A short time after my company was awarded its GSA schedule contract, I was out in the field visiting an agency client to deliver our products and services. While at the agency, the client was on the phone with GSA discussing an upcoming need for more products similar to the ones we were providing to the agency. The client called me over to his office while he was on the phone with a GSA customer service representative and told me that GSA hadn't invited me to bid on this upcoming opportunity. He asked me why that was the case and, as a new GSA schedule holder, I didn't know. The reality was the GSA customer service representative didn't know me or my company. Therefore, GSA didn't invite me to the table -- even though I was already delivering to the customer personally!

GSA has customer service representatives on staff in a wide variety of fields such as interior design, architecture, IT management, and the like. These representatives also shop for products and services on behalf of their agency clients and they are able to contract out to vendors under the same FAR and GSA rules followed by the agencies. The customer service representatives invite three competitors (companies they know and trust) on the GSA schedule to compete for the business. If you're not known to the GSA customer service representative, your company is not invited to the table. Therefore, if you work with the agency client directly, you could conceivably be competing directly with GSA itself, even though you're a GSA vendor.

How can you compete against GSA for the business? Join 'em! Go to every regional GSA office that offers your products and services as a solution. Find out who you are competing against and then aggressively sell your quality products and services.

For example, when I sold furniture services, I visited the regional GSA offices. When doing so, I looked for the property managers, move coordinators, project integrators, and architects. In my business, GSA uses different titles in different regions for essentially the same position. For example, "Project Integrators" in Chicago managed moves and interiors for the agencies located in their buildings. The "Move Coordinators" in San Francisco performed the same job. How did I uncover this information? By visiting the regional offices personally and regularly. After about one year of developing relationships in a particular region, there was a sudden, high-end need for furniture. When the call came in, the GSA executive said, "I need furniture now and I was told to ask for Eileen." Note that the name of my company was never even mentioned. The foregoing proves that federal sales are all about relationships -- even at GSA itself.

A great way to check out GSA's team is to go to http://www.gsa.gov and click on "Staff Directory" in the right-hand corner. There is a search engine where you can look up names and numbers of GSA executives across the country based on their title and their job description. They will only speak with you if you are on the GSA schedule and you offer a product or service which might be needed by their customers. You can get them to open up with this line, "I don't know if you're the right person, but maybe you can point me in the right direction..." You must understand that their time is money (just like in a commercial business) because GSA is a self-funded agency that makes .75% of every dollar contracted by a GSA Schedule vendor. Therefore, you need to show them how you can make them look good in a pinch, save the client money and win the business.