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Intelligence Small Business Blog by Dan Callahan
02/01/2012 - Trade Show Minimums
In the Intelligence Community AgenciesIs your firm participating in any trade shows this calendar year? The chances are probably high that you are. Allow me to recommend a few tips; I have been practicing these for years in the IC table top shows, and they work; i.e., they drive results. No team would execute them perfectly, but its not rational to spend the cash for this trade show marketing and give a half effort once your team arrives at the venue. Read This Blog 01/05/2012 - Where To Focus Your Selling and Market Development During 2012 When I was a kid, my dad made good money during the very early 1970s, which had a particularly poor-performing stock market. I grew up believing that even during a recession certain things actually go up. Read This Blog 12/15/2011 - Retooling for a New Cost Constrained Era in the IC and DoD Let's give Credit where it's due the Director of National Intelligence is shooting straight. At a recent speaking venue, he said, "now we're in a 'we're in a running out of money so we must think' mode, I think this is serving as a stimulus, if you will, to do some more creative thinking. I think this would do wonders in terms of saving money, efficiency and promoting integration". Read This Blog 12/06/2011 - Leadership in Your Business Development and Sales It's About Inspiring Others! AFCEA's Signal Magazine Chief Editor, Bob Ackerman, hosted a recent "Five Questions" Series interview with Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier. Wow. I highly recommend this to anyone who has ever aspired to effective leadership in any capacity. Read This Blog 11/14/2011 - THE VALUE OF FOCUS AND THE BENEFIT OF STAYING ON IT Too often, as small business owners, were tempted to use our agility to jump around and try new things even before we have given our current plan a chance to succeed. This is a great time of year to escape to a quite placesome Tuesday afternoon, and pull out your 2011 goals. Take an honest look at where your team succeeded, where it failed and where you simply did not track or pursue the goals at all. Before 1 January, recalibrate this plan for 2012. (For those readers who you made these adjustments already, using the federal fiscal year, then an end-of-first quarter review is what you would call your review.) Read This Blog 11/01/2011 - GOTCH-YA AT LEAST ONE AGENCY GENTLY COUNSELS INDUSTRY SALES PROFESSIONALS This caught my attention and I recommend it to all sales personnel, business developers and managers of same: Read This Blog 10/03/2011 - INFLATED TITLES FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS? Somebody help me, please. I need either therapy or a definitional explanation, or both. Why do I get roused every time I see a small business with the man or woman at the top titled "chairman"? Isnt the term used for publically held companies where there is stock, a full sized board of directors and divisions, etc. rather than small, privately held LLCs and sole proprietor entities? And the same goes for the title of chief executive officer. Doesnt this imply a person is Chief among a cadre of sector VPs, regional officers and other managers who can commit an organization? This may be peevish on my part, but I dont care for titles that inflate ones size or importance. And Im thinking there are many titles out there that attempt to do so. Can anyone help me with this? Read This Blog 09/19/2011 - LandWarNet- A LESSON IN BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT -- HOW TO DO IT RIGHT For starters, why does the US Army love heat and humidity during August? Tampa during the last part of summer is three degrees from Hades (or at least it felt that way!). In spite of the heat, my team had a successful--if not perfect go-of-it the Bay City. Read This Blog 08/30/2011 - A REALLY GOOD EXAMPLE OF BAD FOLLOW UP Some professionals occasionally exhibit poor sales and business development behavior. I probably should not be surprised but it still makes me chuckle At a very well done AFCEA-DC event, I had an enjoyable conversation with another professional whom I have seen over the years and occasionally talked with. At this most recent conversation, I learned that his daughter when to my ala mater high school (a fun coincidence!) and we talked about some fund raising that he was involved in. I don't remember talking about his company products (which did not bother me one bit). In general, a polite conversation. Read This Blog 08/15/2011 - SPEND MONEY TO SAVE MONEY With this idea (i.e., Spend Money to Save Money), I am repeating Scott Lewis, a northern Virginia consultant serving the systems integrator market here in the federal arena. He explains that "Without a compelling cost justification there is no way an agency will invest to reduce O&M cost". He is dead-on target with this and it is becoming true, to an increasing level, with so many eyes looking for ways to cut the Defense and intelligence budgets. Read This Blog 06/29/2011 - HOW'S YOUR FOLLOW-UP AND TEAMING IN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY? Getting on a prime contractor's team can be daunting if you're not used to the dance routine. But it is a critical skill for anyone trying to enter the federal market, let alone the IC and DoD markets. Here some tips that will keep you focused. Read This Blog 06/15/2011 - CLOUD COMPUTING AND THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY Wait. Don't roll your eyes! If you're over 40 years old, you may be tempted to do so, but I would caution you, to stop doing so, if that's the case. What matters is the client's perception of "Cloud Computing" (CC) and what they think about it. If they either want to or currently do-- believe in CC, then don't argue with them (even behind their back). Read This Blog 05/31/2011 - WORKING THE CONFERENCE FOR ALL IT'S WORTH VS. MERELY EXHIBITING I am back from the DoDIIS Conference in lovely downtown Detroit... I noticed an eerie lack of hustle and bustle in the downtown district, in spite of the conference's success. Cool architecture kept my interest as well as some inviting eating establishments. Here are my Must Do Items and "Must Not Do" for these kind of conferences: Read This Blog 05/16/2011 - ADJACENT MARKETS IN THE DOD, THE IC AND THE FEDERAL MARKET It was interesting to note lately that the nation's four space agencies, NASA, the NRO, Missile Defense Agency and the Army's Space and Missile Systems Command are collaborating over support tasks and mission areas that they share in common. Things like launch infrastructure and engineering as well as strategic parts sourcing are probably on a list of common items. When Congress fully gets hold of the idea, you may see GAO reporting on the subject, too. This makes too much sense to not pursue. As with all trends in the federal market, the challenge is figuring how to monetize this shift in policy and execution. Read This Blog 05/02/2011 - Show Up at the IC agency and Think On your Feet! I am always thrilled when I can come back from an intelligence community (IC) event with leads... and the best kind come from simply showing up, paying attention and thinking on my feet. I can definitely get better, but if I have a good day generating leads, it's because I applied these rules. Read This Blog 04/15/2011 - BACK TO BASICS CAN BE A GOOD STRATEGY I was reminded this week (while at the NSA) of a common mistake often made by entrepreneurs in the DoD and IC market. It is tempting to claim that your firm is an expert at two dozen areas of focus. On one level, I understand this because the same personality and intellect that would launch a new business tends to see more, do more and want more than the average professional. So, I understand (if you're guilty of this tendency) your "reach-of-the starts" mentality. It runs in your blood. Read This Blog 03/14/2011 - WARFIGHTING WITH iPhone(!) AND A NEW CIO Wow! Unless you've been under a rock for the last ten years, you have seen some pretty interesting technology innovations in our market. But this headline really caught my eye: "C2 Technologies Develops iPhone Mobile App for Army's Patriot Missile". It's interesting because the iPhone app is used not to launch a Patriot missile but to train the troops how to launch the missile, and care for the equipment (and all that goes with it). How cool is that? Read This Blog 03/01/2011 - NETWORKING IN THE IC PAYS OFF! I am -- yet again, amazed at who I run into at various networking events. I am tempted to go into "listen-only" mode, sometimes when I spend too much time in my cave (i.e., home office) so occasionally, I have to remind myself to open up a bit and talk at these events. I usually come away with another valuable contact. Read This Blog 02/15/2011 - AS THE GLOBE TURNS: INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION IS STILL VITAL Consider this January 31st posting by Michael M. Dunn, President/CEO of the Air Force Association; spend three minutes considering how your company's value proposition supports the IC in these events. The world is constantly changing. What is your contribution to making the IC agencies better in their specific mission, given this list of potential or outright threats? Read This Blog 01/31/2011 - HOW IS CAPTURE MANAGEMENT DIFFERENT IN THE IC MARKET? For some folks, capture management if a four letter word! To get some insights, I tuned into a Federal News Radio program hosted by Larry Allen. His guest back in 2009 was Bob Lohfeld, President of the Lohfeld Consulting Group; as you'd expect, the nature of capture management is much more than just the proposal effort. (see: http://www.wfed.com/index.php?hlpage=6&nid=46&sid=1805751) Read This Blog 01/31/2011 - MORE ADJUSTMENTS IN DOD AND IC SPENDING PRIORITIES There has been recent news over the last several weeks related to SecDef Gates and his intention to cut $78B from the overall budget over five years and pare-down the DoD IT budgets specifically, which are currently absorbing about $37B annually. I sure hope you haven't lost any sleep over this it amounts to well less than 3 percent. So, while I give the SECDEF high marks, these would not be considered bold cuts by anyone's definition. (I don't count the congressman or senator who may lose a single program as legitimate criticism... politics will always create disproportionate whining when it comes to cuts). Read This Blog 01/07/2011 - A GREAT TIME TO REFOCUS YOUR IC SALES AND BD EFFORTS As readers have noticed, change can mean opportunity, when selling to the IC. But, if you and I don't take a few moments, every quarter, we'll miss the significance of the changes and the chance to leverage them into our own benefit. Here are some examples that strike me as possibly useful. Read This Blog 12/15/2010 - REAL CHANGE IN THE IC I am impressed that real change is taking place and, "sure, it is painfully slow at times", but being an optimistic realist, I believe we should give credit where it's due. The NSA has gone out of their way to not only reach-out to small businesses (to a greater extent than any other IC agency) but is reshaping how they do their job, organizationally. They are also shifting the direction of their IA mission. They stand outrelative to the other fifteen, as the most responsive to market pressures and the need for change. Read This Blog 12/08/2010 - HOW CAN YOUR COMPANY BENEFIT FROM WIKILEAKS? This is a loaded question. I do not mean to suggest that we should take advantage of another's misfortune, even when it is the Department of Defense's. Real harm has been done by the Wikileaks perpetrators and the incident has certainly affected national security. Alliances and perhaps lives, may be at risk in real ways. However, my point in asking the question is this: the functionality offered by 'insider security monitoring' and role based cyber security has taken-on a new priority in the IC...and perhaps the entire federal government. And so it should. The implication is that in all federal agencies, big events (or screw-ups) typically precede big changes as well as big spending in certain categories. Read This Blog 11/16/2010 - INTEGRATED MARKETING AND FOCUS TOWARDS THE IC On our best day, we create a team target that is aligned horizontally and vertically throughout an organization. For instance, if I was targeting the Army Intelligence organizations (as a sales and BD professional), this could easily dictate which trade shows at which I would exhibit or attend, which magazines I would spend time perusing, which phone calls I may make, and which web sites I monitor. As anyone over 30 will attest, this is a lot harder than it seems. Yet, without this kind of focus, I may never get deep enough to see opportunities. Incidentally, this is the problem with following the news (at least a challenge I have...)... even news on the IC. Washington is famous for spilling ink and hosting conferences to do little more that jam five hundred folks into a ball room to talk about problems. (Another cyber conference... you've got to be kidding...?!?) My passion is with those who talk... and then act! Read This Blog 11/01/2010 - R&D IN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY - PLENTY TO GO AROUND The intelligence community (IC) is a $75 billion submarket within the federal complex. This alone is staggering. Being close to Washington DC, we tend to forget just how much money this really is. If this figure were a nation's gross domestic product (GDP), it would be the 60th largest country in the world and larger than 2/3 of all nations and their respective GDP output (there are currently 181 nations in the world). Read This Blog 09/30/2010 - RECONNOITERING AT THE NRO In keeping with the format of this blog, I like to occasionally profile intell agencies to provide a bit of focus. Now is a good time to explore the NRO. One of the best ways to become familiar with this elusive agency is to attend the SPACE ISR Conference that AFCEA is hosting - a.k.a. the Fall Intelligence Symposium in mid October in Chantilly. Read This Blog 09/20/2010 - MASTERING THE COMPLEX SALES IN INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY I just finished (again) a portion of Jeff Thull's Mastering the Complex Sale (see www.primeresource.com to order a copy). I see direct applicability to the intell community sales process, which - as readers of this blog know, typically the ultimate in complex selling. Read This Blog 08/31/2010 - THE POWER OF DIFFERENTIATION FACING THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY Whether your firm is a services provider or a product company, you must clearly differentiate your offering or personnel. Perhaps this is true in any market during any economic cycle, but since our focus is on the IC, here are some of my thoughts on how to accomplish this mission towards the intell agencies. Read This Blog 08/02/2010 - THINKING AND SELLING... "OUT OF THE BOX" TO THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY (IC) I see some true leadership coming out of selected individuals in the IC and it is inspiring. Sure, there are a million things that could be better and nobody would deny this. However, my philosophy is that we need to support the ones who are in charge, and help them do their job. This is the system we have. Working against it wont help you reach your goals and certainly will not help the nation reach its goals. Read This Blog 07/20/2010 - THE DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY One of the Big Six IC agencies is the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). For a pretty good introductory video, browse here: http://www.dia.mil/video.html In an honest moment, I will admit that I vacillate between frustration and passion for this critically important agency. Rather than venting about my impressions of the Agency I will keep this blog entry positive and focus on "how you and I can provide real solutions" to an organization that really does need them, and how we can help them to be everything they should be as a vital member of the IC. Read This Blog 06/30/2010 - SBIR - PART 2 - NOT JUST PARTICIPATING, BUT WINNING! This time, we're going to look at Part 2 of the SBIR approach to securing revenue for your innovation. I get the impression there is a long list of folks who know how to go through the motions and submit a proposal, and a much shorter list of folks who know all that...and how to win. Read This Blog 06/15/2010 - CREATIVE SOURCE OF FUNDING FOR YOUR COMPANY'S PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Money may be available for your company's IC-specific product development, but not as a hand-out, more of a collaborative endeavor, sponsored by your friendly Department of Defense. Have you ever considered the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program that the federal government runs? Below is an introduction to SBIR, and I found this to be very helpful. Keep in mind that the DoD drives approximately 70% to 80% of the intelligence community's mission. So, the IC connection is via the DoD-specific SBIR segments. This money will be spent on innovation; that is the law; so, if you believe your innovation is truly unique, it's worth a look. Read This Blog 06/07/2010 - THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE BIG PICTURE I'm pulling duty at an intelligence community conference and (I gotta tell you ) I love these events. I'm enough of an extrovert that I try to "work them" for all their worth. What I mean is that I am proud to be a business developer, and I'm here for that purpose. So there is clarity of mission. Read This Blog 05/12/2010 - KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE - IT'S WORTH IT IN THE LONG RUN Every once in a while, I need to take a step back and reground my motivations. Why? Because the federal market -- let alone the most intricate and challenging portion of the federal market... (i.e., the DoD and intelligence community submarkets) require long term stamina. I recently got a reminder of what a typical warfighter goes through on an average day in Afghanistan. If you have not read what a typical day in-theater is like, please check this out: A Soldiers Guide To Staying Healthy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will give you a new appreciation for the urgency in helping our military and intelligence professionals get home quickly. Read This Blog 04/30/2010 - IF YOU ONLY HAD FOUR MINUTES WITH THE GENERAL What would you say? This is harder than it seems. I'm referring to condensing your message and question for the executive into a crisp, four to five minute conversation. And to have any value at all, there would need to be included a "call to action" or a request for information, as a part of that four minutes. Read This Blog 04/13/2010 - END OF FISCAL YEAR PLANNING - GET YOUR DUCKS LINED UP NOW! For those readers who have an on-going (i.e., contractor) relationship with a federal agency, this is the time of year to be considering what kind of proposal you'd like to give your client in case there is any end-of-fiscal year funding that needs to be spent by September 31st. Read This Blog 03/30/2010 - INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CLINIC This is a difficult client market loaded with obstacles and barriers. But I am convinced that these challenges are surmountable. Do yourself a favor: sit back and relax for just a moment and answer this question: in order to better reach your business development goals, if you could have one thing or change one obstacle... that would make all the difference, what would it be? Read This Blog 03/17/2010 - CHANGE IN THE IC - HOW ARE YOU LEVERAGING IT? Being an agile and adroit small business, one of your greatest strengths should be to move quickly in the midst of intelligence community changes. (Change can always mean "opportunity" when viewed positively). There have been many recent changes across the IC that you may be able to leverage, at least thematically, and create an opportunity for your firm. I am referring to conversations you may need to start, continue or shut down, imperatives that you may need to support, funding that you may need to get a piece of and other similar activities. Here is a sample list, for your consideration. Look at these carefully, with an eye toward this question: "how can I leverage this on behalf of my company?" Read This Blog 03/03/2010 - INFILTRATING MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AND DEVELOPING BUSINESS (PART 2) With some of this basic knowledge out of the way (refer to Part 1), you may want to know that it has been estimated that 75% of the IC budget eventually flows towards the military. Keep in mind that if you break down the IC into civilian and military, then we're talking the following agencies: NSA, MCIA (USMC Intelligence Activity), DIA, NGA, NRO, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the USAF. Obviously, the entire Army is not an intelligence agency, but others in this list are entirely absorbed into the IC. Interestingly, the NSA just recently became labeled as a combat agency, moving away from Combat Support Agency (CSA). This was an upgrade on several levels. And realize that there are plenty of joint commands where a security clearance is absolutely in use, for instance, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), to name just a few. Most space related organizations operate at SECRET or above. Read This Blog 02/19/2010 - INFILTRATING MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AND DEVELOPING BUSINESS (Part 1) Who could blame you if, never having been in the military, you were intimidated by the defense intelligence community? The most descriptive term that characterizes the organization (broadly speaking) is 'labyrinthine'. The original use of this term comes from Greek mythology and was applied to a maze intended to befuddle the Minotaur; the original labyrinth was so cunningly devised that even its creator, named Daedalus, almost didn't escape. Although our goal is not to get out... but to get in, the term does seem to fit. Read This Blog 01/28/2010 - TARGET ACQUIRED: THE NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NGA) You don't need to be a satellite manufacturer to have a value proposition for the NGA. They are a large agency that has a diverse mission and a long list of constituents. Their data and telecom networks pass bits generally the same way other corporate nets pass information, so as with all the IC agencies, you can divide their needs into two categories: mission specific (geospatial analysis and production) and IT support infrastructure (i.e., databases, applications, networks and systems (DANS)). Read This Blog 01/20/2010 - INTELLIGENCE LED POLICING - TIME FOR A FRESH LOOK! Guilty as charged: I take a very broad view of the IC-to include Law Enforcement. Perhaps you should as well! Read This Blog 01/04/2010 - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT THE NSA If you've been following this blog, you know I like a varied approach to penetrating these complex agencies. Unfortunately, they do not exist to make life easy for sales folks, but I have found if we know how to work with them, there is more to be gained then by complaining. Read This Blog 12/15/2009 - PENETRATING THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY If the CIA is your business development target, then it will help to know how to start breaking into their universe (legally, of course!). Here are a few tips, collected from my specific experience as well as general knowledge of the account. Read This Blog 11/30/2009 - REFOCUS ON YOUR SALES AND BD TARGETS! If you're like me, after the activity from this fall, you need a few days away from the usually grind to refocus your planning. I did this in August and it was amazingly refreshing. (Actually, I need a six month sabbatical but that will have to wait!) Over the holidays (or in January) is a great time to relax and consider your business development activities since Labor Day. Read This Blog 11/17/2009 - KNOW YOUR CLIENT - BEFORE YOU BEGIN SELLING! One of my pet peeves as a sales professional is when other sales folks don't do their homework before visiting with a client or prospect. Most business persons have seen it done or been a part of it: a show-up and throw-up sales call. Whichever side of the equation you happened to have been on, these are not pretty meetings. Selling - on its best day, is a bilateral conversation, not a one sided technical dump, from the "sales person" towards the prospect. Read This Blog 10/30/2009 - TRADESHOW TACTICS: ENGAGE THE TARGET! I just returned from a large AFCEA conference that was well attended by military personnel - both uniformed and civilian. If you generally see the glass as half-full (and employ the few tips offered below), then conferences (both large and small) can be great opportunities to engage the clients; however, without the right attitude, they can be very unsatisfying. The key is to understand how to harvest these events for all they're worth and go into them with a plan. Here are my top tips for small business owners to make these conferences work. Read This Blog 10/13/2009 - PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING: GIT'R DONE! Now is a perfect time to plan for the fall! Whether or not you have teed-up some end-of-year revenue, this is typically a lull period for the federal contractor. One of the best things you can do is recommit to networking during the fourth quarter (September through December). I say this because I am like many IT professionals: I am comfortable in my cave (i.e., my office) and I am just as content to spend a day in the office, cranking out 200 e-mails as I am suiting-up, and getting out into the community to build relationships. But I regret the seasons when I don't get out enough. The period between Labor Day and Christmas is--by far, the most active period to energize your outreach! And, perhaps because I am an extrovert, I never fail to make some valuable acquaintances when I step out and build relationships. Sure, it takes work, but the benefits can be valuable. Read This Blog 09/30/2009 - GENERATING REVENUE FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS There is plenty of reason for excitement and hope, if you are focused on the federal market. But this certainly does not mean it's easy to hit your revenue targets. The key, as with any sales effort, is this: change means opportunity. There is plenty of change going on across the federal organizations, especially the military and the IC agencies. So, if you have not studied the federal landscape since the new Administration moved into the White House, this is a great time to do so. Your task as a small business owner (or executive) is to clearly map your unique offering to those changes, and then be the best you can be at delivering it. Read This Blog Authors are entirely responsible for opinions expressed in material appearing in AFCEA publications and online products, and these opinions are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. This is a moderated blog, and all comments are subject to review prior to posting. Approved comments will appear within 24 hours. |
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