[156126] in Zephyr_Bugs
Selling in the Federal Marketplace
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Fedmarket)
Sat Aug 6 18:51:30 2011
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:38:39 -0600
From: "Fedmarket"<noreply@wrtlnx06.wrtech.com>
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<td align="left" valign="top" width="500"><p><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 15px; TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; COLOR: #000000;">Selling in the Federal Marketplace</span></p></td><td align="right" valign="top" width="200">
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<p>Up until the actual close of a sale, selling in the federal market is essentially the same as selling in the commercial market. You have to find out who buys what you sell, knock on their door, be prepared for rejection if you are unknown to the federal buyers, and then find a way to get around their resistance to newcomers. In the federal market, as in the commercial market, businesses must sell to the end users of the product or service they offer. The difference with the federal market is that it is critical that you have a way to close the sale. </p>
<p>Your representative in Congress and Small Business Administration (SBA) staff may be marginally helpful in assisting you to win federal business. However, the bottom line is that your company will only win federal contract dollars if it puts an emphasis on direct and focused sales efforts. Relying on others to sell for you usually results in the delusion that your business is on its way to a sale when, in fact, it may be spinning its wheels. The basic steps in the federal sales process are as follows: </p>
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<li>Identify federal end users or contracting officers who need what you sell. For commodities, the purchasing decision maker is usually a contracting officer. For technology products and services, the purchasing decision maker is a program manager, a facilities manager, an engineer, or professional with program responsibilities (end user). Finding sales opportunities is a difficult process for those unfamiliar with federal web sites, staff directories, and sales transaction databases. Hundreds of thousands of federal end users are spread throughout the world and finding end users with a problem and money to solve it can be frustrating. Making an identification of an actual sales opportunity becomes progressively easier as you become more experienced in the market.
</li><li>Establish a relationship with the decision maker. If your company offers commodities, relationships will probably be developed on the telephone. For those companies offering solutions or services, the relationship will most likely be established in person. Relationships are built between the buyer and the seller through mutual agreement on a solution, the establishment of trust, and assurances that your solution will mitigate risk to the buyer.
</li><li>Close the sale through a procedure or contractual mechanism that is consistent with the rules for competition in the public sector. The procedure for closing the sale is normally dictated and implemented by the contracting officer unless the purchase is a small one made with a federal credit card.</li></ol>
<p>As discussed earlier, the federal sales process is identical to the commercial sales process up to the point of closing the sale. This is where the rubber hits the road and where most novices run into road blocks, particularly for buys exceeding $25,000. </p>
<p>A sale over $ 25,000 requires that the buy be made through a competitive public bidding process or through a blanket, indefinite quantity type contract with pre-negotiated prices (called a "multi-vendor contract"). The federal government has placed an increasing emphasis on multi-vendor contracts. When the need for a product or service arises, the end user can turn to the list of pre-approved vendors and make a purchase quickly and efficiently. The time and expense involved with a public bid are avoided because the vendors holding this type of contract have agreed-upon price lists which become the basis for bids on individual task orders (services) or delivery orders (products). </p>
<p>The federal government will, for large purchases, typically favor multi-vendor contracts over public bids because the public bidding process requires use of scarce procurement staff and takes far too long. Since the majority of businesses hoping to enter the federal market do not have a multi-vendor contract in place, they are operating at a disadvantage when they actually take the plunge. </p>
<p>The most popular and most widely used multi-vendor contract is a GSA Schedule contract. It is, in fact, extremely difficult to compete for federal business without one. Without a Schedule contract, newcomers are often forced to act as a subcontractor to a prime contractor. For this and other reasons, the uninitiated should start the process of obtaining a GSA Schedule contract immediately upon deciding to enter the market because it can take three to nine months, or more, to get an award of such a contract. <br><br></p>
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<p><font color="#0000a0"><b>How Fedmarket Can Help</b></font> </p>
<p><b>Obtain a GSA Schedule</b> </p>
<p><b>We offer a variety of ways for your company to tackle a GSA Schedule proposal offering. Our GSA Proposal Preparation eLab and GSA eProposal are both inexpensive solutions designed specifically with the budgets of small businesses in mind. </b></p>
<p><b>Fedmarket's <a href="http://www.fedmarket.com/l/federal_sales_training/gsa_schedule_seminars/gsa_proposal_elabplus/?cid=1312636316-6247_1019405&utm_source=vendoremailtbl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Generic+Federal Sales Ad&utm_campaign=1312636316-6247_1019405&email=bug-zephyr@mit.edu">GSA Proposal eLabPlus</a></b><br>Complete your entire GSA Schedule offer during the course of our three-day class. Fedmarket provides you with a detailed Request for Information (RFI) at the time you register for our course. The RFI outlines the required corporate data and pricing that must be gathered and prepared in advance of the eLab. Attendees will, with the assistance of our knowledgeable staff, complete their GSA offer prior to the end of the seminar. In fact, many complete the offer and leave with a completed proposal in fewer than three days. If you are a procrastinator, the GSA eLab is the solution for you. The GSA Proposal eLabPlus is offered monthly in Bethesda, Maryland. Call a
Fedmarket representative at 888-661-4094, Ext. 2 to learn more about this 3-day workshop. </p
>
<p><b>Fedmarket's <a href="http://www.fedmarket.com/l/gsa_schedules/gsa_eproducts/gsa_eproposal/?cid=1312636316-6247_1019405&utm_source=vendoremailtbl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Generic+Federal Sales Ad&utm_campaign=1312636316-6247_1019405&email=bug-zephyr@mit.edu">GSA eProposal</a></b><br>Fedmarket has created a web-based software product that takes the guesswork-and frustration-out of GSA proposal preparation. GSA eProposal streamlines proposal preparation by taking the user on a step-by-step journey that gives your company a clear look at the red tape hurdles, documentation issues, pricing strategies, and official forms required to produce a "compliant" and winning offer for your services or products. Priced with small businesses in mind, the cost of the GSA eProposal product is only $1900. </p>
<p><b>We also offer more comprehensive consulting packages which are attractive to companies which don't want to devote staff resources to completing and negotiating the GSA Schedule offer.</b> </p>
<p><b><a href="http://www.fedmarket.com/l/gsa_schedules/gsa_proposals/gsa_proposal_outsourcing/?cid=1312636316-6247_1019405&utm_source=vendoremailtbl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Generic+Federal Sales Ad&utm_campaign=1312636316-6247_1019405&email=bug-zephyr@mit.edu">Full-service GSA Consulting</a></b><br>Fedmarket offers full-service consulting to those companies that would prefer to let our experts tackle the GSA Schedule offer. Our specialists take the lead in preparing your corporate offer. We handle the entire process -- including the proposal's preparation and, perhaps most importantly, the challenging contract negotiations with GSA concerning your offer -- and we work with your staff and GSA's contracting officer through the award of your Schedule contract. </p>
<p><b><a href="http://www.fedmarket.com/l/gsa_schedules/gsa_proposals/gsa_proposal_assistance/?cid=1312636316-6247_1019405&utm_source=vendoremailtbl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Generic+Federal Sales Ad&utm_campaign=1312636316-6247_1019405&email=bug-zephyr@mit.edu">GSA Proposal Preparation Assistance</a></b><br>Our "Preparation Assistance" option is a cost-sensitive alternative to our full-service GSA consulting services. We prepare the Schedule offer for you using corporate data and information you provide to us. We return an electronic copy of the completed proposal for you to submit and negotiate on your own. </p>
<p><b>Call us at 888.661.4094, Ext. 2 for more information on any of our GSA services or products.</b></p>
<p><b>Locate Federal Buyers</b><br></p>
<p>Fedmarket can provide your sales team with invaluable contact data for those federal buyers who purchase what your business sells. We can also provide you with historical data concerning a particular buyer's past purchases, the date of the purchase and the price paid for the product or service procured.<b> FedBuying Intelligence</b>, a yearly subscription service. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.fedmarket.com/l/sales_tools/market_intelligence/fedbuying_intelligence/?cid=1312636316-6247_1019405&utm_source=vendoremailtbl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Generic+Federal Sales Ad&utm_campaign=1312636316-6247_1019405&email=bug-zephyr@mit.edu">FedBuying Intelligence</a> is a unique and highly useful product. Unlike other products on the market, FBI offers critical contracting information based on your product or service. You don't have to sift through data that is not relevant to you. You define your search criteria and five years of contracting data is returned to you. Your government sales staff will have data at their fingertips in seconds, data that is very difficult for vendors to compile without a full-time research staff. </p>
<p><b>Data is Updated Every Two Hours! </b></p>
<p><b>FedBuying Intelligence</b> is perfect for creating targeted lists for cold calling, e-mail and direct mail marketing campaigns. Don't waste your resources sending mass mailings. Contact only those who buy what you sell. </p>
<p>Take a minute and call us for a free demo. You will quickly see why FedBuying Intelligence is an invaluable tool for your government sales team. <b><br></b></p>
<p><b>For a FedBuying Intelligence demo or assistance with any Fedmarket product or service, call us at 888.661.4094, Ext. 2. </b></p>
<p>Fedmarket has been preparing and negotiating GSA Schedule proposals for clients for more than 15 years. We submit countless GSA proposals each year and our success rate is unmatched in the industry.</p>
<p><b>We have thousands of satisfied customers; check out the positive feedback from our clients </b><a href="http://www.fedmarket.com/l/federal_sales_training/contact/gsa_elabplus_testimonials_/?cid=1312636316-6247_1019405&utm_source=vendoremailtbl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Generic+Federal Sales Ad&utm_campaign=1312636316-6247_1019405&email=bug-zephyr@mit.edu">here</a>. </p>
<p>Regards,<br>Richard White<br>President<br><a href="http://www.fedmarket.com/?cid=1312636316-6247_1019405&utm_source=vendoremailtbl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Generic+Federal Sales Ad&utm_campaign=1312636316-6247_1019405&email=bug-zephyr@mit.edu">Fedmarket</a><br><a href="mailto:" rjwhite@thefederalmarketplace.com="">rjwhite@fedmarket.com</a><br>301 652 9504, Ext. 118 (office)<br>301 908 0546 (cell)</p>
<p align="center"><b><b><a href="http://www.fedmarket.com/?cid=1312636316-6247_1019405&utm_source=vendoremailtbl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Generic+Federal Sales Ad&utm_campaign=1312636316-6247_1019405&email=bug-zephyr@mit.edu">Visit Fedmarket</a> <br></b>For inquiries, call 301 652 9504. Press 2.</b><b><b><br></b></b></p>
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