Business Intelligence and Creating an Agency Account Plan

Have you wondered what an account plan is?

Specifically in federal government contracting?

An account plan provides focus and direction to your business development and sales effort by providing them with a thorough understanding of a customer. For a government contractor, this customer would include an agency, or in the case of the larger agencies it would mean a bureau, a command, a district or even a contracting office.

An account plan helps not only to enter a new agency but also to maintain and expand your presence. They are essential to any company’s success.

Key elements within a successful account plan provide the sales or business development team:
·A thorough understanding of the agency
·A strategy in approaching the agency (includes fine tuning of message, social media)
·Ability to execute and engage with the agency

Selecting an agency to enter or expand
Understanding your federal market is the first step in this process.  Find the various NAICS or PSC codes that are used to award contracts in your core competencies.  Then analyze federal spending in your specific NAICS/PSC code.  Fedmine’s Industry Visor provides you a quick view into federal spending by NAICS and provides assistance in selecting your target agency or agencies.  Many times, emulating a competitor or keeping on top of industry day announcements could lead to your selection of an agency as well.

Once you select an agency, or bureau, you need to analyze it.

Understanding an Agency
It’s essential to analyze the vision and mission of each agency (or bureau), as it guides the way that agency is organized and how it spends money. With the right business intelligence platform, it is easy to understand how the agency contracts and helps you to create an account plan. 

The key elements of an agency account plan include:
· Comprehend the overall agency spend
· Further dissect spend by NAICS, PSC or Category Management Codes
· Who are the top contracting offices, who are they awarding contracts to, under what NAICS codes
· What are the top funding offices?
· Are there contracts where the contracting agency is different than the funding agency?
· How are contracts being awarded – are they full and open, competed, not competed, under the SAT threshold?
· Who are the top small businesses, or who are the top businesses in your socioeconomic category? Can you team with them? Emulate them?
· Understand subcontract dollars at an agency. What NAICS codes are subcontracts being awarded under? Which contracts have a subcontracting requirement.  Who are the top subcontractors, what subcontracts are reported for an agency, bureau or even a base?
· What are top IDIQs or GWACs used by the agency? These are the strategic sourcing vehicles that are being used by the agency – are you on that vehicle or do you have a teaming partner on that vehicle?
· Have a look at their goaling numbers and see if there is an advantage for the agency to work with you
· A quick look at the solicitation KeyStats will provide you an idea of the agency’s contracting activity
· How many protests are being filed that pertain to the agency?
· If you are in the IT industry, understanding the top IT initiatives in an agency is very essential. Take a look at the top agency programs and if any of them interest you, do a deep dive into the program, including the Exhibit 53 and 300 details
· Track the industry days at the agency as they provide valuable information
· Review the possible recompetes of contracts and task orders based on expiring contracts and filters such as 8(a) expiration
· Analyze the budget spend over the past and future to give you a better understanding of the agency

Fedmine provides users the ability to access the information easily. Our Agency Profiles, MyPipeline and Industry Profiles provide you with the ability to create your report immediately. A technology company is able to review the Exhibits quickly. Creating alerts allows you to remain aware of procurement activity.

Next Steps:
· Create your strategy. What are the key programs that you can provide value? Do you have personnel on site at the agency? Can they assist with creating relationships to expand your presence? Is there a specific bureau you want to target?
- If you are a relatively new company without much federal experience you might want to enter an agency as a subcontractor. Using the agency knowledge you now have, create a pipeline of primes to target based on their expiring contracts. Ensure you have an effective value proposition and are able to articulate the benefits of working with you
· Create a value proposition that will resonate with the agency. What is your past performance, what problem have you solved?
· Who do you need to meet at an agency? How are you going to meet them? Suggestions would be social media, OSDBU office or a teaming partner
· Engage with the client, know what solution you provide and the value you provide and will continue to provide
· Execute on the solution and follow up to ensure there is no communication gap

Want to learn more about how Fedmine can provide you the federal business intelligence needed to create your agency account plan?  Contact Us