Column: Are You Using the Freebies?

By Tom Johnson, publisher, Set-Aside Alert

      As a small business executive, you are up to your neck in alligators every day, balancing client work and expectations with staffing needs and employee performance. That leaves little time for assessing the market and avoiding leaving money on the table.

      The transparency of the federal market is your best and most cost-effective tool. You already know about finding/following opportunities in SAM (System for Award Management.) If you have a General Services Administration Schedule contract, you already know about e-Buy and GSAAdvantage. If you are selling products to the Defense Dept., you probably are monitoring the Defense Logistic Agency’s “DIBBS” for short-term notices of upcoming buys.

      What else can be done with these no-cost tools? Here are some suggestions that can help improve your win rate.

Utilizing SAM

• Use SAM’s Opportunities file to identify buyers, contract specialists and contracting officers of the prospects you want to chase.

        For example, is that contracting officer also the programs chair for a local chapter of SAME or of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA)? Is the division chief out on the speaking circuit or participating in the agency’s Industry Day? Does the person’s LinkedIn profile indicate any charity interests or community roles where you might meet up and gain their attention?

• Use the SAM Awards file to monitor your competitors. There’s more than awards data in the tool.

        For example, search to learn which agencies and buying offices are using your competitor. Are those procurements big enough to justify your focus? Are you connecting with the buyer and making your capabilities pitch? Is that buyer exclusively using a GWAC (Governmentwide Acquisition Contract) or a Schedule contract, a sole-source set-aside or open-market? Learn if there is a particular time of the year when those buys are scheduled, so you can be prepared and hit the buyer up at the perfect time

• Use SAM Awards to find experienced teaming partners – whether prime contractors, subcontractors or suppliers. Searching SAM.gov awards file tells you more than who is winning. Those winning firms have submitted strong proposals. They’ve been selected as capable and cost-effective. Next time you find the need to bid with a team, search the awards file for contractors that have won similar work in the targeted agency. Which one of you would be strategically best to prime the bid vs. being the sub?

Using GSAAdvantage

      Even if you are not a GSA Schedule contractor, use GSAAdvantage to assess your competitor’s pricing, unique terms and conditions, product content, delivery advantages, position descriptions and contract expiration date.

      Contractors’ payment terms, delivery policies and other conditions can be the deciding factor in award evaluations where pricing is competitive. GSA contracts cover a wide variety of both products and services so if you haven’t taken an hour to become familiar with GSAAdvantage, you likely are leaving money on the table.

DLA’s DIBBS Bulletin Board

      Like GSAAdvantage, the Defense Dept.’s DIBBS bulletin board system operated by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) lists not only the gush of bids out on the street for commonly-used items, but the prices paid in the past and the contractors receiving the awards.

      Also key in this marketplace are the contract terms requirements for delivery and packaging. The manufacturers and wholesalers who regularly bid in these evaluations learn who the end users are and how the materials are used. They then can successfully negotiate waivers or changes to the packaging to reduce their costs and pass some of the savings on to the agency.

      Many of the purchases through the DIBBS system are small enough to be under the $25,000 threshold for posting on SAM.gov. Monitoring DIBBS is the only way to keep abreast of those buys. The bids are often repetitive with multiple reorders throughout the year. The items with National Stock Numbers are generally described by military (MIL) specifications and standards and MIL drawings, copies of which are available, for free, from DLA in Battle Creek, Michigan via its ASSIST service.

Long-Range Forecasts

      We have written in Set-Aside Alert in the past about agency long-range forecasts or acquisition plans, another no-cost resource that describes the products and services agencies expect to purchase in the coming fiscal year. As we have noted before, the agencies are not posting these forecasts reliably, despite regulations requiring them to be available. That puts the onus on you to check them out and return regularly to see if new ones have been posted. The primary government-wide connection to these forecasts is at www.acquisition.gov/procurement-forecasts.

Recommendation

      It is often said that the Federal market is the most open and transparent market in the commercial world. However, the availability of good data doesn’t help if you don’t seek it out and use it. Are you losing bids that you should have won? Are you underbidding and leaving money on the table? Take advantage of your opportunity to do a post-award debriefing, whether you win or lose. Find out how your bid scored relative to others and the basis for the award to the winner. Use what you learn to improve your competitiveness next time around.

Tom Johnson is the publisher of Set-Aside Alert and a career market researcher in the federal market. He may be reached at tjohnson@SetAsideAlert.com.

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Column: Are You Using the Freebies?

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