What Makes a Great Contract Manager?

After your business wins a contract, the reins go to the project management team, led by a contract manager.

As your business manages existing government contracts and plans to bid for future ones, a contract manager can make or break your entire operation. Contract managers often serve as the linchpin to meeting contract requirements, both during the bidding process itself and after you’ve won the contract.

The contract manager is your go-to person, responsible for running the contract’s daily activities and supervising all players associated with meeting your contract obligations.

What Does a Contract Manager Do?

After your business wins a contract, the reins go to the project management team, led by a manager. The contract manager is your go-to person, responsible for running the contract’s daily activities and supervising all players associated with meeting your contract obligations.

A contract manager’s duties are typically broken down into the following stages:

Planning (Before Bidding on a Contract)

• Evaluating the contract’s risk and value

• Drafting a contract management plan

• Meeting with the procurement officer and building a relationship

Execution

• Manage and optimize your contract performance, collect data, and proactively identify performance issues

• Monitor contract milestones and payments

• Complaint management

Review

• Conduct final performance reviews

• Design reports to be presented to procurement officers

Without a reliable contract manager, the time and effort spent into a successful procurement can quickly come undone. These people play a pivotal role in managing relationships with suppliers and government agencies, helping identify risks and opportunities to ensure optimal contractor performance.

If your business has yet to hire a contract manager, here are the qualities you need to look for when finding one.

Strong Technical Skills

Make no mistake about it, contract managers need an assortment of hard, practical skills to carry out day-to-day contract management duties. These include:

• Strong business sense and knowledge of your organization and its services. Contract managers need to be able to present solutions and ideas on how they would address your business’s contractual obligations and issues.

• Knowledge of how to deal with government agencies and procurement officers.

• Ability to create proposals, although it’s a good idea to have a dedicated proposal writer

• Comprehension of typical operational and financial risks

Interpersonal Skills

While technical knowledge of government contracting and business management are certainly important, a contract manager’s interpersonal skills are just as, if not more, critical.

Outstanding contract managers rely on their interpersonal skills when dealing with employees and agency representatives. A strong ability to build relationships with government agencies that survive under pressure and stressful situation will be a godsend as you approach deadlines or encounter snags.

If your contract delivery has issues, a contract manager should be able to relay the news to agency officers, putting their concerns at ease.

Skills watch out for in this department include:

• Conflict resolution, negotiation, and arbitration smarts

• Strong communication skills

• Ability to stay organized

• Project management skills

• Strong ability to drive change and sustain it.

Bottom line? Government agencies want to know a contract is in the hands of someone capable of running it. You don’t need just any contract manager, you need one who’s skilled and reliable. Contact BizDev Experts to leverage the expertise of their seasoned contract managers.

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