Sometimes You Need To Help The Government Know What It Wants (Podcast Transcript)

                         [00:00] Richard C. Howard: Hey guys, Ricky here with Dodcontract.com, host of the DOD Contract Academy podcast. And we help small businesses sell products and services to the US. Military. We talk to small business owners that have had phenomenal success selling to the government. We also talk to those that struggle and have had to improve and learn different processes in order to sell their products and services efficiently and effectively over time and win those contracts that we've all heard about. In today's episode, we are actually going to take a look at a coaching call from the DOD Contract of Vault. And here we're talking about selling to the government. And more specifically, we are talking about how sometimes the government requests something that they don't know a lot about. Maybe you can change their mind about some of the requirements in there. Maybe your solution would be a better fit for what the requirement is, what the government's trying to get at, but they don't even know your solution exists, right? How do you get that in front of them? Is there a way to do that? And I think you'll find this one very I don't know if rewarding is the right word, but I think that you're going to find it interesting anyway that there are some different approaches to selling to the government. It's a short episode and sometimes I get in here and I just want to give you guys some quick tips on what I'm seeing in the market.

                         As you know, if you listen to the podcast, I was an acquisition officer for the Department of Defense. Now I help companies sell to the government, not myself, sell products and service to the government for a larger defense contractor. So if I see something in the market that's happening right now or something that's working, I just want to get it out to you guys. So it will help you as the small business owner, sell your product or solution to the military to those government agencies. Because what we're trying to do is make a difference, right? Increase the number of companies that are selling, understand the process, make our country better, make the government better, make our US. Military stronger. So I hope you enjoy this episode. If you're looking for additional help, you can go to Dodcontract.com where we have some programs that can help you launch your business, help you if you're already launched, help you succeed and optimize what you're doing when those contracts a little bit more consistently. And we'd love to talk to you. So going over to the website. We also have a blog. We have some other things there. We'd love to see you.

                         Now on to today's episode. This week, we are going to be talking about how to suggest requirements to the government. Or in other words, the government is looking for something. They're looking to make a purchase. But maybe it's not quite what you sell, right? Sometimes the government can't get out of its own way when they're making a purchase. And I've been on the other side of this, so I know you get requirement, you get some funding. We need to buy a service or a product and maybe we think we know what it is and we put a request for information out there or maybe even a Solicitation. And the reality is that there might be a better solution than what we're looking for. So what we're going to talk about is how to get that in front of them, right? So just give you a quick story just to kind of tell you experience I had this past week and how this might apply.

                         So my wife and I were going out on a Saturday. My car had recently died, so totally dead. So I've had it for a long time and it was time to get a new car. Now I was dead set. I was just going to go out and buy a Jeep Rubicon. That's what I wanted. I was test driving Jeeps on a Friday and Saturday when I went out with my wife, her suggestion was, hey, let's just go over to the Toyota dealership, right? And I'm like, I don't want to buy a Toyota even though I know a Toyota is going to be reliable and all that. I'm like, well, let's just go and test drive some cars. So we went over to the dealership and I had a budget too. I knew what I wanted to spend and we were test driving some pickup trucks. We test drive a few things. But then she saw a Forerunner that was brand new. And of course, keep in mind my wife knew exactly what the Forerunner was and knew that it also had some off road capability that I was looking for. And it's one of her dream car. She loves that car, or SUV, whatever you want to call it. So that was more than I wanted to spend, right? So that was a level up this particular Forerunner. I'm like, no and she's like, let's just drive it, right? So we get in and we drive the Forerunner. And I was like, no and she knew what was happening. I was driving it around. I was putting the back window down, which a lot of vehicles don't have that. So I have features that I wasn't even really considering. It was comfortable, right? So remember I was driving these Jeeps the day before and I've had Jeeps growing up. So I know that the Jeep is not the most comfortable vehicle, right? So now I'm in my 40s right away, much more comfortable to drive this around, much more practical for our entire family because I have the kids and everything. Also it's brand spanking new and it was really nice. And I was really enjoying a lot of the different things, the different features, just doing the math in my head. It made sense. It cost a little bit more, but it hit the need for what we wanted.

                         What I personally wanted, just selfishly, is something that might want to take a vehicle off road or out on the beach or whatever, practically for my family and my kids and the dog and everything else that we had to go along. And also from a standpoint of maintenance and whatnot, I knew this was going to be a vehicle that I have less problems with. I mean, typically those type of vehicles are going to have less problems than a Jeep. At least that's my understanding that was. So I'll give you one guess as to which vehicles sitting in the parking lot right now outside my office. Do you think it's the Jeep or do you think it's the forerunner? I would say that most of you are saying, yes, it's the forerunner. And you're right. My wife, by the way, is an amazing salesperson. So I just want to get that out of the way. She's amazing and she's in real estate and just where she belongs. So she sold me on something that was more expensive than I planned on buying and on a different vehicle than I planned on buying.

                         So the government works in a similar way. And this is what I mean. So the government has a requirement. Let's just say they have a requirement to buy a vehicle, right? They have a vehicle they need to buy a vehicle. Maybe they have to buy a fleet of vehicles. That's probably more likely. And you know, there are certain requirements there, right? They have to transport. Maybe they're transporting troops. Maybe they're driving back and forth between an embassy and an installation somewhere. Maybe they have to be able to put so many people in the vehicle. Maybe gas mileage. So there's a lot of different things that could go into that. But when they are going out, maybe putting a request for information out there, or maybe you just meet someone at a conference and you find out this big purchase is coming out. The government may know or may think that they want to buy one type of vehicle or have buy a vehicle with one set of requirements. But now you can have the conversation with them and you can say, hey, look, you know, for instance, maybe the government wasn't thinking about buying an electric vehicle and you sell electric vehicles. Well, if you buy electric XY and Z, right? So maybe our maintenance on these is going to be included for a certain number of years. You're not going to have to spend money on gas. So maybe the operations and maintenance of these vehicles is going to be less overall than the gas powered vehicles. Potentially, they would work better in the environment that it was going to be in.

                         There's a lot of different cases you can make for a different type of vehicle. To the government or different type of and really, this applies to everything, right? And I do this all the time. So now that I'm on the other side, now that I'm selling to the government side, I still sell for a company. So I run the academy and I help small businesses with the process. And how do we sell effectively over time to the US military and other government agencies. But I also, you know, I have a client that I work for that's a little bit larger, and I sell for them, right? So I have a quote. I know exactly what this is like on the, hey, I have to sell something to the government side. And I suggest things all the time that the government isn't even asking for, right? So if I think that when they come out and say, hey, we're trying to solve this need, I might go in there and say, hey, got it. But have you thought about this? And this is ahead of the solicitation, right? So if you're going to do this, you want to make sure you're not responding to a request for proposal or request for quote and trying to suggest that you need something totally different.

                         At that point, the requirements are set, but when they're in the investigation mode or the market research phase, you can go right in there and be like, hey, government, I sell this type of service. And maybe you haven't thought about it, but this is going to improve the overall results of what you're trying to do. So think creatively. And when you're in that market research phase of how what you can do can save the government money, increase the speed of what they're trying to do, increase the effectiveness, there are a lot of different angles on how you can take a look at something and what you sell, what you specialize in could make that better in some way. And that's the time to really get in there and give that to them. So I know this one is really quick, but again, just wanted to get you thinking creatively.

                         Depending on what you sell, you may be able to go in there ahead of the RFP and suggest these new requirements to the government, and you got to get it in front of them, right? So I never would have bought that forerunner if I hadn't gotten to the vehicle and driven it and saw, you know, that, hey, this actually, this does make sense. It's not what I was thinking about. Government's the same way, right? So when they're sending these request information out, these sources thought, or even if you just find out a lead from a conversation you have, get in front of the government, get set up that meeting, get your presentation in front of them. If it's a product or something that you can actually bring to them, you can bring it in, right? Get it in front of them, get the pictures, get the data in front of them so you can get the program manager and their team thinking, hey, this is another option that maybe we weren't thinking about that can still solve that need, right? That's the time to do it. And you can have tremendous results there. You might not change the entire Solicitation, but you might get what you're selling inserted into that. You might even be able to change the funding dynamics, right? So, I mean, look, when you are ahead of the Solicitation, I was on this all the time, right? So we would have requirements and funding's all over the place. So don't assume that the funding is set in advance. Like, hey, we're only spending one $5 million on this.

                        There are ways to get additional funding. We have follow up funds at the end of the year. There are other programs you can take from it. There are a lot of different ways to get the funding. You need to do something that the government or US. Military is trying to do. So if yours is a little bit expensive, you get in ahead of the time and you give it enough time, they may be able to find the extra dollars to put on your solution if it's viable and if it's something they want. Right? So just, you know, make sure that what you sell is superior, right? You're selling an awesome product, an awesome solution. Get in front of the right people, and you're going to make tracks. If it's not an awesome solution or an awesome viable product, this is not where you want to be playing, right? So don't try to sell **** to the men and women in uniform. One, we don't want it. So hopefully that has helped you guys out here for this week's session, and I will see you next time.

You can also check out Forget Venture Capital.. The US Military will invest in your Business where I talked about the US Governments program that invests in small businesses to develop technologies and solutions. We talked with 2 small businesses that have had amazing success with the SBIR program as well as one of the best defense sector businesses business developers on SBIR process!

If you have any question, feel free to reach out to us here and we will get back to you as soon as we can.