Companies with strong niche solutions for U.S. military and government clients often need to reach end users through teaming. Those large prime contractors need nimble, high-value, innovative partners to win.

Your status as a small or disadvantaged business is a minor advantage at best. It can get you in the door — essentially, because the primes need small business subcontracting plans for proposals worth more than $500,000. Once you’re there, it’s up to you to make that first meeting count.

These tips can help you and your team to avoid pitfalls and prepare for meetings that will get you invited back.

1. Debunk Your Teaming Tactics: Reality Checklist

Get your marketing team and your advisers together, and compare notes on what has worked and not worked in your quest to win a place on U.S. government project teams. What do you expect from a prime contractor, and what are you bringing to the table?

Remember that prime contractors:

• Get calls from hundreds of small businesses every week;
• Don’t find opportunities for your solution;
• Don’t introduce you to key end user or program management contacts;
• Won’t market your solution to their clients/prospects; but
• Expect you to know about their current, future, and potential projects; and
• Expect you to bring them new relationships and customer contacts.

2. Research Your Prospective Partner

Business development managers I’ve interviewed, including those at EDS, Unisys, Bearing Point, KBR, and Boeing, agree that they expect prospective partners to:

Know Their Niche — Diane McLaughlin, director of the Small Business Program Office at Bearing Point, says her top pet peeve is prospective partners “... who don’t know what we do.”

Explain how you fit in — “Read case studies online,” suggests Ed Weil, senior manager for the Supplier Diversity Program at Unisys. “Find out who our customers are and get to know them before you call us. How can you help us to better serve the needs of specific clients?”

Bring in the business — What new leads and client relationships can you bring to the prime?

3. Register

Online registration is necessary but not sufficient on its own for partnership with many large primes. Spend time preparing and submitting your profile before calling on the prime. A carefully crafted profile tremendously increases your pre-meeting credibility.

Draft content offline to create modules you can cut, paste and edit to suit specific questions. The time you invest in one profile gives you significant content you can edit for others.

“Use specific keywords to describe your unique qualifications,” advises Quintin Robinson, manager of KBR’s Small Business Program Office in Arlington, Virginia. “

[The profile is] an ideal place to present your track record,” explains Ed Weil at Unisys, whose firm asks about past performance, size, and qualifications. “Make your entries as strong and specific as you can.”

4. Know What Primes Want To See: Focus on Their Priorities

Ludmilla Parnell, marketing director, Small Business Partnerships with General Dynamics IT, offers pointers like these to prospective subcontractors—excellent suggestions to consider when you prepare your materials to call on primes:

Core capabilities — Nobody does everything superbly. What’s your undisputed sweet spot — the reason why customers gravitate to you?

Differentiation — Why are you so adept at attracting those clients? What’s your unique value proposition, to both the prime and to the prime’s client? (Hint: “I’m a small business” is not a differentiating factor! If you are a small business of one kind or another, be sure to say so, always remembering that this only gives you a marginal advantage over a large business if all other factors are equal—and they almost never are.)

Past performance and reputation as team player — Primes or government buyers want to see that your solution works flawlessly. If you have case studies or media coverage, make them presentable and available. If you have a track record, but haven’t written up the client, problem, solution, and results, then make that a high priority.

Price — First, notice that price isn’t the first item in this list of pointers. Second, remember to consider your partner’s margin revenue in your pricing.

Personnel experience and low turnover — Will key team members be around for the life of the contract? Consider how you’ll support the project over time.

Financial strength — Prepare corporate financial highlights for your partner to review.

Location — Distance need not be an issue, even for companies with headquarters or operations outside the United States. You’ll have a level playing field if you can show that logistics and standard operating procedures that meet or exceed the company’s needs are in place, especially for export control compliance.

However, you’re not just selling yourself; you’re building relationships with partners and clients who really want reassurance that you are there for them, close at hand. Locating an office or building operations in Fairfax County or the greater Washington, D.C., area will give you a distinct practical advantage.

Judy Bradt, Principal & CEO of Summit Insight, LLC, consults and speaks on U.S. government procurement for a global clientele. She launched “Answers in an Hour,” a turnkey service for clients who want government contract ideas they can use right away. For more information, contact her at Judy.Bradt@SummitInsight.com or 703-627-1074, or visit the Summit Insight Web site at www.summitinsight.com.

Original news clip can be found at
http://www.fairfaxcountyeda.org/publications/bv3q07.pdf