Why does government procurement seem to be a very interesting matter nowadays? Well, if you know the facts behind government procurement, you will eventually discover that a huge opportunity awaits small business owners in this field. The government made efforts to give chances to minor businesses around the country. The federal government actually pays nearly 500 billion dollars with just about every conceivable service or product that you can think of. The government sets aside an estimate of $100 billion dollars yearly for small businesses.
If you plan to explore this area, you need to have your best marketing effort ever. The wide opportunity that government procurement provides is not just a simple stroll in the park because you have to learn a lot to get a hang of it. You actually need to answer different key questions for yourself to make sure that you are ready to embark on this kind of venture. Before you kick off with government procurement, try answering the following questions.
Who’s your customer?
You need to specify what department, agency or entity best matches as your client. You also need to know the contracting officers and the influencers that set the specifications. Around 17,000 contracting officers and 50,000 specifiers and influencers abode today. Thus, you really can’t know them all – which is why you need to know where to really aim your efforts.
What do they specifically buy?
You need to know the products they regularly purchase. You also need to know how much they pay for those products. Ask yourself if you meet the requirements of the government procurement process. You are basically dealing with the largest client that you can ever acquire and they will not be taking so much risk.
Who typically gets the contracts?
You need to have an idea of what your competitors offer and how long have they been servicing the federal government. If you are just a newbie in government procurement, you need to know all the information that you can acquire so that you will quickly turn a leaf on this business venture.
What are the kinds of contracts that customers prefer?
Contracting offices use different award contracts, GSA schedules, blanket purchase agreements, open competition, cost plus, fixed price and a number of different venues. Each of them requires a particular structured response.
You also need to master the F.A.R. or the Federal Acquisition Regulations. This will be your guide on anything about government procurement. You need to be familiar with this one because this will lead you to the important policies worth knowing. Once you learn much about the FAR, government procurement will be easier to understand.
Once you have your answers to all of these basic questions, you can eventually come up with a killer marketing plan. Government procurement seems to be a complicated thing but once you get to learn the basic information about it, you will eventually be able to take advantage of this large opportunity. With all these, government procurement opportunities can indeed be life changing, especially for small business owners.
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