This topic has been the subject of several of our webinars (Target or Forget It, May 2015), books (Save Your Time, by Kevin Jans, President, Skyway Acquisition), podcasts (Why Targeting Matters, Feb 2016), and blogs (Targeting Government RFPs? Do Not Fish with a Net! May 2014) over the past few years. But it’s important enough to be addressed again.
When you first enter the federal market place, the sheer number of agencies and opportunities that you could chase can be overwhelming. And expensive! Poor use of time and resources can be wasteful for large businesses and can be seriously damaging to small businesses. So how do you narrow the abundance of agencies and opportunities down to those you have the best chance of contracting with?
First, look closely at your core capabilities. (Thought I was going to talk about USASpending, or FBO, didn’t you?) Seriously, one thing many small businesses do is say “We can do everything!” Well, maybe you could. But can you? Do you have the resources? The experience? The plan? The past performance? Probably the answer to 10% of the opportunities is “yes” while the other 90% is “not really.” So, begin by identifying your strongest (core) capabilities. If you have done this already, then you are already one step ahead of some of your competitors!
Next, identify the key words that describe your core capabilities. Actual skills (e.g., Information Assurance; janitorial services; and website design), not adjectives (e.g., best ever, top notch, and leading edge). (You laugh, but I want to be clear!) Once you’ve identified these key words and phrases, go to www.fbo.gov, where, as you know by now, all federal procurements over $25,000 are required to be announced (with a handful of exceptions). Click on the “Advanced Search” link. Once there, you’ll see on the right hand side “Active Documents”, “Archived Documents” or “Both.” Click “Both,” so you get a broad coverage on your first search. Remember you are looking for agencies that buy (or have bought in the past) your particular product or services. Scroll on down, and find the “key word” blank and fill in one of your key words or phrases (be sure and put “quotation marks” around a phrase).
Scroll down a bit further, until you see the “Classification Code” section. You’ll see that “10 – Weapons” is the first category, and if you scroll down within this box, you’ll notice that all of the products are identified by a double digit numeric. If you keep scrolling in this box, you’ll come to the Services list and you’ll see that each Service group is identified by an alpha character (A – Research and Development; D – Information Technology, etc.) Select the group that most nearly describes the core competency you are going to search for. Pick one or two different categories that appear to be applicable. Then scroll down to the bottom and click “Search.”
The results will most likely include hundreds, possibly thousands, of opportunities that match your search criteria. The listings will show the most current first and then work backwards to older procurements. Many of the older ones are no longer open for you to pursue. But that’s not what you are here for at this moment. What you need to do right now is identify the agency(ies) which have most often purchased the product or service that you are selling.
You’ll need to spend some time clicking on each one that appears to be applicable. Some of the listed opportunities may not seem to fit your criteria so just skip over them. So, scroll on down and click on the first one that seems to fit what you sell. Once opened, you will see what is called a “synopsis” of a procurement. If it’s an older one, you will see all the documents associated with the requirement such as the RFP and amendments. The synopsis will show the agency, the point of contact and contact info, a brief description of the procurement. If it’s a new one, it will tell you when to expect the solicitation to be issued and where, as well as whether it is a small business set aside or other specialized procurement.
Note all of the pertinent information down (agency name, address, POC, and any other pertinent information), then go back to the opportunities list, and scroll down to the next one that appears to be something you could provide. Repeat the process. Datamining, while labor intensive, is a necessary evil. You can build a list of which agencies you see consistently buying your product or service. You can learn what the government calls the particular product or service, especially if you come up with few “hits” your first time searching. Pay attention to the terminology that the government uses so you can do searches using that criteria.
If you have literally dozens or hundreds of “hits” that are all generally applicable to you, you’ll want to narrow your search by adding or changing to a more unique term for what you sell.
This is just one method for targeting the agencies that buy your product or service within the federal government. There are companies out there who do nothing but datamining and providing companies like yours with the information – for a price. Be sure and check out our podcasts, webinars and other sources of information regarding targeting your market to get additional ways to target your market for free. Skyway also specializes in helping businesses target their federal markets, so be sure and check out our “Target Market Assessment” services!