FedSubK Feature: Now What? My Offer was Excluded from Further Consideration
Updated: Dec 11, 2024
Often small businesses face several conundrums when they are on the receiving end of a notice of elimination from the competitive range and then faced with a decision on when to receive a debriefing or, if necessary, to protest. From the inside, as a Contracting Officer, I didn’t ever fully understand the concern over taking a debriefing and contemplating a protest. I worried about getting a protest because it can derail a contract for months, but I never understood the concern from the side of the business.
Before getting into what I’ve learned since becoming a consultant, let’s talk about debriefings a little bit. If you’ve never been through the debriefing process, or even if you have but haven’t felt you’ve received the information you needed, here Is a run-down of why asking for the debriefing at any stage of the process (pre-award elimination or post-award) is a good thing.
Why did I receive notice that my proposal has been excluded prior to the contract award?
The RFP will state when the Government plans to establish a competitive range for the purposes of a more efficient evaluation. A competitive range determination and preaward notification of exclusion of the proposal from further consideration is made when the Government believes that there is a clear delineation between proposals that have a chance of receiving contract award and those that don’t. When this determination is made, it is done so a few reasons:
- Efficiency in the process for the Government to negotiate with a smaller sub-set of offerors most likely to provide the best value to the Government.
- To minimize further costs for offerors with no chance of contract award.
The notification will offer the opportunity to request a debriefing within 3 calendar days of receipt of the notice. Or you may opt to take a post award debriefing instead. If you don’t make this request in a timely manner, the Government is not required to provide a debriefing (pre or post award).
Why should I want a debriefing if I’ve already lost the contract?
A debriefing is where you can find out how the Government viewed your proposal and find out how to improve on that perception for the next time you propose to that agency or another.
Should I ask for a debriefing?
The answer here is always going to be YES. Even if you receive a written debriefing abstract with your notification letter, ask to talk to the Contracting Officer via a debriefing request. The question is when.
If I receive a preaward notification, when should I ask to be debriefed, preaward or post award?
It depends. A few things to consider are:
- The Government can refuse a preaward debriefing when requested but must make every effort to provide a debriefing as soon as practicable. In any event, it must be provided no later than when post award debriefings are held.
- If a company does not take the offer of a preaward debriefing, it may be too late to bring up a known issue that is then later, at time of the post award debriefing, untimely to protest.
- A preaward debriefing does not include the same level of detail in terms of trade off decisions related to your proposal and the winning proposal because that information is not yet available. At minimum, preaward debriefings include:
- The agency’s evaluation of significant elements in the offeror’s proposal.
- A summary of the rationale for eliminating the offeror from the competition.
- Reasonable responses to relevant questions about whether source selection procedures contained in the solicitation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were followed in the process of eliminating the offeror from the competition.
- Preaward debriefings do not disclose the--
- Number of offerors.
- Identity of other offerors.
- Content of other offerors’ proposals.
- Ranking of other offerors.
- Evaluation of other offerors.
What information is available to me as part of a post award debriefing?
A post award debriefing provides information that is beneficial to seeing the competition landscape for the contract. At a minimum, the post award debriefing includes:
- The Government’s evaluation of the significant weaknesses or deficiencies in the offeror’s proposal, if applicable.
- The overall evaluated cost or price (including unit prices) and technical rating, if applicable, of the successful offeror and the debriefed offeror, and past performance information on the debriefed offeror.
- The overall ranking of all offerors, when any ranking was developed by the agency during the source selection.
- A summary of the rationale for award.
- For acquisitions of commercial products, the make and model of the product to be delivered by the successful offeror.
- Reasonable responses to relevant questions about whether source selection procedures contained in the solicitation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were followed.
You can see that it’s significantly more info. Waiting for it and then protesting exclusion from the competitive range on grounds of something you knew at the time of exclusion will most likely render your protest untimely.
What types of info should I not expect to get in a preaward or post award debriefing?
Under no circumstances will debriefings include:
- Point-by-point comparisons of the debriefed offeror’s proposal with those of other offerors
- Information prohibited from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act ( 5 U.S.C.552) including-
- Trade secrets.
- Privileged or confidential manufacturing processes and techniques.
- Commercial and financial information that is privileged or confidential, including cost breakdowns, profit, indirect cost rates, and similar information.
- The names of individuals providing reference information about an offeror’s past performance.
Can and should I protest being excluded from the competitive range?
This is more complicated, based on things I’ve learned since becoming a consultant. There is a perception that if a business protests, a CO/KO or agency might hold a grudge. It doesn’t happen (I know, I’ve never seen it in over 35+ years). But there is a real fear among small businesses that a protest isn’t worth the risk of being labeled as a troublemaker or ruining an existing relationship with an agency or its personnel.
Example in point, last year a client of mine received notice they had been eliminated from the competitive range. In the notice, the CO/KO provided its rationale for removal. The client requested a pre-award debriefing from the CO/KO the same day. The client was interested in the other two pieces of info that, at a minimum, they were entitled to under FAR 15.505(e) as part of a pre-award debriefing:
- the agency's evaluation of significant elements in the offeror's proposal, and
- reasonable responses to relevant questions about whether source selection procedures contained in the solicitation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were followed in the process of eliminating the offeror from the competitive range.
The CO/KO's response to the client’s request was that the request for a preaward debriefing was noted but that they had not made an award and were still in source selection. Well, duh! So, now what? That’s not very compelling.
The client sent a follow up outlining that:
- It had made a timely request within 3 days of receipt of notice of its exclusion (FAR 15.505(a)(1)),
- It had not requested a delayed pre-award debriefing (FAR 15.505(a)(2)), and
- The Contracting Officer had not provided a compelling reason to refuse the request in its notice of exclusion or its response to the pre-award debriefing request (FAR 15.505(b)).
The response the client received from the agency? Crickets. Even with follow up emails every two weeks.
Four months later, after award had been made, the agency provided a letter and attachment titled "Preaward Debriefing" AND the info provided was limited to what was allowed under FAR 15.505(e) for a pre-award debriefing. Disappointing at best.
Did the client have a legitimate complaint? Likely. Particularly because the debriefing disclosed a measure used by the agency that was not disclosed in the RFP evaluation criteria and was indicated as part of the basis for its elimination.
Did the client do anything about it? It thought about it but wrestled with how a complaint or protest might impact their current work relationships on other projects with the same CO/KO as well as future opportunities. The client ultimately made a business decision to preserve the existing business relationship, accept the debriefing provided, and move on. And this happens more often than you'd think.
What should you walk away from a debriefing understanding?
You should walk away with and understanding of places in your proposal where you missed the mark and can improve your next proposal, even when not with the same agency. Capturing debriefing feedback is important and doing your own "hot wash" after a debriefing is even more important. Don't make the same mistakes twice! Update your proposal team review checklists with your findings after each debrief.
While you may weigh existing work with the same agency, existing relationships, etc., in the matter of the timing of your request (and potential protest), know that from the CO/KO perspective inside, they don't take debriefing requests and protests personally. They aren't allowed to view your business less favorably on future proposals.
What's happens next depends on YOU. Only YOU can determine the best time to request a debriefing when eliminated from the competitive range, particularly if there is the potential of a protestable issue. And only YOU can mitigate proposal writing mistakes from occurring again and improve your proposal writing and review processes. And learning from those mistakes should be an expected part of the proposal life cycle on our way to that winning proposal.
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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.
