Information Technology in North Carolina accounts for approximately $1.3 billion of the state's budget. Government contractors have long believed that operations, business development, and capture management were all that was needed to win contracts. But new realties and greater competition in today's business-to-government marketplace suggests that it is time to challenge this view.  To be a winner among the companies battling for government business, it now takes a fourth element, and that is marketing.

From a collaborative standpoint, winning a government contact starts long before an agency issues a Request for Proposal (RFP).  We recommend that you start early by fostering collaboration among operations, business development, capture management and marketing. This collaboration must be strategic, targeted and focused on the longer view. Marketing, and the four-prong collaborative effort associated with it, doesn't start and stop in any given fiscal year. It is an ongoing process that must remain consistent from year to year.

In government contracting, it's often said that you have a better chance of winning a contract if the agency knows who you are before it receives your proposal.  I would take that one step further and recommend that the agency should know you before the RFP is even written.  If you want an agency to know your company, then you should do the following to build relationships:

• Set up a meeting with the appropriate contracting and program office.
• Go to industry shows and conferences in your state that are attended by agency personnel.
• Get introduced to key agency personnel by other contractors with whom you collaborate for similar business.
• Seek publicity in key trade-media outlets to increase your company’s visibility and credibility, and to position it as a thought leader.
• In a time of tight budgets, it's better to identify and pre-market fewer, targeted opportunities than to bid on whatever comes through the door. Just because someone in the agency or a teaming partner thinks an opportunity is right for your company, it doesn't mean it is worth deploying your limited resources to prepare a bid response. Money, people and the hours in the day are limited, and should be used where the potential for a win is the greatest.