Not every customer request looks like a contract change.
Sometimes it looks like teamwork.
Sometimes it looks like responsiveness.
Sometimes it looks like being a good contractor.
And sometimes, it becomes unpaid work.
In this episode of The GovCon Show, Tim Magnusson breaks down one of the most common ways government contractors lose margin: informal customer direction that turns into unpriced work.
A quick email.
An extra meeting.
One more data pull.
A revised report format.
A little added support “until the modification catches up.”
Individually, these requests may look harmless. But under fixed-price work, performance-based contracts, or poorly controlled execution environments, small informal requests can stack into real cost, schedule, subcontract, and margin problems.
The issue is not that contractors should stop supporting their customers. That would be stupid. The issue is that “support the customer” cannot mean “perform first and figure out the contract later.”
This episode explains why customer direction must be recognized, reviewed, documented, priced, and controlled before helpfulness turns into margin leakage. Tim walks through change-recognition triggers, authority issues, subcontractor impacts, documentation failures, and the difference between being responsive and being commercially reckless.
The hard truth: a happy customer is not the same thing as a healthy contract.
If your team cannot tell the difference between customer service and changed work, you do not have customer intimacy. You have a margin leak with a good attitude.
Run the Fixed-Price Conversion Risk Assessment at GovConAdvisoryGroup.com.
Not every customer request looks like a contract change.
Sometimes it looks like teamwork.
Sometimes it looks like responsiveness.
Sometimes it looks like being a good contractor.
And sometimes, it becomes unpaid work.
In this episode of The GovCon Show, Tim Magnusson breaks down one of the most common ways government contractors lose margin: informal customer direction that turns into unpriced work.
A quick email.
An extra meeting.
One more data pull.
A revised report format.
A little added support “until the modification catches up.”
Individually, these requests may look harmless. But under fixed-price work, performance-based contracts, or poorly controlled execution environments, small informal requests can stack into real cost, schedule, subcontract, and margin problems.
The issue is not that contractors should stop supporting their customers. That would be stupid. The issue is that “support the customer” cannot mean “perform first and figure out the contract later.”
This episode explains why customer direction must be recognized, reviewed, documented, priced, and controlled before helpfulness turns into margin leakage. Tim walks through change-recognition triggers, authority issues, subcontractor impacts, documentation failures, and the difference between being responsive and being commercially reckless.
The hard truth: a happy customer is not the same thing as a healthy contract.
If your team cannot tell the difference between customer service and changed work, you do not have customer intimacy. You have a margin leak with a good attitude.
Run the Fixed-Price Conversion Risk Assessment at GovConAdvisoryGroup.com.
What is The GovCon Show?
Approved for Public Release - But Just Barely.
A Clearance is not required.
Therapy for the overworked, over-regulated, and underappreciated.
This is not a lecture.
This is not a webinar.
And it’s definitely not the NPR of government contracting.
This is the show where contracting professionals say the quiet part out loud.
We break down the reality behind federal contracting:
the pressure,
the responsibility,
the decisions that actually matter
and the absurdity that comes with all of it.
From bad SOWs and rogue FAR clauses to CPSR panic attacks and procurement files that don’t tell the story they should… nothing is off-limits.
Whether you’re new to the game or have been doing this for 20+ years, you already know:
This isn’t just paperwork.
This is executing federal law in real time.
And sometimes… it’s chaos.
We’ve seen it all and we talk about it.
Honestly!
With a little sarcasm, and a whole lot of truth.
And just enough attitude to keep it real.
No filters. No fluff.
Just real conversations from the front lines of government contracting.