“Doing Business with the Government” is his book and Eileen Kent, Federal Sales Sherpa, interviews Mark Amtower about how long it takes to win federal contracts, how to use LinkedIn to leverage relationships with federal end users and they cover topical issues such as LPTA and FSSI.
“LPTA is Lowest Price Technically Acceptable” bids and both Mark and Eileen agree that they may not be the best way to use the taxpayer’s dollar. Although the concept is a good one, sometimes the “technically acceptable” part doesn’t define enough what the government needs and they end up modifying the contract – to fix the issue – costing the government more money afterall.
“In the old days,” Kent says, “The government used the best value determination – and they were never afraid to say that they’ll choose a quality item or service – first and then negotiate the price second. Best values could be determined by past performance, experience of the key staff, the speed of delivery and the warranty. Now, they’re using the “technically acceptable” which leaves a lot of room for interpretation between the end user customer inside the government, the contracting officer and the vendor. With best value, the end user could lay out what their best values would be important and add them to the evaluation criteria. Now, they have to describe what they’ll accept and then the price battle begins.”
FSSI is the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative and Mark and Eileen discuss it’s potential impact on GSA schedule holders.
Are these new federal procurement processes a good use of our tax dollars? Kent and Amtower discuss these issues and more on “The Federal Sales Sherpa Show” Copy this link and drop it in your browser to Immediately Download the Show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/linkedlocalnetwork/2013/08/27/federal-sales-sherpa-show-1