Public sales data can help businesses build stronger General Services Administration (GSA) proposals by validating pricing, identifying competitors, and evaluating demand in the federal marketplace. GSA helps small businesses and large companies win federal contracts through its Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program, which makes commercial goods and services available to the federal government at reasonable prices.
To successfully get a GSA Schedule contract, new MAS vendors must know where their company fits in the GSA MAS marketplace and beyond. Many contractors don’t realize GSA provides free tools to assist with this research, such as Schedule Sales Query Plus (SSQ+), GSA Advantage!, and CALC. However, like many government tools, they are not always easy to navigate, so we’ll cover how you can use these tools below.
The Schedule Sales Query Plus (SSQ+) is a public market research tool you can use to view historical sales figures, government spending data, and contract information. It helps you evaluate the long-term success of other companies selling the same or similar products and services in the federal marketplace. This information can help you analyze your competition and submit a more complete MAS offer. Most importantly for your offer, you can use SSQ+ to see the overall sales trends for federal contractors in your industry. You can view active GSA Schedule contracts by Special Item Numbers (SINs), the alphanumeric codes that correspond to the products or services you plan to offer.
Prospective MAS contractors should do their due diligence in researching their business’s federal demand, GSA competitors, and pricing strategies. For this example, we’ll walk you through what a basic search in SSQ+ looks like. The first thing you’ll want to do is use another free GSA resource, GSA eLibrary, to locate any Special Item Numbers (SINs) associated with your company if you already hold a GSA Schedule or identify any SINs you would like to apply for.
The Schedule Sales Query Plus (SSQ+) enables you to access the sales, business size, and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code information reported by active GSA Schedule contractors. The timeframe filter shows sales data dating back to 1991, but it is important to note that SINs and regulations have changed dramatically over the last 35 years.
For the most accurate indicator of current market conditions, it is best to reference recent years in the timeframe filter. Under the main page which is the “Control Panel” tab, you can filter by SINs using the Cross Contract Identifiers filter. After deselecting "All" and selecting each SIN you have identified, click "Apply." Make sure to select “Schedule MAS” or your preferred federal contract using the program filter.
Here’s an example of what a search for SIN “541511” for the last year will look like on the “Control Panel” Dashboard:
As you may have noticed, the “Control Panel” tab, is one of many features in SSQ+. The “Report Builder” tab is a feature used to view numbers by SIN, NAICS Code, and contract number.
The “Sales by Geography” tab gives you a geographical representation of sales vendors based on the location of their facilities, and the “Sales Trends” tab includes visual charts showing the growth or decline in sales under a particular SIN by year and fiscal quarter. By changing the filter from SIN to Government Subcategory, you can see exactly what kinds of companies are consistently winning contracts. For example, you may see that Large Category F: Information Technology or IT companies show dramatic growth since the early 2000s, while other kinds of firms may fluctuate by year.
The “Contract Performance” tab shows how many contracts in the SIN category are hitting their annual financial goal and how frequently they are successfully renewed.
The Vendor Analysis Module (VAM) provides a straightforward layout in SSQ+ for you to view upfront market information about your business to include with your offer. The VAM – Ready Report identifies the number of active contracts, vendors, change in sales percentage, and total sales amount per quarter relevant to the industries you select. This will help you identify gaps in the market and identify other contracting opportunities to consider. This report used to be required as part of your GSA Schedule offer, and while it’s not anymore, it’s still a useful place for your research.
These tabs are great for getting a sense of demand for your offerings, but other specialized tools in SSQ+ will help you research specifics, such as pricing for your proposed products and services. GSA Contracting Officers (COs) must determine that your proposed prices are competitive, and you’ll need market research to back this up. We’ll dive into this below.
If your business is focused on selling physical products, the Demand Data Module in SSQ+ offers insight into the top-purchased items in FAS business lines, including the MAS Program. After filtering by SIN, product category, or product description text search, you can sort the list by sales price, demand value, or quantity. The Demand Data Module allows you to download competitor data or industry information directly as an Excel workbook.
For more specific pricing information on individual products, product vendors may also use GSA Advantage! - a search engine much like Amazon for the government, where you can search by SIN and keywords to view vendors’ products and their prices listed directly on GSA.
If you want to research labor rates and ceiling prices, navigate to GSA Contract-Awarded Labor Category (CALC+) tools. Any user can access the CALC+ Hourly Labor Ceiling Rates tool, which informs pricing analysis and comparisons for hourly service rates in MAS contracts. Use filters to search by experience level, education, business size, large category, or SIN Number. You can also search by a specific job title or keyword.
For example, by searching Cybersecurity Analyst, you can view rates by median percentile or average to help you explain your proposed hourly rates.
Once you have gathered initial market research to understand where you fit into the federal marketplace, you may want to pursue a GSA Schedule. If this is the case, you will need to assemble your proposal and submit it to a Contracting Officer for negotiations before you can start selling through the contract. If you need help assembling your offer, or you have general questions about how to approach the offer, our consultants can help. Reach out to us and learn how to take your business to the next level.