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  • People Buy, Not Agencies
    Contrary to popular belief, people buy in the federal market, not agencies. The only way to make a federal sale is to contact a buyer through a direct sales call...
  • Become an Insider in the Federal Market
    Consider becoming an insider and share in the fruits of the world's largest market. Remember, the insiders were outsiders at one point in time and the game is not that tough to play once you understand it...
  • Guidelines for Companies New to Government Contracting
    Sales people take note. You are free to meet with and sell federal end users. Federal purchasing rules not only allow it but encourage it...
  • 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...
  • How to Close a Federal Sale
    Making sales in the commercial sector can be difficult but closing a sale usually isn't...
  • People Buy Not Agencies
    Contrary to popular belief, people buy in the federal market, not agencies. The only way to make a federal sale is to contact a buyer through a direct sales call...
  • Play by the Federal Purchasing Rules
    There is no getting around it. The federal government is a monstrous bureaucracy. The federal rules concerning competition for contracts and how the federal government buys have changed significantly over the past ten years...
  • Developing a Federal Sales Plan
    How early should you identify a sales opportunity in the federal market? The answer is that an opportunity must be identified before anyone, including the customer, knows that an opportunity exists...
  • Entering the Federal Market
    You are a small to medium sized business located outside the Washington, DC area and you have decided that you want to enter the federal market. What should you do? 1...
  • Selling Services to Federal Agencies
    Our newsletters repeatedly emphasize the need to establish a relationship with end users when selling in the federal market...
  • Keys to Success in Federal Sales
    Attendees at our federal sales seminars frequently ask us to summarize the keys to success in federal sales. Successful federal contractors all possess the following traits: * A willingness to invest in direct sales (i.e...
  • Best Value: A Sales Person's Dream
    In a previous installment we discussed the rules governing GSA schedules that encourage "Best Value" selection of vendors...
  • How a GSA Schedule Sale is Made
    Most federal sales are relationship based. People buy in the federal sector, not agencies, and they need to know everything about what you are selling...
  • Report from the GSA Expo, San Antonio, TX 2006
    GSA Schedule holders, GSA employees, government buyers and end users descended upon San Antonio, TX the week of May 14, 2006 for the GSA Expo...
  • When Selling to the Government, Know Your Audience!
    I have to write about this subject because I was in a sales pitch presentation today and I walked away from the presentation angry and frustrated...
  • Small Businesses, Take Note...
    While 2005 is starting to 'ramp up' to be a successful year for savvy federal contractors and prime vendors, we all know that we need to continue to fill the pipeline through brand identity and face time in front of our potential federal buyers and ...
  • The Only Way To Uncover Government Business is to Focus, Focus, Focus!
    How did you feel when you first considered selling to the government? I always thought I was looking into the face of the "Great and Powerful Oz." It seemed overwhelming and a little frightening...
  • Thanksgiving - A Great Opportunity
    A perfect time to reflect on all of the people and things we appreciate...
  • 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...
  • Now's the Time To Sell To the Government, Now's The Time to "Get Real"
    Some people sell with enthusiasm, others are more laid back. The best sales technique is to be yourself - a human being looking to help government employees by making their job easier and following the rules...
  • Cold Caller Adventure: State of Colorado
    During the week of August 15, 2004, I was teaching a "Winning Government Business" at the Burnsley Hotel at Grant and 10th Street...
  • Small Business Goals Missed
    In an article published in Federal Computer Week, October, 2005, Michael Hardy reports that a report card was released showing federal agencies missed their goals for small-business contracts...
  • November 2005 Thank Your Federal Clients During Thanksgiving
    Thanksgiving - a perfect time to reflect on all of the people and things we appreciate...
  • Goal for 2006 - Focus, Focus, Focus
    How did you feel when you first considered selling to the government? I always thought I was looking into the face of the "Great and Powerful Oz." The process seemed overwhelming and a little frightening...
  • 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...
  • In Business, Business is Business. In Government, Business is Personal.
    When you are selling to a commercial business and there's a problem, late delivery or glitch of any sort, the client understands you are not doing this to them personally...
  • 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...
  • Selling IT: Agency Focus
    In the prior installment on selling IT to governments, we talked about business development, distinguishing "inside" from "outside...
  • 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 Open Market Items
    In past installments we talked about how a contracting officer who wants to buy off the GSA Schedule will sometimes choose to issue requests for quotes (even though the FAR doesn't require it) when: She's not quite convinced yours is the best soluti...
  • The Realities of the Federal Market
    Let’s say you’re a medium-sized information technology company from a Midwestern city and your commercial sales are flat...
  • Commitment and Focus in Federal Contracting
    In the last installment you learned about some of the realities of federal sales. In this installment you will learn about the need for commitment and focus to overcome the inherent barriers to entry. First, you must commitment to the market...
  • Making the Sales Call to Federal Government Agency
    Companies new to the market ask us, "How do I find potential buyers to call on." Finding potential buyers can be difficult and will be the subject of the next several installments in this series...
  • People and the Federal Sales Process
    As we have mentioned repeatedly in this series, people drive the federal sales process. The very lowest level in the proverbial food chain is you (the commission-hungry, federal salesperson and your revenue-starved boss)...
  • 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...
  • Anticipating the Federal Buying Cycles
    Good salespeople study the federal buying cycles and can, based on past experience, predict those periods during the year when their sales will be strong...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • Federal Acquisition of Foreign Supplies and Services
    Throughout this installment series we've tried to unravel some of the tangled rules and conventions of government contracting. There is perhaps no topic, however, that is a better candidate for unraveling than today's...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • Buy Your Staff Into the Proposal Writing Process
    As you probably realize our proposal writing mantra at Fedmarket.com is: "Write less, win more." Write proposals for the rebids of incumbent contracts and the opportunities you have presold...
  • 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...