procurement along its way.

Step 10 - Follow-up, Follow-up, Follow-up

All of us have heard the old adage that “the squeaky hinge gets the oil”. This adage is very appropriate to your Federal Government marketing efforts as well. Once you have convinced your targeted prospect to buy from you and the necessary paperwork has been prepared and launched into the procurement chain, you may think that you’re home free. Wrong! A Myriad of factors can derail your potential contract, including lost paperwork, agency politics, budget priorities, competitor interventions, and poorly coordinated-with agency officials. Now that the formal purchase request has entered the agency’s procurement system, it is imperative that you track its progress every step of the way. The best way to do this is to call and visit every “station” or office where the paperwork will stop at, preferably before it gets there. At each “station” or office, you must re-introduce yourself and your company, ensure that the appropriate decision maker knows of the procurement, your companies capabilities and eagerness to perform, your commitment to their success and that you offer personal intervention, should an issue arise before, during or after the contract is awarded. Your mission, during this follow up phase, is simply to convince the entire chain of Federal Government decision makers involved in your “about-to-be-contract”, that there is little or no risk to doing business with you.

We know that we’ve undoubtedly left out some of the details in the above ten step process, but we’re also super confident that if you follow this advice, you will be successful in effectively utilizing your 8(a)BD or SDB certification. Thousands before you have and we’re confident that you can too!

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