Table of Contents

1    Introduction. 1

1.1     About Fedmarket.com.. 1

2    Applying the Procedure. 2

2.1     All Companies: Follow Current Bidding Opportunities Religiously. 2

2.2     Companies with Federal Contracts 2

2.3     Companies Selling Commodities 3

2.4     Companies Selling Generic Professional Services 4

2.5     Companies Selling Complex Products and Specialized Professional Services 5

2.6     Companies Selling Solutions Requiring Partnering and Companies with No Federal Contracts or Relationships 5

2.7     Companies outside the Metropolitan Washington, DC Area. 5

2.8     Information Technology Companies 6

2.9     Starting the Sales Opportunity Research Process 6

2.10   Fedmarket.com Products 7

3    Procedure 1: Search Agency Web Sites. 9

3.1     Procurement Forecasts 9

3.2     Agency FOIA Requests 9

3.3     General Agency Interest, Spending Information, and Contact Data. 10

3.4     Example Agency Search. 10

4    Procedure 2: Search Award Data. 11

4.1     Federal Procurement Data Center (FPDS) 11

4.2     Defense Logistics Agency (DLA Procurement Gateway) 12

4.3     FedBizOpps (FBO) 14

4.4     Navy Electronic Commerce Online. 15

4.5     USASpending.gov. 16

4.6     Summary of Contract Award Site Pros and Cons 17

5    Procedure 3: Find Contracting Officers. 19

6    Procedure 4: Find Teaming Partners. 19

7    Procedure 5:  Finding Prime Contractors and Subcontracting Opportunities. 20

8    Procedure 6: Finding Opportunities outside the Washington, DC Area. 21

9    Finding Federal End Users: Who Bought What, Where, Why, & When. 21

10  Summary of the Federal Sales Process. 23

10.1   The Hard Part: Establishing the Customer Relationship. 23

10.2   Getting in the Door 23

10.3   Provide a Solution, Not a Sales Pitch. 23

10.4   Distinguishing Yourself Once in the Door 24

10.5   Debriefings and Protests from a Sales Prospective. 24

10.6   Direct Sales Rules 25

11  Setting Up Your Federal Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System.. 25

11.1   Example Database Record. 26

11.2   No Selling Points, NO BID. 26

11.3   The Customer Intelligence Questionnaire. 27

Sample Customer Intelligence Questionnaire. 27

Example of a Completed Customer Intelligence Questionnaire. 28

12  Bid/No Bid Decision Procedure. 30

12.1   The Earlier the Better 30

12.2   Bid/No Bid Guidelines 30

12.3   Summary. 31