In the premier episode of the Secret Code to Government Proposal Success podcast series, Aaron Heffron, President of Market Connections, discusses opportunities and challenges for government contractors as the summer selling season kicks off. 

This summer, many believed that federal spending for contractor services would be fast with new RFPs being released rapidly. This reflects the fact that the addressable funds in the federal budget are the highest in 10 years.

According to a study from Market Connections, however, about two-thirds of procurement personnel went fully remote due to the virus, slowing down RFP releases. The report also found that 50 percent of respondents said the execution of new projects was put on hold.

This situation has created a backlog of new contracts that procurement professionals will be focusing on during the rest of the summer.  And many subject-matter experts predict there will be a “end of the year” push during this time frame. This points to the need for the vendor community to help government customers and prospects to work through this period of rapid procurement.

In addition, with the procurement process being shortened, many believe that incumbents stand a better chance of winning recompletes.  Since it is so much simpler to award to a contractor you already know.

Following are additional highlights from this interview:

  • The current state of the government-contracting arena. (:45)
  • The procurement challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2:25).
  • Insights from the Market Connections study about the impact of COVID-19 on government contracting. (3:10)
  • What the summer and fall will hold for government contracting opportunities. (4:48)
  • What Market Connections’ government contracting clients are seeing in the marketplace. (6:44)
  • How there could be more opportunities for entrenched incumbents this summer. (9:06)

Are you prepared for the summer selling season? Please reach out to OCI here to tap into our wide-range of federal proposal consultants for organizations of all sizes – from Top 10 Federal Contractors to rapidly growing small businesses.