Is it real, or is it hopium?

Most federal pipeline dies in one of these five places. Usually the seller already knows which one. This just makes you say it out loud.

CUSTOMER: Has anyone said out loud that they want this?

A good meeting doesn't give you a requirement. You want the customer describing the problem in their own words, ideally in writing, and deciding something has to change. If you're the only one who's put the need into words, you might be inventing it. Is there pull, or are you pushing?

MONEY: Where does the funding come from?

Federal money has a name: an appropriation, a program line, an O&M budget, a color of money with a fiscal year attached. "They have budget" with no source is the most common thing a seller believes and can't defend. You can have a requirement, an enthusiastic customer and a contract vehicle, and still no money that can be applied to the buy. The question your manager will ask is who told you, and what is it called.

POWER: Have you met anyone who can make it happen?

Understanding the requirement and controlling the purchase are usually different jobs, often different people, sometimes different buildings. A technical evaluator can love you and still not move a dollar. You're looking for a program manager, a contracting officer or a budget holder, somebody who can make something happen when it gets difficult.

PATH: How would they actually buy it?

Every federal purchase arrives through a mechanism: an existing contract, a GWAC or IDIQ, a task order, a set-aside, a recompete, a sole-source justification. If nobody has named the vehicle and the contracting office, the timeline is guesswork, because acquisition lead time is the timeline. If nobody can tell you how a purchase order actually gets cut, what you have is interest.

NOW: What forces action this year?

Agencies are very good at doing nothing for another year. A forcing function is specific: a contract expiring, a product going end of life, a mandate with a date, an incident, or money that expires September 30. "Q4" isn't a compelling event, and neither is "my manager wants it this quarter." What gets worse for them if they do nothing?

Both have their place. They're for working a deal. This is earlier. If one of these five things is missing, it doesn't matter how pretty the MEDDIC sheet is yet.

The longer version, in Field Notes →

A pipeline review is mostly a manager asking whether the numbers can survive a few questions. Ask the same five every week and you get something better than another CRM field: a shared way to say where the deal is weak.

• Ask the same five every time. The consistency is what makes the answers comparable.
• Let the rep answer before you react. Sort of is an honest answer and should be safe to give.
• Weakest link first. The worst answer is the one that determines the forecast, not the average.
• Nothing gets typed into a system. Nobody has to explain later why the pipeline looked bad in writing.

Same job every week: get the hopium out before the forecast call.

The five questions above are about one opportunity. These are about the customer it lives in. You find out which one you've got the day your contact leaves.

MISSION: Can you say what this account is trying to get done this year, in their words?

Not what you sell them. What the agency, the program or the business unit has to accomplish. If all you can describe is what they're buying from you, you know your deal and not much else. This week: Find the strategic plan, the budget justification or the all-hands deck, and write one sentence.

MONEY: Do you know where their money comes from and when it moves, beyond your deal?

Know how their money moves and you hear about deals before they exist. Know only your deal's money and you'll hear about the next one from a competitor's press release. This week: Find the program line and their fiscal calendar.

POWER: Have you met someone who matters beyond the deal in front of you?

Single-threaded is the most common way a good account goes quiet. One promotion or one reorg and you start over. This week: Ask your one contact for one introduction, upward or sideways.

INCUMBENT: Do you know who already owns the relationships, the contracts and the workloads?

Somebody already does. Know who, and what they stand to lose, before you call it a competition. This week: List who owns what, and what each of them loses if you win.

PATH: Do you know how this account actually buys, and who runs that process?

The contracting office, the vehicles they use, the approvals. It's usually the same for the next deal, so learn it properly once. This week: Find the contracting office and the vehicle they used last time, and ask how that buy went.

Selling federal? fedhoo shows an agency's current contracts, who holds them, and what it spends.

Build the plan for this account

This used to be Account Check. Old links land here.

Most lost deals are lost to nothing. The customer kept what they had, the money went somewhere else, the project waited a year. So start with doing nothing, then the incumbent.

NOTHING: Do you know what it costs them to do nothing, in their numbers?

If the answer is "not much," doing nothing is free, and free usually wins. This week: Ask what happens if they do nothing this year, and write the answer down in their words.

SWITCH: Do you know what it costs them to leave the incumbent, and who feels it?

Incumbents mostly win because changing is a pain: retraining, migration, the person whose job is the current system. This week: List what leaving costs them and who carries each cost. Then deal with the person, not the cost.

PREFERENCE: Has the customer told you, unprompted, why they would prefer you?

Not "we like your solution." A reason, in their words. Until you've heard it, you're one column in their spreadsheet. This week: Ask what would make them choose you over the alternative. Then stop talking.

PROOF: Do you have proof only you can show them: a reference, a pilot, a result?

Anybody can make claims. Something they can check is a lot harder for the incumbent to match. This week: Line up one reference they can call, or a pilot in their environment. Not a deck.

ACCESS: Do you know who at the customer the competitor already owns?

Somebody in that account has been having lunch with the other side for three years. Find out who now, or you'll find out in the loss review. This week: Ask your champion who the competitor knows. They know.

Selling federal? fedhoo shows who holds the incumbent contract, what it's worth, and when it ends.

Ask Mark who's beating you

This used to be Competition Check. Old links land here.