Evergreen proposals are comprised of a series of specific documents requested by GSA to extend a GSA schedule contract for another 5-year option period. They are far less complex than an original proposal because the red tape requested by GSA is minimal. But they must be prepared carefully because they can: Trigger a pre-award audit. [...]
The utility of holding a GSA Schedule is best demonstrated with an example. Let’s say you own an office supplies business located near a military base. You’ve been calling on the supply manager of the printing center for some time with no success. You know the base has been buying from the same large office [...]
GSA Schedules are also unique in that purchases are transacted directly between the federal agency requiring a product or service and the contractor. Any federal agency, anywhere in the world, can place an order using the prices, ordering procedures, and terms and conditions specified in the Schedule contract. Once a need is identified, the contracting [...]
Attendees at our federal sales seminars frequently ask us to summarize the keys to success in federal sales. Successful federal contractors all possess the following traits: A willingness to invest in direct sales (i.e., a dedication to hiring a sales person or assigning an existing sales person to work exclusively on federal sales ); A [...]
Some believe that marketing is a critical component to having success in the federal market. Marketing efforts make the public, official buyers and end users aware of your company and your products or services. My definition of marketing includes distributing press releases, advertising, participating in conferences and trade shows, conducting seminars, and employing targeted direct [...]
Why is preparing the GSA Schedule proposal so painful? GSA Schedule Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are often poorly organized and even more poorly written. Some divisions within GSA have recently improved the quality and organization of their respective RFPs but the majority remain troublesome. RFPs do not fully outline what GSA is looking for in your [...]
For many companies proposal writing is reinventing the wheel over and over, at great costs within tight deadlines. Creative and concise documents emanate from original thoughts and repeated rewrites; each rewrite sparking more creativity and sophistication. The luxury of creative rewrites and many refinements usually cannot be achieved with a federal proposal because of the [...]
A blind bid is just what it implies; a bid where you know nothing about the opportunity except the information your competitor wrote that is now a part of a public bid. Don’t write proposals in response to public bids where you don’t know the customer unless you have the brand identity of IBM or [...]
