Why Finding And Choosing The Right Opportunities Is Key To Winning Federal Contracts
This blog is inspired in part by my conversation with Shauna Weatherly, a career Federal acquisition professional who is now CEO of her own company, FedSubK.
Winning Federal contracts can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes. The U.S. Federal government spends billions of dollars annually on products and services, but securing a Federal contract requires more than just submitting bids. It demands strategy, persistence, and a clear understanding of where to focus your efforts. This blog explores how to find the right Federal opportunities, maximize your chances of winning, and avoid common pitfalls.
- Federal contracting is competitive and complex; not all opportunities are worth pursuing.
- Common pitfalls include over-promising and underperforming, which damages a vendor’s long-term reputation.
- The best approach is to start small, be persistent, and prove reliability to agencies.
- Successful performance leads to contract extensions and referrals from agencies.
- CPARS (Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System) heavily influences future contract awards.
- Key takeaway: Only pursue contracts you are certain you can execute well.
Hear it from the Contracting Officer!
Sit in on our conversation and get straight talk from former Contracting Officer Shauna Weatherly in the on-demand webinar, Finding The Right Federal Opportunities.
Watch the webinar now!
The Impact of Choosing The Right Federal Contract Opportunities
The Federal contracting world is vast, but not every opportunity is worth pursuing. Choosing the right contracts impacts your company’s…
- Win rate
- Profitability
- Pricing strategies
- Ability to attract and retain talented staff
- Allure to teaming partners
- Contract performance
- Reputation within government agencies
Companies that strategically select opportunities aligned with their expertise and resources experience higher success rates – in terms of both contract wins as well as performance – and leverage that success to build stronger relationships with Federal buyers (which leads to more wins). The most successful govcons commit to creating that upward spiral!
Three Cost-Effective Ways To Find The Best Federal Contract Opportunities for Your Company
Every company, small and large, has limited resources to invest in developing and bidding on opportunities.
It’s all too easy to feel stunned and overwhelmed by the literal thousands of Federal contract opportunities published every day. It’s equally easy to become lured and distracted by that flood, and consequently scatter your efforts and bid responses so widely that your ideal buyers see so little of you that your zeal to serve them never gets their attention.
A small business with less than 10 years in the Federal market has an average win rate of 20%– that is, they win only 1 out of every five proposals they make. Focused persistence pays off a lot faster than scattered efforts. Showing up has a higher impact if you keep showing up in the same place, in front of the same buyers!
Lack of focus – and consequent lack of revenue in the face of mounting business development costs – is a big reason why 60% of companies who enter the Federal market exit within five years. Don’t be one of them.
Focus pays off!
When you develop an efficient and cost-effective process to identify, and choose, the opportunities you’re most likely to win, you increase your win rate, lower your bid costs, and reduce your overhead costs. Those efficiencies, over time, can increase your profits, and/or let you sustain profitability while giving you more negotiating room to lower the fully-loaded (or “wrap”) rate you quote for your labor or the price you charge for your products.
5 Focus Strategies for GovCon Growth
Need to focus? Get five pro tips in just 30 minutes in this dynamic on-demand webinar. Watch the webinar now…or gather the team for a lunch & learn!
To get you started, here are three cost-effective ways to make a first pass through the thousands of Federal opportunities published every day to identify ones that are worth a second look.
1. Explore AI-Based Market Intelligence Tools
The proliferation of AI tools can give you the impression that top-flight competitive analysis is now dirt-cheap and a mouse-click away. Think again.
Before you go shopping (and paying!) for AI tools optimized to help you hunt for Federal opportunities, remember your goal: to focus with speed on the highest-potential options, and decide with confidence where you want to concentrate your resources.
Many companies now leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools to scan dozens of government databases and pick out contract opportunities and early-stage buying trends and emerging needs that are aligned with your capabilities and capacity (a critical success criterion). Just remember that the output is a starting point for developing relationships, not for pumping out proposals.
Using AI tools saves time and provides decision support so that you only pursue contracts where you have a high probability of success. These AI tools can support Federal opportunity identification through:
- Data aggregation and analysis: Pulling data from various government sources like SAM.gov, agency websites, and budget documents to identify upcoming solicitations, contract awards, and spending patterns.
- Keyword matching: Using natural language processing (NLP) to match company capabilities and expertise with keywords within RFPs and solicitations.
- Predictive analytics: Forecasting future contracting opportunities based on historical data and current trends, allowing companies to position themselves strategically.
- Competitor analysis: Identifying key competitors on a particular contract, analyzing their past performance, and highlighting potential areas for differentiation.
- Opportunity scoring: Ranking potential opportunities based on factors like contract value, win probability, and alignment with company capabilities.
AI tools combine these functions into applications that can provide you with:
- Federal Opportunity Intelligence: aggregate and analyze government procurement data, often incorporating AI algorithms to identify relevant opportunities.
- Market research: scan government websites and databases to identify potential leads and market trends.
- RFP analysis tools: parse complex RFPs, extract key requirements, and highlight areas where a company can demonstrate its strengths.
Benefits of using AI for Federal opportunity identification can include:
- Increased efficiency by automating the process of searching for relevant opportunities to save time and resources.
- Improved accuracy through data analysis to identify high-potential opportunities with greater precision.
- Proactive strategy development that helps companies anticipate Federal buyers’ future needs and figure out where they need to build relationships long before requirements are drafted and solicitations published.
What are the top AI tools for Federal prospecting right now?
Great question! AI market intelligence tools alone (never mind the giant field and bigger issues of proposal development tools) are changing fast. Shop around and ask others with needs similar to yours what their experiences have been.
For insight, I turned first to Orange Slices. David Blackburn founded this company to be a leader in AI platforms, as he explains, to
“identify, share and create timely, actionable and responsible information and data products, tools and resources that
1) are accessible to all organizations and their teams, small to large;
2) will assist Federal government and Industry IT and consulting leaders to more effectively identify and engage with each other; and
3) shine a spotlight on those leaders and companies that are #doingitright.”
Check out their blog post for insights into today’s top tools…and learn why you need to care about who owns the tools you choose.
2. Build Relationships with Federal Buyers
Many people mistakenly believe that government contracting is all about process and paperwork. While there’s paperwork a-plenty, it’s not just a process. Relationships play a key role in determining the winners! Contracting officers rarely award contracts to vendors they don’t know.
Building these connections increases your chances of becoming the vendor they want…even before formal requirements are drafted or a solicitation is published. Position yourself early in the procurement process to build relationships with the right people at the right time with the right message rather than waiting for RFPs.
Strategies to engage government buyers include:
- Researching, calling, and writing (and calling and writing) prospects to engage them!
- Attending pre-solicitation meetings and industry days.
- Engaging in government-hosted networking events
- Responding to Requests for Information and Sources Sought Notices to shape opportunities.
- Connect with agency small business specialists (OSDBUs) to gain insights (as well as support for potential set-asides)
Of course, it’s not that easy. For starters, did you know? Your Federal buyer – in every office – is more than one person! Each one has distinctly different goals and milestones, and offer the opportunity for micro-engagements – not micro-purchase, but micro-engagements – you and your buyer can initiate to move toward common goals.
Find out all about the Micro-Engagement Principle >>MORE.
The good news is that there’s a proven approach to finding, and building relationships with, all of them. Our proprietary Players and Layers Methodology (PALM)(R) unpacks how to do that, step by step. It’s the systematic way that my clients have gone on to win over $350 million in Federal contracts. You can learn how it works on our Players And Layers Methodology Resource Hub
It’s who you know (and who knows you).
You’ll need relationships with at least one person in each of four roles — what I call the “players at all the layers — in every agency where you want to win. Learn who they are, and what to do, say, and ask, to build those relationships, in our complimentary GovCon Personas Guide. >>Get the guide now!
3. Leverage Simplified Acquisitions and Micro-Purchases
If you have to do business development, how would you like your customer to pay you while you do it? Here’s how!
So many government contractors who are scouring databases looking for those big million-dollar-plus wins overlook the practical steps that not only build relationships and credibility…but generate revenue and past performance on the way to those wins.
Small contracts are often overlooked, but they provide a low-risk entry into government contracting. Winning smaller contracts builds past performance credibility when your buyer is looking at your proposal for larger awards. Simplified acquisition contracts (under $250,000) and micro-purchases (under $10,000) are easier to secure and require minimal administrative work. These contracts can:
- Build past performance credibility
- Strengthen relationships with agencies
- Lead to larger contract awards in the future
Micro-purchases (under $10,000) are often awarded with minimal or sometimes no competition, require minimal contract administration by your buyer, and can get you paid within days of contract performance.
Micro-purchases are not just for novices! Smart govcons incorporate a micro-purchase strategy into their growth plans..
Leverage Micro-Purchases for Growth
Get practical steps to turn a minimal investment of time and resources into a big impact on winning bigger Federal contracts. Watch the webinar now…or gather the team for a lunch & learn!
Simplified Acquisitions (under $250,000) involve fewer administrative burdens than a full Request for Proposal. These buys can happen quickly if the contracting officer needs to solicit only a few qualified vendors or can directly negotiate terms with a single vendor.
Things that can slow things down include
- Complexity of requirement: a more complex good or service may require more time for evaluation;
- Agency procedures: specific government agencies internal processes that can lengthen the award timeline; and
- Market conditions: if there is a limited pool of qualified vendors, it could take longer to identify a suitable source.
Understanding Lead Times: Why Early Engagement Matters
The average acquisition cycle – from requirement identification to contract award – for a major Federal contract takes 9 to 18 months. Successful vendors engage early in the acquisition cycle. That lead time lets them build relationships and gather intelligence for confident, early, bid/no-bid decisions that optimize use of business development and proposal resources.
When you start prospecting for opportunities before the formal Request for Proposal is published, you can gain significant advantages, including:
- More opportunity intelligence by regularly monitoring free and paid public sources.
- Identify and research the many individual people across multiple roles in the acquisition process in the account where they want to win work.
- Time to plan strategies and create messaging and content assets they need to develop trusting relationships with those people.
- Learn about emerging and/or previously unspoken needs
- Influence & develop requirements by responding to Requests for Information
- Eliminate competitors by responding to Sources Sought Notices that help buyers justify setting aside an acquisition for small business. A smaller pool of vendors gives every player a better chance of winning.
- Build trust through superlative performance on smaller, related, contracts awarded through Micro-Purchases and Simplified Acquisitions.
- Establish a reputation as the low-risk choice. A vendor who has focused on two or three agencies, and consistently participates in repeated pre-solicitation and competition activities, demonstrates persistence and commitment and builds more trust on the road to the ultimate win.
How To Decide When To Say No
Many companies make the mistake of bidding on everything set aside for a business like theirs – including solicitations where they have no experience or past performance. Not every contract – even if it’s for something you do, and for which you have past performance – is worth pursuing. Bidding on everything is a costly mistake.
- Some red flags for a bad opportunity:
- You have no relationships – you don’t know players at any layer in the account.
- Solicitation requirements suggest competitors have an advantage over you.
- Pricing problems: You don’t know how to price to win and perform profitably.
- The contract requires capabilities far beyond your current experience.
- Quick highlights for your Bid/No-Bid checklist:
- Do we meet at least 80% of the contract’s requirements?
- Do we have past performance that aligns with the work?
- Can we fulfill the contract with our current team and resources?
- Does the contract fit into our long-term strategy?
If the answer to any of these is NO, don’t bid.
To increase your win rate, use a bid/no-bid decision framework that evaluates contract alignment with your company’s capabilities and financial goals.
To Bid Or Not To Bid?
Get 4 proven templates to increase your Federal win rate via better bid decisions. Guide includes:
- Bid Costing Sheet & Decision Discussion Guide
- 12 Warning Signs (and what to do next)
- Bid / No-Bid Predictive Scoring System
Conclusion: Taking Action For Federal Contract Success
Winning Federal contracts is not about chasing every opportunity—it’s about selecting the right ones. By leveraging AI, building relationships, and targeting strategic contracts, businesses can improve their win rates and maximize Federal contracting success.
Key Takeaways:
- Use AI and market intelligence tools to find the best contract matches.
- Invest in government relationships to position yourself ahead of competitors.
- Start small with micro-purchases and simplified acquisitions to build credibility.
- Engage early in procurement cycles to influence contract requirements.
- Apply a strategic bid/no-bid process to focus on winnable opportunities.
By implementing these strategies, your company can streamline its approach to Federal contracting and secure high-value government contracts more effectively.