Does this sound familiar? "I do not have time to look at the public bids at FedBizOpps every day because we seldom respond to them unless we have ‘pre-sold’ the opportunity."

Pre-selling is important, yes, critical in fact (we preach it all the time), but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read FedBizOpps. That site -- or our "improved" version of it, FedBizNow -- is an excellent source for business development information.

Basically, it boils down to this: If they bought it once, they will buy it again.

If you can find who buys what you sell, you have that important start in your business development research. Getting to the official buyer -- talking to him or her, asking questions -- can point you to the all-important end-user. You can go to the official buyer listed in the solicitation and begin to discuss who in the agency might be interested in buying what you sell.

Here’s a brief summary of where public bids are announced:

• All over $25,000 federal procurements are announced at FedBizOpps (unless it was a GSA buy).
  
• About 20% of FBO announcements are under $25,000.
  
• $25,000 procurements are often published at "local bid boards" that are both online and offline.
  
• Remaining under $25,000 procurements are not publicly announced.

A few more thoughts:

• Sources sought announcements and requests for information (both of which you can find at FBO), point you to opportunities early in the acquisition process. On occasion a sources sought announcement may be early enough to give you a shot at beating your competitor to the punch. More generally, they can be good pathways to end-users.
  
• Read the solicitation and award announcements with an eye toward subcontracting opportunities. It may be too late for a subcontracting opportunity for the solicitation or award you are reading, but if prime contractors did the work once, they will do it again.
  
• Go beyond the obvious. Read broadly the solicitation notices within your product/service category. They can be enlightening and give you business development direction as well as ideas for new business expansion areas.

In summary, public bid announcements are an underrated source of business development information. And the information flows to your desktop everyday. Take a few minutes and read them, and you may be surprised what you find.