Eight Steps to Winning State, Local and Education Government Contracts

As the U.S. federal government contracting market experiences twists and turns, the time has never been better for savvy government contractors to consider expanding their business and selling to state, local and education (SLED) governments.

Whether your firm is experienced at selling to the federal government and just beginning to look at SLED or if you are new to the public sector altogether, you should know that winning state and local government contracts isn’t rocket science - but it does take hard work and strategic intelligence.

Before your business thinks about responding to a bid or RFP from a SLED government agency, prepare your company for success by making sure your business can check off these eight boxes.

Prepare to Sell to SLED Agencies

Several key steps can be taken early on in the government contracting project lifecycle to prepare to sell to state and local governments.

• Target and research the agencies by studying past procurement habits, identifying upcoming contract renewals, and zeroing in on future spending by looking at budgets and planning documents.
• Organize and fill your pipeline with near-term opportunities and long-term opportunities to effectively balance your short- and long-term business outlook.
• Collect important agency contact information, such as job functions, email addresses, and phone numbers, and make sure your sales representatives know who to build a relationship with at which agency.
• Understand the agency’s missions, goals, recent initiatives, and if they prefer local vendors. The better you understand how an agency operates, the better you’ll be able to collaborate with decision-makers and influence your chance of winning.

Winning SLED Government Opportunities for Your Business

These steps occur later in the government contracting process and are especially important if you want to turn your SLED bids and RFP responses into government sales revenue.

• When searching for SLED bids and RFPs for your company, ensure that you have the capability to fulfill all the contract's requirements first. If your business cannot scale to meet the government's requirements, you may consider teaming or subcontracting with partners.
• Understanding and organizing your efforts around fiscal year schedules and agency purchasing patterns will help you effectively choose which opportunities to bid on.
• As you are preparing your proposal response, research the competition to understand what their product or service is, what contracts they have bid on, what regions they are strong or weak in, and which contracts they have won or lost.
• Make sure you know about the bid or RFP early on in its lifecycle, in order to give yourself enough time to craft a winning proposal. Your proposal is your biggest chance to stand out – don’t leave it until the last minute! Submit a proposal that puts your best foot forward.

In summary, if your business is preparing to sell to state and local government agencies, all of these points will help you manage and scale your operations in the SLED government contracting market.

Once your business is confidently able to check off all of the 8 boxes above, you’ll be able to begin targeting state and local government contracts, which you can find in the comprehensive database of government contracts within GovWin IQ.

Next Steps to Win State, Local and Education Contracts

If you’re ready to enter the SLED government contracting market, you might also be ready for GovWin IQ, the leading market intelligence platform that provides up-to-the-minute government contracting information and early notice of upcoming opportunities. Click below to try the GovWin IQ platform for yourself.