GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts provide businesses with the opportunity to sell their products and services to the federal government, but many potential contractors are unaware of the tools available to shape a competitive offer.
Companies interested in acquiring a GSA Schedule contract should understand the products and services available to offer, competitive landscape for their industry, and potential buyers. To answer those questions, we encourage you to conduct GSA Schedule market research. This research will help you understand the opportunities available for your business within the federal marketplace and how your products, services, pricing, and other factors compare to current contractors.
In this blog, we will discuss strategies for prospective contractors to figure out where they fit into the MAS marketplace.
Products and services offered through a GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract are classified into one of 12 Large Categories, then subcategories, and then ultimately, Special Item Numbers (SINs). A Large Category, like the Information Technology Large Category, is a grouping of products and services related to each other within an industry. SINs represent the detailed scope of products or services you will be selling to the government and identifying on your contract proposal. Depending on your business, you may list one SIN on your proposal or multiple.
You can access the industries represented within a GSA Schedule through each Large Category attachment to the main solicitation document. The available SINs to select, their descriptions, corresponding North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code, and special requirements are listed within each attachment.
If you are unsure of how to begin researching SINs, you should identify which NAICS Code best represents your business through the Census Bureau’s website by searching keywords. GSA renumbered SINs to more closely align with NAICS Codes and make the SIN identification process easier; while not every NAICS Code has a SIN, each SIN will correspond to a certain NAICS Code.
This can help you narrow your initial SIN search if your company’s NAICS Code aligns with a specific SIN. Each SIN’s corresponding NAICS Code will be listed within the attachment documents referenced earlier, as well as within the SIN look-up table available on GSA’s website.
When deciding to pursue a GSA Schedule contract, it’s important to understand your client base: government buyers.
Tools, such as USASpending.gov, provide potential contractors with insight on the federal government’s budget and award spending habits. Through the main search function, “Start Searching Awards,” offerors can utilize numerous filter options, including award type, location, NAICS Code, and awarding agency to locate specific spending data. The results will provide examples of government spending on competitors’ offerings within your industry.
Additionally, the site’s Spending Explorer feature is an interactive chart that filters government spending data based on budget function, agency, and object class, including items and services purchased. By selecting a specific agency’s name, you are able to view their Agency Profile which details their Fiscal Year budgets, planned spending, spending by contracts, and additional information.
To search past and upcoming contract opportunities, visit the System for Award Management (SAM) site. You can use the advanced search function to filter results through keywords, your organization’s NAICS Code, time periods, federal organizations, and other criteria to view previous and current contract opportunities for products or services related to your business. This feature helps offerors understand which products or services government agencies want to procure within your industry and the details associated with each contract opportunity.
There are multiple online resources for prospective contractors to conduct GSA Schedule market research and understand your potential competition.
For product-based awards, GSA Advantage! allows federal agencies to browse items from GSA Schedule contractors, similar to searching for products on Amazon. You can search for products related to your company through item type (e.g., pens), manufacturer part numbers, SINs, and other criteria to compare contractors’ offerings, including price, delivery time, and minimum order requirements, to your own.
To conduct more in-depth GSA Schedule market research, you should access contractors’ GSA Advantage Archive Sales data through the Vendor Support Center site. This report details the total sales, number of orders, and total items ordered for a contractor each government Fiscal Year.
If you plan on offering services, the Contract-Awarded Labor Category (CALC) tool provides potential contractors with competitors’ labor category information. You can search a labor category title and analyze competitors’ hourly rates, minimum education requirements, contract information, and other data for that labor category. Additionally, CALC presents the average rate for a labor category across all GSA contracts, so you can understand your company’s positioning relative to your industry market. It’s important to note the rates listed on this site come from GSA uploaded data, so if you want to find exact pricing on a competitor’s labor categories, you can find them in CALC and then go to their GSA eLibrary page for their price list.
Through GSA eLibrary, prospective contractors are able to search for competitors with a GSA Schedule contract and view their contract’s terms and conditions, price list and price increase plans, awarded SINs, labor categories, and product descriptions, among other details. If you do not already have labor category descriptions for your company’s service offerings, this GSA Schedule market research tool is helpful to assess contractors with similar positions to craft your offer competitively.
To analyze GSA Multiple Award Schedule sales and the size of the competitive market, visit Schedule Sales Query Plus (SSQ+). The “VAM - Ready Report” tool shows the number of contractors selling through specific SINs and the total sales accrued over a period, such as each government Fiscal Year. This feature also reports the sales history associated with top competitors under each SIN, so you can view your competitors’ activity across government spending quarters. SSQ+ also compares contractor performance through a Large Category, subcategory, socioeconomic category, and other classifications.
Some SINs are eligible for Transactional Data Reporting (TDR), which changes how contractors report their GSA sales. After selecting your potential SIN and verifying that TDR applies, you should access TDR Demand Data to narrow your GSA Schedule market research based on products that are selling successfully from contractors with TDR-eligible SINs. Subsequently, prospective contractors can alter their proposed price lists and inventories based on products that are in high demand.
GSA Multiple Award Schedule contracts are simply a vehicle to present your offerings to federal clients. You will need to conduct GSA Schedule market research before submitting your proposal to understand your company’s positioning within your industry and which target customers apply to your business. Once your contract is awarded, you should optimize your sales opportunities through additional market research strategies and marketing tools available to contractors.
We are available to help you navigate the numerous GSA Multiple Award Schedule resources available to potential offerors pre-award and contractors post-award to find where you can be successful within the federal marketplace. If you are ready to get a GSA Schedule and want to discuss next steps, we can help you prepare your offer and maintain your contract once awarded.