PANELIST: Gail Young, KO Solutions LLC

 What agencies need what you’re selling? ◦ Have you checked FedBizOpps to review what procurements a target agency has conducted during the past months using your NAICS codes? ( ◦ What Prime Contractors are getting most of their business? ◦ How long is the average period of performance for each awarded contract? (i.e. do you know the “recompete cycle”? 7/27/20102www.kosolutionsllc.com

 How does your customer buy what you’re selling? ◦ Do they show a preference for multiple award schedules (GSA), or existing IDIQ contract vehicles? ◦ Do they like to purchase using government purchase cards? ◦ Do they like to issue their own stand-alone RFPs?? 7/27/20103www.kosolutionsllc.com

 Preference being given to any type of small business (set-aside)? ◦ What small business subcontracting plan goals are in their RFPs? ◦ What small business subcontracting plan goals are in the contracts of their large business prime contractors? 7/27/20104www.kosolutionsllc.com

 Where are the answers to these questions? ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ Freedom of Information Act requests ◦ Agency Small Business Representative 7/27/20105www.kosolutionsllc.com

 a. Small business liaison, program managers, thought leaders ◦ Government agency ◦ SBA ◦ Small Business POC within large business prime contractor ◦ Networking organizations  b. What questions to ask – that they may be able to answer? ◦ what types of services/supplies do they need? ◦ what are their “most pressing needs”? ◦ how do you get on their bidders’ lists? ◦ Are there any bidders’ conferences coming up? ◦ What are the characteristics of their “best performing” suppliers? 7/27/20106www.kosolutionsllc.com

 c. What can’t they help you with? They can’t talk about your competition They can’t talk about RFP-specific requirements, evaluation criteria, etc. for an on-going acquisition. They can’t help you submit a “winning proposal”. They can’t award you a contract “just because” you’re a small business, or “just because” you’re the incumbent, or “just because” you’re not an incumbent! 7/27/20107www.kosolutionsllc.com

a. How does what they’re selling differ from your offering? What are their/your competitive discriminators? How do you stack up? What is your “value proposition” versus your main competitors’? b. What are their prices? ◦ Non proprietary versus proprietary ◦ Current versus future c. Do you have/can you get copies of their recent contract wins? 7/27/20108www.kosolutionsllc.com

 d. What do their customers think of their performance?  e. Where can you get answers to the above?  Freedom of Information Act Requests  Trade Shows  Teammates  Networking FACTS: VALIDATE AND VERIFY CONTINUOUSLY 7/27/20109www.kosolutionsllc.com