Preparing for the Government Fiscal Year 4th Quarter Spending
PLANNING
So, how do you get the incumbent person- know that you’re thinking of moving one of
nel on your team? First and foremost, your their key people.
capture plan should address staffing require-
ments. You should use the relationships de- Finding personnel with the right skills, exper-
veloped during the marketing process to help tise, experience, and who are in the appropri-
you contact the incumbent personnel. If this ate salary range can be a challenge. It usually
doesn’t work and they don’t want to talk to takes longer than the 30-45 day proposal prep-
you, then you need to have a contingent staff- aration period to identify resumes, interview
ing plan that includes a mix of incumbent and people, negotiate salaries, execute contingent
non-incumbent staff. If you can’t get the in- offer letters, and get updated, proposal-com-
cumbent project manager, one question you pliant resumes. The staffing process must start
need to ask is if you can win the contract with- before the solicitation is released. If you’re con-
out this person. If the answer is no, then we sistently pursuing the same types of oppor-
suggest not bidding the opportunity. If the an- tunities (and you should be pursuing work in
swer is yes and you can provide enough con- your core competencies), then build a resume
tingent hires to win the contract and get it off database of pre-screened qualified personnel.
the ground, then it may make sense to bid. If This will reduce your recruiting costs over the
you use contingent hires in your proposal, it is long haul. After all, it’s very expensive to drop
important to understand that you have a con- everything to find people and it’s even harder
tractual obligation to first offer the position to find individuals during the summer, when
to the contingent hire for that particular po- people are on vacation and not as responsive
sition. If they don’t accept the job, then you to emails and or available for phone calls. This
can find a replacement, but you have to offer situation is also compounded by the number
it to the contingent hire. Don’t put yourself in of solicitations being released during Q4 and
a “bait and switch” position--where you bid a companies pursuing the same pool of resourc-
person knowing you won’t be putting them es. If you don’t plan ahead, then you may not
on the contract. You’ll get a bad reputation be able to find the people you need to bid on
and could have the contract cancelled. And be government contracts.
careful about bidding key personnel current-
ly working on one contract as a key person on
Molly K. Gimmel & Diana Dibble Kurcfeld are the owners of
Design To Delivery Inc, a government contracts consulting
another contract, particularly if they work on
firm based in Bethesda, MD. For more information, they
a contract in the agency where you’re submit-
can be reached at 301.657.4440 or visit
ting the bid. The customer won’t be happy to
www.d2dinc.com.
ThinkBusiness June 2009
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