Navigating the Fed Opportunity Data River
Have you ever asked, "Is there an easier way to find out what they want, so I can pick the best opportunities to pursue?" Well, I have a great answer for you - NO! [Bet you thought we were going to say something else😏] Of course you can spend your mornings looking through those SAM searches, checking out eBuy, catching up with the emails from your GWAC, trying to figure out what's new in that agency forecast (because you thought you wanted to do business at that agency but now you’re not so sure), or you can subscribe to a data service, give them a little of your history, put your life in the hands of that new AI they have, and still find there is a lot of stuff to read through! And let’s not forget that the data service probably does not have access to eBuy, they may not be seeing the emails from your multi-award IDIQ, they aren't looking at those agency forecasts that are still being issued in Excel (save us), so even after spending some good money you still have a lot to do. Yes, the data services do make life easier, and they provide a lot more than just opportunity data, but you still need to have someone (please not me) sitting around for hours a day monitoring the river of data coming at your business development staff - and heaven forbid if you are paying for a good BD executive and leaving it up to them to do this for themselves.
Great, so we all agree, searching the river is painful, too expensive in both dollars and resource time, and when you go to sleep at night you still aren't sure you are seeing the right things. So, we will ask the question again, "Is there a simpler way?" What? You thought the answer would change? No, it’s a pain, plain and simple. But that does not mean you can't remove some of the pain and get a better answer in the process. How, you ask? Here are a few hints:
First – you really need a good strategy that clearly defines what you want to sell, where you want to sell, and to whom. This will allow better targeting in the search process. Especially if you have a tool that can be educated, in depth, to what your strategy is all about.
Second – develop a strong set of metrics that define the details of what you need to implement, based on your financial growth goals. This needs to include the structure of your pipeline, flow requirements to meet your desired time frames, and resource requirements to execute. Its more than just a calculator.
Third – get your hands on a good tool that can integrate the strategy and the plan into a business development process that supports your staff as they pursue the pipeline opportunities. There is too much to do and manage without it. Yes, CRMs are at the core of these functions, but there is a lot to a B2G business development process that CRMs do not address.
Fourth – give priority to your strategy and plan. Why is it necessary to have this in the list? Our observation is too many companies make a multitude of reactive decisions based on information from "a friend at company X" who called up about teaming or someone who sent an email saying, ‘we can help you win this deal coming out of ---'. We call it rabbit chasing (my dog loves it) because it distracts you from the pursuit activities already in your pipeline. It is OK to assess the rabbit, and if it is worth more to you then something you have been working on, fine, but remember it will drain resources and take you away from the path you are on. There is always a price to pay when you stray, so make sure it is worth it.
Fifth – when the plan says you need X opportunities and Y bids to make your goal, and it will take a+b resources to do it, don’t ignore the KPIs when things do not match up. Just pushing through with the resources/plans you have won’t produce magic. And when the system says you do have enough of X, stop going to sleep at night thinking more is better (safer). Leave it to the tool to keep looking, and if it finds something you like, remember that adding a new deal now requires something else being removed, to keep everything in balance. And those decisions also require you consider the timing and flow of activity within your pipeline. Yes, it can get complicated, so a good pipeline management tool makes sense – and Excel, or even an off-the-shelf CRM is not it!
Sixth - take the pain out of the whole process by outsourcing it to someone who will do all the care-feeding-analysis-monitoring-maintenance of the process for your BD staff so they can focus on the big things - talking to clients, developing solutions and coordinating with teaming partners. Why outsource? Well, you could hire, but that will be expensive, and you might not get well-trained staff that understand the complexities of the river (not to mention knowing all the best fishing holes). Outsourcing to get a team of professionals along with a system that covers the entire process from strategy to proposal will enhance your BD team’s efficiency, productivity, and success rate while costing less than if you try to do it for yourself.