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  • Negotiating GSA Prices
    The General Services Administration (GSA) appears to be placing more emphasis on obtaining the lowest possible price when negotiating GSA schedule contracts...
  • Closing a Sale Part Two
    Companies holding multi-vendor contracts minimize the amount of competition they face since a public bid isn't necessary...
  • Don't Get Caught without a Closer
    Here's an example of how the federal sales game is really played. Let's suppose a federal agency has the money to fund a large information technology project, creating a potential, although as yet unidentified, sales opportunity...
  • More on Closing Federal Sales
    The last installment discussed various ways to close federal sales. Among all closing mechanisms, multi-vendor contracts are becoming the favored way to close federal sales if you are lucky enough to have one...
  • Small Businesses and the Federal Market
    Knowing your customers is the key to sales success. This is true whether you're selling to public or private organizations...
  • Selling Services to Federal Agencies
    Our newsletters repeatedly emphasize the need to establish a relationship with end users when selling in the federal market...
  • More on Defensive Proposals
    In an earlier installment, we defined a defensive proposal as follows: One written not to be eliminated from consideration by the proposal evaluation committee The proposal written with the goal of being the last proposal standing A presentation...
  • Don't Get Stuck as a Subcontractor
    Small businesses need to get their first federal contract to become part of the club of insiders - those companies with contracts - that the federal government favors when it buys products and services...
  • GSA and Most Favored Customer Pricing
    A recent newsletter discussed that the General Service Administration (GSA) has encountered procurement problems and has initiated a "Get It Right" campaign to improve acquisition regulation compliance...
  • GSA Visits Contractor Sites
    GSA will visit you to make sure you're tracking your GSA sales properly. GSA's auditors will also pay close attention to whether you have offered better pricing to the "basis of award group" defined under your GSA Schedule contract...
  • The Eagle Has Landed
    Multiple Award Schedule Contracts (MAS) are master contracts that allow the companies which receive an award of such a contract to compete for task orders over the term of the contract...
  • The Key To Successful Federal Sales
    The most difficult person to find in the federal government is your potential end user. If you do not have a directory of an agency, it is always difficult to get started...
  • When Selling To The Government, You Have to "Dig" For Gold
    "One of the largest mistakes I've seen in the business is that companies just scratch the surface of many agencies and never find a dime's worth of business, " said Richard White, Owner of Wood River Technologies and Fedmarket...
  • GATEKEEPERS - The Sales Rep's Best Friend
    The owners of our companies expect the sales people to be making cold calls that sound professional and direct...
  • Getting Embedded in Government Sales Circle
    One of the keys to success in the government is to develop a strong relationship at an agency. My contention is to take it another step: you need to become not just an insider, but embedded...
  • OMB reports over use of "Name Brands" in Specifications
    Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reports over use of "Name Brands" in Specifications from the Sales Firing Line, Eileen Kent Says, "Surprise, Surprise!"Challenge to Government Contracting Officers: "Don't Use Name Brands in RFPs" A memo was sen...
  • 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...
  • Formula for Government Sales Success Depends On Many Factors, But The Number of "Impressions" Each Week is The Manager's Key
    Business owners are constantly challenged with the issue of what to expect from their government sales executives in terms of time management, goals and actual results...
  • 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...
  • In Government Sales, Don't Believe Everything You're Told or You'll Lose
    The government is made up of influential people - - some of whom make million dollar decisions every day. However, the active word here is that they're "people...
  • More Hot News Puts Private Sector "On the Sales Firing Line"
    It seems that I see more and more headlines that virtually beg you to make the cold call. The government is literally pounding the table asking for your help...
  • Help The Government Solve Problems
    Although the federal government is made up of hundreds of agencies, the few that we seem to hear about in the news are the Department of Homeland Security, the military and the Intelligence Community...
  • FEMA States It is "Ready for Hurricane Season 2006." Are You Ready to Help Them?
    If you haven't visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) web site lately, it has been updated (see http://www.fema.gov/)...
  • Selling IT: Introduction to the Government IT Sector
    Governments at all levels are becoming citizen-centric in delivering services, e.g., developing Internet portals that provide single points of entry for citizens and businesses...
  • Selling IT: Sales and Marketing Basics
    Company managers new to government sales often view governments as bureaucratic bodies from another world, imbued with strange and mysterious procurement rules, rules designed to confuse and even intimidate...
  • Selling IT: Business Development
    In our newsletters, we talk a lot about the importance of advanced knowledge -- knowing about an agency, its people, its nuances and, most importantly, its program goals...
  • Finding and Selling to End-Users in the Government
    In past installments, we talked about finding the "right" agencies, namely the ones that are interested in buying your company's products or services...
  • Selling IT: Teaming to Win Government IT Sales
    Government buyers often look for "complete solutions" off of multiple award schedule contracts, such as the General Service Administration's Federal Supply Schedules (FSS)...
  • Business Development - The Key To Federal Sales
    In an earlier installment we said that you will chase your tail if you lack a laser-like focus in the federal market. Business development is the process used to identify potential buyers (end-users and official buyers) for your product or service...
  • 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 Schedule Teaming
    The General Services Administration (GSA) has become a sales and marketing machine. The thrust of its pitch is that the agency makes things "easy" for everyone,especially government buyers and end-users...
  • Selling Products Directly Using GSA Schedules
    Expensive and complex (for example, technology-based) products are ideal items to sell directly to the federal government. In fact, use your own sales force to make such sales...
  • Think Twice Before Chasing Dollars from New Federal Programs
    Newly emerging federal programs, which seem to be materializing with increasing frequency, include: The War on Terrorism (primarily located within the US Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense) The Reconstruction of Iraq N...
  • GSA Schedules and Sales Costs
    We have previously discussed that a business may have to invest $25,000 to $75,000 (in terms of sales costs) to obtain a GSA Schedule...
  • 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...
  • Small Purchase Government Market Segment
    In this installment we talk about small purchases, defined here as government buys in the $2,500 to $25,000 range. We've touched on this subject in past installments. This time we devote an entire installment to it, and get into a bit more detail...
  • Invitations For Bids
    Publicly-advertised fixed price procurements are made using either a sealed Invitation for Bid (IFB) or a Request for Quote (RFQ)...
  • Publicly-Advertised RFQ Market Segment
    Requests for Quotes (RFQs) Since the advent of major procurement reform, the federal government and selected state and local governments are now using requests for quotes (RFQs) to buy commercial products and services...
  • Publicly-Advertised Negotiated Procurements
    The publicly-advertised negotiated procurement market segment is a new world for companies that have not bid on negotiated procurements using requests for proposal (RFP) procedures. Responding to RFPs is unique for several reasons...
  • 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...
  • Overall Government Contract Evaluation Process - Past Performances
    In selecting winning vendors, federal, state, and local governments have typically looked at past contract performance information as part of their overall evaluation processes...
  • 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...
  • Women-Owned Business Contracting
    Congress has established a 5-percent government-wide goal for awards to women-owned small businesses (WOSBs). Yet year after year, federal agencies fail to meet this goal. In fact, in 2001, the government awarded just 2...
  • 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...
  • Best Value
    We've covered a lot in the previous 40 installments of this series, "Doing Business with Government...
  • The Government Acquisition Cycle
    Good salespeople think about buying cycles. They anticipate the dates that they're likely to cash in. And if times are lean now, they plant the seeds for a bountiful crop later...
  • OMB Circular A-76 Changes
    In a previous installment we talked at some length about contractor outsourcing opportunities that arise out of the FAIR Act and OMB Circular A-76...
  • Letters of Supply and Commercial Sales Practice
    For a variety of reasons, product vendors may choose to become suppliers to another company that holds a GSA Schedule contract...
  • Defining Prices for a GSA Schedule Offer
    The single biggest problem in making an offer for a General Service Administration (GSA) schedule contract is defining prices...
  • Ride the Wave of IDIQ Contracts
    This newsletter is the first in a series of five newsletters about the federal government's increasing reliance on multiple award contracts. The use of Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts is becoming more prevalent by the day...