How do I win more federal contracts?

How can I win more federal proposals?

Winning federal contracts takes a great deal of preparation, patience and perseverance. It is crucial to have the best intelligence about an agency and upcoming opportunities and to know the competitive environment thoroughly, so you have a good sense of how you are different and which are the best deals to pursue. This requires spending a great deal time on relationships and information gathering. Here is what winners do before they bid.

How do I find more federal contracts to bid on?

Live agency events, OSBDUs and agency forecasts are the great ways to learn about upcoming purchases. Once you have an idea that an agency is planning to buy something, you can use that information to ask for a meeting with an agency staff person connected to the business or a large business prime that might need you on the team. Check the SAM.gov to find what contracts are expiring in 12 months, chances are that in 6 to 9 months there will be an RFP on that requirement that looks a great deal like the last RFP. Use your procurement databases to find expiring contracts and govern yourself accordingly to get ready for the re-bids.

How do I get a federal buyer to return my call?

Feds are like the rest of us—over extended with no time to suffer fools with a drab PowerPoint pitch. You must give them a reason to meet with you—and it must be about their needs, not your pipeline. All it really takes is a little confidence. That confidence comes with being prepared to talk the customer’s language and offer to help them solve their real problems. That takes research and a process. What ARE their problems? What is their current setup, and what is it that needs fixing? Are they strapped budgetarily? Are they under sudden or pressing orders from above? Are they in a time crunch? Is there a problematic inter-agency issue? Is the problem (systems interoperability, quality control, or what)?

How can I get a federal agency to try out my company?

If you decided to hire someone to renovate your kitchen or do your taxes, would you choose someone based on a cold call or a random email? Probably not. Government buyers are human beings just like us and they prefer to buy from people that they know. That is why face to face meetings (or if you must phone meetings) are the most important way for you to build up your business pipeline. Use these meetings to learn more about upcoming opportunities and shape them to your advantage.

How can I get a meeting with a federal buyer?

Working up to the meeting is a gradual process of getting your name known and associated with the buyer’s needs. Successful federal marketing is long game. Think about where the buyer goes for information. Do they have professional or trade organizations that they frequent? What social media do they use? According to Mark Amtower, there are 2.2 million federal employees on LinkedIn. How can you get your name into their feed? Industry Days are boring, but they are a way to get your capability statement into a target agency. Similarly, OSBDUs and contracting officers are tasked with making sure more small businesses get more business. Most all will answer the phone, and the best will give you information about planned procurements.

How long does it take to win my first federal contract?

Federal contracting is a great way to create a sustainable business, but the barriers to entry to the market take time to overcome. Your market strategy must allow time to make buyers and large business partners aware of what you offer and then convince them that they should use you. You will have to take time to research the marketplace to select a few target agencies and then find the opportunities to investigate and pursue. After start-up, don't plan to win anything for the first six months; it could take you 2 years to really get your backlog built up so you can quit your day job and go full time on your contracting business.

Should I get on the GSA schedule?

Sixty percent (60%) of the vendors on the GSA schedule have not won a single dollar from their contract. Before you expend the time, trouble and expense to get a GSA contract, make sure you have accessed market research to check that your agency buys what you sell through the GSA. This information is readily accessible through free databases like USASpending.gov or proprietary databases like GovWin, GovTribe, Bloomberg or EzGovOpps.

Will I win more with a WOSB / 8a / HUBZone certification?

No socio-economic or size category is a free ticket to winning contracts. The SBA (Small Business Administration) has negotiated with each agency of the federal government to set goals as to how they will utilize small and disadvantaged businesses. These are just goals, and the government will always choose a vendor to deliver the product or service that represents best deal for them. Winning contractors do not lead with their set-asides, they lead with their value offering.

Why do federal agencies go back to the same contractors over and over?

The federal government is risk averse. Feds are much more interested in avoiding mess-ups than cutting edge innovation or creativity. To win government contracts you must convince the buyer that you can meet their requirements (as stated in the RFP plus those that are implied) and not cause trouble. That is why they buy from people they have worked from before. Even if they are not the most innovative, they know what they can do and that they will not cause embarrassment.

How can I write a winning federal proposal?

The most important part of a winning proposal is to understand the buyer's needs, pain points and what they consider valuable. Getting this kind of information requires time to network and meet buyers to explain how your firm is uniquely suited to provide value. You must have a solution that is customized to meet those needs and your proposal must clearly explain how you will solve their problem.

How do I know if this federal contract is wired?

On hotly-contested opportunities, the rumor mill will always produce the same two news flashes:

· The procurement is wired. The incumbent can’t lose.

· The procurement is up for grabs. The agency hates the incumbent.

So-called “confirmation bias” enters the picture when you believe what you want to hear. The wise bidder, of course, shrugs off rumors and goes digging for the facts.

If this is an important bid for your company, you will have attended the pre-proposal conferences, studied the Draft RFP and the vendor Q&As from it, and scrutinized the current (incumbent) contract. You will have spoken with current or former project personnel. You’ll have checked job websites to see who’s hiring which kinds of people. You’ll find out if the incumbent has already sewn up deals with the best subs. You will have read news stories and trade-press articles.

Finally, when the RFP arrives, take an honest look and decide if it appears to be overly restrictive. You can never be 100% sure, but if you really, really need to be on this contract no matter what, you can try joining another bidder as a sub.

Is GovWin (or Bloomberg, EzGovOpps, GovTribe) worth the cost?

To be successful in your pursuit of federal contracts, you must have access to market research data about upcoming opportunities. Nearly all government purchases are archived and tracked in databases that are available to the public. –You can either put in some time to access and sort through these data using the freebies (SAM.gov or USAspending.gov) or you can pay the money and let slick databases like GovWin, Bloomberg or GovTribe wrap up the same data for you in an easy-to-digest format. If you are in the contracting business and you are not using these data – one way or another - to get in front of procurements, you are wasting time and resources chasing low win probability opportunities.