In buying services and solutions federal buyers need to meet with vendors to determine the intangible aspects of what they are buying including feature, benefit, and risks. Pre-selling ahead of a contact award is the rule rather than the exception in the solutions market.

The level of competition in the federal solutions market depends on the number of vendors pre-selling the opportunity. Ten large system integrators might go head-to-head for billion-dollar procurement, while there may be only one real bidder for a smaller database maintenance buy. It also depends heavily on whether there is an incumbent contractor or the buy is a new opportunity. Operations and management contracts of any type -- maintaining an army base, building a space shuttle, feeding the soldiers in Iraq -- are probably the least competitive because there is almost always an incumbent contractor.

Federal purchases of commodity products (such as those for copier paper, tools, printer cartridges, paper shredders) tend to be less competitive than similar purchases in the commercial sector. End users and contracting officers focus more on obtaining bids from several vendors than on getting the lowest price. The federal market is not profit driven and federal rules do not always benefit the lowest bidder.

Contract bundling reduces competitiveness dramatically. What does a contracting organization do when it is understaffed? It bundles and gets everything done in one fell swoop. Procurements addressing new issues and existing contracts can be combined into one large procurement opportunity and contracted through a public bid or a multi-vendor contract. The larger and more varied the scope of work, the more likely it is to be awarded to a large, established prime contractor. The rich get richer.

This article is an excerpt from the new book "Rolling the Dice in DC". The book is written for managers and sales people and describes the day-to-day dogfight of competing and winning in the federal market. Read this book if you want to know the good, bad, and the ugly of the federal market, what it takes to enter the market, and the potential returns.