Teaming—an arrangement in which two or more companies join to pursue and bid on government contracts—is commonly used today in the world of government contracting. Why enter into a teaming arrangement? When you team with another business, you have access to key personnel, equipment, financial resources, bonding, contacts, skills, experience and expertise—all of which are added to your capabilities. As a team, there are now more opportunities accessible to your business— opportunities that would otherwise be difficult or too big to land on your own. But before you go out and seek a potential teaming partner, it’s important to understand the basics:
Teaming will increase your capabilities and thus your capacity to take on larger and more complex projects. With the government increasingly consolidating its procurement requirements in an effort to reduce administrative costs and work more efficiently, opportunities are getting larger and beyond the reach of many smaller businesses.
Teaming works with businesses of any size. Large businesses can team with other large businesses, small businesses can team with small businesses, medium with medium and all possible combinations. While the arrangements can vary, the benefit remains steady. For businesses looking to work with the government, this is particularly true. According to American Express OPEN’s government contracting survey, small businesses that are involved in teaming have won 54 percent more prime contracts than the national average.
Teaming offers a variety of methods to choose from to fit your needs. A teaming relationship can take the shape of a partnership (ripe for a new entity), joint venture (typically to go after a specific opportunity), mentorprotégé (a teacher-student relationship) or the more traditional prime-subcontractor arrangement (an effective way to break into federal contracting, as it creates a long-term relationship with an experienced prime contractor). As a subcontractor, you not only get to perform a portion of the work, but you become familiar with the government’s purchasing methods without the risk.
Now that you know the fundamentals of teaming, what can you do to find good teaming partners? Make it a priority to leave your office and attend government networking events or industry specific conferences with a government focus. You can also find potential partners by joining relevant LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn, the social network for business professionals, has over 7,000 government-related groups of which 145 are specific to government contracting. Another way to find potential teaming partners is by visiting www.usaspending. gov and www.fpds.gov. These websites offer a wealth of past performance information that lets you see who your buyers and competitors are. You can customize the information and pursue teaming relationships with those firms currently doing business with an agency you are targeting. You can also find potential teaming partners by looking for awarded construction contracts on www.fbo.com. It’s important to remember your teaming partner is an extension of your firm, so choose wisely. Here are some tips to help you get started and avoid the pitfalls of teaming:
Perform a self-assessment of your business. What are the unique skills, products, or expertise that you bring to the table? Make sure your finances are in order and be honest about your strengths and weaknesses—you want to team with someone that compensates for any weaknesses.
Be thorough in vetting potential teaming partners. Not doing so can be a costly mistake. Look at factors such as financial stability, positive past performance and experience, current teaming relationships, as well as reputation. Ask yourself whether the services or products your potential partner offers are compatible with your business. And watch out for folks that want to team with you just because of your certifications, but don’t really need you to do any work. Don’t even get involved— just walk away.
Get everything in writing. Watch out for potential partners that want to put together a team on just a verbal agreement and a handshake. This is not a casual relationship. Instead, be sure to draft a teaming agreement as it will be your operations roadmap. Teaming agreements must be detailed, specific and thorough. Important elements include:
- Responsibilities and duties of each team member
- Work that each team member will complete (can be level of effort, specific tasks, or percentage of the work)
- Invoicing and accounts receivable responsibilities
- A person responsible for the ac quisition of materials and supplies
- The primary point of contact
- Non-disclosure language to protect any proprietary information
- Ownership of team innovations
- A contingency plan
Your teaming agreement should seek to address the known “knowns” and the known “unknowns.” Only the unknown unknowns can’t be addressed specifically, but you can put in place the method to respond to these should they arise.
Develop and sharpen your “elevator pitch.” Remember that pitching to a potential teaming partner is different from pitching to a potential client. A potential client wants to hear how you’ll solve their problem or provide what they need. A potential teaming partner wants to hear about how they will benefit from teaming with you.
Be realistic about what you want to achieve with the teaming effort. Write down your teaming objective and make sure your partner is in agreement with the goal(s). Reviewing these goal(s) and evaluating how close or far you are in achieving them can be productive and help you gauge any next steps.
Teaming can give your business the break it needs to surge ahead and obtain government contracts—as long as you choose wisely. Walking away is no longer an option.
