Winning a federal multiple-award contract (MAC) without intention and planning to “work the contract,” is a waste of time and money that happens everyday in large and small companies. I see it and I have lived it.

If your company has been awarded an agency-specific or governmentwide MAC, I assume you want it to represent more than just a conversation piece, right?

Here’s one challenge. Our marketplace possesses a prevailing and inherent mindset that winning a MAC equates to a grand victory, even though the obligation amount associated with the initial award is often zero. Don’t get me wrong, it is a victory that represents a door cracked open, but that initial victory does not represent you company recouping the dollars spent getting there.

For many of these vehicles, the actual requirements that will represent customer needs, have not yet been identified since many MACs are created in anticipation of requirements that may or may not happen. Organizations like the NASA SEWP PMO, NITAAC (home to the CIO-SP contracts) and the offices managing GSA Alliant, STARS, VETS, OASIS, HCATS, COMET and more, have intentional marketing and sales efforts underway to attract customers to use their MACs. These organizations are not the ones creating or owning the needs but they do manage mechanisms, the contract vehicles, that allow Customers and Buyers at their agencies and others, to fulfill those needs through:

• -submitting a requisition,
• -leveraging a Delegation of Procurement Authority (DPA) in some cases, or
• -assisted acquisition support in others.

Acknowledging the work has just begun upon receipt of a MAC award is a first step to better thinking when it comes to engaging with multiple-award contracts and the organizations using them.

Back to avoiding wasted time and money. When it was awarded, did you do the basics to ensure you understand how your particular MAC works? Did the government install off-ramps tied to things like response requirements? Can they choose not to exercise options because your company was not active enough in promoting, or winning on the vehicle? There is a slate of actions too often overlooked by successful offerors, such as:

• -Reading the contract, the whole thing
• -Documenting shall and must elements
• -Identifying the Buyer or Buyers (organizations and people)
• -Identifying the Customer or Customers (organizations and people)
• -Confirming who can place orders (organizations and people)
• -Identifying what the Government can buy (descriptors and PSC Codes)
• -Understanding what, how, and from whom the Government purchased previously
• -Asking for a forecast specific to the contract vehicle
• -Identifying who else has the contract vehicle
• -Understanding how it has been used to-date, and what that means to you
• -Confirming what outreach is allowed
• -Developing a marketing plan to be visible to Customers and Buyers
• -Asking Customers and Buyers how often you should check-in

If you have been awarded a MAC and have not done or are not doing these things, it means your strategy is more likely aligned to the “wait around and see” approach. This is not, and never has been the best way to maximize your investments of time and money, and epitomizes flushing it down the toilet for no good reason.

If you are ready to make a change and take action, ask me about Ethical Stalking for Government Contractors® Bootcamp. We’re told it’s a game-changer, even for very experienced federal contractors.

Peace, Health, and Kicking Butt in FY 2024,

Go-To-Guy Timberlake