Archive for Resources

Should You Bother with a Capabilities Statement?

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Spend enough time at matchmaking events, industry days, networking events and conferences in the #GovCon world, and one could amass quite a collection of Capabilities Statements.  If one were into collecting them.  Which I am:

The capabilities (or capability) statement is your business’s resume; as such, it needs to combine the technical skillset you’re offering with an attractive format that would cause a neutral third party to pick it up and glance at it.  There are plenty of resources (APTAC, HHS, SAP&DC) who will tell you what to put in it.  ISI Federal lays it out in a graphical format. FDIC has a whole slide deck.  I’d like to take you through a slightly different analysis:

“Who [or what] is it for?”

  1. Fitting in. I have seen more than one Small Business professional, representing government and prime contractors, ask for a capabilities statement right at the start of a conversation at a matchmaking event.  If you don’t have that, it looks like the dog ate your homework.  Not the first impression you were going for
  2. Benefits and Features. A quick glance at a well-constructed capabilities statement will give your reader an understanding of how your services or products will help them solve a problem in their organization. As such, it should highlight the results of your work, defining what you do with enough specificity to enable an informed buyer to be impressed.  If you can’t think of any way to impress or stand out, you probably shouldn’t be competing in the first place.
  3. Category box-checker. All the socio-economic and small business statuses and certification need to be there for easy reference. As well as your location, contact info, vendor (SAM / CAGE) numbers, NAICS codes, and any contract numbers that your customer may care about.  Sometimes capabilities statements are a component of market research – help your customers make the case of a set-aside (without repeatedly bashing them over the head with your status).
  4. Conversation re-starter. It’s on you to follow up to any great meeting to grow a relationship and turn a spark of interest into a true business lead. As such, a solid capabilities statement could be a good follow-up email attachment, for reference & recollection.  An electronic document, properly labeled and formatted, also makes it easier for your customer to store it and refer to it as necessary.

Is your one-pager ready for prime time?  Make sure you’re not guilty of any egregious “Don’ts“. Keep your customer paramount in your mind when you’re writing and designing: will she want to pick it up? Read it? share it?  Do you even know who your customer is? If not, do your homework first.

And if you would like some help, contact your local PTAC. We’ve got our red pens at the ready.

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Small Business Size Standards and NAICS Codes update

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The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) updated its Table of Small Business Size Standards adopting the Office of Management and Budget’s 2017 revision of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) effective October 1, 2017. The revised NAICS Codes and their corresponding size standards will be available in SAM for use in entity registrations starting October 7, 2017. The updated table of size standards is available now on SBA’s website at www.sba.gov/size.

For more information please contact your Virginia PTAC counselors.

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Department of Defense Waiving SAM registration requirements for emergency response vendors

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Due to the emergency situation caused by the hurricanes, contracting offices are using authority to waive the requirement for SAM registration in purchases that directly support the emergency response.  If you’re helping a vendor who is not yet registered in SAM but needs a CAGE code, the expedited process instructions are below. 

(information on selling to disaster response agencies)

Subject: Obtaining CAGE codes for vendors responding to the Hurricanes

Hello everyone – obviously we expect that there will be many offices responding to the hurricanes with emergency purchases where SAM registration is waived per FAR 4.1102(a)(3)(iii) and part 18.102.  We want to get the below instructions out for how you can still help your vendors obtain CAGE codes (if they don’t already have one) that are required per FAR 4.1804 for other than micro-purchase actions:

1 – Go to https://cage.dla.mil

2 – Choose ‘Request or Update a CAGE Code’ and hit Begin on the next page

The user will then be taken through a series of pages where they provide the data necessary to set up a CAGE code, but before they get to those elements, they have to answer a few more questions.  In order for the CAGE website not to just direct them to go register in SAM, the users need to answer exactly as follows:

  1. Question – Do you have a registration for this same entity in process at System for Award Management (SAM)?  Answer – No
  2. Question – Do you plan to receive contract payments or grants from the U.S. Government?  Answer – No
  3. Question – Are you a NON-U.S. entity (government or commercial)?  Answer  No (note – if the entity really is foreign, answer Yes, but realize that the user will be directed to contact his/her home country codification bureau)
  4. Question – Are you requesting a new CAGE Code?  Answer – Yes
  5. Question – Do you have a previous business?  Answer – No
  6. Question – Please choose your Entity Type   Answer either – (1) U.S Commercial Company/Firm, Organization or Government Entity (non-federal) OR (2) Sole Proprietor Business
  7. Question – Please choose a Primary Purpose for this CAGE   Answer -Other
  8. Question – Please describe the primary purpose for this CAGE  Answer – Provide Urgent Hurricane Irma Support (or Harvey or Jose as appropriate)

From here on, the user is just providing their name, address, etc.information.  Should be simple from here.

Be aware – when a user requests a CAGE code be established via this method (instead of through registering in SAM), it goes into manual processing at DLA in Battle Creek.  It’s very important that the user enter ‘hurricane’ in the purpose field after they choose other.  The CAGE team is going to search for that term in each request that comes in and move those to the top to be worked.

For non-GPC actions, it’s important that the vendor get a CAGE code assigned and it be included in the contract when its distributed to ensure that their eventual payment is streamlined and not held up for manual action.  Note also that without a valid CAGE code, an action will fail Procurement Data Standard (PDS) validations.

If these are going to be on-going contracts (such as reconstruction), it would behoove the vendors to eventually actually get registered in SAM (they can use the CAGE code that will be assigned in this process when they do so) even if they’re not technically required to do so because the contract was initially exempted due to the emergency.  Being registered in SAM will just make the whole invoicing and payment processes run a bit smoother if the contract lasts for a while.

Lisa Romney, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy Office of Acquisition Technology and Logistics

 

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Why Am I Here? (At this conference)

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I am lucky to attend many a procurement conference.  The piles of business cards, and the expansive collection of branded grocery shopping bags in my car will attest to that.

I go to learn the content, sometimes to speak, and to meet people (and depending on the content of the conference, not necessarily in that order). In fact, defining the business goals for attending – including sponsoring or exhibiting – is essential if you want to avoid wasting your time and money at events that aren’t right for your business. The process goes something like this:

  • Will my customers be there?

there’s nothing more frustrating than going to an event marketed as “Special event for government contractors” and there are 2 government contracting businesses in the room.  Look at past events, peruse the sponsor information, if published. Talk to the organizers. Ask your industry contacts if they think this is a good event.

  • Will my industry influencers be there?

Sometimes you have to see and be seen. If a preeminent industry event is happening and all your competitors are showing up and your absence would loudly proclaim that you’re not paying attention — then you better put on that suit and register before it’s all sold out.  If a customer tells you that they’re putting on an event and expending effort to bring you a program, get their folks to agree to speak, those should all be good signs that your absence won’t go unnoticed.

  • Will my resources /vendors be there?

Some of the events may not be all about you making a sale. Sometimes, you may want to learn about trends in the industry or resources that you can use in your business.  Looking for a legal pro? An event featuring attorney speakers on a particular subject matter may be a quick way to get a question answered – and perhaps a lead on a good attorney you can retain.  Same thing goes for any resource you need: the people putting on events, appearing as subject matter experts tend to be well connected, and may be great resources for your business.

  • Will I learn something useful for my business?

You’re there to learn – so engage, participate, ask questions, take the opportunity to have a word with a speaker (or at least get their card).  You can also make a good impression from the audience if you post / tweet about the event in progress, linking to the speakers’ and organizers’ Twitter handles can get you a few “likes” and “retweets” – building your name recognition and notoriety even as you’re in the audience.

  • Will I do “better” by exhibiting / sponsoring?

If your customers and partners are walking around and you want to get noticed, having an exhibit table is a quick way for them to find you. If you have something that catches their eye and gets them to your table – all the better.  At many conferences, sponsors get advanced marketing, such as social media, print, and website recognition. Bigger events even pre-print giveaways with all the sponsor logos.  Word of caution: if you do decide to exhibit or sponsor an event – make sure you’re ready. Do you have something to give away? (even a capabilities statement and some candy). Do you have a professional-looking presence? Logo, tablecloth, banner…. You don’t want to be over- or under- dressed for the occasion. If you’ve gone to an event before, you know what all the other exhibitors will have. You don’t want to look like you didn’t prepare.  If you’re a first-time attendee to a particular conference, it’s perfectly fine to just attend and make a decision if it’s worth exhibiting the following year.

 

  • Here’s what NOT to do:

  1. Look at your phone the whole time.  You’re there to meet people, right?
  2. Leave your business cards at home.  [I keep a stash in my car for emergencies.]
  3. Leave early.  I know you want to beat the traffic, but I can honestly tell you that government agencies that put a lot of work into the industry days and conferences – and find it disappointing that contractors who claim want to work with them dissipate from the room. I know everyone has multiple commitments; if this event / customer is a priority, commit to it.
  4. Forget to follow up.
  5. Follow up as a mass email to everyone – the best I can assume is that you weren’t paying attention when we spoke. The worst I’m going to assume is that you don’t care that much.
  6. Have unrealistic expectations.  Read the information about the event, the speakers, the sponsors.  Understand their roles and responsibilities with respect to the subject matter, and what kind of information you can learn through the agenda topics, as well as conversations you can engage in.
  7. Fail to read instructions and prepare. Read the registration page carefully. Review driving directions & traffic. Add the event to your calendar. If payment is required, take care of it.
  8. No-show. If you can’t make it, let the organizers know. They would like to have an accurate count for food orders, room capacity, and possibly waitlisted folks.
  9. Take it out on the registration desk.  If there’s a problem, ask to speak to an organizer. the folks at the desk doing check-in probably weren’t at fault for mis-printing your name. Yelling at them is not going to get you the answer you want – but being nice to them can get you what you need.
  • What SHOULD you do?

  1. Participate – strike up conversations, invest in an exhibit opportunity if it makes sense, ask questions in the sessions, if you see a staff person struggling with a heavy object, lend a hand.  There are a myriad ways to make a good impression.
  2. Show up on time.  Early-birds: that means you, too.  There are no gold stars for folks that want to register while the organizers are trying to set up. They’re even more anxious to get started than you are, promise.
  3. Dress professionally for the tone of the conference.  Logo shirts are usually a good idea — but you may want to check to see if attire is “business” – that is, suits required.
  4. If you have special needs, let the organizer know in advance so that we can accommodate you to the fullest extent possible.
  5. Share the love on social media. Post to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook any insights or photos. Not only will it give you content, but it will be picked up and shared by organizers and speakers! and you may get a few more followers in the process.
  6. Follow up with folks you want to start building relationships.  Invite them to connect on LinkedIn, invite them out for coffee, ask them a follow-up question about the topic you discussed, bring up a tidbit from a conversation that shows you were genuinely interested in what they had to say.

What have you done at events you attended that made a difference in your business?

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Conference Swag – A hunter-gatherer’s perspective

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If you’re wondering if attending conferences is a good idea –  Here’s what I think.  This article is entirely about the “goodies.”

I decided to do a business experiment, in the make of marketing and wise use of resources: Attending the Veterans in Business conference and getting one piece of “everything” with the hope of learning a couple of lessons.  A couple of observations:

Attendees:

  1. A full bag of “swag” is heavy.  Also at some point it starts looking conspicuous, so you might want to have a really good reason for taking all the things, such as “I’m writing a blog about it!” for fear of appearing greedy.
  2. You must engage the vendor at the table in conversation. Cruising by just to grab stuff is not polite.  (Sneaky option: wait until everyone is at lunch).
  3. How many pens do you really need? Yes, it’s free. But you’re there to network, not get goodies for the kiddies. Eye on the [right-kind-of] prize.  Unless you have a good excuse (“I’m writing an article about it!”)
  4. Don’t let the dust gather.  Yes, you can quite literally weigh the effect of your networking by the size of the bag. But if you leave it all in a corner of your office and don’t look at the materials, don’t make the contacts, don’t utilize the intel you have gathered at the event, it may not be the best time spent on your business.

 

Vendors:

  1. What is the purpose of the goodies? To get people to your table? Or to leave a lasting impression long after they leave? Your goodie-investment decision can’t be based solely on the novelty / uniqueness of the giveaways, you must ask yourself if the giveaways are meeting the goals you set out.  I can honestly say that the wine opener isn’t going to be sitting on my office desk, for a variety of perfectly good reasons.
  2. Zoom in on your key targets:  Yes, everyone can have a pen.  You might also have a few special (and more expensive / perishable) goodies for the prospects that you want to make an extra special impression on. It’s ok to keep things out of view.
  3. Watch the paper. How many pieces of collateral are you handing out? How many do you expect someone to read after they walk away?  Don’t waste precious resources on volumes that will end up in the recycling bin.
  4. Do you have a mechanism for tracking interested prospects? Asking for a business card, even having a giveaway fishbowl – it’s quite amazing what folks will tell you for a chance to win a $5 Starbucks card.
  5. Don’t make it too difficult for someone to get one of your goodies. People don’t like to beg for things. If it’s on display, chances are you don’t want to leave the conference with a boxful – so don’t put them in the back of the table, while standing in front of it and scaring people off.

2017 Trends?

I was disappointed to score only one flash drive, and zero phone chargers!  Car chargers and USB battery packs were all the rage in the last few years, but no longer.  It seems that everyone is still into phone accessories though:

Health and wellness were big:

 

Plenty of office goodies

 

                                                                      i counted 25 pens (a couple of duplicates)!

 

Oh and right, the handouts

 

from vendors (left, 2″ high) and government (right, about 1″ high plus the book).

 

 

 

 

What you don’t see pictured is the candy.  An easy way to get folks to your table. An inexpensive marketing investment.  And if all you have is paper – candy will soften the hard edges.

Goodies-wise, the standout table of the whole conference of course never made it into any bag – it was a delicious display of cookies from Dog Tag Bakery.

 

So here’s a lesson for businesses who are trying to figure out how to spend a very limited marketing budget wisely:

  1. Who is your customer? [human being that’s making / influencing / contributing to] decisions on whether to buy a product/service you sell.
  2. What would cause that person to come to your table?
  3. What do you want them to remember after they leave your table?  (Pro tip: the phrase “My grandkid will love this!”  — maybe not what you were going for)
  4. Do you have a way to follow up with them after that conversation?

Making the best first impression is important. But no matter how cool your giveaway, it won’t transform a passer-by into a client – that’s YOUR job.  Gadgets can help.

 

What were some of the best (and worst) giveaways you have seen at business events?

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Ode to the NAICS Code

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A fundamental building block of your company’s government contracting existence. The NAICS codes define you, quite literally, by associating your offerings with a certain segment of the universe of products and services sold in North America.    Then why are they so difficult to get right?

First, let’s define the problem.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, NAICS, or “North American Industrial Classification System”, is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy. NAICS was developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and adopted in 1997 to replace the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. It was developed jointly by the U.S. Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC)Statistics Canada, and Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia  to allow for a high level of comparability in business statistics among the North American countries.

As of February 2016, there are 1045 active NAICS codes.  536 of them refer to services (from banking to industrial launderers to fur-bearing animal production), 509 refer to wholesalers and manufacturers (from music stores to dental labs to fasteners/buttons/needles).

And there must be one out there that perfectly describes you, and if you find it, everything is smooth sailing…

Not so fast.

Federal contractors need to look at NAICS Codes, much like they need to look at everything else they’re doing in pursuit of business: from their customer’s viewpoint.

So here are some best practices for figuring out what your NAICS codes should be.

Step I: Easy Stuff

  1. The Obvious ones. Go to naics.com, type in a keyword or two for what you do, and a couple will pop up. There might be even several that are close enough or fall within the range of your products and services. Write them all down. You don’t have to pick a “primary” one yet.
  1. Follow the Leader. What NAICS are your teaming partners and competitors using? Look at their websites, business cards, capabilities statements – the numbers aren’t a secret code. They’re a common denominator for associating similar products/services. If your direct competitors are using them, you might want to.
  1. Procurement History. I happen to love award analysis and historical data – it’s the best prediction of future behavior in government entities, because they tend to follow similar processes when doing the same work.  So if you look at usaspending.gov and www.fpds.gov and even www.fbo.gov, you’ll find that the NAICS codes associated with most of the work they’re going to be procuring are NAICS codes they’ll use again and again.  Much of the time, the NAICS codes will be the same as you found in steps 1 and 2.  So why bother?

Step II: Secret Squirrel  Methodology [The logic behind seemingly illogical coding]

When you searched procurement history, you probably came across NAICS Codes that did not make sense. I have found “frozen foods” purchases coded as IT services. I recently even ran across a Piano purchase that was coded as an armored vehicle (Contract # VA24416F6918 if you want to see for yourself).  There are 2 things you need to think about: why does that happen, and what do you need to do about it.

First, Why, oh why, do NAICS codes used by my customers make no sense to me?

  1. Government is buying something to Meet Their Mission. Like I said earlier, put yourself in your customer’s shoes – they are not buying landscaping or cloud software because they want that particular product. They’re buying it because it is part of their mission – and the agencies’ budgets are allocated into big buckets to be spent on missions. It’s much easier to budget, track, award, and maintain contracts in those same buckets, therefore the NAICS Code will often reflect the customer’s end goal, not the (product/service) means they are using to meet it.  If you are building a data center to support a mission to Mars, it might be coded as a data center – but it’s a lot easier for your customer to track the expenditures and justify to Congress an expense that is aligned with a mission vs. just a purchase for the back office.
  2. Mistakes Were Made. Government entities have procurement cycles, when something expires, they buy it again.  If the NAICS Code powers change the code and you missed it, you might be buying something under an expired code without realizing it.  Or maybe you transposed a digit and typed 12 where you meant to type 21. And now you have a whole new NAICS code and that’s how pianos get turned into tanks.
  3. “Small” Business affinity. NAICS Codes aren’t uniform, they have many different standards for determining whether an entity is small. While they vary across individual codes, the two major delineations are:
    1. For services, the standard is the average of the last 3 years annual revenues
    2. For products / manufacturers / wholesalers, it’s the number of employees

Let’s say there’s a $20 million dollar business that has been doing great work and when the contract comes up for recompete, the government customer wants the company to be included in the competition – have a chance to win the work.  Would the government ever put that procurement, if it’s a small business set-aside, under a NAICS code where the small business threshold is $6M? No, because that would preclude them from competing altogether.

So what do you do? Stay calm and do research.  When you are searching for opportunities and past awards, use a variety of search cirteria – keywords, agencies, vendors, not just NAICS, because if that’s the only criteria – it will be both too broad, and at the same time, too limiting as you are likely to miss good opportunities.

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Navy signs MOU with GSA

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GSA and Department of the Navy recently signed a memorandum of understanding for extended use of the OASIS (One Acquisition Solution For Integrated Services) contract for complex professional services requirements. Its focus includes, but is not limited to; Military Engineering, Aircraft R&D, and Space and Missiles R&D. Using the OASIS contract offers the NAVY a streamlined acquisition tool to meet its requirements while reducing costly duplicate contracts. Additional information: OASIS@GSA.GOV.

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Procurement Instrument Identifiers (PIID) structure changes

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Source: Defense Logistics Agency

In order to standardize procurement transactions across the Federal Government, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 4.16, Unique Procurement Instrument Identifiers (PIID) has been amended to implement a uniform award identification system referred to as the Procurement Instrument Identification (PIID).

For DLA, the new PIID structure will continue to require use of Activity Address Codes (AACs) as the unique identifier for contracting offices, the current fiscal year, instrument type and a four-character serial number.   Existing contract, purchase order, and delivery order numbers will not change.

Beginning October 1, 2016:

  • Manual purchase order numbers will change from “M” to “P” in the 9th position.  Automated purchase orders will continue to use a “V” in the 9th position.

Beginning October 2017:

  • Task/Delivery Order numbers will be issued with a unique 13-character delivery order number as described above, containing “F” or “M” in the 9th position; the current four-character supplementary call number identifier will no longer be utilized.
  • A “M” in the ninth position of the PIID will identify purchase orders and task or delivery orders issued by the enterprise FedMall system.
  • All modifications, including modifications to calls and task/delivery orders, will utilize a 6-character format, added to the 13-character PIID being modified.

More information about the October 2017 changes will be provided as we move closer to the implementation date.

Please monitor the DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS) and/or the Supplier Information Resource Center (SIRC) for updates.  Additional information will be provided as we move closer to the implementation dates.

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