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[Music] so the big question is this how do small businesses like yours who feel like you're doing all the right things and going to all the right events reach the federal buyer in a way that helps you win more contracts that is the question and this is the place to get your answers my name is neil mcdonnell welcome to the govcon chamber of commerce [Music] okay let's get started in this series i'm sharing the top 10 steps every small business government contractor should take if you want to be successful in the federal market i include two bonus steps at the end of the series just to round it up to an even dozen in a minute i'll walk you through step six which focuses on p tax and meeting with a local counselor first though this content is brought to you by the govcon chamber of commerce the only organization dedicated to the success of all small businesses in the federal space with members from guam to the us virgin islands and every single state in between each year roughly 125 billion dollars is awarded to small businesses as prime contractors our vision is to double that number by helping small businesses truly understand the process for success small businesses are the backbone of america by helping you succeed further in government contracting we'll be strengthening american communities together my name is neil mcdonnell and i've been where you are now i've been a small business owner for 20 years building two successful firms selling to the federal government i've won subcontracts with small and large prime contractors i've won prime contracts with defense and civilian agencies i've done things right and i've gotten things wrong the one thing missing though for me then and you now is an easy to follow process that will lead to predictable success that's my commitment to you i'll provide the process if you accept responsibility and don't blame others you'll find you have the control to shape your future i put together this roadmap to help you understand the top 10 steps every small business must take as they travel down the road to success in federal government contracting you can watch a previous video i did where i briefly introduced each of these steps in this video we'll be talking about meeting with a local p-tech counselor and how to get the most value from that relationship in step six i want to point out the importance of meeting with your local ptac counselor first i'll give you a quick refresher on what ptacs are i did a video on ptax in the past that expands on this section and i'll put a link to that description i also did another ptac video and this one was on the colorado ptac and just how i explored the website so you can take a look at that and there's actually a third video out there that's meet the experts where i had a handful of ptac leaders and counselors come together in a panel interview on online and video and so you can watch that as as they give you all sorts of good tips next i'll give you some tips on preparing for a meeting with your ptac counselor we don't want you to go in unprepared which could actually be a waste of time both for them and for you after that i'm going to give you some tips for having a great meeting with them and and when i say great in this particular case i mean successful for those of you who know the difference between a great meeting and a successful meeting finally i'll wrap up by giving you my two cents about p tax and ptac counselors i just want to back up for one second when i say a great meeting it means everybody liked everybody everybody listened but a successful meeting is one that moves the sale forward or moves the agenda forward so if i'm talking to a small business specialist a successful meeting as if they introduced me to the program office that's a successful meeting a great meeting would be if they just listened to me okay so let's talk about what are p tax the procurement technical assistance program is administered and funded by the defense logistics agency which in turn provides funding to local p tax in cooperation with states local government and non-profit organizations the p tax were established to expand the number of businesses capable of participating in government contracts so businesses like yours there are currently 94 ptaps and p tax around the country from guam to puerto rico with over 300 locations to serve their local customers small businesses like you p-tech counselors from around the country can offer you a lot of services such as helping you with questions around the day-to-day operations of your company or planning for and identifying purchasing agencies and buyer representatives a key area that p-tax can help with is identifying opportunities for prime contracts with agencies or sub-contracts with both small and large government contractors they can do this both through training and help around the various bid databases that are out there but also through strategic introductions if you prove that you're ready let's talk about preparing for your meeting so any meeting you go to it doesn't matter who it's with it's the if it's the contract the officer the program officer a ptac representative or counselor somebody from the small business development centers or even a fellow small business you want to make sure you prepare and so here's some guidance on that my first thing on ptax is definitely visit their websites and just see what they offer see what guidance they provide you every state's slightly different but they all provide great guidance on how to get the most out of a ptac relationship how to um come in there and work with their counselors again i did a video recently like last week i think on reaching out to the colorado ptac counselors and so you can take a look at that because i analyzed their website for you um i point out all the great stuff that's on there that i consider uh worthwhile in preparing for meeting with a counselor the second thing here is sign up as a client if you don't know this most of the p-techs won't really be able to work with you until you're a client of theirs and that just means filling out some basic information so they can track you and that you're in sam and you're coming in working the primary reason frankly for them is they have an accountability to the people who fund them and they just need to be able to do reporting so sign up as a client you're on their radar and you'll begin to move forward they have a lot of online training i was again going back to this colorado video i did recently looking at their training they have training about getting started with the p tax training on cmmc which is the cyber security maturity model certification that's out by dod a lot of other different training get in there and take training on any questions you have anything you're unclear about if the training looks good and then any training you can see that's on how to get the most out of a relationship with the ptac or government sales things like that the last thing i want to recommend you do is prepare a call plan so i put out in the govcon chamber a call plan sheet it's a template that's free out there and and i've got i think like a 30 minute webinar hour webinar on how to actually fill this out but in the brief i'll tell you right now that the call plan sheet is designed to just get you prepared and write things down before you go in it begins with something basic which is the objectives of your call why are you doing a call a meeting etc so for example if i'm reaching out to a ptac counselor i might have an objective of i'm in colorado i know usda is here and i'd like to get the counselor to make an introduction so i have a warm introduction to that usda representative that'd be a great objective and you can think of objectives along the lines of primary objective this is the thing i really need to get and i think it's a reasonable objective for this meeting and then secondary so you have a primary and secondary because if you get your primary you might as well go for a second one and the secondary one could be another introduction or a follow-up meeting where we do a deep dive into something whatever it is make sure you have an objective in your call plan so that you know what your you were trying to get out of the meeting it's not about what everybody's trying to get out objectives are really this is what i want to get out of this meeting now that's different than the second thing i'm going to tell you about is the purpose of the call so when i talk and just use a ptac counselor as an example when i talk with them i'll share that hey i have these two purposes for this call one is an introduction to my company i'd like to talk to you about my company share my core competencies maybe some of my experience so that's one purpose of the call another purpose is to identify or to get some recommendations from you on how i might move forward let's use colorado as an example for today's video here um you know how how would you recommend i move forward you know in your head that you want this objective of getting an introduction to let's say usda in colorado but in the purpose you're saying i just want to be able to get your recommendations and and what would it take for you to make introductions what do you need from me before you begin to introduce me to all the people you know out there and so um that's objectives first thing purp second and the third thing for a call plan are just questions you want to write down five or ten questions that you're going to ask whoever you're meeting with but in this case a ptac counselor you want to be able to make sure you have questions that will help drive the meeting don't just show up and say well p-tech counselor what advice do you have for running my business well that means you didn't take the time to actually think about where you're at what are some of your questions challenges or wishes you know i wish i could get into usda okay well be prepared to ask a few questions who would you recommend i call first at usda how can i meet buyers how can i meet program office people how can i identify opportunities those are legitimate questions to begin to talk with a ptac counselor about one last thing about that is you don't want to go in you know just grilling them and asking them question after question the idea of having the questions is so that you can naturally um merge them into a conversation you're having with a ptac counselor so that leads me to how to get the most from the meeting with your ptac counselor first thing you want to do with anybody is send a read ahead in this case your read ahead is your capability statement you want to make sure they're able to look at it and come prepared to ask you questions i see your core competency as this i see you used to work here or you know you used to have customers here you want them to give you advice right off the gate about hey i was looking at your capability statement you might want to make these changes to it because in in our market here in colorado let's use an example you know here in colorado we you know our our client base our customer base in the government they tend to like to see this thing on a capability statement so you might consider that you know and and this is going to go with bullet three in a second about listen listen listen the other thing you want to do in ahead of schedule is if you do your call plan you have some of these questions and purpose statements you might want to send over the purpose hey the purpose of the call from my perspective is this i'm really hoping to get out of the call uh the the chance to introduce my company to you and to find out how we can proceed in a in a longer term relationship etc however you define your purpose the third bullet listen listen listen is very valuable right you've you've heard that line god gave us two ears and one mouth and we should be listening twice as much as we talk that's really important here and it's even more important with ptac counselors because you're going in to get their advice they're not coming to you to get your advice they're not coming to you to um to learn about a new small business they have thousands and thousands and thousands of small businesses right um you're going in to develop a relationship they're there to help you absolutely and they're very generous with their advice and their time um but they're when they give you advice you want to listen and follow it like i just said if they if they say something like you know um the the government likes to have your duns code and cage code uh duns number cage code up on top of the capabilities it's like okay throw it up on top you know like take their advice these people deal with the buyers that you're trying to go knock on the door to um and and i'm just pulling one example out but whatever this thing is that they're suggesting hey you want to make sure you're making calls maybe you need to tighten up your core competencies it seems like you do everything but you're a small business whatever they're saying they're not trying to just blow you off and and ignore the work you've put into the business but these people have worked with hundreds if not thousands of small businesses and they're used to helping give you advice that will improve your business maturity and and frankly increase your likelihood of success so make sure you listen to them the last thing about how to get the most from the meeting and this is something i alluded to in preparing is you need to know your objectives right here you want to confirm any action items that were talked about if they give you advice you want to sit there and write down the action items that are from that advice hey i'm going to update my capability statement this way hey i'm going to go update my dsbs profile this way but you also want to write down any action items maybe they took like for example if they didn't get a chance to look at your capability statement you can ask them to take a commitment to look at it and give you some feedback would you shoot me an email when you get a chance to look at it with any suggestions you have for improvement you you want to get anybody you ever meet with to have a stake in the game have some sort of action item so you know trying to figure out where that fits naturally into this meeting with a ptac counselor but get an action item and make sure whatever you do at the end of the meeting you're you're confirming it um it's important that everybody understands that and this goes with the last part follow up with them right you want to make sure you're following back up you know obviously with thank you after the meeting really appreciated that and then you know you can summarize hey here's what we said even though you're going to say it in the meeting you can also just follow up an email here's what i understood the action items to be let me know if i missed anything and then make sure in this call you're trying to schedule a follow-up could we touch base in two weeks i'm gonna go away kind of understand some of what you said take some action that you told me to do and i'd like to follow back up with you these people are not one call uh counselors this is a long-term relationship if you develop this relationship they will watch you mature they will watch you listening to their advice and they will want to then begin to introduce you to the federal buyers that they know in their area because they know that you're ready and that when they met make the recommendation the federal buyers will benefit from having a small business that is really more procurement ready than perhaps they were before they met with the p-tech counselor okay so let me give you some of my um random thoughts on here neil's two cents right uh first off i love saying this that procurement is in the name right procurement technical assistance center their whole and and i know i'm making a broad statement here for anybody gets into the nickels and dimes here but you know procurement is their whole game they exist i think i said this right at the beginning right that the reason um ptax came around is to help expand the number of businesses capable of participating in government contracting they want to help you with procurements what's not in their thei name is um hey we can help you figure out whether you want to start a business technical assistance center right they're not trying to tell you whether you should be in the restaurant business or the government contracting in fact you'd probably be better off not talking to a p-tac counselor until you've got a solid understanding of what you want to do with your business and that guidance comes from the small business development centers of course ptac counselors can help but that's not where their power is their power to help you is in the procurement game and so pay attention to that as you go forward don't be asking them questions about um you know how can i set up a bank account on my website that's not that's not where you want to take um that's not where you want to get advice from on those things here you want to sit there and say how can i grow my company in the federal space they will have advice for you as you go forward um and that goes into the second bullet right is ptax exist to help one of their primary ways of contributing to your success is helping you look at an rfp they help you identify opportunities see what's out there but to look at a rfp with you if you talk to them long enough in advance right don't come to them the minute you see it on um fbo or beta sam.gov right you want to be looking at opportunities that are long-range forecasts and you got it six 12 months out and you schedule some time with your counselor and say hey can we talk about this rfp what do you think this it seems like a fit for my company but what do you think and get their guidance on that and if you if you have a good counselor and you give them enough time they'll even try to help you with proposals not writing it but giving you some guidance okay looking in here make sure you touch on this government challenge or they really highlight this part as a criteria make sure you're paying attention to that they may even read your proposal drafts and give you a little bit of feedback that's not their you know their main responsibility but keep in mind that they can help you with those rfps and proposals and as you develop the relationship with the ptac counselor ask them how when should i be coming back to you what type of help can i expect from you and what's unreasonable of me to ask okay the third bullet here is about asking for introductions to federal buyers p tax who are in a particular area know many many of the buyers in washington dc area for virginia and maryland it might be a little harder because there's so many buyers and so many agencies here but when you start going out into different areas like colorado or oklahoma these people it's a small world and many of the federal buyers are coming to the ptac events that are once or twice a year and so they know these people and if you're procurement ready then it's reasonable to ask them to make an introduction to that buyer whether that buyer is a small business professional a contracting professional or a program office many of these people know program office folks as well and if you're procurement ready meaning you're ready for um selling to the government then they'd be happy to introduce you the last bullet i have here and where i'm going to wrap up is you want to be on their radar you want to be seen think about a a big ship out in the ocean and you have this radar or an airplane they have the radar and it goes out 5 10 25 miles let's say and you see little dots on the radar that's all they pay attention to anything that's 50 or 100 miles off they don't pay attention to because it's not on their radar make sure you're on the ptac counselor's radar you're going to go into a p-tech environment let's say colorado and they've got five or ten counselors but one will be assigned to you you want to follow up with these people on a regular basis talk with them about it say i want to make sure i'm on your radar and i'm you know i'm getting your advice obviously whenever i need it but i'm also just in you know in your mind so that if if you hear from a small business professional or some federal buyer you're aware of what we do and you might make a recommendation if you feel comfortable with that so talk with them about how often would be a good time for us to touch base is that every you know two weeks every four weeks um and then in between that times you're actually having a meeting make sure you attend like let's say once once every two weeks you could attend one of their free webinars and and i was just doing this with doing this with colorado and the video i did the other day in there you can see the people who are hosting it and you know they'd love to see it's like oh neil's showing up again and it's just when you're there you're on their radar and you're in their mind for when somebody says hey i'm looking for a business like yours they go you know what i know exactly who to who refer you to it's this company i uh talk to every so often and they and they got their ducks in a row i'm going to make the recommendation so be on their radar and be seen okay if you found this content valuable others will too please give it a thumbs up so they can find it if you'd like to connect with me personally do so on linkedin we often do free training webinars and interview federal buyers sign up for the govcon chambers email list to be notified about these opportunities at www.govconchamber.com and finally please consider becoming a sustaining member of the govcon chamber of commerce help us keep bringing you great content like this for a dollar a day i'm neil mcdonnell wishing you great success