Building a foundation in the federal market takes a lot of work. In order to get started you need to at least know the lays of the land. Several RFP’s and RFQ’s are issued daily through many government portals this does not mean that those requests are available to you for response. Understanding government jargon within those requests can save you lots of time, energy, and money by neglecting to respond.
It is mandatory that the federal government advertise to the public in some form for requirements over $25,000 or more hence the RFQ or RFP, some of those request are preselected. Although this process is not within the bounds of federal regulations it is still practiced. In order to have the request appear to be within line of the federal regulations the government has to be able to justify your disqualification. This is normally done by making it difficult for you, the vendor to respond or qualify. How the government pre-selects a vendor is when they have performed some form of market research and have found vendors who are capable to fulfill the requirement prior to issuing the request. Here are a few tips to help you be able to determine if some of those request are pre-selected:
* When an agency issues a request that is too product or service specific narrowing the request down to the one company that can fulfill the requirement.
* Deadlines for the request are within a short time frame not allowing the vendor enough time to respond.
* Difficulty retrieving an extension for the challenging request.
When you read through the request and find any of those red flags don’t waste your time in responding. Think of it this way by spending time working on a requirement that is preselected takes time away from your business goals. In the long run you will be better off finding a requirement that suits your needs as opposed to another company.
If you find that you are having difficulty in determining what requirement is right for your company and/or need assistance in responding to RFI’s, RFP’s, RFQ’s, service contracts, task orders GWAC’s I want to help. Register for my coaching sessions here