Back in the day when I was working in Operational contracting offices, we had what we called “jobbers”. They did not have any core competencies, no wheelhouse, no real “business”. But what they did have was the capability to get quotes from suppliers at 10 p.m. on September 30th. And that’s why we loved them!
In the late 90s and early 00s, it was not as easy to buy things over the internet. And those things you could buy would often end up not meeting the requirements of the items you actually needed.
We had our “jobbers” (also called “10 percenters” because they took the supplier’s price and added 10% and that was their bid price) and we used them extensively, especially the later in the fiscal year it got.
As I said, these folks did not manufacture or warehouse or stock any items. They had a network of suppliers that did that for them. We would call “Joe” (there really was a Joe!) and say “I need a polyurethane picnic table” and he’d say “Give me 10 minutes” and 10 minutes later, I’d have an email from Joe with his quote.
At the second base where I worked, there were actually two jobbers that we used and once we got bids from each of them, we were good to go. Competition, baby!
Why do you care about this story? Well, friends, because some folks still think it works this way. They still think you can call “Joe” and get quotes. Side note: unfortunately, most of the jobbers are no longer in business. Or that you can drop by a VA medical center and say, “Hey, let me talk to the medical supply guy” and they actually take you to the guy! Or that COs can “introduce” you to the “guy”, “CO”, “buying dude”, whatever at each base because since you’re a CO, you clearly know them all, right? Uh, no.
Here’s today’s reality. There is most likely a GSA contract or Government-Wide Acquisition Contract or an IDIQ for multi-agency use or a BPA somewhere that COs either “must” use or are “highly encouraged” to use for buying commodities.
And there is no “guy” anywhere anymore. It’s likely that a buyer in Alabama is buying all the body armor for their geographical region or even the entire DOD. Or a buyer in Maryland is buying all the medical supplies for California VA centers. Part of this is due to centralized contracting which is great concept except for the fact that the government NEVER comes up with one standard for an item. If it’s not standardized, there’s no way to centralize contracting for it (different rant for another day).
Another issue is that some firms are told that their SDVOSB or EDWOSB status automatically gets them contract awards. Read my blog on how much documentation it takes for a CO to do a WOSB sole source – the same rules apply to SDVOSBs! There are significantly more companies that fall under these socioeconomic categories than they ever did in the past. And if you haven’t read the FAR on how much it takes to do a sole source to one of these categories, you need to. It’s extremely unlikely that you’ll be getting any awards that way.
Let’s recap. The jobbers are gone. There are huge contracts being used to purchase commodities. There is no “guy”. Having certain socioeconomic statuses may not get you anything. What you can do is survey the market. Maybe you can become a supplier on one of these big contracts. Maybe you are a niche contract that has something to offer that can’t be purchased on these large contracts. Work with your Small Business advocate (reference my blog on this subject) so they can promote your business with the area COs.
Unfortunately, it’s a lot more work today to get a commodity contract than it was in the past. Are you up for the challenge?