Should your company try one of the approaches outlined below while trying to do business with the government, you will end up at a dead end and will have a seriously demoralized federal sales team. My Top Ten List of Mistakes is as follows:

1. Say "Yes" to a project that your company cannot possibly deliver on time.

2. Respond to a public Request for Quote (RFQ) or Request for Proposal (RFP) without an intimate knowledge of the customer's needs, wants, desires and pain.

3. Procrastinate for another year in submitting your GSA Schedule offer.

4. Wait to build your government client base until you get your GSA Schedule contract award.

5. Spend all of your time and money attending SBA and local small business events sponsored by the government.

6. Ask your Senator or Congressman to make a sales call on your behalf.

7. Call a Contracting Officer out concerning his or her interpretation of one of the many rules and regulations in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).

8. Write a letter to your target end user's boss complaining about how the end user won't help you do business with their agency.

9. Hire a lawyer to challenge a government employee's failure to follow your interpretation of proper protocol.

10. Tell the Contracting Officer and the Evaluation Committee evaluating your proposal that your solution is highly superior to the one requested in the RFP or RFQ.

Most, if not all, successful government contractors have made at least one of these mistakes. My goal is to keep you from becoming completely demoralized after chasing dead-end opportunities. Dead end prospects might not become apparent until you've spent hundreds of hours on them.

My personal mistake was thinking that my company had to wait to get our GSA Schedule contract before selling and marketing to government end users. It turns out that it typically takes over a year to develop a trusting relationship with a government end user. It is therefore advisable to get your GSA Schedule offer submitted as quickly as possible. While your offer is being reviewed, start meeting your target agencies. In following this course of action, you will have clients lined up waiting for the award of your GSA Schedule contract. Had I known this little tidbit, I would have saved six months to a year's time in building my government business.

Discuss my top ten mistakes with your entire government team -- the sales executives, the project managers, the principals of your organization and the proposal writers. If you present these mistakes to the team, you will open a dialogue to create a "lessons learned" file so you can keep from making the same mistakes again.

Here's to your straight path to success in doing business with the government.

May you never run into dead-end detours.