Four Teaming Tips For Prime Connections
By Judy Bradt, Principal, Summit Insight LLC
Judy.Bradt@SummitInsight.com www.summitinsight.com 703.627.1074
Companies with strong niche solutions for US military and government client often need
to reach their end users through teaming. Those large primes need nimble, high-value,
innovative partners to win.
Your status as a small or woman-owned or other type of disadvantaged business is a
minor advantage at best. It can get you in the door – not least because the primes need
small business subcontracting plans for proposals worth more than $500,000. But once
you’re there, you’ve got 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. (What are primes REALLY looking for? See Tip #4!)
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 US government project teams.
What you expect a prime contractor to do for you, and what you expect to bring them?
Remember that usually prime contractors:
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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 at EDS, UniSys, Bearing
Point, KBR, and Boeing, all said that they expect prospective partners to:
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Know Their Niche
Diane McLaughlin, Director of the Small Business Program Office at Bearing
Point, said her top pet peeve is meeting with prospective partners “…who don’t
know what we do.”
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Explain how you fit in
“Read case studies online,” suggests Ed Weil, Senior Manager for Unisys'
Supplier Diversity Program. “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?”
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Bring in the business
What leads and client relationships can you bring the prime that they haven't
heard about yet?
3. Register
Online registration is a necessary but not sufficient condition for partnership with many
large primes. Take the time to prepare and submit your profile before calling on the
prime. A carefully crafted profile increases your pre-meeting credibility tremendously.
Draft content offline, to create modules you can cut, paste, and edit to perfectly suit
specific primes’ questions. The time you take to do one will give you significant content
you can edit for others.
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"Use specific keywords to describe your unique qualifications,” advised Quintin
Robinson, Manager of KBR’s Small Business Program Office in Arlington VA.
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“It’s an ideal place to present your track record,” explained 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, for 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. They care
about:
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Core capabilities
Nobody does everything superbly. What’s your undisputed sweet spot, the reason
why customers gravitate to you?
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Differentiation
Why do you attract those clients so well? 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, but will only give you a marginal advantage over a large business if all
other factors are equal…and they almost never are.)
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Past performance & reputation as team player
Primes or government buyers want to see that your solution works flawlessly. If
you have got a track record, but haven’t written up the client, problem, solution,
and results, then make that a high priority. If you have case studies or media
coverage, get those ready.
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Price
Notice this isn’t the first thing…and remember to consider your partner’s margin
revenue in your pricing.
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Personnel experience & low turnover
Will key team members be around for the life of the contract? How will you
support the project over time?
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Location
Distance need not be an issue, even for companies with headquarters or
operations outside the United States, if you can show logistics and standard
operating procedures, including for export control compliance that meet or exceed
their needs.
However, you’re not just selling, you’re building relationships with people –
partners and clients – who really want reassurance that you are there for them,
close at hand. So locating an office or building operations in the greater
Washington DC area or other location near the partners you want to work with as
well as the clients you want to win, will give you a distinct practical advantage..
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Financial strength
Prepare corporate financial highlights for your partner to review.
Judy Bradt, Principal & CEO of Summit Insight LLC of Alexandria VA consults and
speaks on US government procurement for a global clientele. She has been covered by
Entrepreneur Magazine and Fortune Small Business, ABC Radio, and Amtower on
Success. She has just launched “Answers in an Hour”, a new turnkey service for clients
who want government contract ideas they can use right away.