YouTube Transcript:
Module 5 Is This The Right Buyer

Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.

Video Transcript

Available languages:

View:

well welcome back how you doing feeling okay

okay

please if you are starting to get a

little overwhelmed right now

don't I promise you we are going to be

here to kind of walk you through guide

you through step by step this is this

these modules are just like drinking

from a fire hose so if you're starting

to feel a little overwhelmed

take a little break

step back

and then

pick up where you left off

so module

for finding your buyer how much fun was

that I hope you liked it

this module module five which means

you're halfway through

is all about whether or not that person

you just found

is viable meaning they are good for you

once again my name is Cheryl Brown I'm a

parent I'm the director of the north San

Diego sbdc I'm also a procurement

advisor been involved with Government

Contracting since 2003 and have been

working with small businesses since 2007.

2007.

resulting in over 800 million dollars in

contracts awarded to those small businesses

businesses

small businesses just like you so

without further Ado let's Jump Right In

I'll say this over and over and over and

over and over again

this goes for the private sector as well

not all business is good business now I

know you're just getting started it

started out it's kind of like hey I'm

going to take everything whatever comes

my way I'm gonna take that and I I get

that you need to generate Revenue

but eventually you gotta take a look and see

see

this is the best use of my time

is this the right Agency for me is this

the right buyer for me and that's what

this module is all about because the

last thing you want to be doing

especially when you're pursuing

opportunities with the government and it

is investing a bunch of time

that isn't going to result in revenues

everything you do

in your business needs to have the goal

the end goal of

with Government Contracting

minimums are really just that they are a

must the government is legally required

to ensure that they award whether it's a

public announcement or not public that

90 that we've talked about

that you meet that your firm meets their

minimum requirements whatever they are

so for example

if your business has been in business

for four years 11 months

and there's an opportunity that requires

you to be in business for five years

you're disqualified automatically I know

it's just one month

but the government there is no Gray

line here there's no gray it's either

yes or no

every agency has different requirements

so you know if you're looking at an

agency and you want to do business with

them we want to take a look and see what

their minimum requirements are

if you can't meet those it doesn't

matter how much they like you how much

they want to do business with you they

legally can't so the minimums are that

past performance meaning what your

company has done in the past not the

individuals within the company is

actually mandated by contract law the

law state and all Government Contracting

all purchases made with your tax dollars

are mandated by law

the law states

if you cannot demonstrate the ability to

perform they cannot award to you and

this is especially when you're in a full

and open competitive bit so I know I

know I know I know you're sitting here

going okay Cheryl um I just opened my business

business

I don't have any past performance my

company hasn't performed on anything

I've been doing this for 25 plus years

if I can't

be eligible for an opportunity because

they don't have past performance how am

I supposed to get past performance if I

can't it's like the Chicken and the Egg

or the car and the horse right

don't panic

many of the agencies I'm going to say

probably 99.9 of the agencies have other

procurement options in which some of

these requirements are a little bit

loose a little bit looser so find a

different agency so for example

San Diego Unified School District which

is one of the largest school districts

in the state of California

has some minimum requirements when it

pertains to some of their construction projects

projects

one of the requirements is that any

entity that wishes to do business with

San Diego Unified School District in the

construction trades there are some other

caveats but generally speaking

must have three past performances working

working

on a school district project

in the last 12 or 24 months or something

cool okay well wait a minute

if you need to have three past

performances to even be considered how

are you going to get past performance if

they won't even consider you

there are over 40 other school districts

in San Diego County

look at them start working with them

look at some of the smaller school

districts and build that past performance

performance

so right now if you don't have that

those three past performance records the

Unified School District is not a good

Target for you at least now so if that's

something that is your goal is to do

business with San Diego Unified School

District then you need to start building

that ability that fast performance with

some of the other smaller school districts

districts

there's always a workaround but this

module is is really designed to see okay

I found my buyer

now is this the right match for me

every agency is different and so please

please don't assume

um because you know what assuming does I

an example here is I and I might have

already mentioned this last time I have

a tendency to repeat myself that's what

happens when you have four boys in

getting old um

nav War which used to be called spay War

they have this big huge building off the

five freeway and so this huge white

building obviously needs janitorial services

services

because who else is going to clean right

so if you sell janitorial services and

you want to do that building well that's great

great

but that purchase purchase isn't made

by navor that purchase is actually made

by nav back Navy facilities so the

agency or the entity that is using your

services may not necessarily be the

entity that's procuring your services so

if you are a supplier if you sell

products I'm going to tell you right now

99 percent

bottom line

because let's face it

if I'm a buyer

I can buy a pencil

the same pencil

from anybody I can buy it from Walmart I

can buy it from Staples I can buy it

from Office Depot Amazon whatever a

pencil is a pencil is a pencil

I am required by law

to purchase from The Entity that has the

best price

so one of the first things you're going

to want to be doing if you are a

supplier is to start negotiating with

some of your vendors and your

manufacturers with preferred pricing if

keep in mind these rules

these aren't set up by the buyer

they don't necessarily even care about

the rules I mean they care

but they didn't make the rules so if you

don't agree with the rules if you don't

like the rules I get it who likes rules

don't yell at the buyer the buyer's just

trying to do the best they can and so

one of a bit of advice

when you're dealing with these buyers

and you're communicating with these

buyers not their back

of them remember when we talked about

um in module three what to expect and

the different individuals

be nice to your buyer don't yell at them

and I know you're like how why would you

ever do that trust me when we cover

module seven we're talking about

marketing I'll give you I'll give you

some examples because there are some

horror stories out there

the buyer doesn't make the rules the

buyer just is responsible for make sure

making sure that the rules are being met

met

through a little terminology for this

module past performance

you're going to hear a lot about past

performance especially in module six six

which is the next module on capability

statements because past performances is

super important

past performance

is what your company has done

in the past

not the individuals within the company

now there are some exceptions so

Industries are very technical in nature

in which it's the professionals that

actually perform the service and if

they're credentials that can help uh

secure a project then in that case it

may be acceptable but past performance

will always

Trump professional experience and the

reason behind this is because it has

nothing to do with your technical

abilities nobody is questioning your

technical capabilities

what is in question is the

infrastructure that you might have in

place for your business so

you can look this up I'm not lying to you

par uh far Federal acquisition

regulation part 32 of the code of

federal regulations subpart 9.1

responsible prospective contractors this

is copy and pasted from the law

this is what the buyer has to adhere to

they have to award to the company that

has the adequate Financial Resources to perform

perform

or the ability to obtain that how do you

prove that well by what you've done before

before

must be able to comply with required

Supply and delivery schedules in

addition to maintaining the current book

of business

have a status Factory performance record

have the necessary organization

experience accounting operational

controls all of these things which as a

small business owner myself

we struggle with

I I can talk to you all day long but

I'll like I tell them tell my kids all

the time do as I say not as I do

because as a small business owner you

have so much to do that some of this stuff

stuff

may have fallen by the wayside that's

that's the truth right

but this is why it's so important for

the past performance now

a lot of times if there is a past

performance requirement on a project

whether it's publicly announced or not a

good question to always ask when

appropriate is if they would accept

professional experience in lieu of

there are ways around this smaller

projects projects that don't have as

many restrictions smaller agencies that

don't have as many restrictions the

larger the agency the more the

restrictions so if we go back to my

example withstandingo Unified School District

District

Vista Unified School District won't have

that many of the as strict requirements

they still have requirements so when

we're looking at finding our buyer and

then determining whether that buyer is

the right buyer for us we need to take a

look and see okay what are their minimum requirements

first question you want to ask

does this person

buy your product or service now if you

went through the exercise of finding

your buyer and you utilized your

products and services well you've

answered your question yes they do

but what if you find a buyer and you're

not quite sure whether or not they buy

your product or service well you know what

what

hung them up

send them an email

and in module seven when we talk about

marketing I'm going to give you the

exact words to say

ought to go about doing this but don't

be afraid remember these are people

calling them up and saying hey

um my name is Cheryl Brown and we

provide small business Supportive

Services technical assistance to small

business communities what is the city

city of San Diego currently doing in the

areas of purchasing Small Business

technical assistance services

Dizzy's up

it's like the kiss the uh uh whatever

they call it this Theory

keep it simple

stupid or something like that I always

mess up those says I don't know I have

like this brain block when it comes to that

that

it's past they're people they'll answer you

you

so question number one is do they

does this person

procure your product or service if the

answer is no

do not pass go do not collect 200

take this person off your list

simple as that now

for those of you who are listening here

and watching this and you're like but Cheryl

Cheryl

they they would they could they should

buy my product or service I I get it

but what it could have Shoulda doesn't

pay the mortgage

right now we want to focus on those

buyers that do purchase my product or

service and forget about the rest when

you grow and you have a team of sales

people that all they do eight hours a

day 40 hours a week is pursue business

then yeah maybe they can you can have

them pursue these people to try and

but until then stick with those that you

can confirm already purchase your

product or service

oh another caveat with this as I always

get is well if they're already buying

from somebody else then what's the point aha

aha

the point is at some point

that company they're buying from is

going to fail to perform they're going

to do something

and then there you are to save the day

so and this goes for the private sector

as well

if you are

trying if you are marketing or you are

trying to solicit business

from the private sector the public

sector the consumer sector you want to

make sure that you are targeting

audiences that are already buying

your product or service because now all

you have to do is convince them to buy

from you and why would they because

you're you

and you're better

they can buy from anybody but why would

they buy from you

so first and foremost focus on marketing

to those entities and those people that

are already procuring your type of

product or service

number two

does your firm meet the minimum requirements

requirements

well we don't know right now and there

are a couple of different ways that you

can find this out um

one way is to take a look some of the

websites some of the portals

they have

a page that tells you all their requirements

requirements

supplier registration bidder list this

one here even tells you what the

insurance requirements are

this will even tell you what their how

the cut what and how the company economy buys

buys

and so some of the things that you want

to be looking at for minimum requirements

requirements

bonding if required

and then past performance or minimum

requirements or minimum years in

business those are really the three

things now there are some others that

get a little bit more nitpicky but at

this point those are the three areas

another thing you can do

I keep using the county of San Diego

just because it's an easier portal to

navigate most of these portals are are

pretty much the same it's just a

question of where to find the information

information

so I did a little search prior to

recording today for janitor

and then I also

clicked on this one here because this is

the contract so this is the actual contract

contract

that the county of San Diego has with

TNT janitorial all of this is public record

record

so I actually downloaded the contract

and so what this is is 61 Pages it's the

actual signed contract what I can do

here is rather than reading all 61 Pages

because that doesn't make any sense is

I'm going to move my photo down here

if you do control F

I believe if you are an Apple user it's

command f

but what you'll see is you get this

little box up there up here up there put

and what that is going to do is that's

going to take you to the section of the

contract that references insurance so

you can kind of see what their minimum

insurance requirements are so rather

than having to read everything

you can go right to those sections so

here are the insurance requirements

are you able to meet these insurance

requirements if not

move on

another word I recommend searching

is the word bond

and so let's see now that's going to

bring you to the section that require a bot

bot

and so for this one they are requiring a bond

bond

if you don't have the ability to secure

a bond if you don't have the financial

resources to get a bond that's okay then

the county is just not the right buyer

for you right now look at other buyers

another one I like to look at is

and this will then bring us to the

different sections let's say minimum

minimum standard so criminal background requirements

requirements

minimum Staffing

and I'll just go through those areas so

right here janitorial staff required to

have a minimum of three years experience

so these are going to tell you

the minimum requirements

I don't want you to get too wrapped up

in this but at least it kind of gives

you an idea of what you can find out as

far as okay do they buy yes they do can

I meet them in the requirements Maybe

the Third Way

for this third way and this is this is

the easiest

ask them

you've got a person

hey just call them up send them an email

you know hey Susan you know what are the

minimum requirements to be eligible for

opportunities with the county of San Diego

Diego

like insurance and past performance this

is the most direct way and and we'll

learn this more in module seven it's a

great way to get your name in front of

the buyer

now I'm going to go back to that

contract for a moment so this is kind of

like a little added bonus for this module

module

supposing you're looking at maybe being

a subcontractor as opposed to a prime or

directly to the agency I I recommend

that you you do both

but one of the reasons one of the things

that can make it difficult is okay well

how do I find these Prime contractors

well we know that TNT janitorial

services has won the contract with the

county of San Diego to do janitorial

services so now we need to find out okay

well let's contact TNG to see if maybe

we can you know perform on a couple of

their products

properties so I can go control F again

I want you to search the at sign

so that is going to bring you to let me

get my little annotate

annotate

here is the point of contact for the county

county

and look at here

oops here is the point of contact for

TNT janitorial you have a name you have

a phone number you have an email now

now

just call Tam introduce yourself

this is a way for you to also identify

not only agency contacts

but Prime contractors now now I I'll be

honest with you not all portals are this

easy to navigate but at least it but

it's there for you to get started

another thing with this particular

opportunity and we're going to cover

this in um module nine when we talk to

proposal writing but if you do a control

this is going to bring you down let's go

nope there it is okay

this is what the price this is what the

pricing is so this is how much TNT

janitorial is charging

for these locations

a great way to kind of take a look and

see can you be competitive

how are your prices are you in the

ballpark are you way low are you way high

high

once you identify those things we can

really hone in on how we can be

competitive with our bidding and our

we will cover a little bit more of that

in module 9 which is Introduction to

proposal writing but question number two

first of all we have question number one

does this person buy a product or

service yes okay question number two

can you meet your minimum requirements

yes aha

question number three is this the right

buyer for you

and really when we're talking about this

question is we want to look at the

payment terms and the profit margins

maybe it's not the right buyer for you

and that's okay not all businesses good

business I don't believe

in winning a project or bidding on a

project and losing money

now there are some companies out there

that that is a strategy that they will

use so for example they may take their

numbers and cut them off by 30 or 20

percent we call that buying the bid

these are companies that typically have

the capability to do this they have

other business that's supporting them

and they look at an opportunity and they

say hmm

we need to win this so that we can keep

our staff employed and they have a

choice to make and this is this isn't a

right or wrong decision this is a

business choice

if you're a company and you're looking

at an opportunity and it says okay well

if I bid it at these numbers

I have a good chance of not winning

which means I'd have to lay off all of

my stuff or I can cut my original bid

amount by 30 percent almost guaranteeing

me a win and only have to lay off 30 of

not saying it's right or wrong but as a

small business is not something I

recommend I this is not a strategy I recommend

recommend

chances are if you're pricing

based on your cost as a small business

you will be competitive

but this is something especially when

you're a supplier this is something you

want to want to consider

Even If you're receiving even if you're

only getting one percent profit margin

it's still profit

and it may be if you know if you look at

like a million dollar contract

what's one percent of a million dollars

especially when it comes when you

consider that that project is also going

to cover all of your costs

but more on that later on when we talk

about introduction to proposal writing

but generally speaking let's talk about

terminology again

so terminology you'll hear the terms net

net payment terms

some of you may already know what this

all means but some of you won't don't so

let's just clarify what net payment

terms means especially when it comes to

government Government Contracting

net payment terms is the number of days

typically business days

it will take

there's a caveat here

upon approved invoice

and that's where it can get a little

sticky so for example

if you are if you're awarded

a pay for performance contract there's a

number of different terms for this but

basically what that means is you do the work

work

you invoice and then you get paid so in

a per let's take a look at a perfect

situation suppose in your hired to do a project

project

and you start on January 1. and you do

all the work in the month of January

you then typically this is kind of a

general example you then have until

February 10th to submit

the report of your activity

the agency has 10 days to review the

report and either ask for modifications

or approves the report

nine times out of ten they're going to

ask for modifications it's it's just the

case especially if you're you're a

little bit newer and this is a new

agency that you're working with but for

argument's sake let me let's say it's

perfect right so you do all the work

in January

you submit your report by February 10th

the agency has 10 days so now we're down

to February 20th it's it's going to be a

little bit longer than that because I'm

just using you know every single day

this is all business dates but for my

brain and for ease of calculating

they approve your reports February 20th

you submit your invoice

they then have five days to review the

invoice to make sure that it's accurate

so now we're at February 25th

and they approve your invoice

at that point it's on that point

February 25th that the net terms starts

counting so if you're on a net 30 that

means that you will get paid

in a perfect world

by March 25th for the work that you did

in January

I know that sounds kind of scary

most agencies most

their payment terms are typically either

net 30 or net 45. most agencies do have

small business programs in place to help

support that but that's why when we were

in module two creating a foundation for

six best we talked about obtaining

funding in case you need it for cash flow

flow

every module here builds upon the

previous modules

so understanding that maybe this might

mean not to be the great opportunity for

you because of the payment terms there

are agencies that are on a net 180.

it's not their fault it's just the way

they're financing and their funding is

is approved so this is something that

you'd want to take a look at

what are their net terms now you can always

always

go back to that contract

and you can do that control find again

and then you can put the word invoice

and then that's going to bring you to

the different areas where it refers to

the invoice so invoices here invoice

net 30 from receipt and approval of

invoice unless otherwise stated

so those are pretty good payment terms

net 30 is pretty good now if you are a

certified small business or other

certified business you may have the

opportunity to request

better payment terms

Dow doesn't mean that they're going to

approve it but you can request it there

are also some agencies that will pay

quicker if you offer them a discount

some agencies they're super easy to do

business the small of the agency they

are pretty easy and so

you know typically with one of the

agencies that we work with with our

family business we do the work and

typically within two weeks they pay the

invoice and so it all depends uh

everything really comes right down to

being accurate and thorough with your

invoicing with your reporting making

sure that you have when you submit your

invoice you have all the information

needed that they need and things should

go Fairly smoothly from there but as

always as a small business

these sometimes use things fly by the

wayside but you want to make sure that

you that this is good business for your

your payment terms and then of course

with the profit margins

okay frequently asked questions and I

know we covered a couple of these you

know what if

wood could should well let's see remember

remember

doesn't be the mortgage

what if my product or service is

innovated there's

out there like it well there are some

additional programs with the various agencies

agencies

um that you can present your Innovative

product or service to one of the things

you would want to identify though is

what does your Innovative product replace

replace

than what they're currently using or

what umbrella does that Innovative

product fall under and those are the

people that you would approach now if

you have an Innovative product or service

service

that has not had a proof of concept

has not been tested has not been sold

before the government unless they have a

specific program

cannot buy it

they can't

but if you do have something that's

Innovative I highly recommend you

connect with us we do have uh two

centers that work with advice with the

small businesses in technology

commercialization and product

Innovations and things of that nature I

would say connect with them

and then go from there and then you know

continue working on the the uh the

modules here

this is the Chicken and the Egg now okay

so if I need past performance how can I

get past performance if they won't give

me past performance and so you go around

find another buyer

and work with an agency that doesn't

have as strict requirements

and then why can't I just try

I mean I I know I don't you never know

right I you know I don't meet the

minimum requirements but this is a

perfect opportunity and yeah I'm just

going to try

let me tell you something

in the private sector yeah give it a

shot in the government sector

it's not going to work if you can't meet

the minimum requirements

they're never going to look at your

proposal none of it so all of that time

you're investing with responding

will mean absolutely nothing

this is a question of okay how are you

going to invest your time and where is

your time best spent would it be spent

if it's going to take you 10 hours for

example it's going to take you 10 hours

to put together a response but you can't

meet your minimum requirements

or would you should you be taking that

10 minutes and identifying additional

please

if you can't meet the minimum

requirements do not pass go do not

collect 200 and go either straight to subcontracting

subcontracting

or find a different buyer

eventually you'll be able to work with

that buyer as you build those capabilities

capabilities homework

homework

that list of buyers that you

got from module four hopefully you've

got 10 more buyers

research and minimum requirement

how well

we already covered that either a which I

my my favorite just call them or email them

them

B take a look at their portal see if

they have uh something in there that

that talks about

you know minimum requirements like this

one here or

search a previous contract or a current

contract or a current bid just search it

ideally you'd find one that's within

your industry that way it's available

it'll be a little bit more relevant but

but

that's it honestly easiest way fastest

way shoot them an email

okay you are halfway through the

mandatory modules this is module five is

this the right buyer for you next steps

you're gonna go to our back to the

website on-demand Government Contracting

series and then click on the plus sign

and you're going to go to the next

module which is module six

capability statements the capability

statement is the one marketing piece you

are going to need as you pursue

opportunities with the government sector

either directly or as a subcontract

as a reminder if you need help if you

have something that is pressing there's

a deadline

please reach out to us we want to make

sure that we are supporting you every

step of the way so if something does

come up while you are going through

these modules

let us know and we will get you the

support right away to address that

situation and then we're going to refer

you right back

to the modules

until next time can't wait to see you

again coming up module six capability

statement until then

Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video

Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds

One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps

Paste YouTube URL

Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript

Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds

Get Our Chrome Extension

Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.

Add to Chrome — Free

Works with YouTube, Coursera, Udemy and more educational platforms

Get Instant Transcripts: Just Edit the Domain in Your Address Bar!

YouTube

←

→

↻

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

YoutubeToText

←

→

↻

https://youtubetotext.net/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

YouTube Transcript:Module 5 Is This The Right Buyer

Video Transcript

Paste YouTube URL

Transcript Extraction Form

Get Our Chrome Extension

Get Instant Transcripts: Just Edit the Domain in Your Address Bar!

YouTube Transcript:
Module 5 Is This The Right Buyer