How Small Businesses Can Expand in the Government Market without Increasing Sales Force

Posted by Irv on April 20th, 2006

For a small business, tapping into the government marketplace and locating government contracts can be a time-consuming and costly task. Oftentimes, companies outsource research and monitoring of government contract opportunities in all of the newspapers, trade journals and online resources, although missed opportunities can create a major business issue if the right opportunities slip through the cracks. Even if the researchers locate the government contracts within your territory, there is the added task of qualifying the opportunities as the right fit for your business. The time used to research the opportunities also takes time away from other important pursuits.

Government Bid and RFP Notification Services

One simple way of solving this small business issue is to utilize a bid and RFP notification service so you know about the opportunities in the government marketplace. Instead of researching government contracts and RFPs yourself, or paying someone to research those opportunities for your small business, notification services free up your time and get you targeted results. For small businesses that may have limited resources, a notification service can be ideal in helping maximize the sales force.

Daily e-mail contract notifications can save you a lot of time in researching and qualifying government contracts. E-mail notifications can be customized to your company’s profile so you only receive contracts that are fit for your small business. In addition to government bids and RFPs, notification services can even send you information about grants, award data, federal opportunities, commercial building opportunities and advance notice. Advance notice keeps you informed about upcoming government projects and includes minutes from council meetings and other information that lets you know when development plans or funding are approved. These notices come out before any formal solicitation so you can better track the project’s progress and get a head start on your competition.

Government Business Intelligence Resources

Once you know about the important government contracts in your industry, you will need the government business intelligence behind the government contracts in order to stay competitive, make smarter decisions and tap into new markets. Government business intelligence gives you additional information behind each opportunity so you can strategize which contracts to target so you can turn those opportunities into awards. Ideally, these would be government contracts that don’t have the same award winner year after year. It can also be a good idea to target new government contracts that have contacts with whom you have something in common for social networking purposes. Government business intelligence can even help you find out what agencies have paid the last time they awarded a government contract for your services, so you can go after contracts for which you feel you can be most competitive.

Another way to use government business intelligence is for developing marketing efforts. That will help you differentiate yourself from your competitors, putting your company name in front of the government buyers. Marketing lists are one way to promote your services. Government business intelligence will also help you locate contracts that utilize your products and services so you can contact the prime contractor on the planholders lists. Partnering with subcontractors is a way to get into the market with prime contractors and obtain the experience and insight you need to win more government contracts.

If your small business wants to win more government contracts, email me at AskIrv@onvia.com. Tell me a little about your business and what geographic region it operates in, and I’ll arrange a personal demo of the technology specifically for you.