Five Tips for Making Contracting Connections

By Judy Bradt, NAWBO Economic Development Forum

If you’re thinking about winning government contracts, it makes sense to talk to the buyers. The Washington, DC region is home to over 50 federal agencies, three state governments, and dozens of local government agencies. In Virginia, nearby Fairfax County alone does more buying than some small countries!

Then there’s the vendor side. Often, your path to government business is as a partner to a prime contractor—but where do you meet them?

At the 18th Annual Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) Conference, April 24, 2008 in Upper Marlboro, Maryland (about a 20 minute drive outside Washington DC), presented by the Federal Business Council.

Make Your Time and Effort Count
If you’re still exploring which agencies offer good prospects, reaching them all can take a lot of calls (and time, and gas)! You can save big time by coming to an event that brings them all together in one place.

Sure, a big conference packed with nearly 4,000 visitors has the potential to leave you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, But the following five tips will help you make personal contacts with agency representatives who are dedicated to getting you the info and intros you need to get started. They’re the “OSDBU reps”—the small business liaison officers who can open the door to dozens of government agencies and prime contractor partners.

1. Get Matched: Register Early! The conference offers a program to match visiting small firms with interested large prime contractors. Spaces are limited, so register as soon as you can.

2. Avoid Forecast Feeding Frenzy. OSDBU reps come loaded with goodies to give away at their booths. Last year, the hottest item was the Procurement Forecast for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Bound publications a few hundred pages long, these forecasts list all the major spending planned for every agency of DHS, from the telecom needs of the Transportation Security Administration to the ammunition buys for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

Almost every agency has a published forecast, and they’re happy to give them away! The forecasts include what each agency plans to spend, how much they’ll spend, when they plan to buy, and the contact name and information for the contracting officer.

It's About the People
When you’re at the conference, you might feel a primal sense of urgency to get one of every forecast before they run out. You might become aware of the forecast feeding frenzy all around you as crowds of visitors push their way along the aisles, reaching past people in earnest discussions to grab another big book and scoot off to the next booth.

But here’s the key: the big value of these shows isn’t the paper. It’s the people. If you spend all your time collecting paper, you’ve missed the most important thing: the chance to establish a relationship and ask meaningful questions about how to connect with the people who could be your buyers.

There’s a better way. You can access all of those forecasts before the show. Check them out now and find out before you get there which agencies have needs you can meet.

3. Prepare for Who’s There. When you’ve done your homework, you’ll stand out from the crowd. Very few visitors come prepared to tap the deep agency knowledge that these OSDBU reps can share. The most common questions sound a lot like, “What do you do?” or “What do you buy?” or “Do you want to see my emergency lighting system?”

And if you think that gets tiring for government folks, such questions make a profoundly poor impression on the representatives of prime contractors. The most common things they spend their days saying are, “Look at our Web site,” and “You need to registered to be considered as one of our suppliers.”

Make Your Own Priority List
Don’t make this mistake. After you sign up for the conference, check out the list of government agencies, large prime contractors, leading small businesses, and service providers who will be exhibiting. Visit their Web sites. Look at what they do and how your capabilities fit with their priority markets and target clients. Who tops your priority list?

Next, think about what you most want to find out that’s NOT on those agencies’ Web sites. Those are the questions you want to ask in person at the conference.

4. Plan Your Day. First, arrive early. The people you want to see are less tired and have more patience for you. And people may pack up and head out early to beat traffic, so you don’t want to leave your top picks until the end.

Second, plot your course. Before the show formally opens, get yourself a coffee and go through the exhibitor list with a highlighter. Who’s on your must-see list, and where are they on the show floor?

Third, schedule your time. Do you have matchmaking appointments set up? Which onsite workshops would help you most? Plan to take a lunch break because the leading reps on the show floor will, too. Or, if you’re a work-through-lunch type, schedule your lower-priority visits for that time slot.

Fourth, be a card carrier. Bring more business cards than you think you’ll need.

Fifth, talk to your neighbors! Chat up the woman in the chow line, or the man next to you. Everyone is here because they care about government contracting. Ask people what brings them here, and what you can do to help. You might know just the person they need to meet and vice versa.

5. Follow up! If you had a particularly useful conversation with an OSDBU rep—especially if you’d like to stay in contact or arrange a future visit—send a hand-written thank you note within a couple of days. That rare gesture can have quite an effect.

If you promised to send information, then send it promptly. If you collected a lot of stuff —forecasts, business cards, “Doing Business With…” sheets—sort through it within a day or two (or, better yet, on the plane ride home if you’ve flown in). Identify the people and agencies that offer you the best prospects. Then plot your next steps to turn these contacts into potential customers.

Judy Bradt, Principal & CEO of Summit Insight LLC of Alexandria, VA, brings 20 years' experience helping over 5,000 clients land over $200 million in government contracts. She has been covered by Entrepreneur Magazine, Fortune Small Business, and ABC Radio.

Learn more through NAWBO's Economic Development Forum.