So, you want to sell your solutions to the government with a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS)—where do you begin? The bottom line here is getting a GSA Schedule or any government contract is not an easy task. It requires time, bandwidth, and a certain degree of government contracting knowledge. This is where GSA Schedule consultants come in.
Consultants can help guide you through the GSA Schedule acquisition process, making it smoother and more efficient, as well as minimizing risk of getting your offer rejected. Consultants can also be there for post-award maintenance, so you can remain compliant and focus on what you do best rather than spend hours keeping up with your contract. But just like hiring any type of service, there are varying levels of consultants out there, and you want to make sure you are picking a firm that offers you the best value while meeting all your needs. So, we put together a guide to help you find the right GSA Schedule consultant.
Understanding Your GSA Schedule Consulting Needs
First, it’s important to figure out what your company needs from a GSA Schedule consultant. Is it full on contract acquisition and maintenance, or do you just need a little bit of help with a few complicated tasks? Out of the consulting companies you are researching, see what kinds of service options they offer and what they specialize in. For example, if you need help with getting a GSA Schedule from start to finish (which could take 6-12 months), you will want to ensure the consulting firm has a lot of experience in acquisition and a good track record with GSA Schedule awards.
Next, you should research industry expertise, especially if you have a niche industry. Does the consulting firm have experience with similar clients, or are they well rounded in their clientele? Some firms may only specialize in one industry such as IT.
Checking Qualifications and Experience
This may be an obvious step, but it’s an important one. At Winvale, we’ve seen too many clients coming to us after picking a consulting firm because it has a very appealing price tag, but their offer got rejected. This is because there are several firms out there offering cheap prices and tempting timelines for contract award, but they are very inexperienced or are “scammy.”
Some factors to consider when checking for qualifications and expertise are:
- Years in business: the more years in business the more experience, but taking a look at the “meet the team” pages will also give you an idea of who is bringing the expertise in. Some consultants pretend to be a large company, but in reality, it's one CEO with several W-9 employees who don't work there full-time. This could result in a lot of turnover.
- Demonstrates an understanding of GSA policies and regulations: what does their website look like? Are they consistently posting content about recent GSA updates and offering tips and tricks to contractors? If their last "news" or blog post was from 2 years ago, maybe they aren't staying on top of the latest regulations.
- Success stories: Did they come recommended to you, or can you ask them for a reference or two? Maybe their site has testimonials you can check out.
Examine the Level of Service
When learning about the different types of services a consulting firm offers, we encourage you to take a closer look at the level of service. Some firms will hand you a mass-produced template and you have to do the bulk of the writing yourself, while others are full service and will help draft your offer and guide you every step of the way.
You can also gain some insight into how responsive and helpful a firm will be in the future during the sales process. Are they answering your questions, giving you helpful resources to explore, responding promptly? These are all values you’ll want to see in a consultant, and if you aren’t getting them during the initial sales process, it doesn’t bode well for future assistance.
Evaluate their Support System and Resources
No one wants to hire consulting firm to find out all of their employees are farmed out to independent contractors, and there’s no consistency in communication and how the GSA Schedule offers are prepared, or they often pass you around from one consultant to another. You’ll want to make sure the consulting firm has a full team of employees and a solid system in place for your offer, so you are in good hands.
You’ll also want to make sure the consultants are all utilizing the best resources and tools to streamline the process. The GSA Schedule acquisition process involves various steps such as market research, proposal writing, and negotiation, and post-award maintenance involves consistent sales reporting, modifications, and assessments.
It’s important the consulting firm you choose can deftly navigate GSA’s sites and is knowledgeable about all the tools they can take advantage of to prepare the strongest offer.
Ensure Ethical Practices
This isn’t something you can always easily tell from a few phone calls, but there are ways to see if a firm is honest in the work they do and if they have your best interests in mind. For example, do they promise you can get a contract in a very specific and/or short period of time? Unless you are going after a specialized fast track (such as FASTLane), a consultant shouldn’t promise a fast timeline, and should never 100% guarantee contract award.
Of course, one major goal of hiring a consultant is to speed up the process on your end and to avoid rejection, but GSA will ultimately decide when and if your contract gets awarded. A firm that guarantees a GSA Schedule award within 2 months without special circumstances is not being honest. However, if a consultant is more interested in putting a structured plan together so they can create and submit an offer in an efficient and timely manner, then their priorities are in the right place.
It’s also important to see if a consultant is focused on preparing an offer that will set your company up for success in the future. Promising low rates and terms and conditions you can’t realistically keep up with in the negotiations process is not going to help you in the long run. You want to build a contract that is favorable for both your company and the government.
Look at their Website and Online Presence
With a background in marketing, this is something I do when looking for a service. A website can sometimes tell you a lot about the company. There are a lot of "fly by night" consulting firms out there and you want to ensure you are hiring someone legit.
The site doesn't have to be a snazzy website with all the bells and whistles, but if it's missing large gaps such as a "meet the team" page, has pages with lots of errors, or has testimonials that seem auto generated or fake, you might want to investigate further. Now that we're living in the age of ChatGPT and other AI tools, if an entire site or at least the resources/blog section looks like it's entirely run by AI, it might make you wonder who or "what" will draft your GSA Schedule proposal.
You can also check online presence by looking at their social media--is it maintained, does it look like there's an actual person running the account? Or is their LinkedIn page full of bots? You want to make sure you're hiring a team of people to help you, and not one person in their home office armed with AI tools or a slew of W-9s.
Are You Ready to Hire a GSA Consultant?
It’s not an easy process to acquire and maintain a GSA Schedule, so consultants can be a huge benefit for your company. But it’s important that you find the right one so you can relax and let them do what they do best, while you focus on your company’s operations.
We understand that GSA Schedule consulting can be a big investment for your company and you want to spend a lot of time researching and maybe convincing others in your company that it’s a good business decision. If you need more resources about hiring a GSA consultant, check out these blogs:
- Why Hiring a GSA Consultant Could Save You Time and Money
- What to Expect When You Hire a GSA Schedule Consultant
- Hiring a GSA Schedule Consultant: Questions To Ask and Red Flags to Avoid
- How Much Does GSA Schedule Consulting Cost?
Whether you are just starting to learn about GSA Schedules or you are ready to prepare an offer, we can help lead you in the right direction. If you have questions about getting a GSA Schedule, or need help maintaining your current contract, one of our consultants would be happy to assist you.
