Small businesses play an integral role in federal procurement, and in 2022, there has been a strong push to focus on small business prioritization. One of the recent initiatives to improve the procurement process for small businesses is the PRICE Act. President Biden recently signed the Promoting Rigorous and Innovative Cost Efficiencies for Federal Procurement and Acquisitions Act (PRICE) Act, which would expand opportunities for small businesses to work with the federal government.

Selling to the government with your GSA Schedule contract is more than showing up at events and finding new opportunities. To successfully sell to the federal government, you need to understand your targeted government customers and their unique needs. Each branch of the government influences the spending choices of the other, so it’s important to understand how each branch affects your company’s ability to sell to agencies. Focusing on a few best practices will shape your company’s public sector efforts and make you stand out in the government marketplace.

A huge opportunity is coming up for small business GSA contractors—in response to recent Executive Orders surrounding sustainability and the climate crisis, GSA’s Public Buildings Service (PBS) has issued a pre-solicitation for Governmentwide Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts. These general construction contracts with design-build capabilities will support the installation of Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) at federal government agency locations across the U.S.

Competing in the federal market can be difficult, especially if you don’t have the right tools and knowledge to properly market your GSA contract. As a small business, there are so many opportunities in the federal marketplace, but it’s up to you to know where to find them. You may know your industry commercially, but it’s crucial that you understand the government side of marketing.

So, you’ve found yourself awarded with a government contract vehicle, such as a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), and would like to respond to a government Request for Proposal, otherwise known as an RFP. What happens next? For those interested in responding to government contract opportunities, you should know that RFPs are often the most common type of opportunity you will come across. However, before responding to an RFP, it’s important to understand a few vital components that go into shaping a successful response package.

As you may be aware, government agencies cannot make decisions on a whim. There are several rules, regulations, precedents, and processes that are put in place, so each decision is made carefully and methodically. This is especially true for federal procurement. Whenever a government agency has the need for a particular product or service, they often conduct market research to make sure they are surveying all the possibilities and finding the one that works the best for them. This doesn’t always mean the cheapest or the fastest, but these can be factors in determining what the best value is.