Download GSA Schedules - A Vendor`s Path to Federal Sales

Finding Federal End Users Who Buy What You Sell
by Richard White, President
Fedmarket.com
(888) 661 - 4094
www.fedmarket.com
© 2010 Fedmarket.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution strictly prohibited without prior consent.
Introduction
Knowing your customers is the key to sales success. This is true whether you're selling to public or
private organizations. The most successful federal contractors take the time to uncover contact
information for the buyers who purchase what their company sells. However, finding the right buyers can
be one of the most difficult aspects of federal sales and is the single biggest reason that small businesses
find the federal market so difficult to enter.
The federal government offers a wide range of marginally useful resources to help small businesses enter
the federal market. For example, federal agency web sites provide information on how to do business
with the government. The reality is that these web sites, for the most part, provide nothing more than
suggestions on how to deal with red tape. Federal agencies also hold conferences and training events for
small businesses. Unfortunately, end user contact information is not provided as part of these events.
The government’s offerings are carefully designed to provide help on the surface without providing
access to end users. Why, you ask? The truth is that end users would prefer to remain anonymous
because they have all the vendors they need and do not want to be deluged with calls from new vendors.
A long-range solution to this problem may be in the making. Congress is currently considering legislation
which would require the creation and posting of a public contract awards database. The proposed
database would provide a summary of what was purchased and who the end users and official buyers
were for awarded contracts. The creation of the proposed database would be the single biggest step the
federal government has ever taken to truly opening the federal market. However, the implementation of
such a database could take several years, if not more.
In the interim, a small business is forced to conduct research by (i) searching the Internet, (ii) perusing
agency telephone directories and agency organizational charts, or (iii) making contact with contracting
officers to ask them who the federal buyers are in their respective agencies. Fedmarket.com provides an
alternative to the methods described above, FedBuying Intelligence. We offer a contract award database
that identifies the contracting offices that buy what small businesses sell. FedBuying Intelligence
searches five years of public bid data and tells you who bought what. Official buyer contact data,
including the buyer's telephone number and e-mail address, is provided in a downloadable spreadsheet.
Procedures for Finding End Users
Contact data for end users - - the person making the purchasing decisions for complex products and
solutions - - is not readily available to the public. Once located, matters are further complicated by the
fact that there can be more than one federal official responsible for making purchasing decisions for a
large buy. Contracting officers and their colleagues, known as contracting specialists, can be identified by
the products or services they have purchased in the past. These “official buyers” or “purchasing agents”
represent the end user in contract negotiations. The contracting officer is the official point of contact
between vendors and the government. Contracting officers know who the end users are but may be
reluctant to tell you. A typical conversation with a contracting officer might go like this:
Vendor: "I see from my research that you awarded a $500,000 contract on May 11, 2005 to Acme
Reseller, Inc. The product purchased under that contract was Cisco routers. Who was the end user in
your office?”
Contracting officer: "I don’t really know and I would have to dig out the contract to find out."
Vendor: "I would appreciate it if you would do that and call me back."
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Contracting officer: "I’ll try but I can’t promise you anything due to our office’s overwhelming workload."
Vendor: "But I thought that the contracting officer is the single point of contact for vendors and that your
job is to promote competition."
Contracting officer: "You are correct on both counts but that doesn’t mean that I can answer end user
questions for the thousands of vendors out there."
Based on the tenor of the discussions above, it is unlikely that the contracting officer will actually get back
to the vendor with the information requested. The issue of whether the contracting officer is legally
required to give out an end user's name is gray. The public has the legal right to request a copy of the
contract itself under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). However, expect to wait from one to twelve
months for a response. By the time you get a copy of the contract, the end user will have ordered another
large batch of Cisco routers. Although FOIA mandates that federal officials respond to FOIA requests
within twenty business days, this rule is routinely ignored. The bottom line is the feds have all the cards
so you have to find a way to play their game. Trying to force them to give you contact data is
counterproductive.
Public Bid Data as a Sales Tool
A public bid is posted at the government’s web site, FedBizOpps, using a solicitation document. To
varying degrees, the solicitation document contains a summary (or “synopsis” in government terms) of the
scope of work for the project. The complete scope of work is only found in the actual contract itself (the
document that you have to wait months for if you request it under the FOIA). Contract awards are posted
in FedBizOpps with the date of the contract award, the dollar amount of the contract, and the name and
address of the company receiving the contract.
For new players, public bid data and the subsequent “awarded to” data provide the best information
available for developing a buyer call list. However, FedBizOpps does not tie bid and award data together
and, furthermore, you cannot get data on a particular buyer’s past purchases. In contrast, FedBuying
Intelligence provides the data companies need to ferret out the identities of the federal buyers.
FedBuying Intelligence ties bid and award data together and allows you to search the database using
product and service codes or keywords to describe what you sell. Search results are provided by agency
and contracting officer and include full contact data for the official buyer.
In short, we tell you who bought what, when, for how much, and from whom. But again, the contact data
is for the official buyer, not the end user. If you sell routers, you can find out which contracting officers
bought routers. Then you have to get on the phone. But the time saved as a result of using FedBuying
Intelligence is immeasurable compared to the alternative of conducting Internet research from scratch.
FedBuying Intelligence
FedBuying Intelligence brings focus and precision to your sales efforts.
FedBuying Intelligence quickly identifies for you the federal buyers buy what you sell -- and how often.
For each of your company's federal supply codes, FedBuying Intelligence provides a compete purchasing
history, rich with critical information such as buyer contact names, phone numbers, email addresses,
agency names and geographic locations. Browse this information on screen, or download it for use in
your contact database or other contact applications.
Assembling intelligence data on your own would take enormous time and effort. FedBuying Intelligence
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streamlines this difficult process giving you access to current and timely data that will provide you with the
tools to succeed in the federal marketplace.
FedBuying Intelligence is the most powerful sales tool in the federal market. It searches five years of
public bid data and tells you “who bought what”. Enter your product/service using keywords,
Product/Service Codes, or NAICS Codes and find the solicitations and awards for the Contracting
Officers and Contract Specialists who bought your product/service. Contact data including telephone
number and email address is provided for each buyer in a downloadable spreadsheet.
FedBuying Intelligence tells you:
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Which federal buyers have purchased your products or services.
What they purchased.
When they purchased it.
How much they paid.
Which agency the buyers work for.
How to contact the buyers.
FedBuying Intelligence government buyer information includes:
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First and last name
Address
Phone and fax
Email
Office and agency information
Recent contract awards
Demo FedBuyingIntelligence
Use any search criteria and view actual search results.
Buyer detail shown for the first three buyers in the results list.
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Training
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View the Fedmarket seminar calendar for upcoming dates and locations.
Tools
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Department of Defense (DoD) Roadmap
Information Technology (IT) Directory
U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Directory
Buyer Contact Data
Federal Credit Card Holders
Direct Marketing Services
Federal Sales Plan Development Wizard
Federal Sales Book Series
Contact Us
Telephone:
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Email:
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URL:
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About the Author
Mr. White is a national authority on federal, state, and local government marketing and sales. He is the
founder, President, and CEO of Fedmarket.com, the premier organization for all things government salesrelated. He has unsurpassed knowledge of all aspects of doing business with the federal government
using GSA Schedules. He is the author of three books on federal government contracting including “GSA
Schedules: The Shortest Path to Federal Dollars”, a look at how GSA Schedules fit into the federal sales
game.
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