Do you know the 4 Cs of small biz success?

It’s important to stay grounded as a small business, and one way to do that is to practice the four Cs of success.

At the ACQUIRE Show this week, Deltek director of Industry Analysis Deniece Peterson went over the four Cs of success and why small businesses should pay attention to them.

The four Cs for success are as follow:

Capabilities

The first C might seem obvious, Peterson said, but “in this market, differentiation is really key and being able to demonstrate those capabilities in a  way that resonates specifically to that agency’s environment.”

The goal here, she said, is to know the agency’s footprint as well as what their challenges are. Peterson acknowledged that is another obvious statement but she continually hears agencies complaining that their contractors do not understand the agency’s pain points.

Customers and partners

Here, the focus is about diving into your available resources to strengthen your existing relationships as well as leveraging those resources to branch out and obtain more customers.

Contract Vehicles

Peterson stressed this point because many agencies are consolidating and streamlining their contracts.

“Being positioned on the right contract vehicle is critical whether you win a prime spot or you look at your teaming strategies because agencies are being mandated to use certain vehicles,” Peterson said. “Make sure you know their acquisition strategy.”

Knowing an agency’s acquisition strategy means knowing what their preferred vehicles are and analyzing spending data to figure out where most of their spending is going. Also, “you can look at current and past contracts to see what percentage of the ceiling they spent, so the ones they’re not using a lot are probably going away,” Peterson said.

Compliance

Short and sweet, Peterson said, compliance is all about “making sure you know what the rules are and you don’t get yourself into trouble.”