Federal subcontracting opportunities and how to reach the primes
Most companies that end up winning federal prime contracts start as subcontractors. It is the fastest route to federal past performance, and the entry requirements are set by a company rather than by a contracting officer.
The structural reason this works
Large prime contractors on substantial federal contracts are generally required to have a small business subcontracting plan, with goals across small business categories including service-disabled veteran-owned, women-owned and HUBZone firms. Those goals are measured and they are reported.
This is not charity and it is not a favor. A prime that cannot meet its subcontracting goals has a real problem, which means a capable small firm in the right category is solving something for them.
- Past performance you can cite on future prime bids
- A working relationship with a company that wins the work you want
- Exposure to how large federal programs are actually run
- Revenue that does not depend on you winning a competition outright
Where subcontracting opportunities with DoD prime contractors and others appear
- Award notices. Every prime award is public. The company that just won a large contract in your NAICS code is the company that needs subcontractors this quarter.
- Prime contractor supplier portals. Most large defense and federal primes run a registration portal for potential suppliers.
- Sources sought responses. Firms that respond publicly to a sources sought notice are signalling interest in the same requirement, which makes them teaming candidates.
- Small business offices. Both agencies and large primes have small business liaison functions whose job is exactly this introduction.
- Industry days and matchmaking events. Run around specific large requirements, and the attendee list is the teaming market.
- Subcontracting directories maintained by primes and by agency programs.
Approach before the award, not after
The best moment to reach a prime is while they are still assembling their team for a bid, which is months before the award is announced.
- Watch presolicitation and sources sought notices in your codes, then identify the likely bidders from award history
- Approach with a specific requirement in mind, not a general introduction
- After an award is announced, the team is usually set, though replacements happen
- Keep watching potential end dates for the recompete, where teaming happens all over again
What a prime actually wants from you
Capability statements get skimmed. Make yours easy to act on.
- One page, with your NAICS codes, certifications and entity identifier visible immediately
- Specific past performance: what you delivered, for whom, at what scale, with a contact
- The one thing you do better than the other firms in your category
- Clearances, certifications, bonding capacity and geographic reach, stated plainly
- A named human being and a phone number
- Reference the specific requirement you are contacting them about
A generic capability statement mailed to fifty primes achieves nothing. One capability statement, aimed at one prime, about one requirement they are bidding, gets read.
Track primes as well as agencies
FederalContracts scores solicitations against your profile and shows award history beside them, so the prime that just won work in your codes is visible at the same time as the requirement itself. Enterprise ingests prime contractor portals alongside federal, state and local sources.
Related reading: dod contract opportunities, reading competitor award history, small business government contracting opportunities.