TArticles tagged with: proposal consulting

Before you burst through the $27.5M size standard

Part 4 of 4 in Lohfeld’s MAC series

Government has two definitions of a company’s size: large or small. MACs use North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes to classify small business size standards. The size standard may vary depending on which NAICS Code the contracting office applies. One of the most popular size standards is $27.5M of revenue on average for the past 3 years. If you are a successful small business, chances are you are going to burst through the MAC’s size standard mid-way through the contract. Some small businesses have achieved remarkable success, while other companies graduate just above the $27.5M size standard and must overcome resource challenges to enter the mid-tier range. We can learn from their success stories and challenges. ActioNet is now #62 on Washington Technology list of the Top 100 Government Contractors in 2018. By the time ActioNet won Alliant and CIO-SP3 Small Business awards, the company was well positioned to succeed. … Continue reading Before you burst through the $27.5M size standard →

Maximize your competitive edge to win more MAC task orders

Part 3 of 4 in Lohfeld’s MAC series

A small group of awardees on a given MAC will earn the lion’s share of the total value of all MAC awards. For example, the Top 15 MAC incumbents in FY17 earned nearly 21% of all MAC dollars spent. To further underscore this point, the top 10 businesses on Alliant Small Business and CIO-SP3 Small Business earned 50% of all contract dollars in FY17. So how do a select group of companies earn most of the dollars on a given MAC, and what can other companies learn from their success? 1. They understand their customers All the top MAC earners (Leidos, Booz Allen and Hamilton, CSRA, Northrop Grumman, CACI, etc.) have account managers, program managers, or business developers that are dedicated to maintaining good business relations with a specific segment of customers. They understand the customer’s objectives, operations, budgets, constraints, etc. They routinely meet with customers to learn about their … Continue reading Maximize your competitive edge to win more MAC task orders →

What do you do after winning a MAC?

Part 2 of 4 in Lohfeld’s MAC series

Winning a MAC presents a terrific opportunity to grow your company and should not be squandered. Government contractors won’t win a sizeable share of MAC tasks orders just waiting around for them to drop—it takes careful planning and preparation right from the start. Statistics across MACs indicate the top 10 contractors receive most or all contract awards, approximately 20% of contractors will win less than $10M, and a few will win zero task orders, as indicated by Alliant’s results. Alliant Large Business: Awarded $17.7B to 52 contractors from FY12–May 2018 Top 10 contractors won 80% of all contract dollars Top 25 contractors won 96.6% of all contract dollars (inclusive of the Top 10 contractors) 17 contractors in the mid-tier range earned 3.3% of all contract dollars 10 contractors won fewer than $10M or .01% of all contract dollars with one company that won zero dollars. So, if you’ve been lucky … Continue reading What do you do after winning a MAC? →

Q&A Part 3 | Top 20 bids for 2017—and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline

Lohfeld Business Winning Webinars [webinar replay]

We received a lot of audience questions during our recent Top 20 bids for 2017 webinar. Here is part 3 of our Q&A. Question: With more and more work going to task orders that have less visibility, how can you find out more about what task orders to bid? Brenda Crist’s Answer: That’s a great question, and it’s really tough too because I use most all of the government research services and it’s sometimes hard to find out, although GovWin does provide some of the old RFPs. So, if you don’t have that service, go to the contracting officer and go through your old emails. You have to find that old RFP. Then you can start doing your traditional capture on it. That is definitely hard. Question: Everyone is going after these high-profile bids. How can we make our proposals stand out? Lisa Pafe’s Answer: What we recommend to … Continue reading Q&A Part 3 | Top 20 bids for 2017—and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline →