For years government contractors have been using traditional marketing techniques to gain the attention of Federal clients.  Email blasts, direct mail, conferences and exhibitions, brochures, advertising have all been used to varying degrees of effectiveness.  But about ten years ago, the effectiveness of these traditional methods began to decline.  And in the past few years, their effectiveness has declined precipitously. But what has caused this decline?

First Month of Women Owned Small Business Set-Aside Program a Success

In January the GSA/Fed Marketing Blog reported on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s approval of a government contracting set-aside for Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs).  On October 7, 2010, the SBA published a final ruling to be effective on February 4, 2011.  The ruling created contracting directives in specific industries designed to channel 5% of all Federal-contracting dollars towards WOSBs.  For more information on this rule, please refer to the original post, “New Rule Sets Aside Billions for Women-Owned Small Business Contracts.” For an updated analysis of the program’s certification process, based on the first month of operations, please read on. 

Government contracting programs for small businesses have been the subject of much discussion lately, both in the news and here at the Fed Marketing Blog.  The long-awaited revision of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program, one of the most significant small business aid initiatives, has stirred this topic into focus.  As you may recall from last week’s blog entry, New SBA Final Rule Tightens 8a Contracting Restrictions, small business programs are stepping up efforts to eliminate abuse.  The SBA, who creates and monitors most of these efforts, maintains strict eligibility requirements. 

ABC - Always be closing… it’s a famous sales mantra.  But in order to close more government sales and obtain Federal contracts, you must first generate significant number of qualified leads.  And you cannot develop a significant amount of Federal sales leads before you first attract agencies to your firm.  This process of acquiring prospects, converting them into leads, and making them your Federal clients is known as the sales funnel and all deals begin with filling the top of the funnel.

The United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is an executive branch agency responsible for establishing policies to reduce, and hopefully eliminate, conflicts of interest between the federal government and its employees.  The OGE establishes regulations, standards of conduct, and training programs on the many forms of criminal ethics violations.  As you might imagine, the potential for conflicts of interest is high in government contracting.

Traditional methods for generating Federal leads include trade shows, seminars, direct (junk) mail, email blasts (spam) to purchased lists, internal cold calling, outsourced telemarketing, and print and media advertising.  These outbound methods are where firms push out the message to the four corners of the country hoping that it resonate with that needle in a haystack. Those techniques are very expensive…and are far less effective than they used to be, especially in Federal marketing, for a number of reasons.  First, Federal employees, like all of us, are inundated with marketing interruptions an estimated 2000 times per day.  In order to cope, Federal buyers have constructed creative means to block those messages:

Continuing with our discussion of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program, recent rule changes have affected the program and its offerings.  The SBA recently published a final ruling, scheduled to take affect on March 14, 2011, that will strengthen the 8(a) Program by preventing waste, fraud and abuse.  In sum, the Final Ruling should better ensure the benefits of the program properly flow to the intended recipients.

Do any of these thoughts ever cross your mind?

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program helps small and disadvantaged businesses compete in the marketplace.  The Program provides mentoring, procurement assistance, business counseling, training, financial assistance, surety bonding, and other management and technical assistance to qualifying firms.  The program targets firms that are owned and controlled at least 51% by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals and aims to help these entrepreneurs gain access to the economic mainstream of American Society. 

Each year, the President proposes an annual budget for how the government’s resources should be allocated among its many departments, agencies, and programs.  Congress then appropriates funds through legislation.  Departments and agencies then award much of these appropriations to private businesses that provide the products and services they need in the form of contracts, grants, loans, etc.  While this process is simple enough to teach in middle school civics classrooms around the country, keeping track of, and understanding where and by whom the government’s vast resources are ultimately spent can be a complex task.