This is a guest post by Kevin Jans of Skyway Acquisition Solutions.
Fishing with a cast net here in Florida is fun. In the right place, at the right time of day (and tide), the net is full of surprises: bait fish, a crab or two, a stingray, or even a mullet.
However, cast-netting is a futile and costly way to gain sales – especially as a small business in the Federal market. At best, you’ll stumble upon a few opportunities. At worst, you’ll catch a net full of unqualified leads. Most likely, you’ll end up somewhere in between: spending a lot of time sifting through RFPs hoping to find one that fits your company.
Targeting opportunities is just as important in the federal market as it is in the commercial market. History shows time and time again that a focused strategy wins. In the government market, it can be easy to feel like you are drowning in opportunity. Targeting your efforts is one of the best ways to offset this.
Do you know, really know, what you are fishing for? Why do you target specific agencies? Why are you investing your time on specific RFPs and RFIs? This is not about bid/no bid – this is about deciding whether you should be looking at an agency’s RFPs at all. Or, whether you should be in the Federal market at all. What is your plan? What is your target? What are you trying to catch?
Are you filtering opportunities by NAICS, size of opportunity, and socio-economic set-asides? So is everyone else. What if you fine tuned your search beyond the agency? To a division? To a contracting office? To a specific customer who buys a lot of what you sell? What if you knew that the buyer you targeted actually needed your help and would be excited to know about your company? What if you targeted your efforts to the point that the government customers are calling you to make sure you bid on their RFP? That’s what real targeting looks like.
Save your company time: do not fish with a net.
This post originally appeared on the Skyway Acquisition Solutions blog at http://skywayacquisition.com/targeting-government-rfps-fish-net/, and was reprinted with permission.
Kevin Jans founded Skyway after 16 years as a Department of Defense Contracting Officer (CO). As a CO, he saw many companies struggling in the B2G market. He created Skyway to give these small to mid-size companies access to a leadership team of former contracting officers and to show them how to compete and WIN in the increasingly complex market. Learn more at http://skywayacquisition.com/.
