Many clients and other contacts tell me that they become extremely impatient with the federal government's "hurry up and wait" attitude. For example, a client might receive a call today for a quote due by tomorrow afternoon. You rush to provide the requested quote and then you don't hear back from your customer in spite of the number of follow-up calls you make. As luck would have it, just as you are about to give up on the opportunity, you get a call from the government and they inform you that you have won their business. Unfortunately, you have a major dilemma. You've promised your product, people, time, energy to someone else...

One of my clients sent me an email recently concerning this very topic. She turned in a proposal which, should her company win the business, would keep her company's team busy for six months. Unbeknownst to her, another sales manager within her company already promised the resources to another client. My client wrote me asking if she should talk to her customer about her dilemma, withdraw the offer or stay quiet and deal with the problem if she wins the business (I've obviously slightly changed the scenario to protect the identity of my client). Service businesses can typically hire and train a team in a given timeframe but, in the scenario discussed above, the team in question was highly specialized and their skill sets were needed for the client's proposed job. Although the client had a few members available for the task, she would have to scrape to come up with the rest.

After giving her question some thought, I suggested that the client come clean with the end user. While telling the end user that it is her commitment to make them look good at all times, she should also advise the end user of her situation and ask them what they think she should do. The alternatives that should be put forth before the end user are whether he would prefer that she present the team she has available should she win the job or withdraw the proposal and wait until the next opportunity.

It turns out that the client followed my advice. Her end user was committed to her company and therefore agreed to work with her so that her new team could get ramped up in time. In fact, my client tells me that in being up front with the potential customer, she actually strengthened the relationship with that contact. My gut tells me that if the client's company was not the one with whom the end user really wanted to do business, the government might have told her to withdraw the bid and wait until the next opportunity. Either way, her candor and openness would have resulted in a stronger relationship with the end user.

Remember, the government is made up of people. These people have challenges just like we do and run into problem solving situations every day. Before letting a "situation" get out of hand and possibly making a government client look bad, you must advise the client immediately about your present "challenge." When talking to a customer, try to avoid using the word "problem" and the conversation will remain calm and focused on solutions rather than blame.

Another client told me that one of his employees didn't show up to an agency assignment. In response, the contractor called the contracting officer immediately. He said the contracting officer was impressed with his quick response because he contacted the CO before the agency even noticed the assigned contractor was missing.

Conversations such as those described previously help build relationships. Choose honesty and integrity every time. No matter how silly you look at the time, the government client will appreciate your openness and will help you get through the situation. Who knows, you might be laughing about it someday when you've landed that huge embedded deal because you showed them you have a human side and that you recover from "challenges" quickly.

Here's to "challenges" and situations and may they be few and far between!