Federal Sales Growth System | Book by Ezekiel Russell

The book

Federal Sales

A growth system for technology firms to grow in new civilian and defense organizations—the blueprint built from real-world experience helping IT companies compete and win in the federal arena.

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WHO · Part One

Relationship Zones

Know exactly who influences every federal opportunity, and how to build relationships with each one.

1 Relationship Zone 3: Potential Partners and Competitors 6

Introduction 6

Teaming synergies 6

BD as capture connectors 7

Start with the ideal team in mind 7

Teaming models: The Specialist-Generalist Continuum 8

Specialists teaming for relationships should think at the office level 8

Generalists teaming for capabilities should look for the best specialist 9

Five ways partners can collaborate 9

1. Proposal Effort and Solutioning 9

2. Relationships and introductions 10

3. Intel Exchange 10

4. Past performance 11

5. Capture ability and time 12

Teaming with large vs small companies 13

Be a threat, not a beggar 13

Including a large company 14

Rates negotiation with large and small firms 14

If your firm can be a directed sub, BD should require a high percentage of workshare 15

Persuasion principle: social proof 15

Creativity when presenting solutions and relationships 16

Six Phases in BD’s relationship with teaming partners 16

2 Relationship Zone 2: Incumbent Employees
and Key Personnel 20

Introduction 20

Ethical boundaries 21

Federal employees for key personnel 21

Incumbent Program Managers 22

Loyal to the employer or loyal to the agency? 22

How to find incumbent employees 24

Incumbent capture and salary negotiations 24

Three potential challenges of hiring incumbent personnel 24

1. Non-compete agreements 24

2. Agencies that don’t like vendors recruiting from each other 25

3. Incumbent personnel that don’t meet the requirements (!) 25

Five ways incumbent and key personnel can collaborate with BD 25

1. They can help BD understand the end users’ pain points 25

2. They can help write the proposal 26

3. They can share their resume and sign a Letter of Intent 27

4. They can help BD determine the right staffing for the current contract 27

5. They can introduce BD to other incumbent personnel 27

Six Phases in BD's relationship with incumbent employees 28

3 Relationship Zone 1: Program Managers and
End Users 30

Introduction 30

Six ways BD can collaborate with the program manager and end users 30

1. BD can help the PM learn about emerging technologies and IT trends 30

2. BD can help the PM identify new tasks to achieve their objectives 31

3. BD can help the PM realize new objectives they are able to achieve 31

4. BD can help the PM understand their deeper needs and pain points 31

5. The PM can help to understand the context of the requirement 33

6. BD can keep constant communication 33

Phases in BD's relationship with PMs and end users 34

4 Relationship Zone 0: Contracting Officers 38

Introduction 38

Contracting Officer's job 38

Five main points of the White House Myth-Busting Memos 39

1. One-on-one meetings 39

2. Restrictive communications and protests 41

3. Industry Days 41

4. Contracting Officers, technical requirements, and new vendors 41

5. When to engage with industry 42

Eleven ways BD can collaborate with the CO 42

1. BD can propose tasks or objectives 42

2. BD can recommend proposal instructions 43

3. BD can propose evaluation criteria 43

4. BD can propose labor categories for the CO to add to the final RFP 43

5. BD can propose contracting vehicles 44

6. BD can propose a set-aside, certifications 44

7. BD can add specific sections for the CO in their "extra-mile" RFI responses 45

8. BD can share cost information 45

9. COs can help BD stay up to date on the procurement strategy 45

10. COs decide vehicles, set-asides, and NAICS codes 46

11. COs can help BD with stakeholders’ introductions, for example, the PM 46

Six Phases in BD's Relationship with a CO 47

5 Relationship Zone 0: Small Business
Representatives 50

Introduction 50

SBR's job 50

Two ways BD can collaborate with the SBR 51

1. BD can help SBRs influence the type of procurement and set aside 51

2. SBRs can help BD with stakeholders' introductions 52

Six Phases in BD's Relationship with an SBR 53

HOW · Part Two

Relationship Building

Build trust before your competitors even know the opportunity exists.

6 Solutions, Relationships and Pain Points 60

Introduction 6

Teaming synergies 6

BD as capture connectors 7

Start with the ideal team in mind 7

Teaming models: The Specialist-Generalist Continuum 8

Specialists teaming for relationships should think at the office level 8

Generalists teaming for capabilities should look for the best specialist 9

Five ways partners can collaborate 9

1. Proposal Effort and Solutioning 9

2. Relationships and introductions 10

3. Intel Exchange 10

4. Past performance 11

5. Capture ability and time 12

Teaming with large vs small companies 13

Be a threat, not a beggar 13

Including a large company 14

Rates negotiation with large and small firms 14

If your firm can be a directed sub, BD should require a high percentage of workshare 15

Persuasion principle: social proof 15

Creativity when presenting solutions and relationships 16

Six Phases in BD’s relationship with teaming partners 16

7 Corporations, Personal Relationships,
and Your CRM 68

Solutions and relationships: how do they relate to each other? 60

The initial feeling of many meetings and how to change it 61

Adding value on the spot is a great way to build relationships - how to do it 62

The principle of reciprocity 62

“Putting yourself in their shoes” is too basic 63

Support their mission, don’t star in it 63

Pain points and relationships 64

Pain point finding is an iterative process 64

External and internal pain points 65

8 Power Statements and Value Propositions 80

Power statements: a better alternative to elevator pitches 80

How to create a power statement 81

Technique #1: Use superlatives 82

Technique #2: Use numbers 82

Technique #3: Identify or come up with proprietary processes or tools 83

How to use power statements 83

What is a value proposition? 84

Working without a value proposition 84

VPs create relationships 85

The technical core of every value proposition 86

VP Puzzle Piece #1: Specializing to differentiate 86

VP Puzzle Piece #2: Substantiating the specialization claim with past performance 86

VP Puzzle Piece #3: Building credibility with details 87

VP Puzzle Piece #4: Using valid categories to differentiate 87

VP Puzzle Piece #5: Addressing pain points 88

VP Puzzle Piece #6: Connecting through relatable experience 88

VP Puzzle Piece #7: Connecting your experience and the requirement using the exact same words 89

VP Puzzle Piece #8: Editing for brevity 89

Value proposition by zone 89

VP for Zone 0 SBR - Small Business Representative 90

VP for Zone 0 CO - Contracting Officer 91

"Use these past performance requirements to filter the most qualified vendors" 91

"Use these key personnel requirements to filter the best talent" 91

"Use this contracting vehicle and this set aside to optimize competition" 92

"Avoid these ambiguous requirements to avoid protests" 92

"Use these phases to make the procurement process more effective" 93

"Use these technologies to save money and time" 93

BD can trigger shaping PWS ideas with these questions for section C 93

BD can trigger proposal instructions shaping ideas with these questions for section L 94

BD can trigger evaluation criteria ideas with these questions for section M 94

VP for Zone 1—Program managers and end users 95

VP for Zone 2—Incumbent employees, key personnel, and feds willing to migrate to the private sector 96

VP for Zone 3—Potential Partners 96

"We will win; this is a perfect match with our past performance because..." 97

"We will win; we have a very innovative solution..." 97

"We will win; we are organized and have an effective capture process..." 98

"We are very selective when making go decisions" 98

"We will win and you can trust us" 98

"After we win this one, we can win more together, let’s build a long-term relationship" 98

"We will win; we have great relationships with the main stakeholders / the program office / the contracting team" 99

"We will win; incumbent employees and key personnel are developing the exact solution" 99

"We will win; we understand the competition" 99

MVP for Zone 3: the minimum value proposition for teaming partners 100

9 Eleven Challenges of Relationship Building 102

Challenge #1: The follow-up challenge 102

Challenge #2: Finding "other" reasons to talk to your targets 103

Challenge #3: Hyper-focus on existing relationships 106

Challenge #4: Not understanding weak links 107

Challenge #5: Not understanding weak connections 107

Challenge #6: Personal vs professional relationships 108

Challenge #7: Not starting relationships 110

Challenge #8: Analysis paralysis 112

Challenge #9: Local and in-person-only relationships approach 114

Challenge #10: The illusion of trying 115

Challenge #11: Targeted vs non-targeted relationships 117

10 Fourteen Strategies and Tactics for
Relationship Building 120

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #1: Adopt the right mindset 120

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #2: Decide to have a system 121

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #3: Define marketing personas in your CRM 122

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #4: Keep the fire alive 123

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #5: Be the leader in your relationships 124

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #6: Use the Eternal Email 124

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #7: Make the most of small talk 125

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #8: Become a connector 127

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #9: Build parasocial relationships 128

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #10: Offer and ask for introductions 128

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #11: Recognize relationships’ levels 129

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #12: Engage through professional associations 130

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #13: Leverage event awareness 131

Relationship Strategies and Tactics #14: Curate relevant content 132

11 Six Communication and Relationship
Building Mistakes 134

Relationships and communications mistake #1: Being a taker over and over again 134

Relationship and communications mistake #2: No value propositions 135

Relationship and communications mistake #3: Overlooking what really matters to each position 135

Relationship and communications mistake #4: Overlooking preferred channels of communication 135

Relationship and communications mistake #5: Having the wrong target in the right organization 136

Relationship and communications mistake #6: Not being persistent enough 136

12 Getting in Front of the Right People 138

Finding out who the right people are 138

1. ZO SBR - Finding the Small Business Representative 138

2. ZO CO - Finding the Contracting Officer 138

3. Z1 - Finding the PM and other program office stakeholders 139

4. Z2 - Finding incumbent personnel/key personnel 140

5. Z3 - Finding potential partners 140

Reaching out to get the meeting 141

General best practices 141

1. Be persistent and patient (particularly with ZO CO and Z1) 141

2. Go horizontally as well as vertically 142

3. Pay attention to their preferred method of communication 142

4. Provide times to meet 142

Reaching out techniques through phone calls 143

1. The goal of a phone call is to schedule the call 143

2. If your mind goes blank, use a script 143

3. Get to the point 144

4. Tonality 144

Reaching out techniques through social media/LinkedIn 145

1. Review your previous conversation 145

2. Use the right length 145

3. Make sure to edit for "bot feeling." 145

Reaching out techniques through email 145

1. Use one-liners as much as possible 145

2. Contact several people 146

13 The Art of the Meeting and the Follow-up 148

A. Before the Meetings 148

Preparatory emails 148

1. Example: Preparatory Email for Z3 - Potential Partners 148

2. Example: Preparatory Email for Z2 - Incumbent employees 151

B. During the Meetings 153

General best practices for meetings with all the zones 153

1. Treat everyone as if they are of equal status 153

2. Watch how you communicate; maximize persuasion 154

3. Naming people communicates the right mindset 154

Zone 0 - Meetings with Small Business Representatives 154

Z0—Seven best practices when meeting an SBR 155

1. Demonstrate you’re not a newbie 155

2. Show that you know “who is who” in the agency 155

3. Add a slide with the sources you researched and understand 156

4. Have BD build and present their "Market Research as a Service." 156

5. Have your SBA liaison give the SBR a call or share with them a "search letter" 157

6. Share an RFP with a Small Business Participation Plan 157

7. Go for the sole source 158

Three things you should bring to the meeting: 158

Zone 0 - Meetings with Contracting Officers 158

Five best practices when meeting a CO 159

1. Demonstrate that you can help with the RFP 159

2. Share an RFP with a small business participation plan 159

3. Include your SME 159

4. Share risks 160

5. Share the estimated cost of fulfilling the requirement 160

Three things you should bring to the meeting 160

Z1 - Meetings with program office and end users 161

Z1 - Nine best practices when meeting with a PM 161

1. Don’t show up and throw up; have a dialogue instead 161

2. Share customized past performance brochures 162

3. BD should prepare questions using the SPIN method 163

4. BD should try to understand PM’s hierarchy of goals and tasks 164

5. SMEs should show profound technical knowledge 165

6. Figure out all their motivations 165

7. BD can share success stories 166

8. BD should name people you know in common 166

9. BD should find reasons for another meeting or contact 167

Three Things you should bring to the meeting: 167

Z2 - Meetings with incumbent employees, Key Personnel, and feds that can join your firm 168

Five best practices when meeting with Incumbent Personnel 168

1. Use different approaches for the first contact 168

2. Share first what’s in it for them 169

3. Have them talk to your SME so they can have a technical dialogue 169

4. Have them talk to the founder or the CEO 170

5. If they decide to help with the proposal, agree on an hourly rate 170

Three things to communicate during the meeting: 170

Z3 - Meetings with potential partners and competitors 171

Thirteen best practices when contacting and meeting potential partners 171

1. Before contacting potential partners, have your zone 3 MVP 171

2. Disclose you’re talking to other companies 171

3. Discuss timeline for teaming decisions 171

4. Somehow convey that you value everybody’s capture time 171

5. Don’t team up with your friends just because they’re your friends 172

6. Quantify and compare partners’ PWIN contribution 172

7. Make sure you understand what they bring to the table 173

8. Meeting with incumbents and the Mirage Effect 173

9. Call at least eight months before the estimated RFP date 174

10. Multi-opps partners 174

11. Discuss rates at the beginning of proposal efforts, or earlier 175

12. Ask to meet the people on the ground 175

13. Ask smart and simple questions 176

Typical scenario 1: When the set-aside changes from Full and Open to SB set-aside, the large selects a small, and the rest become orphans 176

Typical scenario 2: When the set-aside changes from SB set-aside to Full and Open, the small selects a large, and the rest become orphans 177

Partners and their introductions to feds 178

Getting to sign TAs 179

TA delays and three ideas to get them out of the way 179

1. Solution Design 179

2. Joint capability brief and white papers 180

3. Introductions 180

Three objections to signing the TA 180

1. “It’s too soon.” 180

2. “The acquisition strategy is not finalized; we can’t structure the team.” 180

3. “We don’t know what the tasks are going to be, so we can’t calculate workshare.” 181

Three things you should communicate during the meeting: 181

C. After the meetings 182

Internal and external summary emails 182

Three reasons you didn’t get a follow-up meeting with a potential partner 182

1. Your value proposition wasn’t strong enough 182

2. You responded to too many questions 183

3. Their level of interest in the opportunity was lower than yours 183

Teaming “mirage effect.” 183

Mirage effect situations 184

1. BD hasn't brought up the TA issue yet 184

2. The potential partner keeps delaying the teaming decision 184

3. Mirage effect on purpose 185

WIN · Part Three

Opportunity Strategies and Pipeline Management

Advance every opportunity with a clear next step until it becomes a proposal.

14 Finding the Opportunities 192

What is opportunity hunting? 192

You can’t “just wing it” 192

It’s opportunity hunting, not opportunity fishing 193

Why is an opportunity hunting system important? 193

Good opportunities can be hidden in non-descriptive names 194

The two universal variables for opportunity hunting 194

Clear data points for the opportunity hunter 195

Five opportunity-hunting mistakes companies make 195

Error #1: Underestimating complexity 195

Error #2: The opportunity hunter does not have SME support 196

Error #3: Focus only on capture and proposals 196

Error #4: The system does not evolve 196

Error #5: Focus only on “under the radar” opportunities, dismissing public ones 197

Some sources for opportunity hunting 197

1. SAM and FPDS 197

2. eBuy, Seaport-e, other GWACs, IDIQs, and other contracting vehicles 199

3. Private Listing Services: GovWin, Bloomberg Government, etc 200

4. Agencies forecasts 200

4. Industry Days (organized by government) 201

5. Professional Association events (private events) 201

6. Your relationships 201

15 Selecting Opps with the Preliminary List 204

Sequence: opp hunt, preliminary list, CRM 204

Why two steps? 204

What is the preliminary list? 206

One cell for BD assessment and one cell for SME assessment (technical feedback) 207

BD technical summary and BD assessment: (+) (-) (n) (?) 207

SME confirms or denies BD hunter technical assumptions 208

Industry specific technical knowledge 209

BD and SME approaches to approve opps 209

New opps meeting, or asynchronous BD/SME collaboration 210

SMEs supporting preliminary list analysis may not know their firms’ capabilities 210

Four common mistakes when deciding “go / no go” 211

Mistake #1: “Yes, we can do that.” 211

Mistake #2: “Yes, we have past performance.” 211

Mistake #3: “Oh, no, look at what L and M say.” 211

Mistake #4: “We don’t have any relationships there; forget it.” 212

16 Pipeline Management 214

The relative value of an opportunity 214

Left-sided pipelines, right-sided pipelines 214

Pipeline volume and killing opps 215

Pipeline descriptive stage names 215

First stage: Selected opps. Sacred Territory 216

Second stage: Identifying relationships. Existing vs. new relationships 216

Third stage: Identifying GAPs. Solutioning and past performance 217

Fourth stage: Creating the Value Proposition. The message to build relationships 218

Fifth stage: Building relationships. Great variance between opps in this stage 218

Sixth stage: Negotiating TAs. A lower percentage of something is better than a larger percentage of nothing 219

Seventh stage: Joint capturing. The prime leads 219

Eighth stage: Writing proposal. The RFP drops 220

17 Opportunity Strategy Map and
Opportunity File 222

Why is it that sometimes leadership can’t manage or control BD? 222

Where should BD share information? CRM? Slides? 222

What is the opportunity file? Solving BD "visibility" 223

Opportunity file “Summary Tab” – 10 areas 224

Opp File Summary Tab Area 1: The opportunity Strategy Map: 224

A management tool for leadership and a map for BD 224

Strategy Map first row: Z1 program office and end users 228

Strategy Map second row: Z2 Incumbent employees and key personnel 229

Strategy Map third row – Z3 potential partners and competitors 230

Strategy Map fourth row: value proposition 230

Strategy Map fifth row: Z0 contracting office 231

Strategy Map sixth row: Z0 SB representatives 232

Opportunity File Summary tab Area 2: opportunity key info 232

Opportunity File Summary tab Area 3: GAP analysis table 234

Opportunity File Summary tab Area 4 – Activity log 235

Opportunity File Summary tab Area 5 – Value Proposition tables 235

Opportunity File Summary tab area 6 - Zone 1 program office "P-meeting" 236

Opportunity File Summary tab Area 7 - Zone 2: Incumbents, KP, feds "P-hiring" 237

File Summary tab Area 8 – Z3 partners and competitors "P-teaming" 239

Opportunity File Summary tab Areas 9 and 10 - Zone 0 SBR and CO "P-meeting" 240

1. Shaping the tasks 242

2. Shaping deliverables table 243

3. Shaping key personnel and labor categories 243

4. Shaping proposal instructions 243

5. Shaping past performance 244

6. Shaping evaluation criteria 244

7. Shaping coding challenges/oral presentation 245

8. Procurement actions (drafts, industry days, site visits, one-on-ones) 246

9. OCIs 246

10. Shaping the contracting vehicle 246

11. Shaping the set-aside 247

12. NAICS codes 248

18 Managing the BD System Means
Interpreting Numbers and Indicators 250

BD actions and BD results: Micromanagement or risk management? 250

Separating BD thinking and BD execution 250

Managing Tasks: The GTD philosophy is very applicable to BD because BD involves a ton of actions 251

BD results and BD intermediate results 252

BD visibility: “big picture” level and opportunity level 253

1. BD “big picture” visibility: pipeline stages opportunity distribution 253

2. BD “big picture” visibility: Opportunities Relationships Heatmap 254

3. BD “opportunity level” visibility: a single number per opportunity 255

The weekly BD call (the BDC) and the BDC48 256

1. Weekly goals for selected opportunities 256

2. Number of meetings per week. How many meetings are needed to move opportunities forward? 257

3. “Reportable tasks” – if not happy with results, examine the tasks 259

Managing People: 3 categories of skills What combination do you have? 261

Managing people: BD toxic optimism and BD plain BS 261

Can you believe your BD team? 262

Effective BDs are optimistic and pessimistic at the same time 263

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The book

Federal Sales

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Relationship Zones

Relationship Building

Opportunity Strategies and Pipeline Management

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