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Contractors have opportunities at the end of the federal fiscal year
Eileen Kent, “The Federal Sales Sherpa,” tells GPN that vendors can win business as the curtain comes down on the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Kent helps executives learn how to win federal contracts. She conducts public classes, custom training sessions and webinars and speaks at industry events. She has trained more than 10,000 students over the past 10 years. Kent’s federal selling training program covers the players, the rules, the coaches, the partners, the competition, the field conditions, the strategy to win, the contracting bridges, the closing mechanisms, the proposals and more. 
Kent provides some pointers below for businesses interested in selling to the federal government.
The Fourth Quarter in the Federal Fiscal Year Is Harvest Time:
• For the vendors who have been planting seeds of ideas, innovations, solutions and specifications for the past 12 months to the end users who need what they sell.
• For the sales people who have been watering their clients all year with whitepapers, references, capabilities briefings, budget estimates and needs analyses.
• For the savvy salespeople who put together “wish list” proposals for their federal clients in Q2 and Q3 2017 just in case last-minute budgets come available.
• For the incumbents’ onsite Project Managers who have listened to the federal client’s pains, and helped them solve those problems with cost effective successful solutions throughout the course of the prior contract. Now they will reap the rewards for all that hard work and late nights. Now, option years on their contracts will be exercised awarding them another year in their positions.
• For contractors who have introduced their team to the federal project management team and given the feds tours of their facilities, demonstrations of their products, and presented webinars introducing solutions to their potential customer’s specific problems.
• For teaming partners who have long ago signed teaming agreements and are poised with a proposal team ready to respond to the RFP and project managers who have brought captured intelligence from the field about how the customer views the competition.
• For vendors with contract vehicles (such as GSA, government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs) and indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts (IDIQs) and set asides. The latter can include 8a, Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), and HubZone. Yes, it is harvest time for vendors who have taken good care of their crop of opportunities. Now, during the fourth quarter, they know what’s coming from agencies and where the bid will be posted.
• For contractors who are working late and ready to respond to the RFPs and RFQs ripe for the picking that are in their “field” of expertise and capability.
Eileen Kent advises that if vendors haven’t planted any seeds yet for federal fiscal year 2017, it’s now too late. She adds: “Call the Sherpa at 312-636-5381 to learn how to grow opportunities at the right agencies, and prepare for your Harvest 2018.”
Editor’s note: GPN is spotlighting government buying and selling opportunities as the end of the federal fiscal year approaches. The topic is being discussed in a series of four Use It or Lose It e-newsletters that will be deployed in July and August before the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept 30, 2017. Go here for a sample issue of the free Use It or Lose It e-newsletter.
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