Your next step to a great Federal new year is your Hot Wash. Evaluate and create a Federal Sales Plan that works.

Read on to find out:

• What’s a hot wash?
• Who should do one?
• Why should you do one?
• How do you do it?

What’s a hot wash?

One definition of a “hot wash” is a quick after-action rinse of a military weapon after firing, to remove grit and dirt. If it malfunctioned, figure out why, and get it ready for action at the next opportunity.

Another is an after-action review, especially of crisis management, emergency response, or other intense, high-stakes, activity: again, see what worked well and what needs attention for the next engagement, and capture the lessons learned to improve processes and outcomes.

So you can see why we want to do the same thing with your federal marketing and business development operations!

Who should do a federal hot wash?

Any company owner who’s facing (or looking for) big changes! That might include you, if you…

• Want to grow, but have plateaued
• Are growing fast, hitting a new curve, or a new trajectory of growing your company.
• Face a make-or-break year, when you need to make something big happen.
• Are approaching a critical transition, like graduating from 8(a), or outgrowing one or more of your size standards.
• Have a new (or troubled) GSA Schedule or another contract vehicle where you need to drive task orders and wins.
• Are starting or renewing a partnership, teaming arrangement or joint venture.

Why Should You Do A Hot Wash?

Well, how much did you spend developing federal sales in the last 12 months? A rough, rough estimate, combination of cash and sweat equity?

When I did a brief informal survey of companies in the federal market, and asked CEO’s what they spent on federal sales and business development  in 2019-2020, many said easily $100,000; others, $30,000; $40,000; $50,000. And that’s on top of what you paid people. That’s very typical. On average, govcons spend anywhere from 30,000 to $233,000 in a 12 month period on sales and BD.

Now, what if, for just a moment, you were to consider your outlay on Federal sales as an investment, not just an expense?

You’d want to know what gave you a return on your investment… and what didn’t.

Time spent to gather our lessons learned represent the final, full return on our investment. If we don’t do that hot wash, we’re leaving money on the table.

It’s the first calm look at what went well, and how we want to do more of that.

We’ll notice what didn’t work as well as we hoped, and how it could be better.

And be honest about the stuff we’re just not going to do again.

How do you do a hot wash?

And who should be involved? And what do you cover? Do you need a facilitator?

So glad you asked!  View the quick hot wash checklist below then Download the Strategy Guide or On-Demand Webinar