Recently started a new Account Mgr. role for a small Aerospace & Defense Cybersecurity company. This is my first time selling directly to the government & there is not much training in my new company unfortunately. Has anyone here sold in the government space? Dealt with RFPs, RFQs? & or understands contract acquisitions? Any advice on where I should be begin would be appreciated. 🙏🏾

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I work on proposals pretty frequently, here are some big tips that helped me at the beginning:

1. Create a standard template for everything. Standard proposal you can edit and modify for each RFQ/RFP. Standard fee that can be negotiated down and a BAFO for your proposals. Any added risk can always be factored on top of the standard and negotiated down again.

2. If you think the RFQ/RFP is weird always double check with the customer. Multiple times I’ve run into the customer forgetting half of the RFP/RFQ and a whole new proposal has to be submitted. This isn’t always helpful because they still forget and add something last minute but if you do your due diligence you can ask for more time to complete the proposal.

3. Create a negotiations template that you can take notes on. It is a great reference and can be used to justify other proposals later on.

4. Double and triple check your proposals. The math, explanations of work and parts are vital. They will push back and its a pain.

5. Be prepared with supplier quotes, history of labor and justification for additional costs/labor. They are going to ask, just put it in the template. If it only took you 50 hours last year why will it take you more/less now? Questions like that will always pop up. Why is the equipment so much more? Why will it take longer? These questions always pop up.

These are the things that always pop up but there are plenty more. After knocking out a couple it will be so easy.

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There are specific .gov websites for rfps and rfis, although I don’t know them for aerospace, they are prob fed gov

My advice is build a relationship. Every pitch you do is scored against a points system. The points system is absolutely crucial, you could lose an entire contract bc you didn’t follow exactly what they’re scoring you against.

And the relationship is important bc they may already have one with another contractor so they’re unconsciously scoring more leniently to them or the contractors already familiar with their points system

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I’d kill for that job!

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No pun intended?

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Good luck. We do a lot of government contracting for tourism and even that can be such a huge pain.

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Yes, DOD contracts are a different breed than standard commercial contracts. It all depends on the materials you’re dealing with, like ITAR controlled. I recommend you get very knowledgeable in your new field. Best of luck.

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Thanks everyone for the helpful tips!

Make sure you pay attention to each “clause” on their RFQ and what it requires. If you don’t have access to their “contract” or “quality” clauses, make sure you get access. One innocent looking letter combination can be locking you into a documentation process that makes writing a doctorate thesis on the mating habits of all carnivorous mammals in Northern Canada look easier. (Yeah, don’t know where that comparison came from, but still easier than some aerospace requirements.)

Bring your patience, you will need it to navigate the Gov bureaucracy! In my experience working with the Department of Transportation, many things move at glacial speed. Government is motivated by low-bid, but influenced by specification work all done before the bid. Put the time in to influence, educate, and specify and you will do well (if DOD operates anything like DOT)

Federal (Navy) Contracting Officer here. I sign up to $30 million in the IT services, software, and cybersecurity space. Happy to help with any specific questions you may have. 🙂

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