How to write a capability statement

What it is and how buyers use it

A capability statement is a one page summary of your company built for government buyers and prime supply chain staff. It is not a brochure. It answers a specific set of questions those readers have, in the order they ask them, so they can match you to a requirement or a vendor list.

Small business specialists at agencies collect them and forward them to contracting officers doing market research. Contracting officers attach them to sources sought responses as evidence a small firm exists. Prime liaison officers route them to commodity buyers. In each case the reader is scanning for codes, certifications, and past work that match a need they already have.

That is why format matters. If a reader cannot find your NAICS codes and your CAGE in five seconds, the page goes in the pile.

What goes on the page

The standard layout has become fairly consistent across agencies, and readers expect it. Keep to it.

• Header. Company name, logo, address, website, and one point of contact with a direct phone number and email.
• Core competencies. A short list of what you make or do, in the buyer's words. Machined aluminum and titanium airframe details. Welded steel weldments to military specifications. Anodize and chem film. Name the processes and the materials.
• Differentiators. Two or three specific facts that separate you: equipment envelope, tolerances you hold, quick turn capacity, special process approvals, location near a depot or launch site.
• Past performance. A handful of relevant jobs. Customer, item, and period in words. Government contracts by number if you have them. Prime subcontracts by program if the prime allows it.
• Company data. UEI, CAGE, primary and secondary NAICS codes, size and socioeconomic status, quality certifications, ITAR registration, JCP certification, DIBBS and PIEE registration, and whether you accept government purchase cards.

Put the company data block where a scanning eye lands, usually a column on the right or a band across the bottom. It is the part buyers copy from.

Common errors

• More than one page. Readers stop at the first page anyway.
• Missing CAGE, UEI, or NAICS codes, or codes that do not match SAM.gov.
• Generic language about quality and customer service that could describe any shop.
• No past performance, or past performance so vague it cannot be checked.
• Twenty NAICS codes, which reads as a shop that does not know what it does.
• A PDF made from a scanned image, which cannot be searched or copied.
• An old date, an old certificate, or a contact who has left.
• No mention of ITAR, JCP, or cyber status, which are the first three questions a defense buyer asks.

Tailoring without rewriting

You will send this page in response to sources sought notices, to small business specialists, and to prime buyers. Each reader cares about something slightly different. Keep the skeleton fixed and swap two things: the first line of the core competencies, and the past performance examples.

For a sources sought response, lead with the process and material named in the notice, and put the most similar past job first. For a prime, lead with the certification and the program fit. For a DLA buyer, lead with the federal supply classes and NSNs you have delivered.

Award history tells you what each buyer purchases in your part classes, and that is the best guide to what to put first. See buyer profiles.

Keeping it current

Review the page every time you renew SAM.gov and every time a certificate is issued or renewed. Change the month in the footer. Keep the current version on your website in a place that is easy to find, because buyers who hear your name will look for it there before they email you.