Multiple award contracts make up more than 50% of all Government contracts. Now every agency has to have its own multiple award vehicle. But all these new vehicles do not necessarily mean more money to businesses, because:
Many companies run into difficulties in winning these vehicles:
- Many don’t know how to win multiple-award contracts when the competition is dozens, if not hundreds of companies, because the requirements are broad, and make it hard for one to shine
- Companies get lost in teaming issues, creating problems for themselves during and after the proposal
- Many small businesses are at a loss as to how to price a multiple-award contract they don’t know strategies are out there to make themselves more competitive while still capable of executing yet able to execute after the award
It doesn’t get any easier after winning a multiple-award contract – as most companies have trouble winning Task Orders:
- Companies spend a fortune to win a multiple-award contract but then they don’t win anything because they don’t know how to win Task Order proposals (which are quite different from the “regular” requirements proposals)
- The deadlines and the allotted page count keep shrinking and the competition gets even tougher, making it harder to win proposals even when you are the most qualified bidder
- Responses barely make the deadline because proposal managers learn about most of the Task Order Requests for Proposal only as they are released; lack of planning in submitting a winning proposal leads to throwing boilerplate over the wall and hoping to win on price
- All the while, company management doesn’t support proposal managers thinking that task order proposals should be simple and cheap because of shorter time and page limits
- Subcontractors get frustrated because their primes (holders of the multiple-award contracts) don’t give them a chance to bid on Task Orders, and they don’t know how to get more Task Orders and work share
- Few companies dare to not only win a Task Order or two but become number one and get all the business they can under that vehicle by “cracking the code” of the specific multiple award contract.
Our 2-day classroom training called Preparing Winning Multiple Award and Task Order Proposals (March 21-22, 2011 in North Bethesda, MD) offers everything you need to know about preparing and winning multiple award contracts (IDIQ, GWAC, MAC, BPA, and others) and task order proposals that follow. This class will enable you to not only win the “right to compete” but will show you how to actually make money on the multiple-award contract vehicles you win. This course addresses common problems companies face. The Government keeps issuing more and more multiple award contracts (think EAGLE II, NETCENTS, CIOSP-III, T4, and so on).
Contact us to learn more.
