Infosec Europe Week Discussion of sales to the US federal government

A peak at the U.S. government contracted spend budget (1/2) U.S. Federal Government Contractor Spend Services Products $272 Billion $165 Billion

A peak at the U.S. contracted spend budget (2/2) DOD Department of Defense HHS Health and Human Services DHS Department of Homeland Security VA Veterans Affairs Treasury IT Spending by Agency Services Products

Paths to winning work from the US government A need can be identified through a few different routes: May be recurring: Most government contracts are for 5 years so this may be the renewal of an existing contract May be internally generated: Someone inside the agency may identify a need Externally generated: Someone outside the agency may point out a need/a new solution Need Identified RFI Issued RFP Released RFPs Evaluated Winner Announced The RFI is the document the government uses to help them understand the range of solutions to the need from a substantive and procedural perspective Substantive: What kinds of products and services are out there to solve the need Procedural: Who is out there (small business, woman owned business, etc) that can do the work Bids are evaluated by a selection committee against the criteria in the RFP The RFP gives exact information about: What the government wants How the bids will be evaluated How they want to receive the responses How the government is thinking about price v. quality Whether or not the RFP is set-aside for members of a protected class

Finding Needs Recurring Needs Internally Generated Sources Official website for government contracts Agency specific e.g. NGA’s needs platform Externally Generated Agency memos: Agencies put out a tremendous amount of information on what they are looking for. Read speeches and white papers Personal relationships: Have conversations with PMs you know Unsolicited White Paper: Submit a proposal on how to address an issue that you know they have Informal conversations: The verbal equivalent of the unsolicited white paper Pros & Cons Easiest to find for a foreign company Relationships with PMs/KOs less important High competition for them Being on the right team it critical Long lead time (2 years) and tough to track If you are aware of the opportunity you can help shape it before the RFI/RFP comes out Highly relationship driven which is tricky for foreign firms Time to win work 1-2 years (best case) Can move extremely fast if you find an interested PM with money (and near year end) Competition frequently limited Very unpredictable May be time consuming to find the right office Generally low dollar value

Pursuing a need/finding people who count A note on hiring sales staff: There are a LOT of people running around DC who have had senior roles in government who are now hired gun BD. Be VERY VERY skeptical of them. They will get you a lot of meetings with senior leaders but you don’t want to meet senior leaders, you want to meet PM and KOs. Save your $10K a month and spend more time on your white papers and scheduling your own meetings Low time/costHigh time/cost Send an to the PM Draft a white paperAttend a trade showMeet the OSDBUMeet the PMHire part time salesHire full time sales

Building your U.S. Business Effort Impact High Low High US mailing address Register a Virginia company Register in necessary federal systems Take classes on federal sales Retain a US Sales team Lease an office in the US Hire US staff Respond to RFIs Respond to RFPs Low

Contact Geoff Orazem Managing Partner, Eastern Foundry Crystal Drive, Suite 400 Arlington, VA USA