How To Win Government Contracts

The government contracting market is complex but full of opportunity. Here are the steps you can take to grow your public sector pipeline and win more government contracts.

After finding government contracts and best-fit opportunities for your business, there are specific actions you can take to connect with the right decision-makers and put your best foot forward in order to beat out the competition. By understanding the value of being proactive, how to get ahead of the bid or RFP and the competitive landscape, you can position yourself to win government contracts.

Free Guide: How to Build a Winning Public Sector Sales Pipeline

Regardless of which public sector market you are seeking to do business in, whether it be the U.S. SLED or Federal markets or the with the government of Canada, finding government contracts is just the start of the government sales process. This guide outlines five best practices to deploy a winning sales strategy.

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In This Article:

• Understanding the Government Contracting Acquisition Lifecycle
• How to Find and Bid on Government Contracts
• How to Win a Government Contract Bid
• How to Win Federal Contracts
• How to Win State and Local contracts
• Winning Government Contracts for Small Businesses
• How to Win Canadian Government Contracts
• Teaming and Subcontracting Opportunities

Successful government contractors prepare in advance by targeting specific agencies (such as specific states or federal departments they wish to sell into), building key relationships and setting up a strategic plan to grow their business. To do this, they must understand the contracting acquisition lifecycle, in order to know what actions to take and when to set their business up for success. The stages of the acquisition lifecycle generally look similar to this::

As you prepare in advance to win government contracts, you should keep an eye out for information and analysis that may help improve your ability to compete before, during and after the opportunity is put out for competitive bid.

Pre-RFP Intel in Budgets and Spending Plans

Forward-looking businesses can gain an advantage by gathering advance notice and pre-solicitation information on upcoming projects found in agency budgets, expiring contracts and capital spending plans.

Currently Open Solicitations Like Bids and RFPs

While these and other common competitive solicitation types are the “bread and butter” of government contracting, being informed well before an opportunity goes to bid helps during the proposal preparation process.

Contract Award Information

Understanding data from bid results and contract awards showing where your competitors are winning, agency evaluation criteria, pricing, re-compete opportunities and more can help set you up for the next opportunity.

A Guide to the Government Contracting Lifecycle

Success in B2G marketing and sales requires understanding the government contracting lifecycle. Review our free guide to learn its stages so you can learn how to win more government contracts.

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In order to win government contracts, it first helps to identify best-fit opportunities before your competitors do. For your business to get government contracts that fit your areas of strength, you will need to zero in on your target market, be that federal or state, local and education and look for government contracts that align to your strengths as a business.

Related articles:

• How to Find Government Contracts
• How To Bid for Government Contracts
• Easiest Government Contracts to Win

When an agency within the federal government needs to acquire a new product or service, or has an expiring contract for a product or service it intends to buy again, it will release an opportunity for bid, a request for proposal (RFP) or another type of contract like sole-source contracts. This federal contracting market is hugely lucrative, making up billions of dollars in government contracting opportunities each year, but federal contractors should take time to understand its intricacies.

Federal Contracts

Federal contracts come in several different types and each type of contract requires a unique approach to both bidding and performing the work. Breaking down a federal contract to properly prepare to answer all the questions within it is essential to proposal management and creating a proposal to win a federal government contract. This part of the process is so critical there are countless businesses available, such as Red Team, to help you do this right.

Federal Agencies

There are 15 executive agencies within the federal government and there are hundreds of federal agencies and commissions with various responsibilities within each department. This can make it challenging to identify the right contracting officer and to track federal business opportunities from each agency you are interested in working with.

When you are preparing to win federal government contracts, a winning strategy can be to use market intelligence tools to identify federal spending areas well in advance, determine who to reach out to at your target agency, then prepare your company’s go-to-market strategy for when those opportunities are released in order to get out ahead of the competition. Tools such as GovWin IQ track government projects that your business is a good fit for up to five years before a bid or a request for proposal (RFP) is actually issued and can help you identify key decision makers to target for building relationships.

Federal Contracting 101: The Basics

This free guide is designed to help you understand the basics of doing business with the U.S. federal government. Review it to learn how to win federal government contracts, how to register to do business with the federal government and learn best practices for capturing new federal contract opportunities.

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A strategic focus is required to win state and local (SLED) government contracts. SLED government agencies spend more than a trillion dollars every year, spread out across 50 states and a huge number of cities, counties and other districts, so the opportunity is immense – but so is the challenge.

To succeed, state and local government contractors must be able to identify target buyers that are a good fit for the solutions that their organization provides, either by sifting through huge numbers of potential contracting opportunities and managing rules and processes that are unique to each government entity, or leaning on tools designed to support businesses who don’t already have the institutional knowledge and processes in place in place. Those businesses who focus on mastering the ins-and outs of the SLED proposal process and scaling their approach as they grow, will put themselves in a better position to submit winning government contract proposals on the state and local government contracts that best fit their core competencies.

Free Guide: State & Local Contracting 101

The SLED contracting market is full of opportunity. Discover how your business can succeed in selling to SLED government agencies across the country.

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The environment for companies aiming to win small business government contracts is unique. Government entities such as the SBA (Small Business Administration) offer a number of small business set-aside contract opportunities through programs like these:

• 8(a) Business Development
• HUBZone
• Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Programs
• Minority-Owned Small Business (MOSB) Programs
• Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business (SDVOSB) Programs
• All Small Mentor-Protégé Program

Small businesses or disadvantaged businesses can compete on a more level playing field by first determining which socioeconomic categories, if any, fit their business. Registering with the SBA and reviewing which categories their business aligns with can help to spotlight opportunities they are most likely to win.





How to Win Government Contracts as a Small Business

Review our free guide to learn how to win government contracts as a small business, get tips on bidding on contracts and discover best practices for developing strong proposals.

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The opportunity to win Canadian government contracts is one that is worthwhile but not without challenges. Historically, businesses have been challenged to maximize growth when serving Canada’s public sector market – largely due to the fragmented nature of public sector spending across federal, provincial and municipal levels of government. That, coupled with the unfamiliarity of this market and its bidding process to many U.S.-based businesses who are unfamiliar with how to get government contracts in Canada, has created a relatively untapped pool of potential revenue.

For a business to submit a successful proposal on Government of Canada contracts, there are a few key steps to follow that will best position that business to make a winning bid.

The first step to successfully doing business in Canada is understanding the market and where your business is likely to be effective by determining which entities buy which goods or services, how much these governments have bought before, how these governments have bought and plan to buy goods or services of interest and which regions or jurisdictions are most attractive to your company. That information, along with a full pipeline of best-fit leads, will give your business the best chance to win government contracts in Canada.

Free Guide: Canadian Government Contracting 101

Discover how your business can get started and expand its sales to federal, provincial, territorial and municipal agencies across the Great White North.

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Small businesses often break into new markets or gain contracting experience through subcontracting and serving on the team of a prime contractor. It is a way of getting experience that often allows you to avoid some of the complicated compliance requirements and challenges competing against more established vendors for prime contracts, yet gaining some experience and past performance while opening up more contracting opportunities.

Larger businesses also can benefit by teaming up with the right small business, allowing them to seek a broader range of government contracts. Developing relationships is a valuable tool that can make it easier to build out a public sector sales pipeline.

Free Teaming Agreements 101 Guide

This guide outlines what teaming agreements are, how the virtual business environment has changed the way government contractors make connections, best practices for subcontracting, why small businesses should team with larger primes and next steps to get started.

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