FedSubK Feature: Are Capabilities Statements Worth the Effort?
Updated: Jan 6, 2025
I'm about to challenge some assumptions here, and I apologize in advance.
Many GovCon professionals claim that an excellent capabilities statement will attract calls from Federal buyers.
When you hear this, you might think, "A quick way to build relationships with buyers? Great, count me in!" So, you rush around, create a cap statement (maybe paying someone thousands to do it) and begin sending it out to every Government email address you can locate.
Today, let's get real about capabilities statements. And here is the real REAL part -- I was a Contracting Officer and Chief of Contracting for a very long time as a Fed. In the offices I worked in and managed, not once did a capabilities statement prompt a call from a Government Contracting Officer for the purpose of offering a company a contract.
Sure, a Small Business Specialist might call to learn a little more about your company. That's their job. Requirements folks might call as part of early market research. It might get you a micropurchase (read more about those here).
But a Contracting Officer calling your company based solely on a capabilities statement is, frankly, not very likely to happen. If you do get a call it will most likely happen because:
1) the office is in a contingency and emergency buying situation, or
2) the Government needs to scare up companies to make up a competition pool because they are trying to get to a particular company, they can't justify a sole source, and the need to ensure the Rule of Two will be met to justify getting to the competitive pool they want.
That's the truth.
So...should you put the effort in to create a capabilities statement for your business? Read more and decide for yourself. I'm giving you the real insider perspective of how the Government views what GovCon tells you is a must. Decide for yourself after learning more about:
- What information it should contain,
- Who it should be sent to, and
- What to expect from the Government after it is received.
What Information Should Be Included in a Capabilities Statement?
Of course there are the basics:
- Business name (and logo)
- Business address
- Company website URL
- Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) (or NCAGE, or NATO CAGE) code
- Point of contact name and information (email and phone number)
- Primary and secondary NAICS
- Product and Service Code (PSC) and Federal Supply Class (FSC) code
- Business certification logos (i.e., SBA certifications like 8(a), those required for the industry, or affiliation with prominent business associations)
Then there are the things that set your company apart:
- A succinct summary of the products and/or services provided. Don't be overly generic. Think of it as your 1-minute elevator pitch in writing and focus on your value proposition. Company history is fine but keep it very very brief.
- Discriminating characteristics or factors that set your business apart from others in your industry. Don't over-generalize, boast, or overpromise. Make sure you have the receipts to back up claims here. Certifications such as SBA socioeconomic certifications are great but should not be relied upon as an important discriminating factor.
- Names of recent key customers, projects, and/or current contracts, to include project titles, dollar values, and your role (if not the prime). Showcase the depth and breadth of your experience.
Some don'ts I commonly find when reading capabilities statements are:
- Poor use of the real estate available on a single page. Use narrow margins and shorter headers and footers
- Logos and headers that are too big.
- Fonts that are too small.
- Long paragraphs versus short sentences, bullets, or graphics
- Providing information that the Government already has like the title of a NAICS code.
- An over-reliance on SBA certifications or business associations
- Omitting dollar values of contracts or projects
- Summaries that focus too much as company origin and history
- Failing to tailor it to the mission of the agency or the types of products or services they buy
There are a lot of GovCons who can help you prepare a capabilities statement for a price. My advice is open PowerPoint or Canva and create a cheap and eye-catching cap statement yourself in a few hours. Don't pay thousands to have one created for you. If the reason you should save that money is not already apparent, the reason will be clearer as you read on.
Who Should Receive Your Capabilities Statement?
This goes against the advice of most GovCon advisors but...DO NOT send the Contracting Officer your capabilities statement unless one of these two conditions are met:
- They ask for it
- --OR--
- You've done your homework, and you know based on historical purchase data for the procurement office in which the Contracting Officer resides that the agency or office routinely purchases the types of products or services you are trying to sell.
Sending your cap statement to every Contracting Officer whose email you have on the off chance they may be buying what you are selling is a big "No Bueno". While you think you're being proactive with your marketing, what you are really saying to the Contracting Officer is:
1) "I don't understand your role or how the procurement process works, but I'm super excited about the fact I have the email address of a real person who might be able to give me a Federal contract."
- Contracting Officers don't decide WHAT to buy. They decide HOW to buy. The "WHAT" is decided by the Requesting Activity. If you what to market an innovative product or service, instead try to find out who the Requiring Activity points of contact are and send your capabilities statement to that person / group. This gets your business cred directly to the technical experts and, possibly, the end users.
- Contracting Officers use the SBA's Dynamic Business Business Search (DSBS) database and SAM.gov as their authoritative tools for small business information. You are far better off making sure your DSBS and SAM registration reflect your business information correctly than floating a Contracting Officer a cap statement.
- While you are maximizing the information in your DSBS record, be sure to add your website URL AND ensure that it matches what your SAM and DSBS reflect. You don't want your DSBS to say you do IT services but your website to reflect janitorial services. (Use our instruction guide to update your DSBS record.)
2) "Although I didn't do my due diligence to learn more about your office, agency, or buying trends before firing off this capabilities statement, please take your valuable time to open this attachment and provide a response."
- If data "ain't your thang" and you don't want to pay for a tool or someone to do it for you, then you are better off sending your capabilities statement to the cognizant Small Business Specialist or Office of Small Disadvantage Business Utilization (OSDBU) for the procurement office.
- It is the job of Small Business Specialists to:
- Collect information on the pool of eligible small businesses that can support the agency's mission.
- Know who is in that pool and their qualifications.
- Provide input on available small businesses to the Contracting Officer as part of the Project Team during the market research phase.
- Serve as an advisor during the formulation of the Government's acquisition strategy.
- Perform small business outreach on behalf of the agency.
(Psst! If you need to know more about the roles in Federal procurement, check out my blog post "Hate the Game, Not the Players - Know the Roles in Federal Contracting".)
What Should I Expect After Sending My Capabilities Statement to the Government?
This is where it gets real. The true answer? It depends on where the Government is in its procurement cycle and who you send it to. Most of the time, it will sit with no action taken. That's the honest to goodness truth.
Conferences. If you hand a copy of your capabilities statement to someone in person at a conference, the likelihood is that it will sit in a general file that is cleared out periodically to keep it current or end up in the circular file. Only the Small Business Specialist or possibly the Requiring Activity will follow up and then, only if your differentiators make you really standout from the crowd. (Those differentiators are KEY.) Feds are not likely to make a follow up call based on a capabilities statement.
Contracting Officers. If you sent it to a Contracting Officer and they didn't ask for it, don't expect an answer or response. They get a lot of these docs. The email will either go in an email folder for possible later use ONLY if the Contracting Officer knows about upcoming purchases and it's a possible match. They are not required to keep source lists.
- If it is not deleted, it may be forwarded to the Small Business Specialist, OSDBU, or the requirements activity, if the agency makes purchases like what you offer.
- If the agency doesn't buy what you are selling, they likely will not respond, and your cap statement and email will be deleted. Frankly, that's on you for not doing your homework. Don't waste your time or theirs. ALWAYS. DO. YOUR. HOMEWORK.
- The chance of a Contracting Officer passing your email along to other agencies or friends / colleagues that are also buyers are very very low. If anyone tells you this happens, they don't know any Contracting Officers. Nobody has time to worry about another agency's buys.
Requiring Activity. The Project Manager is interested in one thing; can you deliver a quality product on time and within budget. If there is a current acquisition, they can't talk to you. If there isn't, this is your best point of contact to start a conversation about future requirements. If you want your cap statement to grab them, tailor it to them.
Small Business Specialists and OSBDUs. Let's say your cap statement makes it through at its easiest entry point for interest and possible action -- the Small Business Specialist. You still might not hear anything, but your cap statement will get filed because this person is required to keep tabs on their outreach efforts and have a ready list of small business sources not only for the Contracting Officer but for large business primes who are not meeting their goals. You have a chance of achieving a follow up call or meeting with the Small Business Specialist more than the other because of their need to track their own due diligence of tracking small businesses.
What type of info might you get as part of follow up with a Small Business Specialist? They can--
- Talk to you about upcoming acquisitions; they are involved in the forecasting process.
- Talk to you during the acquisition cycle when Contracting Officers and technical Subject Matter Experts or Project Managers can't due to potential conflicts of interest.
- Tell you who the Requiring Activity is and make introductions.
- Answer procurement questions and provide insights into agency buying trends.
- Introduce you to primes with subcontracting plan requirements looking for small business subcontractors.
This builds a relationship with THE internal advocate for small businesses. They get to know your company and IT'S THEIR JOB TO DO IT. Even though they are only advisory in nature, the Contracting Officer must conduct coordination with them on every action over a specific dollar value that is procured, including those set-aside for small business and obtain their concurrence. They are a gatekeeper for small business participation.
Isn't that the person you want to talk to? YES, you do. Because they WILL remember you. They will keep your cap statement. And it is their job to help.
So, after all that...
Are Capabilities Statements Worth the Effort?
Yes, but only when...
- Done without spending tens of thousands on the effort.
- It easily differentiates your company from your competitors.
- Tailored to target agencies and their buying history and trends.
- Sent to the right person at the agency and at the right time.
- YOU follow up to build relationships and market how you can help THEM (not ask for a contract or information).
Capabilities statements are not a check-the-box exercise that is then rapid-fired to all the Government email addresses you have in order to ask for a contract or information. If you use it...
- It must look professional.
- Make it meaningful.
- Be intentional on who receives it.
- Have realistic expectations about the outcomes they can generate.
It's not a MUST to create a capabilities statement. It is only one tool in the marketing tool box. While it may not get you quick wins or call backs, it can be a useful tool to:
- Help you hone your elevator pitch.
- Stick to a script of talking points when talking to Feds.
- Aid in finding and focusing on your business's core capabilities.
- Identify key discriminators that set your business apart from your competitors.
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FedSubK Feature: Be Seen! Why Your SBS Profile is So Important
UPDATED November 2025 to incorporate changes from the SBA Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) to the new SBA Small Business Search (SBS)
I’ve posted on LinkedIn a lot recently about ways to be seen as a little fish in the big pond that is the Federal marketplace. Every GovCon consultant has a take on the best entry points with agencies. My take is there is only one place small businesses MUST put their best foot forward to be quickly and easily seen by Federal buyers for potential opportunities and influence small business set-asides.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) Small Business Search (SBS) is THE PLACE you must be on your A-game.
The Small Business Search (SBS) is a database in which SBA houses information on the current pool of certificated small businesses. Presently, small businesses that do not have certifications or are self-certified, may also create a profile in this database. The SBS is used by contracting officers, small business specialists, large prime contractors, and other small businesses looking for teaming partners to find small businesses that can help meet Federal requirements and identify businesses that can help the Government (or a prime contractor) meet its small business goals. SBS is one of the first--and often only--sources used in market research by agencies to determine the numbers of small businesses able to provide products or services by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code.
You can see why this might be an important place to pay attention to, eh?
Businesses have forgotten about the SBS in the last few years because SAM.gov no longer sends small business registrants directly to SBS at the end of their registration to complete the profile like it used to. I HUGE bummer. Businesses now must wait for their SAM.gov registration to be activated, then they can establish an SBA SBS account, claim their entity record, and fill in their company profile in the SBS system. Federal buyers are looking for detailed information from SBS to use as part of their market research efforts.
SBS isn’t only for market research.
Even more importantly, the SBS shows Federal buyers the status of any pending certification applications for the purpose of determining whether you are eligible to compete for a set-aside action. For example, an Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) can still submit an offer for an WOSB set-aside even with a pending application for certification showing in the SBS. Contracting Officers often use SBS as a source to confirm the socioeconomic certification status and 8(a) program participation along with SAM.gov.
While MySBA Certifications automatically sends socioeconomic certification status to SAM.gov and updates the requisite reps and certs to reflect the correct socioeconomic status, recently it has taken weeks for that migration to occur. WOSBs and EDWOSBs have reported not seeing their correct socioeconomic status reflected in their SAM entity record.
Businesses should always check their SAM entity record to ensure that the proper status is shown within a reasonable time after receipt of an active certification status; usually within 14 business days. If the record is not accurately reflected, you can contact answerdesk@sba.gov or the SBA socioeconomic program under which your business was certified for assistance. If a Contracting Officer says that your SAM record does not reflect the status claimed, ask the Contracting Officer to check SBS for the more accurate information because of these delays.
So now let’s talk about BEING SEEN in SBS and walk through each part of the registration.
Understanding how to maximize the fields in SBS is how you can make the best possible first impression so that Federal buyers want to learn more about YOU!
The Key Words
Often businesses pluck these from thin air and over-generalized based on what they think the Government wants to see. Key words need to reflect and incorporate aspects of your primary NAICS, secondary NAICS, and what you can provide under those NAICS. If you use key words that don’t reflect your primary NAICS, you’ll leave the Government scratching their head about you. They won’t understand the message you’re sending about your company. Be consistent and specific with key words while tying into your NAICS codes in order to leave the best impression. You have 500 characters -- use them wisely.
The Website
Be sure that you include the URL for any website you have. Make it be more than a landing page. It needs to tell your story. It needs to include information about your company, what you sell, past customers, and products or solutions you provide. And most of all, it must be polished. Scrub your site hard for formatting, typos, grammatical errors, etc. Acquisition personnel using the SBS will often quickly click on the site to see just how polished it is. When it looks good, they get the impression you know your stuff and pay attention to details.
The Capabilities Narrative
This is the written equivalent of your elevator pitch. This section should include all the things you’d include in that two-minute speech. Hit hard on what your company specialized in and its core product or service areas. Show the business’s focus and avoid being all over the map by overpromising on the breadth of work the business performs.
Near the end of the capabilities narrative, list any socioeconomic certifications Why not lead with it? Because that certification is only part of your business, and it alone does not get you interest from the Contracting Officer. End with that information so the Contracting Officer can easily see it in a quick query and get your business into their market research counts.
Lastly, identify any government contract vehicle or GSA Schedule your company may hold. If you can catch their eye that you have an existing GSA Schedule or your business participates in the 8(a) program, you’ll get counted and likely get a look in terms of the Contracting Officer wanting to know more. If they need to meet a socioeconomic goal, they can see quickly. You’re helping the Contracting Officer do their job. They LOVE that! (And made another great first impression!)
SBS now also includes a field to add a link to your online capabilities statement. Use it!
“Extras” You Should Never Skip
Performance History
I cannot say this enough…if you history doing work for any Government or quasi-Government entity at any level -- Federal, State, or Local level -- list them! Don’t play the “they’ll see that when I propose” game. Showing performance history—even if it is minimal or commercial and not Government--helps. How? It proves the viability of the business and the size and types of projects you’ve completed. Those goes a long way to determining eligibility of the business based on performance on same / similar work of a same / similar dollar value (“Rule of Two” stuff – you can read more about that here).
Review Your Profile
Go out to the SBS site and use the filters for your NAICS, business name, geographic location, and business types. Make sure your show up and see how your profile measures up to your competitors. Look at their records and see what they included that you haven’t. Use the good ideas of others, but don’t plagiarize. Contracting Officers will see that and that won’t look good for either of you.
Keep Evolving
Your SBS isn’t something that you can just set and forget either. Make reviewing your profile in SBS something you do when you renew your SAM.gov registration every year. If something major changes in your business focus, NAICS, or socioeconomic status, make associated changes in SBS.
What GovCon doesn't always talk about -- The SBS Influence
When doing market research and trying to determine if an acquisition should be set-aside for small businesses, the Government is not only counting about the numbers of small businesses that claim they can do the work under a NAICS code in SBS. They are analyzing your SBS profile to see if your business could be one of the "... two or more responsible small business concerns that are competitive in terms of fair market prices, quality, and delivery" and they have “…a reasonable expectation of obtaining an offer…” from you. (There’s that pesky “Rule of Two” again.)
In other words, based on what they see, could you submit a proposal likely to win? And how does a Contracting Officer determine that? Simply put... the your answers to everything we just covered.
Completing your profile helps tip the market research scales toward a small businesses set-aside and possibly a specific socioeconomic set-aside. If you're all over the map in your SBS narrative, the Government will not consider you viable eligible contractor towards that “Rule of Two” and could possible choose to go another way with their acquisition strategy, away from a small business set-aside. Or worse, they set it aside but remember your name from the market research as one of the businesses that didn’t make their initial market analysis cut.
Influence where you can! SBS is the place where you have a lot of influence!
Have I convinced you to get out there and create or update your SBS profile yet?
While the system is no longer got the word "Dynamic" in the title, don't forget its meaning. Life is dynamic, business is dynamic, and your SBS profile should still be dynamic, too. Get it completed ASAP. You can’t afford not to.
Remember again, SBS IS WHERE FEDERAL BUYERS GO TO FIND SMALL BUSINESSES and where other small businesses go to find teaming partners and subcontractors.
Get out there, GET NOTICED, BE SEEN, and STAY DYNAMIC!
(former title: FedSubK Feature: Be A Dynamic Small Business!)
Ask for the Meet and Greet. Make the Phone Calls.
I sat in on a session yesterday where another GovCon was talking about watching SAM for opportunities. But if you are doing that, you are going to be too late, unfortunately. Small businesses must start ahead of any opportunity announcement and connect with agency personnel early, before the opportunity is announced in order to be known and help shape future acquisition strategies. It got me thinking about my days as a Branch Chief and Chief of Contracting and the small businesses I know that are still flourishing today.
One particular company stands out. They were a new 8(a) firm that asked for a meet and greet. They had no federal work but showed a level of understanding about our mission that made an impression. While our acquisition strategies were in place already for the end of FY run of award, I told them I'd keep them in mind new projects crossed my desk. Every month, without fail, I would get a call or a quick drop in chat from this 8(a) to say hello and briefly inquiry about any possible upcoming projects. During one of the in-person chats about a year after our first meeting, our chief estimator popped his head in my office quickly to apologize for a few late government estimates. He said he was going crazy with end of FY and lack of staff. The 8(a) took the opportunity and said, "We can help with that." While it wasn't ideally the work the 8(a) was looking for, that simple pivot and flexibility, along with the relationship building done to that point, led to a small 8(a) sole source contract for cost estimating support. It was their first federal contract. That small contract quickly turned into a much larger 8(a) sole source contract for the same work that reached its max capacity 18 months earlier than anticipated. That led to 8(a) contracts for environmental the work the company ideally wanted, then graduation from the 8(a) program, and successfully competing on SB set-asides throughout the region and getting their own (successful) GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract.
Ask for the meet and greet. Make the phone calls. This former CO is here to tell you that acquisition personnel and SB Specialists EXPECT to hear from businesses. Large businesses aren't shy about calling (trust me). They may not be able to tell you much, but the relationship building and continual reminder that you know what they are looking for and can fill a niche--even when it's not your first choice of work--is KEY.
Small businesses must start ahead of any opportunity announcement and connect with agency personnel early, before the opportunity is announced in order to be known and help shape future acquisition strategies.
FedSubK Feature: What is Buying In?
"Buying in". Do you know what that is? Let's illustrate it with a little story...
Once upon a time an agency leader🤴 was looking around at things to make 🌟efficient.🌟 They got the idea that every agency should have the same widgets🔅 their agency had.
The agency leader🤴 called up a widget company👩🔧 and said, "We are interested in your widgets. 🔅What kind of discount can you give us?"
The widget company👩🔧 offers a discount 📉 because they know this agency🤴 not only buys for themselves but may buy for other agencies🫅🤴👸 where a highly trusted widget competitor👨🔧 presently has the work.
The widget company👩🔧 was "buying in" -- offering unrealistic discounts📉 that made the price unrealistically low not only for the current effort but also to influence the purchasing decisions on future buys. Then prices usually up 📈 again over time.
Depending on when "buying in" happens there could also be questions related to compliance with the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) and possible other violations.
This is why agency announcements that management has made a deal for "$1 a license" and other such management interference is of concern. 🚨 Management plays the numbers game. I'm not saying numbers aren't important, but let's just say... there is a real reason why management typically does not hold contract signature authority. 😬😉
The Government is supposed to keep things fair and do its due diligence. But it's falling for the oldest trick in the book.
Risk, intent, compliance with statutory requirements, misunderstanding of requirements, and comparable market pricing must be evaluated when the Contracting Officer has reason to believe a proposed price is unrealistically low price. But are they?
If a contract isn't in place, there there is still a need to follow appropriate competition rules before a handshake deal. If a contract is already in place, there are things to consider when new discounts appear to be unrealistic including the risk of continued performance, depending on the type of product or service being purchased.
The Government gets a quick win to lock in a low rate, saving some money now. That's called the short game. Government buyers getting blurry-eyed over unbelieveably low prices and don't do the long-term analysis.
But I'll bet you a dollar the company is playing the long game. They are watching and waiting, getting to know your needs and asking loads of questions. "When do you use my widget most?" "Who buys the most widgets?" "When do you typically buy widgets?" And then as fast as they dropped the price, they raise it again on you when you can't afford to make a change -- like at an end of fiscal year. That's how they get locked in and receive perpetual contracts.
BTW...the fairy tale above is a true story. I've had new politicals and new leadership / commanders trot companies into my office saying "Company ABC here says they want to sell us "widgets" at a huge discount compared to what we're paying or others are paying now."
Well...okay then.
As a Contracting Officer, whether I could even begin to entertain that idea depends on several things. It's not an automatic "yes". You could replace "widgets" with just about any product or service and it's probably happened to a Contracting Officer somewhere. Especially as new Administrations come into Government.
The stories in the news that made me think -- "Huh, are they buying in?" are the Axios story "Anthropic wants to sell Claude to the Government for $1". (https://www.axios.com/pro/tech-policy/2025/08/05/ai-anthropic-government-sale-dollar) and FedScoop story "Federal agencies can buy ChatGPT for $1 through GSA deal" (https://fedscoop.com/openai-chatgpt-enterprise-federal-government-gsa-deal-general-services-administration-anthropic/).
My husband (also a retired Contracting Officer) and I look at each other often during the news now and, based on the reported discount or price alone, we know that company is likely "buying in". That's based on our combined 72 years of Fed experience and our Contracting Officer "Spidey sense" from having been around the block a few times. But these deals just the most recent in a series of deals GSA is making with companies since the new Administration came to town. OneGov is the program GSA is, in my former Contracting Officer opinion, using to tout savings under for the press releases. But it may come back later to be a big mistake. I hope I'm wrong.
Program/Project Managers and Contracting Officers AND the competition to these companies...LEARN about it and WATCH for it. It's on the rise.
(And don't get me started on having to argue with new politicals, leadership, and commanders about why I can't terminate a current contract and then turn around and give the same work to another contractor at their unrealistic lower price.🙄😱 That's a topic for another time.)
The practice of "buying in" is becoming more common now. Learn about it and how to spot it.
