Buying it!

A monthly column of the UH PTAC

Leveraging the Government Procurement Connections

We were very pleased to participate in last week’s Government Procurement Connections (GPC). We met many small business owners and talked to prime contractors/ agencies about what they needed in small business team members. Now that the event is over, what are the next steps? We have some suggestions:

First – courtesy. Make sure that you e-mail every prime contractor/ agency who talked with you on the conference floor. It’s an opportunity to attach a capabilities statement or marketing brochure. This is also an opportunity to send a note with a specific reason – following up on the GPC.
Keep the courtesy going – e-mail resource partners (like the UH PTAC!) and thank them for talking with you at the event. It’s always good to have a relationship with people that have a network of resources.
Let’s assume you’ve done your courtesy e-mails to all the participants – now focus on the conversations that had some potential interest for you. Sit down and write out a plan for following up.
A follow up plan needs to be specific. Review your notes from your conversations. Were there suggestions made by the prime contractors/ agencies to make your company or your marketing presentation stronger? Were there areas of interest that the prime contractors/ agencies perhaps didn’t get from the five minute meeting on the show floor that you can now supply? Was there a question you could not answer that needs a response?
Plan your e-mail response to the prime contractor/ agency carefully. A long, complex e-mail full of disparate information may be too much. Target smaller e-mails with one specific theme. Spread them out over several days – it allows the prime contractor/ agency time to digest the information and keeps your name in the conversation.
Now that you’ve addressed the primes – what about the other small businesses you met? Are there partners out there with opportunities that you need to draw out? Start with courtesy e-mails to the small businesses whose cards you collected. Send them marketing information on your company and complete contact information for you.
Sit down and start a marketing program for the small businesses. Ask the same questions as you did for the prime contractors/ agencies. Are there follow-ups that need to be answered? Do you need to provide information on your products, certifications, or success stories?
Turn the marketing plan around and look at yourself. Are there small businesses you met that you want to solicit? Did you find someone that complements your product offerings? You should assess your needs and have at least a preliminary conversation with that other small business about how you might team up – before a solicitation is released and you have to scramble to find team members and negotiate terms.
Please don’t forget PTAC and your other resource partners! We are a resource for small business interested in government contracting – and subcontracting. We met lots of interesting businesses – and we will be following up in the next few weeks.
We talked to several existing clients at the event and met many potential clients. A couple of our enthusiastic clients are going to be in this week to refresh our relationship. We look forward to hearing from potential new clients as well. To become a client go to the “Get Started” button on our web site.

It’s 2012 – the GPC has new significance. You can use e-mail and web links to market specific services. All the people you met can be added to your data bases, e-mail lists, and social media sites. Remember – it’s not just an event, it’s an opportunity. Look on the GPC as a step in a process. Don’t forget to complete the process – the most important steps are still ahead!

Our SBDC Training Center has offerings from industry experts on various aspects of social media marketing, including e-mail, web and social media networking campaigns. If you need hands-on training, please go to the SBDC training calendar here.