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Federal Sales Training
- Federal Sales 101: Winning Government Business
Fedmarket's most popular course, eight-years in the running. Whether you are new to the marketplace or a seasoned veteran this class will jump start your sales endeavors. - Webinar: Selling to the Government from Your Own Backyard
Take 90-minutes and walk away with new approaches to selling to the federal marketplace locally. - Teach Your Onsite Contract Employees to Sell and Win!
A seminar for Primes who want to keep their customers. . - DCAA Audit Workshop
DCAA audits are a fact of life for Federal Government contractors, be prepared .
Proposals
- Proposal Framework Services
RFP-specific proposal artifacts to give clear direction to your proposal effort.
Articles
- Closing a Sale
The manner in which a federal purchase is completed depends on the size of the transaction. Credit card buys under $2,500 can be single sourced by the end user and can be transacted without the contracting officer's involvement... - More Selling Services versus Products
In the products market, end users often are familiar with the products they are buying... - Searching for Sales Opportunities
Products, services, and technology-based solutions are sold through relationships in both the commercial and federal sectors... - When the Sale Takes Place
Almost all newcomers to the federal market make the mistake of thinking that a sales opportunity arises when a request for a proposal or bid is published. In reality by the time a bid is published, the sale has probably already been made... - Become an Incumbent Contractor and Get Paid to Sell
In a previous installment we discussed the need for direct sales and using best value to win a federal contract. Once you make a federal sale, you can use your company's stellar performance on a federal project to leverage more sales... - Are Federal Bids Wired?
A common perception about federal public bids is that they are "wired," implying that the bid is set up or rigged to favor a particular company... - Pre-selling and Competition
In buying services and solutions federal buyers need to meet with vendors to determine the intangible aspects of what they are buying including feature, benefit, and risks... - Public Bids as a Closing Procedure
Why would the federal government select a public bid as the closing procedure of choice given the horrendous lead time and cost involved? Federal contracting officers do their very best to avoid them... - Integration of Sales and Proposal Writing
Our last installment discussed the concrete steps that should be taken to minimize haphazard and disjointed efforts to write federal proposals... - Don't Waste Your Precious Proposal Resources
Your most precious proposal resource is your technical staff. Their morale and attitude is critical to contract performance and the production of high-quality proposals. Don't waste this resource by losing proposals... - Save Money and Time with Proposal Templates
If a company wants to win a bid opportunity, the proposal it submits in response to a federal Request for Proposal (RFP) must be unique... - Templates and Federal Proposal Writing
Templates can play an important role in federal proposal writing. If a company wants to win a bid opportunity, the proposal it submits in response to a federal Request for Proposal (RFP) must be unique... - How to Write Losing or Unsuccessful Proposals
How to write losing proposals is not a particularly positive topic to discuss. However, many federal contractors seem quite adept at preparing such proposals so the discussion is most likely a worthwhile one... - GSA Schedule Competition in Real Life
For political reasons the federal government takes the position that competition for federal contracts is 'full and open"... - GSA: It's All in the Details
GSA Schedule solicitations are unique in that they are always open and a vendor may submit a proposal at any time. Normally, federal solicitations for products and services have a closing date for proposal submittal... - The Government Buys Everything
It is now August 2005 and the federal government will be closing its accounting books in September 2005. Your business contacts are just finding out now how much money they have to "use or lose... - Her First Day "On the Sales Firing Line" - Eileen Kent Goes to Washington
On my very first day alone selling to the government in Washington, DC, I took a Metro Train to the L’Enfant Plaza stop... - Is Selling to the Feds Worth the Hassle?
Is it worth doing business with the government? This is a question all of us ask ourselves daily... - When You're On the Sales Firing Line With The Government, Problem Solving Requires Open Communication With Your Client
Many clients and other contacts tell me that they become extremely impatient with the federal government's "hurry up and wait" attitude. For example, a client might receive a call today for a quote due by tomorrow afternoon... - How Can You Kick Out the Incumbent?
Companies with Key Relationships on the Inside Are Winning Government Business. How Can You Kick Out the Incumbent? Understand Your Customers and Solve Their Problems... - GSA Schedule Holders Take Note - GSA Might Compete Against You for Business!
A short time after my company was awarded its GSA schedule contract, I was out in the field visiting an agency client to deliver our products and services... - State and Local Governments Have Their Rules Too!
Although Fedmarket's installments and newsletters tend to focus on the federal government, I would like to take the time to address state and local government business. Many companies have approached me with questions about this marketplace... - Remember Two Simple Concepts and You'll Win Federal Business
1. Follow the Rules The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is the purchasing bible for federal contracting officers and all buying agencies. The rules are very specific about purchasing thresholds and the procedures to be followed... - Selling IT: Agency Focus
In the prior installment on selling IT to governments, we talked about business development, distinguishing "inside" from "outside... - Public Bids as a Source For Bussiness Development Information
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... - Government Contract Awards Data
Contract awards data is the most misunderstood source for business development. It comes from two vastly different sources. Plus, it's sometimes inaccurate, and often untimely and incomplete... - GSA Schedules from the Vendor's Viewpoint
Imagine that you have been doing some aggressive selling at a military base near you. The end-user thinks you're the answer to his prayers and wants to get you onboard quickly to solve a major program problem... - GSA Schedules and the Over $25,000 Market
The over $25,000 market used to be thought of as the "public market", but GSA Schedules have changed that. Now buyers think of the public market as a place to be avoided... - The Guidelines for Winning Public Bids
The success of the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule program and the increased reliance by federal agencies on other Indefinite Quantity Indefinite Duration (IDIQ) contracts have reduced the number of public Requests for Proposals (RFPs... - Sell and Then Write Defensively to Win Government Contracts
Last week's installment discussed the necessity of pre-selling a sales opportunity before it appears as a public bid... - Loss Avoidance as a Sales Tactic
Companies hoping to land large federal sales opportunities quickly discover that bids offered under a public, Request for Proposal (RFP) are often expensive prospects to bid upon... - Writing Winning Proposals
In order to win federal contracts, your company will have to write proposals in response to those Requests for Proposals (RFP's) in which it has an interest. The proposal-writing process is laborious, tiring, and expensive... - Government Contract Vehicles
A "contract vehicle" is a broad term meaning different things to different people. We define the term in its broadest sense -it is a method under which a company may pursue and close a sale... - Comparing the Commercial and Federal Markets
The commercial and federal markets are more similar than some would think. In both the federal and commercial sectors, people buy products and services. Many tend to think of the government as a faceless behemoth... - Selling to Government Cardholders
A number of important changes came out of the federal Procurement Reform Era of the mid 1990s. Perhaps the most significant of these was the emergence of widespread government credit card purchasing... - Pricing Government Bids
Pricing your bid correctly (or not) directly affects two fundamentally important areas of your business: (1) whether you win or lose the bid, and (2) whether you gain profit or suffer loss on the contract... - Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Government Contracts
Overview of the Process The General Service Administration's Federal Supply Service (FSS) operates the federal supply schedule program. The program leverages the purchasing power of the U.S... - Past Performance
Federal, state and local governments have engaged in performance-based contracting for a long time. We've witnessed a dramatic upswing, however, in the last few of years, especially at the federal level... - Minority-Owned Business Contracting
In the prior installment, we talked about women-owned business contracting. This week, we discuss the 8(a) Business Development Program and the Small Disadvantaged Business Certification (SDB) Program... - Record Retention Requirements for Federal Procurement Laws
In the wake of Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and other corporate scandals, corporate requirements and practices are under the microscope. Among the more important issues are those involving record retention... - Become an Incumbent Contractor
Once you make a sale, you can use your company's stellar performance on a federal project to leverage more sales... - Do You Know the Evaluation Committee?
The committees which evaluate federal proposals are comprised of a cast of characters... - Advanced Proposal Writing: Wisely Choosing What to Pursue, Part 2
Companies often fail to understand that while they may have the best product or provide the best services, this means little if their proposals don't win... - The Trend Towards Multiple Award Contracting Escalates
The multiple award contract is becoming a way of life in the federal government. Many large, federal multiple award contracts have been awarded this year; several of them carrying ceilings of more than $1 billion... - Selling in the Federal Marketplace
Up until the actual close of a sale, selling in the federal market is essentially the same as selling in the commercial market... - Squeezing the Procurement Sponge: IDIQ Contracts Limit Competition within the Rules
This in the first in a series of six (6) newsletters about federal Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts and their growing importance in the federal market... - Which Flavors of IDIQs Should Our Company Seek?
The federal government doesn't actually know the number of active IDIQs but rough estimates are that the number exceeds 2,000 and is increasing at an annual rate of approximately 30%... - More on Selecting the Best IDIQ
With thousand of IDIQs out there, developing a sales strategy can be a tangled mess. However, it may not be as challenging as you might have originally thought... - Don't Write Losing Proposals
Don't write losing proposals. Some would say this is a trite and simplistic statement and others would say this is one of the secrets to success in the federal market... - Acronym: IDIQ Contract
Companies new to the federal market often find the alphabet soup of acronyms like IDIQ to be madly confusing. As defined by Wikipedia and shortened here: IDIQ is a contracting acronym meaning Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity...
