Selling to the Federal Government seems daunting and for most people even knowing where to being is a massive challenge. Once you get in and develop a marketing plan, piece by piece things start to come together and the federal government then becomes like working with any large corporation.
The reality is that people want to do business with people they know. Federal employees must follow FAR (Federal Acquisitions Regulations) in their purchasing however they also need confidence that the services they are acquiring will meet their mission goals. This gives federal employees the ability to weigh past performance enough to go with firms they have a track record with.
There are sources such as sam.gov where you can lookup awarded contracts and back into the contracting officers that awarded those contracts. This is a good way to build relationships and increase their confidence that you will be able to perform future work for their agency. Additionally, these contractors will sometimes have smaller projects they can award to you to “try you out”. Only a small percentage of available contracts are posted on sam.gov, often sam.gov as a procurement avenue is reserved for needs that the federal government does not already have a vendor in mind for the procurement.
SBA Certifications also can help you by gaining introductions through letters of introduction by SBA Business Development Specialists. Federal procurement officers are more likely to respond to other federal employees than to outside businesses seeking to solicit them. Through meetings obtained from this manner often a procurement officer will tell you about a potential for a sole source or direct award contract or a set-aside contract that applies to your specific certification.
Many firms start with subcontracting before they become prime contractors. Generally this is advisable to all SBA certification holders except for 8(a) firms who should focus on prime contracts because 8(a) firms are only permitted to be in the 8(a) program for 9 years while the other certifications can be maintained and therefore are evergreen.
Once a firm makes contacts within an agency, they can then network within that agency, learn the lingo, unique needs of that agency and better position themselves for making the jump into federal contracting.
A GSA Schedule can be an effect way of breaking into the federal government. There are some business requirements such as years in business and being able to provide several references to obtain a contract. The GSA pre-vets your firm and this adds confidence to federal buyers, it also adds visibility, and the ability to bid on contracts only GSA contract holders can bid on through GSA-ebuy. A GSA Schedule also provides your firm with a government-wide contract so when you find an interested federal buyer you don’t get the “I would love to buy from you but... I have no FAR compliant way of doing so…”
Every day firms find procurements that are a good match for their firm through sam.gov. Monitoring sam.gov for opportunities for your firm to bid on should be an important part of any federal sales break- in strategy.
Your firm needs to begin by getting the targets down to approximately three agencies. From there once you begin getting to know those agencies ideally you get it down to one. Your geographical service area and capabilities should match the needs of this agency. By focusing on this one agency, you will learn who the key decision makers are for your goods and services, what things matter most to an agency to tailor your offerings as well as key terminology and what role you can play in carving out a niche for your firm.
Being vigilant in your communication with contracting officers about your performance on a contract is critical to achieving an “excellent” performance evaluation. Below is a scale as to how your performance will be graded by federal agencies. A “good” performance evaluation is the minimum level a firm should achieve if it hopes to continue working with the government. “Excellent” is how you build your business.
From conversations we have had with contracting officers, all things being equal a firm with an “excellent” rating can charge as much as 7% more and still be awarded the contract over a firm with a “good” rating. Therefore, know that the extra effort you put in today to ensure the “excellent” rating will come back as increased profits down the road.
| Grade | Quality Product/Service | Cost Control | Timeless of Performance | Business Relations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (0) Zero | Nonconformance s of comprises the achievement of contract requirements, despite use of Agency resources | Cost issues comprising performance of contract requirements | Delays are comprising the achievement of contract requirements, Despite the use of Agency resources. | Response to inquiries, technical/servic es/administrativ e issues is not effective and responsive |
| (1) Unacceptable | Nonconformance s require major Agency resources to ensure achievement of contract requirements | Cost issues require major Agency resources to ensure achievement of contract requirements | Delays are comprising the achievement of contract requirements, Despite use of Agency resources | Response to inquiries, technical/servic e/administrativ e issues is marginally effective and responsive |
| (2) Poor | Nonconformance require minor Agency resources to ensure achievement of contract requirements | Cost issues require minor Agency resource to ensure achievement of contract requirements | Delays require minor Agency resources to ensure achievement of contract requirements | Responses to inquiries, technical/servic e/administrativ e issues are somewhat effective and responsive |
| (3) Acceptable | Nonconformance do not impact achievement of contact requirements | Cost issues do not impact achievement of contract requirements | Delays do not impact achievement of contract requirements | Responses to inquiries, technical/servic e/administrativ e issues are usually effective and responsive |
| (4) Good | There are no quality problems | There are no cost issues | There are not delays | Responses to inquiries, technical/servic e/administrativ e issues are effective and responsive |
| (5) Excellent | The contractor has demonstrated an exceptional performance level in some or all the above categories | |||
Now it is time to grow your firm into other areas. It is time to focus on GWACs (Government-wide Acquisition Contracts), IDIQs (Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Contracts), BPAs (Blanket Purchase Agreements). These contracting vehicles gain your firm access to large buckets of money and a finite number of vendors. These contracts also help your firm to break into other federal agencies that will order from these contracting vehicles and grow your business.
Firms with SBA Certification at this point should be moving from Sole Source Contracts to Set-aside Contracts. It is true that Sole Source Contacts are non-competitive, however Set-aside contracts are generally much larger and still have modest competition. So, firms that are trying to increase their sales will make this shift.
If your firm is able to execute on this marketing plan you should be able to become a large federal contractor in approximately 4 years’ time.
