COVID & Federal Contracting (Podcast Transcript)

                        [01:12] Richard C. Howard: Hey, guys. Richard here with the government sales momentum podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. We have an interesting episode today, and this one is very time specific. So if you're listening to this, two years from now, it may not be applicable right now. It's October, it's 2021, and we're in the middle of COVID. And I've had clients, as well as there's a lot of stories out right now concerned about the Biden mandate regarding vaccines and federal contractors. So I want to cover a little bit about what that could mean for your company, cover some of the concerns that my clients have and what the current approaches are, or at least what some of the approaches are that we're seeing. Both companies that we're working with and just what we're seeing as far as some of the news stories are now, right now what we're seeing is that federal contractors have until December I believe it's December 8, to provide proof that their employees are vaccinated. And that's if you're on a federal contract.

                        Now, everything that I've read seems to indicate right now I'm looking at the Federal News Network. I've used other sources of information for this, different news outlets, but this seems to apply to not just federal contractors that are working on site, but even those that are working from home and that they can't just verbally say, hey, I've been vaccinated. There needs to be some proof that they're actually doing that. Now, I'm going to read a quote. This is the Federal News Network article that I have in front of me now. It says, after that date, December 8, all covered contractor employees must be fully vaccinated by the first day of the period of performance on a newly awarded covered contract and by the first day of the period of performance on an exercise contract or extended or renewed contract when the clause has been incorporated into the covered contract. That sounds like a bunch of legalese. Here's what I can tell you. Whenever we're reviewing contracts, if there are certain clauses, federal clauses that are inserted into those, it's very important to understand what that means for your business. And I have had clients that right now are concerned about this mandate because maybe they don't have everyone vaccinated. I have others who are a little bit less concerned because everybody is. But the point of this is when you're approaching federal sales; you need to understand that this is going on right now. So if you're bidding on a contract, I always like to approach things either worst-case scenario or being as prepared as possible. So if I'm bidding on a contract, especially if I'm providing services, I am going under the assumption that I'm going to have to provide personnel that have had a vaccine now and I'm going to have to prove it. That's my take. 

                        Now I'm not speculating on whether this is right or wrong. I've actually heard great arguments on both sides of the aisle. Whether or not wherever you fall, as far as whether you think you need a vaccine or not, or whether your employee should have one, you do need to understand what the federal government is asking for, especially if you are selling to them. Now let's talk about what because there's some gray area. There's a lot of gray area with this, right? How are they going to enforce it? Are they really asking for employees that aren't working on site to also be vaccinated? It looks like that's what they're asking for. Again, I encourage you to review anything like this. If you're on contract or you're putting a proposal on something, I would have a lawyer review everything and explain legally what you're going to be required to do. I can tell you from my experience that especially if you're going to be on any military base or in any federal building, the federal government can do what they want, right? So if they want to mandate that you have to have a mask, you're wearing a mask or you're not going to be in there. If they want a mandate that you need to provide proof of vaccination, they can do that. Now, how are they going to enforce this if you have people working from home or off site or on your own facility? I don't know. Here's what some companies are doing right now. I just read an article and today is the 13th this article came out, this is just on CNBC that Boeing is now requiring their employees to provide proof of vaccination by December 8 under Biden's Federal Contract rules. That's the title of the story. So Boeing is just going to require it, right? They're one of the biggest defense contractors out there selling to the government. So their intention is to abide by the mandate and ensure everybody is vaccinated.

                        Now I can tell you I have some other big companies that we work with that aren't requiring this and maybe they don't know how they are going to approach that yet. And these are companies that are on contract with the federal government. One company is, I know their guidance so far has been if you are touching a federal contract, if your team is going to be working on that, if they have salespeople business development people that could be going out in a meeting with federal agencies, then they're requiring that they have the vaccine. So it's largely going to be, you're really going to have to make a determination of how this is going to impact your company. If you're on contract with the government right now, if you're bidding on a contract, it may affect your decision as to whether or not you want to go after an opportunity. But you know, at the end of the day, this is what I can say. Administrations change and policies change all the time, right? So what is true today may not be true a year from now if you're pursuing federal contracts and this is a concern for you, meaning this could be a deal breaker for you, my advice would be I wouldn't pull out of federal sales altogether because these things are going to change, right? If you have any momentum at all going, I would try to keep that up and try to meet and talk to a lawyer. By all means get some great legal advice. But this is largely a relationship game and it is very much based on momentum that you build up over time, going to industry days, setting up meetings, talking with people, identifying opportunities, influencing those opportunities and there's probably a way that you can work with this. So again, I wanted to have this special podcast just to make you aware that there are going to be implications if you are on contract with the government regarding COVID and vaccines and you want to go into this type of thing with your eyes wide open. It's just like any contract, any federal contract, even if we're not talking about covet really understanding what that contract is requiring of you can be difficult, especially because there's a lot of clauses that refer to the federal acquisitions, regulations and contracts depending on the contract you're on. Sometimes you need an interpreter to understand how that impacts your company. So thank you for tuning in today. I'd love to talk to anybody about this.

                       There's a tremendous amount of gray area and again, I don't consider my company the subject matter experts on what the government is requiring as far as vaccinations, but I do consider us in a position where we should at least be informing you that this is something you need to look into if you're involved with federal sales. So thanks again. You can reach out to us on our website, Dodcontract.com. Subscribe leave comments for the Government Sales Momentum podcast. That always helps, and we appreciate that you can reach out to me directly. We have lots of resources on there as well if you did enjoy the episode too. It's very much appreciated. If you're interested in selling products and services to the Department of Defense, I have something for you that you're not going to find anywhere else in the world. The team and I created a program that takes everything you need to win defense contracts and put it into one place. Up until now, only large defense companies and a small amount of people in the know have had access to how products and services are really sold to the Department of Defense. I've taken all of that information and put it in a step-by-step training module that shows you how to consistently sell to the US. Military. If you join our membership, not only do you get the model, but you get weekly sessions with former DOD acquisitions officers for training and guidance to answer your questions in a community of like minded business owners that want to partner on different opportunities to bid for subcontracting and teaming, or just to discuss general strategy on how to sell to the DOD, you'll have access to every course I've created, every coaching session I've ever recorded, and every interview with an acquisitions professional that I've ever conducted. And we covered topics that range from defense sales planning and competitor analysis to SP I R and STTR foreign military sales. The list goes on. Go to Dodcontract.com if you are interested, and I would love to see you in the membership.

If you enjoyed this episode, you can also check out Essential Positions of a Gov Sales Team to know more on type of team that you need to put together to effectively go after government contracts, win those contracts, and then manage them afterwards. Thanks.