Being a Contracting Officer can feel like being on a roller coaster…the workload ebbs and flows based on deadlines, opportunities, and the whims of Congress – among others. It felt like most times the flows greatly outweighs the ebbs but that’s a story for another day.
There are times when the ebb of actual contract workload, meaning source selections, contract mods, procurements, etc., is palpable. Most of the time those are driven by a lack of funding being released by the Congress and the President. Put aside your political opinions on this and consider that this slow funding process (driven by “continuing resolutions”) happens year after year…regardless of who is in the White House and which party has control of Congress.
Rather than be frustrated by the slow movement of the buying process during this time, look at this as an ideal opportunity to contact your government customer. The government team is (less) swamped by competing and awarding contracts than normal. That means they have more time for things like RFIs, Industry Days, and communication with industry. To prove my point, you may have noticed the increase in these type of activities over the last few months. That’s because the CO and the government team cannot race ahead to award, so rather than just wait, they are taking advantage of this ebb in contract dollars to obligate and are doing more market research, more refining of the requirements, more communication with industry.
They are taking advantage of the ebb to communicate more. You should too.
If you already have a contract, now is a great time to follow up with a “how’s it going” email to your CO (even if he or she has never responded to them in the past). Timing matters. If you are targeting a new customer, the same principle applies. After you’ve targeted, then qualified an opportunity (see the RFP Score for help with that), this is a rare opportunity where the odds of having a meaningful conversation with a CO (among others) is particularly high.
Here’s the bad news. While many of us want the funding flood gates to be unlocked, the workload is going to explode for these folks. The odds of them having time to do RFI, Industry Days, etc., drops close to zero because they now have to award a year’s worth of contracts in about four months.
I had to do that before as a CO. It sucked. I did not pick up the phone for anyone I didn’t know during those times. Don’t wait until those times to reach out!