More Federal Marketing Tips for Fortune Small Business

Posted by Administrator on April 4th, 2008

A small business owner recently wrote in to Fortune Small Business’ “Ask FSB” column asking for advice on penetrating the federal market. She was the owner of a software-as-a-service company that was looking for some best practices to start their government contracting efforts. Fortune Small Business tapped Onvia, along with Austin-based Strategic Partnerships, to share our federal marketing expertise.

Entering the public sector for the first time may seem like a huge task. The procedures and personnel involved are very different from private-sector contracting, and there is a lot more paperwork involved. There’s no need to “reinvent the wheel” with government contracts, though. The U.S. government has been contracting with private companies for decades – it’s a new experience for you, but there’s a gold mine of contracting information out there, and your small business can learn from other companies’ mistakes as well as their successes.

Like I explained in the “Ask FSB” column, the easiest way to learn how to market to the federal government is to look at what has been successful for other businesses. Do some research into what companies are winning the kinds of contracts you’d like to win. When it comes to industry trends, the more information you can get your hands on, the more insight you can glean about your top competitors and what they’re doing to get those federal contracts. If you can, get your hands on copies of their winning proposals. These will provide a template for your own proposal, as well as delivering good insight into what specific agencies are looking for in a proposal.

The other tip I had for small business owners who are new to the federal marketplace is to know when to ask for help. It’s reasonable to expect that someone just starting out in federal marketing won’t know everything right off the bat. Flying by the seat of your pants can be an exciting way to learn, but a lot of time, energy and money go into preparing a federal proposal. Having someone with experience working on the project can help speed the learning process for your whole organization. If no one on your team has experience selling to the government, consider bringing in a new employee or a consultant to walk you through preparing your first federal proposal, using the competitive data and industry trending information you’ve already gathered.

The full text of the Fortune Small Business article can be found here.

More Information from Government Contracting Best Practices
Learn more about writing your first government RFP response. On the Onvia site, learn how to find winning government proposals, or read about how Synagro won a yearly contract worth over $500,000 using market intelligence.

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