Time's Up for 2014 Fed Biz - Want Your Year Back?

Selling to the federal government takes at least 12-24 months to uncover true opportunities.

How did you do in Fiscal 2014 - which is ending in September?

Do you want your year back?

Over 400,000 companies are registered at SAM.gov which takes about a day to register. Companies showing an interest in federal contracts must be registered here. If you don't know how to fill out the paperwork to register yourself, contact your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center http://www.aptac-us.org or listen to this Federal Sales Sherpa Show discussing Sam.gov.

Over 19,000 vendors are listed at GSA.gov, who have negotiated their rates for the federal government and have built a simple way to close deals within the FAR 8.4 rules. Instead of having to post opportunities at FBO.gov - the public website where bids over $25k are posted, agencies could quickly and easily go to GSA.gov to buy products and services within a matter of days because: it's within the rules, it's easy and it limits competition to only those on GSA Schedules.

As a business selling to the feds, are you registered at Sam.gov? Did you invest in obtaining a GSA Schedule?

Then why are you sitting and waiting for the orders - or worse, writing loser proposals to fbo.gov postings without performing a bid/no bid decision? The business is not going to come in with just your name in the sea of competition posted at sam.gov or gsa.gov. You need to work it just like any other opportunity - and that means considering the market through specific research, getting training on how to sell to the government and building an action plan to execute.

Are you planning to sell for yourself? Are you hoping to hire a sales person? Are you going to go it alone and stumble around the marketplace wasting another year with $0 sales?

Or - are you going to get some expert assistance and get back on track for 2015?

• If someone were to tell you that there is a way to gain back the last 12 months of stumbling around writing loser proposals and making mistakes, what would that be worth to you?
• If someone were to tell you that you could be talking to the right people in a matter of 30 days and uncovering opportunities BEFORE they are in a bid form in fiscal 2015, what would that be worth to you?
• If someone were to tell you that you could potentially steer an opportunity toward you - completely within the rules, what would that be worth to you?

These are all possibilities and the savvy federal contractors do these things every day.

Listen to the Federal Sales Sherpa Show, Read the Federal Sales Sherpa Newsletters or call the federal sales Sherpa, Eileen Kent, who can save you a year through her three-step program which will help you understand your specific marketplace based on a detailed competitive analysis, help you understand the game and build a federal sales action plan customized for your business to execute, in your back yard. 312-636-5381.

Photo Credit: MattysFlicks "Self Portrait-Ticking Away" - Awarded Pentax Flickr Award