Hollow Wins and Task Order Success

Lack of success, in addition to a lack of discipline and preparation, often compounds to create organizational fatigue around task order vehicles. Teams that are stretched thin and using cumbersome, antiquated tools and processes begin to view the volume and speed of task orders as something intimidating. This is not a BD team failure, it is an organizational failure and a by-product of teams lacking clear guidance on priorities. This growing frustration makes it easy to become dismissive and fall into a reactionary state.

Within the broader Information Technology and Professional Services market, task order vehicles represent a reliable source of recompeted work. In combination with offering the Government a streamlined alternative to traditional procurement, this creates a procurement method that rewards proactive influencing and shaping, which directly puts reactive companies at a disadvantage. When contractors become dismissive due to internal struggles, they not only become vulnerable to more aggressive contractors actively looking to steal incumbent work, but more importantly they put the opportunity to build valuable past performance at risk.

For contractors operating within markets with an established preference for task order competitions, this is not just revenue at risk, it is the growth potential of key accounts. When Government entities commit to vehicles, the immediate and real cost of failing to adjust is losing access to those wins. Unlike the commercial market, where revenue and customer intimacy are less fickle, Federal contracting places a premium on building a brand based on the work that has been won and who it has been won with. Over time, those wins become more important than capability statements or sales pitches.

This makes the progression toward task order complacency a very real danger to sustained revenue, customer, and branding growth. Contractors frustrated with task orders who lack the reinforcement of a disciplined process for prioritization face an uphill battle to win the work necessary to support their strategy. This tends to lead to hollow wins. They offer revenue, but they are wins that only pull the contractor further, off course.

Contractors without a clear strategy to actively fight against this kind of complacency are in danger of far more punitive outcomes than simply failing to leverage their prime positions. The real threat is never knowing about, or being forced into rushed proposals for, important work. The very work that builds a foundation for success by developing the past performance and branding that supports a deliberate and sustainable strategic direction.

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