Raymond, you and Lincoln rock!

About small agencies ... I face the same challenge -- even more so, since I changed fields 2-3 years ago and work solo. 16+ years of cumulative experience will assuage most concerns, but I understand that large companies sometimes respect size for its own sake.

Agility. That's what you offer that some more cumbersome agency cannot.

Here's how I pitch myself to clients when they raise similar concerns. Really, that's the only kind of advice I can offer -- showing an example:

When I was a submarine officer at sea, if one of the oxygen generators broke, I could walk aft to the engine room, grab the engineer; and then we'd go forward, wake up the Captain, and have him sign the necessary piece of paper for the chief electrician to get cracking on maintenance. All that might happen in under 3 minutes.

As I was transitioning out of the Navy, I was stationed at a large shore facility -- a base with multiple tenant commands, vessels, buildings, sailors, civilian shipyard workers, and unions. I inherited a parking problem they'd been failing to fix for 5-10 years. Through 6 months of meeting after meeting after meeting, I hammered out a new system for assigning parking passes. Then the unions and the different commanders started bickering about front-row seating. The whole thing fell apart, and I'm assuming they're still working on it several years later.

Bigger isn't always better.

I use similar examples when people ask about my 2-3 years in the domain industry. I just point out that I don't waste time. When the Navy forces you to learn to manage a nuclear power plant in 12 months, mastering the domain industry in 2-3 years is hardly impressive.

This isn't about me. My point is that you have your own examples that you can bring up. Evidence convinces people. Communication is about stories. Find yours!