Every year the US federal government will spend roughly 100 billion dollars through competitive IDIQ (Indefinite Duration Indefinite Quantity) contracts. When you add in contracts awarded by State governments and commercial organizations using very similar processes you re looking at 700 billion dollars worth of business.

Getting a slice of that pie depends on how well you manage the contracting project.

This is because IDIQs are essentially empty contract structures which then require a second round of winning task orders. For contracts with the government, this two-step...