Trap 3: The Shotgun Tactics

The Danger: Wasted Scarce Resources.

See the classic shotgun pattern? Lots of effort, not much reaching your target. Sure, FedBizOpps (www.fbo.gov) is the place where the federal government must publish opportunities and includes links to stimulus opportunities. But if you pump out proposals to every Request for Proposal you find, most of your effort is off target.

Improve Your Win Rate.

FACT: The win begins long before RFP's are published. When you want to win government contracts, research and focus tightly to win. Otherwise, I guarantee you'll go broke trying.

The Fix: Focus.

Did you know? Public money drives much more public information -- on federal departments' budgets, contract spending forecasts and contract awards. Savvy companies pinpoint well-funded buyers, scope out competition and partners, refine their focus, and pick out and position themselves to win opportunities a long time before formal competition begins.

Where to start:

Free web sites offer extraordinary amounts of federal contract market intelligence -- but can take time to hit the bull's eye. Look into www.usaspending.org, www.ccr.gov, www.gsaadvantage.gov, https://fpds.gov, and www.ssq.gsa.gov. Good if you're testing the waters and not ready for a big investment yet, or prefer to spend time rather than money.

Jump Start: Get a free instant webinar in how to use all these -- at www.summitinsight.com/video.asp.

Now tell your friends.

Trap 2: The Shoestring Budget

Danger: No Traction.

If your business is struggling, pursuit of government contracts can hurt more than it helps. You can expect to spend serious money -- and easily a couple of years of effort -- to find a return on what you'll invest to develop opportunities and prepare proposals. And when you DO win, guess when you get paid? After you do the work. Winners budget to stay in business long enough not only to win, but also to perform.

Your current line of credit is often not enough to finance pursuit of several major opportunities, and win a couple, AND stay alive until after you get your first payment. Even healthy companies that are blessed with a line of credit today are shocked to find that their bankers do not simply extend that line and its terms, even to finance a signed government contract. Margins are usually not huge in government contracting. Asset-based financing is your cheapest money. While I see offerings every week for alternative financing (aka "last-minute money"), it's always more expensive, and will evaporate your profits in a hurry.

The Fix? Get Some Financing.

Have you hugged your banker lately? I'm really not joking. If you've decided to pursue government contracts, and revised your marketing budgets to support that pursuit, review your access to working capital and financing. Then visit your banker to let her know your plans -- not least because you want to check your assumptions about financing options and how your bank can support you.

Trap 1: The Saggy Pants Strategy

The Danger: One Size Fits None.

Government buyers need to be right for you, and you need to be right for them.

First, what size opportunity do you perform or deliver best now? Just because government's needs come in all sizes doesn't mean you've got something for everyone.

Second, each government office's needs and problems are unique. And the sales effort has to persuade a complex group of people -- individual buyers, contracting officers, program managers, and end users -- who each have different needs, even if you think you're just selling one thing to them all!

That suggests a very relationship-intensive (and expensive) effort. One size doesn't fit all.

The Fix: Tailor-- Two Ways.

Your government prospects have to fit your company, and your offering has to suit the client.

First, set your sights on the right size and number of opportunities. Don't chase the biggest thing you can find. For every successful opportunity, you have to invest to develop the business, build trusted relationships, and if the odds look decent, prepare the proposal, and if you win, to have enough money to perform until at least after you get your first payment!

Second, pick the style or niche that suits you and your prospects best. Focus on your core competency -- the problem you solve better than anyone. The high-potential prospect wants to meet you because she sees herself reflected in your track record of solving that problem for clients who look a lot like her. In other words, you're the specialty store that carries just her style.

What Can You Do Today?

Ask and receive a free Seven Steps to Success installment series on Strategy, excerpted from my upcoming  book. You'll get:

• a special email every week with tips and a new exercise you can do to make your government contracts strategy the perfect fit!
  
  
• And notification when the podcast  series comes out, too!

Three Top Traps -- Watch Out!

3 Common Mistakes In Government Contracting...

2009 has witnessed two giant forces that have combined to create a rogue wave of interest in government contracting -- among companies of all sizes! This time last year, the recession began to dry up many companies' traditional sources of business. Then, when February's federal stimulus package passed, thousands of company owners thought, "Hey, with all that spending, there's got to be something I can win."

Maybe. But every year, otherwise successful managers spend millions in scarce resources trying to win government contracts without results. And now the stakes are even higher: stimulus notwithstanding, President Obama has just asked government buyers to trim a total of 7 percent from their budgets by the end of 2011.

Conclusion: Don't get lured, get smart. In government contracting, success favors the savvy.

It's easy to avoid the most common traps:

1. The Saggy Pants Strategy
   
2. The Shoestring Budget
   
3. The Shotgun Tactics

Next week's three tips tell you the danger signs, and how to avoid those problems!