When you are getting ready to sell your product or service to a government agency, finding the right person to talk to, and knowing what’s important to that individual and what is not, can be critical to closing the deal.
As I outlined previously, there are basically three different individuals that are associated with most purchases within the federal government: The User(s); The Program Manager (PM); and the Contracting Officer. Finding out who these specific individuals are in relationship to a particular procurement or in relation to what you sell, can sometimes be a challenge. I wish that I could say there’s a single website that you can access that provides you a complete list of PM’s, Contracting Officers, and all of the government users. But of course there isn’t. Here are a couple of tips for finding these important individuals.
- The Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website (fbo.gov) is a good place to start. If you’ve targeted your market as we recommend (Webinar “Target or Forget It”), you should already know which agencies are the ones you want to dig deeper into to find the points of contact you are seeking. In fact, as you are targeting your government market, you should note the individuals at the bottom of every synopsis (the posting in the FBO). That individual is often a Contracting Officer or a Contract Specialist, and at least one means of contacting that individual is also provided. So, that’s your Contracting Office point of contact (POC).
- While still in FBO, look at some of the older, previous postings of procurements for your product/service. No doubt you will find solicitations on many of them, and even though you can no longer bid on those (the due date has passed), these documents contain a wealth of information. To start with, it gives you a really good idea of what to expect from that particular agency in their solicitation documents. What kind of proposals do they look for? Best value? Lowest Priced Technically Acceptable (LPTA)? Sealed Bid? Firm fixed price or cost plus? This information is priceless in giving you a leg up on whatever opportunity you are going to pursue with that agency. Inside the solicitation (RFP, RFQ, IFB, or other), there is often a technical point of contact listed, including email addresses and often phone numbers. These individuals (Contracting Officer Representative (COR); Contracting Officer Technical Representative (COTR); Program Manager (PM)) represent the second group of individuals you are interested in talking to – BEFORE there is a solicitation released! Once that RFP/RFQ is issued, you no longer may communicate with these individuals directly. Only written questions provided to the Contracting Officer will be allowed. And make no mistake: Contracting Officers can and will exclude you from competing if it becomes apparent that you have broken this particular restriction.
- Now the users: In this case, you may need to get this information from the technical point of contact discussed above. However, you can get started on this by reading the Performance Work Statement (PWS) or Statement of Work (SOW) and other technical documentation contained within the old RFP. For service contract, the “User” or the “Requiring Activity” is usually identified in the very first paragraph of the PWS or in the area identified as “Background.”
- If the procurement is for delivery of an end item (a product), you may find the user identified in the solicitation in Section F, Delivery. It will even tell you the quantities delivered, whether the delivery was Free on Board (FOB) Destination or FOB Origin, and when the quantities were delivered under the previous contract.
Another good place to look, once you’ve identified your target market, is the individual agency website. Here you can often find the agency’s Small Business Specialist (or Advocate or other related title). This individual is interested in you because you are a small business and even more interested if you offer a product or service that the agency buys. The contact information for these individuals is often provided somewhere in the “Doing Business With” tab, and they can help you with connecting to other useful points of contact within the procuring agency, like Program Managers.
These are just a few ways to dig out the names and contact information of real people within the target organization that you want to talk to. And don’t forget the agency’s website. Agencies often present information on their organization, their mission, individual organizations within the larger agency, and often times provide points of contact within each agency and lower level organizations. The information is out there, you just have to be patient and follow the trail of information online, and slowly develop your network of contacts within each target agency.