The Capability Statement for Federal Government contracting is a very specific document which needs to be formulated within a very stringent framework. When submitting a bid for a Federal Government contract or sales opportunity, the Capability Statement is the most critical component of the process.

 

In my previous experience in developing Capabilities Statements for these types of Federal contracting opportunities, the most important aspect to consider is the length of the document.  An important consideration when drafting this type of document for your respective business, if your draft is longer than two pages it will be disregarded.

 

The Capabilities Statement for a Federal, State, or U.S. Military contracting opportunity can be a maximum of two pages. Most of the government or military contracting officers that have dealt with businesses I have previously worked with, have a preference that the document be one page in length.

 

Some of those same contracting officials have indicated that a double sided document with the Capabilities information on the front side. The product names and code numbers as well as the NAICs codes, SIC codes, and CAGE code for your company would be on the reverse side as an acceptable format.

 

The one to two page length requirements can be particularly problematic when you must also format the document to include specific information which is broken down into sections. The group, TargetGov, has a very good website and excellent training webinars on this subject, I participated in a webinar they hosted back in 2009.  Their site is www.targetgov.com and it is a great reference point.

 

The five sections that are customarily expected for an acceptably formatted Capability Statement are as follows:

1. Core Competencies
2. Past Performance
3. Differentiators
4. Corporate Data
5. Contact Information

 

The Core Competencies section is essentially answering two questions “Who are you?” and “What do you do?” and in order to fit with the other sections, it allows only 2 -3 sentences to provide those answers.

 

The Past Performance section is a source of some disagreement in my experience with the document. The contracting people that have dealt with companies I have worked with in the past, tend to only want to see this section included in the document if the experience applies directly to the contracting opportunity.

 

For example, your company provides electrical lighting equipment and your past performance is working with hotel chains.  Now you are bidding to supply lighting equipment to military bases. I would not mention your work with the hotel chains in the past performance section. I would only mention work done with the government or military.

 

It has to be very specific past experience or references that directly correlate to the contracting opportunity to be acceptable for mention in this section of the document. In my experience, the contracting officer prefers to have the section read as a reference list for an employment opportunity: contact name, project name, company name, phone, e-mail, and website.

 

Now the question I have been asked in the past, “If I do not have specific experience with the contracting opportunity, what do I write?”  My answer is that if you do not have specific past experience, then I would eliminate the past performance section entirely. The benefit to doing that is you have more space on the page to expand on the other sections to convince them of your capability to do the work required and exceed their expectations.

 

In my opinion, having developed capabilities statements in the past, the Differentiators section is the most difficult section to write. This is due to a few factors:  the type of product being marketed, gaining consensus on what factors separate your business from the competition, and compelling the contracting officer in two or three sentences.

 

For instance, if you are marketing extension cords to the government and your competitor is also, what is the difference? You both market and sell extension cords. In those cases you should use the Differentiators section to point out that your distribution center is closer in proximity to the government agency that needs the product. Therefore, you can save them money on shipping, get the product delivered faster, and with shorter lead times.

 

That is one example, but it should focus on some point of difference between your business and your competition. In the event that several points of difference exist, then it is critical to gain consensus among your team on which factor is the strongest given the specific opportunity.

 

In my experience, the most important section of the document is the Core Competencies section. This is where my prior blog posts on Mission Statements and Vision Statements will really help your cause. Those two statements are used most frequently when developing this section of the capabilities statement for federal or state government contracting bid opportunities.

 

The Core Competencies section must summarize, in a couple of sentences, the core values of your company. It is critically important that all the words are carefully chosen and that everyone is comfortable with this section before proceeding.

 

The Capabilities Statement must be unique to each contracting opportunity it cannot be a template or boiler plate type document. Each time your business submits for a government contracting bid, the capabilities statement must be unique to that potential opportunity. It is an important document that if developed correctly, can bring new opportunities in government contracting to your small business.