(As in past years, I will only be posting once a week in July and August.)

During good times many professional service firms shun government work.  They don’t like the procedures required to go after the work, nor those required for compliance if they get it.  Most of all they dislike the lower profit margins and billing rate limitations of some government work when compared to work for the private sector.

But when times are tough and private sector work dries up, that government work looks mighty attractive.  Firms that spurned it in bygone years flood the market, resulting in dramatic increases in the number of bidders on requests for proposals.

The outcome, I think, remains much the same:  those firms which always won government work continue to do so and those which didn’t come away empty handed.  That’s because the firms which specialize in government work know the procedures and the players and have the right qualifications and the newcomers don’t.  To win you have to know the market.  If you don’t, that government RFP is more chimera than real opportunity.

That’s what usually happens.  But not always.  I recently learned of a firm with only limited government work experience winning a stunningly attractive project.  If they handled this opportunity correctly, it could be the foundation on which they build a whole government practice.

So, when is a piece of government work worth pursuing if you don’t have a history in that sector?  Before taking the expensive leap of responding to a government RFP, answer the following questions:

1)    Do you really want this work?  If the money is all you are after, it will show, and you will lose.

2)    Are there any reasons why you are especially well suited for the work?  The winner will have some special qualification either with the matter at hand or in the form of a special relationship with the buyers.

3)    Do you have either early warning of the client’s need or better access to information about it than most competitors?  These allow you to build your case more effectively than others do.

If your answer to any of these questions is no, think twice before proceeding.  If you answer no to two of them, drop that pursuit like a bad habit.

(As in past years, I will only be posting once a week in July and August.)

Many bloggers suggest seeking inspiration for post ideas in the posts on other people’s blogs.  This, of course, is just an extension of doing the same from articles and books.  They are what Greg Knauss calls referential bloggers.  As Kevin O’Keefe points out referential blogging also increases the visibility and influence of your blog.

Referential blogging is easier if you remember to write with PRIDE, an acronym which stands for Promote, Rant, Interpret, Disagree and Elaborate.

1.    Promote

You can promote someone else’s idea, post or blog by citing and endorsing it.  Ian Brodie’s Rainmaker Resources blog does that for blogs addressing the subject of selling professional services.  Individual posts highlight a specific blog and its author.  A different approach to promoting other people’s posts is the blog carnival, exemplified by the highly successful blog Carnival of Trust started by Charlie Green, which highlights ten posts a month dealing with trust.  I know from first-hand experience how having a post chosen for this carnival can create a spike in readership. (Thank you, Charlie.)  The Hidden Business Treasure’s post, proclaiming Charlie’s Trust Matters blog as the Blog of the Year, is yet another example of promoting on a blog.

2.     Rant

Someone else’s post can set you off on a rant, as one of Margaret Grisdela’s did me, resulting in the post Many Reasons Not to Call vs. One Reason to Call.  I enjoy reading a short, well written rant.  I like the author’s passion, conviction and seeming abandonment prudence.  A good one makes me cheer, or, better, laugh.  And writing a rant helps you get something off your chest.  It feels great to just let it all go!  The relief one feels after pushing the publish button on your host page is palpable.  And, well . . . don’t get me started.

3.    Interpret

You can interpret someone else’s post, book or article for your audience.  Liz Strauss does this in her post, Can Social Media Change the World, applying concepts from a favorite book on inovation to her field.

4.    Disagree

Reading controversy is often more fun than reading agreement and disagreement, can be fun to write.  Sims Wyeth and I had an exchange over the use of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and GOG (greed, opportunity and glory) in selling (see FUD or GOG and More Debate over FUD and GOG), Suzanne Lowe and I had one over the role of a Chief Marketing Officer in a professional services firm (see What Does a CMO Do?)  Alan Weiss and I locked horns over the value of LinkedIn.  I found these exchanges challenging, and they resulted in a spike in readership for all parties.  If you are worried about the other person taking offense at your disagreement, call and explain what you want to do.  Chances are he or she will welcome the exchange.

5.    Elaborate

You can elaborate on a point found on someone else’s blog.  Mark Buckshon does this well in a recent post that builds off of a Mel Lester post.

Keeping PRIDE in mind will help you generate ideas for posts when reading other people’s blogs, articles and books.

Many professional services are event driven, meaning that a planned event creates a need for services.   For example, the movement of an operation can create needs for real estate brokers and attorneys, architects, engineers and others.  A downsizing often creates needs for actuaries and labor attorneys.  Unplanned events can do the same thing.  This might be a crisis, like a spill of hazardous materials, or result from a government action, such as a change in the law or in an administrative procedure.

Once the event becomes public, every eligible professional goes after the work it creates, especially in today’s economic environment.  Clients are swamped with so many offers of help from so many firms, that they put up barriers to protect their time.  It is often the professional who was tipped early of the coming event and so approached the client before everyone else and before the barriers went up, who gets the work.

The best way to do this, of course, is to have a close relationship with someone in the client organization who tips you.  But there are others.  Over the years I have known a number of people who read the help-wanted ads, having realized that a sudden increase in staff in a specific area often signals an impending event.  So, a company that is looking to increase its facilities staff may be planning a new building.  One hiring a number of human resource specialists is likely expecting major change in staff size.

My question today is:  What are other early signs that clients may soon have a need for your services?

Professionals learning to develop business often struggle with finding a reason for calling clients and other important network contacts, when there is no urgent matter to discuss.  You can have frequent conversations with a network contact, as long as the net value of the sum of those conversations is sufficiently high to meet her hurdle rate. If it doesn’t, she won’t return your calls or will find other means to use her time more productively.  The hurdle rate varies from contact to contact and tends to be higher with the more desirable contacts, such as senior executives.

Note that most contacts will not mind the occasional low-value conversation, as long as the net value of the sum of all exchanges with you is high.  This logic presses us to find ways to provide the needed value.  With some contacts the personal relationship is strong enough that interest in each other provides sufficient value.  For the rest, we must constantly be looking for information and ideas that our contacts would find valuable.  That can be a challenge.

Joe Flom of the law firm, Skadden, is one of the world’s greatest rainmakers of the past half century. I find it revealing that he used to hit upon a conversation topic that he would use with his business contacts for a while, and then come up with another.  His colleagues used to refer to these topics as his flavor of the month.  Over the years I have seen other rainmakers do the same, though they seldom have a name for it.

Not having had the opportunity to observe Flom over time I can’t describe the characteristics of his flavors of the month.  From broader experience, I think a flavor must:

• Be a valuable insight or piece of information tied at least peripherally to your business
• Be topical enough that it is easy to bring into conversation
• Lead easily to a question that gets the other person talking

Recognizing a promising flavor is a knack worth developing.  They come to you more frequently than you might imagine, if you are looking for them.  To build the habit, from time to time ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there a contrarian story to a current trend?
• Do you have an example of an interesting solution to a common problem?
• Do you know how a leader in a field does something that others struggle with?
• Is there an impending change in technology, regulation, competitive environment of other area your contacts need to be advised of?

I was reminded of this subject recently when I found myself discussing flavors of the month with several contacts over two weeks.  The subject of flavors of the month had become my flavor of the month.

As in past years, I will only be posting once a week in July and August, instead of my usual twice a week, to take advantage of the lazy days of summer.