Before you can successfully sell your products and services to the government or any buyer, you must be able to clearly define what you can deliver and how you can meet the needs of prospective customers. This is a function of good management.
Your products and services should be clearly described in a business plan. If you do not have a current business plan, you should prepare one.
Identify Agency Needs
Once you have a clear understanding of what products and services you can best deliver to the
government, the next step is to identify what agencies are buying, what their needs are, how
they outreach to small businesses and how to contact them. The government offers an excellent
electronic tool to accomplish this, called Federal Business
Opportunities. This tool will help you identify buying sources, learn about small business
initiatives specific to individual agencies, help you discover business opportunities and share
with you forecasts of anticipated buying needs for individual agencies.
Buying Sources
Use this comprehensive list of federal departments and
agencies to learn more about the governments buying sources. Remember, the key to success for
any business is to match its products and services with the needs of potential clients. Learn
as much as possible about specific federal agencies who could possibly use your products and
services.
Matchmaking
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, HP (Hewlett-Packard ) and the U.S. Small Business Administration
are working together to help small businesses obtain more contracts from government and
industry. While driving contracts to small businesses will strengthen our economy, it will also
help organizations like yours achieve small and minority business contracting goals. Contracts
that develop from meetings held at the Business Matchmaking events will be our measure of
success.
The matchmaking events provide a unique opportunity for small businesses to present product and service solutions to buyers through prescheduled one-on-one appointments with procurement managers. The event is NOT an opportunity to trade business cards, as is the case with traditional trade shows. Instead it is a REAL chance for small businesses to meet with public and private organizations for procurement opportunities. Learn More About This
