To the surprise of many, purchasing decisions are made the same in both the federal and commercial markets. In the commercial sector, end users generally decide on the product or service that best meets their needs. Those in administrative positions really don’t have the hands on knowledge to make such decisions. On the other hand, administrative personnel can certainly make purchasing decisions on products such as photocopy paper, office supplies or the like.

Purchasing decisions are made in much the same way in the federal government. End users (engineers, scientists, managers) make the purchasing decisions for complex products and services. End users and their contracting colleagues often make the purchasing decisions together for less complex products (such as tools and industrial supplies). In the immediately foregoing instance, the federal end user would specify his needs and the contracting division would assist in finding and selecting the supplier. Lastly, contracting officers and contracting specialists usually buy commodities in instances in which the product’s features and benefits are not a factor in the purchasing decision.

You ask how the foregoing affects your company’s sales approach? Your company’s federal sales staff must locate and aggressively sell the end user on your company’s products or services. It is relatively easy to locate contact information for a particular federal agency’s contracting division. You can obtain information about a government agency’s contracting staff by going to http://www.firstgov.gov/.

Let’s assume you have obtained the necessary contact information and your sales staff is prepared to make its sales calls. Although a contracting officer or specialist may initially be helpful in locating end users, you will more often find that they are reluctant to do so because their end users complain about the volume of sales calls received. As a result, your sales staff is going to have to do additional research to locate the proper contacts. End user contact data has to be culled from the Internet, printed telephone directories and agency organizational charts. Be prepared to use the telephone to contact the public information office located within each federal agency. Many of our customers and readers have found that business development products offered by Fedmarket.com and others can ease the pain of finding end users.