Good salespeople study the federal buying cycles and can, based on past experience, predict those periods during the year when their sales will be strong. During the slower cycles, the successful sales person works hard to pursue leads that may come to fruition at later dates. You ask, "what are the buying cycles in the federal market?" The government's fiscal year runs from October 1st through September 30th. Congress and the Executive Branch hammer out the funding that will go to each agency in the fall. The actual funding may not occur until sometime in late winter or even spring of the fiscal year. As a result, government buyers often spend the fall and winter planning for acquisitions that won't take place until spring or summer. The actual buying picks up speed in spring and accelerates to a shopping spree by mid summer. By late summer, things can get really crazy when the buyer’s mindset is "spend or lose it." So, as a vendor, is early fall the time to sit around and do nothing? The answer is a resounding "no." If anything, it's the time to work harder than ever. Fall is the time to find out who will be buying what and where the action will be. It's the time to develop and build relationships and, if possible, take part in acquisition planning. Fall is also the time to find out what program managers need. Talk to the program managers. Ask them which vendors have performed well and why they have been successful. Try to determine which vendors have left the program managers high and dry? Gather the details and sell your company's capabilities now so that, once the spending begins, you're in a position to win business.

Sales Strategies
Your sales staff should outline a sales strategy for the upcoming fiscal year. The critical first step is to reach the right people in government. Let's say you manufacture and sell foam -- foam for furniture, foam for vertical bladder tanks, foam for boat fenders, etc. You must then determine which people in government -- in this case, those at the federal level -- buy foam? Without having the proper tools at your disposal, it may be difficult to locate the buyers.

FedBuying Intelligence, one of the products we at Fedmarket offer to subscribers, can help you locate the buyers. If you were using FBI, you would do a search on the word "foam." FBI would provide you with the names of 28 official buyers (both contracting officers and contracting specialists) who have purchased foam in the last couple of years. FBI provides, for each buyer listed, the buyer’s name, his/her email address, phone number, fax number and mailing address. In many cases, you will also find the name and contact information for the program manager. FBI also provides the buyer's solicitation notices (for purchases over $25,000) so that you can see exactly what the person has bought and when. As you can well imagine, the foregoing information is invaluable research that can be used in marketing your company’s products or services to the federal government. Whether you use FBI, go it alone, or use other tools available to you, you must start laying the groundwork in the early fall. By spring, once the programs have been funded, buying decisions have often already been made. It is critical that you put your company, its products and/or services in the minds of the right people, at the right time.