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O P I N I O N
The power of the relationship People want to do business with people they like, so make as many meaningful connections as possible if you want to grow your business.
T here are two instances where a powerful relationship with a client can lead to marketing success with little or no cost – Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts and discretionary assignments.
contracting officer to assign a project, you won’t realize more than a small fraction of the contract’s potential revenues. If you’re not marketing the ID/IQ contract, agency staff with projects and funding won’t know you are there, capable, and ready to work. When an agency’s project manager or contracting officer mentions a possible project, you can tell them the work can be done under your ID/IQ. In most cases, they will be happy to give you the work and avoid the time and hassle of a full-blown “It’s all about the value you bring to the person who makes that decision – whether the value is professional or personal – especially if it’s a value he or she can’t get elsewhere.”
ID/IQs allow you to visit a client and convince them to assign their current need to your contract rather than going through the effort of a full- blown solicitation process. The agency doesn’t add to staff workloads with selection committee assignments, and you don’t have the expense of proposing and presenting before adding the assignment to your firm’s backlog. It’s a win-win situation for both the agency and your firm. In 1996, while working on my first proposal for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ID/IQ contract, I learned what I believe is the most important thing about them. An ID/IQ contract is not work; it is not a project. It is more like a license to hunt. There is a guaranteed minimum fee if there are no assignments, but that fee is a tiny portion of the contract’s potential value. If you wait for the
Bernie Siben
See BERNIE SIBEN, page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER March 14, 2016, ISSUE 1143
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