Capabilities Statement (Podcast Transcript)

                         [01:12] Richard C. Howard: Hey, guys. Richard here with government sales momentum, thanks for listening today. Today we are going to talk about the capability statement. So if you've been in government sales for a while, you probably have one. And if you're new to government sales, you might be wondering what it is, what all the Hype is about, why do you need it, what should be on it. I think whether you fit into either of those categories, you're going to learn something. Today what I was looking for on the government side when I received these, if you have one, I think I can make some recommendations on how you can perfect it and just make it a little bit more impactful. And if you're new, this should help you in answering the questions of why do I need it and really how can it be impactful and what should be on it? So starting with what it is, the capability statement is a marketing document. I recommend that you always keep it to one page.

                         Many companies have two to three page marketing documents. On the government side, I do not spend a lot of time reviewing these, right? So you look at it, the companies would always hand them in. You may be handing it in during a business development meeting with a government agency. You might be submitting it with an RFI or a source is sought. You might be giving it to a small business office. There are a lot of places with different agencies you can register to get on email list and a lot of times they're asking for your capability statement. I would think of this as a prerequisite, almost like registering for the government. You've got to have one. I think it could do more harm than good, meaning if you don't have one. The perception on my side was always when I was in the government, which was, why don't you have a capability statement? Does this company not know they need a capability statement? And if they don't know that, what else don't they know? Part of your mindset when you're approaching the government needs to be inspiring trust and confidence in your ability to do business with them. So you need one. And what you should really be thinking about is the questions that they're going to be asking on the other side. So, to walk through this, I'm going to tell you what I was always asking when I saw the capability statement.

                        [03:18] Richard C. Howard: And further, when I met with any company in a business development meeting. So first thing, and this is all I cared about, I never cared about your certification, at least not initially. So whether you're a woman owned, small business service, disabled, veteran owned, small business, that's what my business is as well. A any of those things, put that aside. That is never your focus. Your focus when approaching the government is, can you solve their problem? Because I'm telling you, that is all they care about. They need a company that solves their problem. So this capability statement is no different. If you are approaching a government office that builds satellites, right, and you are involved with the technology and satellite development some way, you need to be communicating in that capability statement that you develop this piece of the technology that goes into satellites. And that should probably be the problem that that office is working on. So you got to do your research ahead of time. So if you come to me and I see your capability statement and I'm trying to solve Technology X for satellite and you come in, your capability statement says, we specialize in Technology X for satellites, bam. This company can solve my problem. And that's my number one concern. Can you solve my problem? What you don't want to do is come in and say, oh, we can develop any technology for anything. You don't want to appear like you are all things to all people, because I don't want the company that thinks they can do everything, because companies that usually say they can do everything, maybe they can do a lot of different things. Mediocre, I want that company that does it the best. And so that's the message you're sending. Now, you may do a lot of different things, but you're going to edit this prior to giving it to any office. So it looks like your specialty. So you're saying my specialty is X, I can solve your problem? That's what you're trying to communicate. And when you're doing that, there are some ways to be more effective. So there's usually an opening paragraph about what the company does, company mission.

                         Sometimes it's labeled and very direct. This is what we do. You can use metrics numbers, be as specific as possible, and this is going to communicate strength and that you know what you're doing. Now the next question I asked myself as a government acquisition officer is, okay, this company can solve my problem, but how do I hire? That's almost always the very next question I'd have, right? So if you have a GSA contract vehicle, any contract vehicle with the government, any GWAC or government wide acquisitions contract examples of these would be like NASA Soups, CIO, SB Three, and soon to be SG Four, depending on when you're listening to this podcast. These are just large contracts that are competed by the government ahead of time. They fall under something called category management. And essentially, let's just say 200 companies will apply to be on this contract vehicle and 50 get on or 30 get on. And that's a long process, just like submitting a proposal for an RFP. It doesn't mean these companies make any money. Usually there's a little stipend at the beginning just to get them on the contract, but all it means is after this whole process, that could take a year or so, those 30 companies that won. Now, if it's my agency put that GWAG together, that means that I can go to your company and put a delivery order on you without having to go through this huge competition process. And so knowing that you're on a contract vehicle, even if it's not with my agency, could make it easier for me to go and make a purchase from you. So if you have one of those you want it to be on here, you can put the GSA symbol on. You got to talk to GSA and figure out, or any agency to figure out what permissions look like. But logos speak 1000 words, so if you can use logos for anything, it's going to be more impactful. So look for those. Show how the government can buy from you. Whether it's that or if you sell Direct, if you're selling products that are kind of low dollar, every government office has a GPC card. They can make purchases up to ten grand. If you have a mechanism in your website that can accept GPC cards and sell Direct at government rates, you put that on there too. Hey, we sell Direct, go to our website.

                        So the next question that you need to answer so first, hey, we can solve your problem, but this is how you can buy from us. And don't worry if you don't have a vehicle, if you're new, don't worry about it. But if you do, you want it to be on there. Next question is going to be past performance and establishing some confidence with the acquisitions team. So the way you do that is, if you sold anything to the government, you are going to list the logo from that government agency or sub agency. Again, you need to figure out permission for all of that. But I will tell you that if I see a logo that says DOD USAF. When I was again on the government side, I knew immediately, like, I could look at it, oh, okay, they've sold to my agency, or maybe they sold to the CDC and HHS. So whatever agencies it was, I like to see a little bit of past performance there. That can always help. If you don't have it, list commercial clients. If you have logos like Nike and Tesla that you can stick on there, these are going to inspire confidence and say, okay, it's not a new company. These guys have been doing it for a while. They've been selling it successfully commercially. They've sold successfully hopefully to the government. If not, you'll get there. But if you have those logos that stick on there, I recommend doing that. And so those are the first three things I always ask.

                         But next you just want to make sure that the government has a way of contacting you. So there's going to be a contact information section on here. Most companies have that in the contact information section. I recommend being specific. I never wanted to see an 800 number if I had to contact the company. You want to have a POC's name and a direct line to them. That's my recommendation. You can put your 800 number on there as well. Make sure you have a direct line because your program officer isn't going to sit on an 800 number and dial four and then three, and then you're calling a bank or something. You want to make it easy for them. You'll have your company data, so you're going to have your dunn's number and your cage code and maybe your top two or three Nate and PSC codes. Usually there's a service section. So you're going to be specific in your opening mission statement about what your company does. And then if you have other services, you can list them in there. But I would put the relevant ones to that office and start with the top one. So we were talking about satellite technology. I would start with that one and then maybe you do other It or software related things. You could list those underneath. You're going to have that services differentiators is a great one to have on there. What makes your company different from other companies? And you want to be specific. So if you have a design process that makes it specific to your company, you can go with that. Maybe your company has certifications. If you provide personnel and you have a PMP certified personnel, or you have different cyber related certifications, security related certifications, those are all differentiators. And that can be looked favorably upon by the agency that you're selling to. So hopefully that helps. Those are the big things. There's certainly some other information that we'd put on a capability statement. I work with clients all the time on how we can craft these and really get them right. If you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out at Dodcontract.com. Someone will certainly schedule a free consultation with you. We can go over your capability statement, cover any other questions you have. All right, great. Take care.

                         [11:04] Richard C. Howard:  Hey, guys, Ricky here. I hope you enjoyed this episode of government sales momentum. If you did enjoy the episode, please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. It's very much appreciated. If you're interested in selling products and services at 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 a weekly sessions with former DOD acquisitions officers for training guidance to answer your questions, and 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, in 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 SBIR 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.

You can also check out Understanding Gov Contracts post to give you an idea on how your products could fit within the government and federal sales. Thanks.