We often tell our audience that saying you’re the best at what you do amounts to a hill of beans in this industry. You have to prove it. How do you do that? The best way to show your worth to the people who care is through your past performance references.
I do a lot of researching and learning by following experts on LinkedIn and sharing advice from leaders who know best how to assist navigating the federal marketplace. One of my favorite resources is Constance Jackson. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Jackson last year at an event hosted by Guy Timberlake and the ASBC. (I know, I know, shocking that I met another amazing professional and thought leader through Guy!) I started following Constance on LinkedIn, and I am amazed by the amount of knowledge she shares regularly. Hint hint: start following her today!
Recently, she shared information with regard to past performance references. Note: when a contracting officer tells you what other contracting officers are actually looking for…you should listen.
Here are the 3 tips she shared:
- When the government requires past performance references they are looking for contracted work that you have accomplished in the recent past that is relevant with similar size and scope. The government wants references that are recent, work that you have performed successfully (contracts that you have managed) over the last 3 years.
- The government wants you to show expertise and experience with similar requirements. While the exact same requirements are amazing, at a minimum they must be similar.
- If the value of the RFP is $10 million, they want to see that you have successfully managed contracts valued close to or at $10 million. A lot of “GovCon social media experts” encourage you to go after the $10 million contracts, but if the largest contract that you have managed is $25k or $250k, it is not likely that you will be awarded a $10 million dollar contract. That is not how it works! The government has to be convinced that it is more likely than not that you will be a responsible partner
Thank you, Constance, for all you do to assist small business leaders in government contracting! If you want to learn more, you can listen to her and I chat on our upcoming podcast, “Spilling the Tea on GovCon” which can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iTunes, and Google podcasts! For this and more amazing guests and information, you can check out all of our past podcasts on our youtube channel.