GSA Schedules can accommodate products sold by resellers. Your business might elect to use resellers for a number of reasons: your product is a component of a larger system or larger product, your commercial sales are made through resellers, or your company's budget doesn't allow for a direct sales force.

Participating Dealer Agreements (PDAs) are an effective mechanism to allow other parties to resell your products while you maintain control of your GSA pricing. A PDA is a written agreement between your company and the reseller that formalizes the business deal between the two parties. A PDA generally provides that the reseller will sell your product at the government-approved prices in your GSA Schedule. The PDA establishes the sum the reseller will be paid for selling your product, usually as a percentage of the sale price of the product. The agreement also addresses order processing, invoicing, and payment procedures.

A PDA works best when a business holds its own GSA Schedule and then uses multiple resellers to sell its products. A company holding a GSA Schedule can control its pricing and still retain the flexibility to strike deals with a number of resellers. Since each reseller your company works with may sell in a different federal market, the market for your products is greatly expanded. However, companies who work with multiple resellers often experience administrative headaches with respect to monitoring product pricing issues. Such headaches are nonexistent if your company is on a GSA Schedule and enters into a PDA with a reseller, since the prices are established by the Schedule and are the same for each reseller. In the event that your company enters into a PDA with a reseller, you must remember to modify your GSA Schedule contract to incorporate the PDA and the corresponding reseller into your Schedule.

Enter the term GSA Participating Dealer in the search engine of your choice to view some sample GSA Participating Dealer Agreements.