Each loss should be a learning experience and each contract should be reviewed introspectively. The following tactics and data should help you create a much more competitive environment for government bidding, analyze your competition, and maximize revenue.

Pre-bid techniques: Knowing all information necessary to complete a bid

You have identified a contract for which you would like to bid. You have 2 weeks to submit a bid. Maximizing your time is paramount to creating a winning bid. The best way to accomplish this is knowing what needs to be done exactly and precisely.

Ask Questions! Sometimes one mistake can disqualify you. The procurement officer is your main point of contact to answer any questions about the bid. Their sole responsibility is to ensure that the government entity garners the correct bids so they can get the best bang for their buck possible. Often times, amendments and addendums are issued during the course of the open bid period.

In addition, some agencies require any questions asked in writing to be provided to all vendors who demonstrated interest in the bid. This time is valuable in properly ascertaining all requirements and specifications related to the contract, and ensuring enough time to prepare a quality response. Furthermore, this window provides enough time to collect all intelligence necessary to prepare a competitive and profitable bid response.

Your local PTAC office is an often overlooked resource. The PTAC (Procurement Technical Assistance Center) is designed to assist small businesses in answering general questions about government bidding. If you are new or unfamiliar to public bidding, whether at the city, county, state, or even federal level, the PTAC can answer any questions. They can be your best friend!

If your company is interested in getting started with Federal GSA bidding, we highly recommend going through your local PTAC. More information about this organization, including contact information and your local office, can be found on your local PTAC website.

That one resource can be the difference between successful pricing of your bid or missing the boat entirely.

Winning a bid: Leaving money on the table

Winning a bid is not always what it is cracked up to be! Did you realize an acceptable profit? Did you drastically underbid your competition unnecessarily? Each winning bid will always leave some money on the table, not unlike bidding in the private sector. If your winning bid results within your predetermined profit margin then you did a good job. If your winning bid is less than your predetermined profit margins fret not for this a learning experience for next time. Always keep in mind that if you will lose money, then it would have been better to lose the bid altogether. This is a mistake many neophytes to this process fail to realize initially.

Most agencies publish “bid tabulations” in accordance to state and local best practices in procurement. If it is not published on their website or as a standard reply to your rejected bid, you can and should ask for it. In most cases this can be accomplished with a simple email or phone call to the procurement officer.

In other cases, a more formal procedure should take place, known as an FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request. We will expound on the virtues of the FOIA shortly. There are a few intrinsic data points that can and should be gleaned for future success.

Several keys to look for:

• How many vendors bid on this contract?
• What other vendors are competing against your company?
• What was the next highest bid?

Losing a bid: Lessons in competition

As mentioned earlier losing a bid is not always a bad thing. Perhaps the winner underbid the contract or their wholesale distributor provides products for a lesser amount. If the latter is true, finding and identifying bids this competitor may not know about is vitally important! Be sure to look for all agencies, including school districts and utility companies. Statistical data has shown that by subscribing to a service that notifies you of RFPs gives you a much greater chance of finding opportunities that fly under the radar.

In addition, not winning a bid gives your firm the opportunity to look introspectively at cost structures that may prevent your ability to bid competitively while unwittingly giving other companies the leg up. Ultimately, the bid tabulations and bid contract award information is your key to understanding what happened, and learning from your mistakes. That is one of the most important pieces of this entire puzzle; collecting the relevant data and learning what can be done to prevent a repeat performance.

This data can often be simply obtained. It is incredibly useful to have a FOIA Request draft prepared to submit to the agency in question in each case. In some cases you may be asked to pay a nominal administrative fee for your request. It will be miniscule and can pay long term dividends which make it worthwhile for piecing together the pieces of the puzzle. The more data that you can collect then the greater chance you have to turn these losses into victories down the road.

Templates for this can be obtained throughout the internet at little or no cost through various legal website and contract resources. In lieu of hiring expensive consultants and government marketers this is one way to gain the same information without paying an arm and a leg.

Having a template of your own will circumvent this need and save money. For example, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press offers a FOIA letter template generator free of charge. This is an extremely valuable tool while building your letter in conformity to the laws in your state, and directly related to the information which your company seeks in relation to bids and contracts.

This generator is located at the following. http://www.rcfp.org/foialetter/index.php.

Conclusion

Bid and RFP notification services like BidPrime only do part of the work, chiefly informing vendors about newly released government bids. Other services, lobbyists, and consultants can aide in the bidding intelligence process, too. But keep in mind these are often high dollar additions that will eat into your desired profit margin very quickly.

These entities are useful for high profit yielding industries and Fortune 500 companies. The techniques mentioned above are the exact same tactics used by these high priced consultants. By following these loose guidelines it will allow you to save time and money while making the most of each new RFP opportunity. Always remember that the person armed with the most information is in the best position to make the most comprehensive submission.

Happy hunting!

Stephen Hetzel is the Chief Operations Officer at BidPrime, an online database service of government bids and RFP opportunities for businesses to identify and track federal, state and local government bid opportunities. BidPrime serves clients of all industries, including construction, building operations and maintenance, industrial equipment and supplies, and IT and networking products and services.

BidPrime also makes available a FedBizOpps RSS Feed for all subscribers.

Government contracts are the backbone of this economic recovery. Smart companies are using these avenues of revenue to boost profits and reduce the negative effect of stagnant growth in the private sector.

So many brand name companies are falling prey to the economic downturn which shows no signs of abating anytime soon. It has magnified the reality of this winter of our financial discontent. Yet many smaller companies are thriving, though, by forging ahead in the world of government contract work. For many of these companies creating bids for government contracts is foreign territory. But seeing the federal stimulus money trickling down has provided a much needed respite in this unforgiving economic climate.

Niche industries have found a record amount of government RFP work to help weather these tempestuous conditions. Privately owned mid-sized industries had to quickly learn how to navigate these constantly changing economic twists and turns or else face an almost certain death. Their ability to act swiftly in government contract bidding has been an imperative component, not only in their survival but their thriving bottom lines as well. The revenue allocated for government contracts in the first month of 2010 eclipsed the previous high by a substantial amount. That trend has continued and there is substantive data suggesting this is just the beginning. That will be music to the ears for a wide variety of industries that are utilizing government contracting to offset losses in the private sector.

For example, architectural services are thriving in government contracts despite the abysmal private market. Other companies like IT firms are finding a recourse in revenue through going after Health IT initiatives and electronic medical records, or public schools which continue to grow in use of software. Each of these examples are just snapshots of the enormous amount of possibilities that are a derivative of the federal stimulus money finally reaching its designated targets.

Fortune 500 companies are seemingly set in their ways in regard to government bids. In the past government bids were treated with sublime disinterest outside of long standing contracts. The rise of their smaller competitors who can move more quickly and precisely portends more questions than answers from the former corporate elite. In the interim you can expect to see continued growth from small to mid-sized companies savvy enough to maximize this record amount of government contract spending.

Mr. Ward is the VP of Business Development at BidPrime.com, an online reseller of federal, state, and local government bids and contract intelligence. Previously, he served as VP of Sales and Marketing at Cardiovascular Services of America (CSA). Prior to to CSA, he served as VP of Sales at MEDAxiom. View more healthcare government bids.

BidPrime issues overview of state and local government purchasing in January 2010. Top products and services wanted nationwide include: automobiles, software, printing services, networking/IT/ERP staffing, janitorial services, construction (road, building, sewer, bridge), and demolition services.

Austin, TX (PRWEB) February 9, 2010 — BidPrime.com, an online subscription service providing government bids and contract intelligence to businesses, released a report detailing key government contracts and RFPs issued at the state and local level in the United States. In addition, the report lists each state’s most commonly requested items or services, and the number of bids and RFPs issued by state agencies, cities, counties, and school districts.

“This serves as a valuable analytical resource for companies projecting new locales for business across the nation,” said Jim Ward, BidPrime’s VP of Business Development. “Government spending will remain the backbone of this economic recovery, and will remain a requirement for every succeeding business in boosting their bottom lines.”

The analysis covers each state, listing the most common bids for products and services for each. In January 2009, the top government bids and contracts wanted nationwide included automobiles, software, networking/IT/ERP staffing, janitorial services, demolition services, construction (road, building, sewer, bridge), and printing services.

Last January alone, BidPrime tracked 39,281 new bids across the nation and just over 30,000 of those bids were at the state and local level. “Almost 3 trillion dollars will be spent this year by state and local governments,” said Stephen Hetzel, BidPrime’s Chief Operating Officer. “Despite increased spending and high numbers of government bids and RFPs, we sometimes see awarded contracts with only 2 bidders. This demonstrates the lack of awareness about these bids and thus underscores the great value of BidPrime’s services.”

The report can be downloaded at the following website: Key Industries in State and Local Government Bidding.

About BIDPRIME – BidPrime is an online subscription service providing government contract information and real-time notification of new government bid opportunities and sales leads. Subscriptions start at a monthly fee of $17.99 to receive targeted government bid alerts via email and track real-time federal, state, and local bid opportunities. BidPrime is headquartered in Austin, Texas. More information on BidPrime can be found at http://www.bidprime.com.

Media Contact:
BidPrime
Larry Walker
512-722-6107

###

The increased availability in government contracts calling for medical services has reached an all time high.  Until now finding federal, state, and local government bids for physician services has been an exercise in futility by and large.  Many practices would openly admit to not seeking these federal, state, or local contracts in the past due to their perceived difficulties.  After experiencing the newly implemented Medicare reimbursement cuts many practices are now singing a different tune.

“Anytime you see an industry get hit with up to 35% cuts in their most profitable modalities it will create one of two scenarios,” said Jim Ward, Vice President of Business Development for BidPrime, a leading resource for obtaining government bids, contracts, and RFPs.  “The groups that were prepared have expanded their scope of services to now incorporate finding worthwhile government bids and contracts to help offset losses.  The groups that were not prepared are now being absorbed by hospital systems just to make ends meet.  That second scenario was unimaginable just five years ago.”

The physician practices that have ventured into the word of government contract work like what they have seen.  It has provided a much needed respite from the full fledged assault on their bottom line revenue numbers.  In fact, many practices are left wondering how this sleeping giant lay dormant for so long.

The answer is deeply rooted in the cloak and dagger relationship between physician practices and government entities.  This was spawned in the early 1990s with the passing of the Stark Laws preventing physicians from abusing self referrals.  Its later incarnations had done little to dissuade either side from backing off their original ramparts.  With the dawning of a new day in the medical community, though, this one time frosty relationship has begun to thaw which should benefit both the public sector and private healthcare professionals.

This ongoing tit for tat is unlikely to subside anytime soon but with more physicians taking advantage of existing government contract work it does signal a move in the right direction.  It is beneficial for the physicians to explore these new government contract revenue sources at the federal, state, and local level, and has government sanctioned patient care contracts now being serviced by extremely qualified physicians.

Will this honeymoon last?  Only time will tell but it is without doubt a major step in the right direction.

Jim Ward, VP of Business Development at BidPrime.com, and online database and provider offederal, state, and local government bids and contract leads.

View a sample of the latest issued medical and healthcare government bids and contracts from BidPrime.

To locate these bids, you may want to keep an eye on newspaper classifieds or the websites of specific government entities near you. If your business operates only in North Dakota, this is easy and takes less than an hour a day. However, if your business operates in a larger state, across multiple states, or if you don’t have an hour per day to spend, a service like BidPrime.com is a cost and time-effective solution to reduce the burden of locating these valuable and often overlooked opportunities.

So I’ve identified a qualified lead, but what now?

First, verify the qualifications and deadlines related to the bid in the bid document or request for proposal.

What to look out for:

• Ensure that your company qualifies for the bid. Some bids are set-aside for minority, woman, or veteran-owned businesses.
• Look for any listed pre-bid conferences and take note of any mandatory ones.
• Do you need to be a registered vendor to place a bid?

Some entities will post sign-in sheets for a pre-bid conference or have a utility to view past awards. This information can be used as valuable intelligence to develop a competitive bid. If the entitiy does not post this information online, you may sometimes request it from the agency procurement officer. This contact should be your main point of contact for any questions related to the bid, the bid document, specifications, addenda, and amendments. This information should be in the bid document or the website; however, if you cannot find this information, BidPrime’s tech support team may be able to help assist you.

Your proposal is your sales pitch for your company. Ensure that you are thorough and that you meet requirements and give a competitive yet profitable bid. Listing why you are the best candidate is an effective route too, as sometimes contacts are not awarded to the lowest bidder.

There are many resources on the web for filling out response templates that will be for another post. The most valuable resource for questions of this sort is your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).

http://www.aptac-us.org/new/Govt_Contracting/find.php

Finally, it is important to remember that companies often lose more government contracts than they win.

Austin, TX (PRWEB) January 4, 2010 — BidPrime.com, an online subscription service providing government bids and contract intelligence to businesses, announces the hiring of Jim Ward as VP of Business Development. Mr. Ward will be responsible for wide range of clients, while also coordinating white papers and valuable industry research on government spending and healthcare procurement opportunities.

“I look forward to Mr. Ward’s contributions to BidPrime. He has tremendous knowledge and insight into the medical supplies industry. Furthermore, his professional experience in building companies beyond the upstart stage is invaluable” said Stephen Hetzel, BidPrime’s Head of Operations. “This combined experience is a natural fit, especially as healthcare legislation in Washington will undoubtedly increase government involvement in the funding of healthcare initiatives.”

“In light of government intervention, healthcare industry experts are forecasting a record number of government needs within the healthcare spectrum,” said Jim Ward. “We feel that BidPrime has the apparatus in place to capture these opportunities and provide them for vendors in real-time.” To demonstrate these opportunities, BidPrime recently launched an industry listing of new and upcoming RFPs and purchasing opportunities in healthcare, located at http://www.bidprime.com/bids/medical-imaging-and-health-equipment.html.

Mr. Ward carries extensive sales and marketing experience, as well as business management acumen. Previously, he served as VP of Sales and Marketing at Cardiovascular Services of America (CSA). Prior to to CSA, he served as VP of Sales at MEDAxiom, which saw exponential growth during his tenure. In addition, he currently participates in some healthcare lobby-related boards.

About BIDPRIME – BidPrime is an online subscription service providing government contract information and real-time notification of new government sales leads and bid opportunities. Subscriptions start at a monthly fee of $29.99 to receive targeted government bid alerts via email and track real-time bid opportunities. Subscription plans for nationwide access and multiple users are a monthly fee of $149.99. BidPrime is headquartered in Austin, Texas. More information on BidPrime can be found at http://www.bidprime.com.

###

Austin, TX (PRWEB) September 23, 2009 — BidPrime.com, an online subscription service providing government bids and contract intelligence to small businesses, announces the launch of its new RSS feeds feature for vendors today.

The feeds target 10 key vendor industries, including HVAC installation, security services, janitorial cleaning bids and more. In addition, BidPrime now publishes a feed of real-time federal recovery contract leads to track federal contract opportunities and stimulus projects.

The RSS feeds are available for the public, vendors, media, and trade organizations at no cost. “Most purchasing sources, including FedBizOps, do not make targeted RSS feeds readily available for niche markets,” said Stephen Hetzel, BidPrime’s Operations Officer and Product Developer. “BidPrime’s RSS feeds are a flexible and interoperable tool for businesses to integrate information into their current procurement systems.”

BidPrime’s real-time government bid feeds can be used by any RSS reader utility, published on company intranet sites, or viewed using BidPrime’s real-time government bid index located on its website. “These feeds are available without a subscription to BidPrime, but users can tailor more specific searches, save leads, track contract intelligence, and use more of BidPrime’s bid management utilities for a low monthly fee,” said Joshua Schwartzbeck, BidPrime’s Information Officer and Chief Developer. “BidPrime offers better information flexibility and fast notification of nationwide government purchasing information.”

Subscriptions start at a monthly fee of $50. Members at this level receive targeted government bid alerts via email and have the ability to track real-time bid opportunities. Subscription plans for nationwide access and multiple users are a monthly fee of $150. Access to federal-only plans are $20 per month, or $15 per month when coupled with one of BidPrime’s state and local subscription plans.

Interested vendors may subscribe to a risk-free, no credit card-required trial for two weeks of free access to BidPrime’s federal, state, and local bid notification service.

The following key industries are featured in the new real-time notification of government bids:
-Architectural and engineering RFPs
-Building construction RFPs
-Computer hardware bids
-Computer software bids
-HVAC repair bids
-Janitorial services bids
-Landscaping bids
-Networking and IT services bids
-Security services bids
-Transportation and road construction RFPs

All Federal recovery opportunities are also available. In the coming weeks more niche industries will become available at no cost.

About BIDPRIME – BidPrime is an online subscription service providing government bids and contract opportunities using a “Software-as-a-Service” management interface. BidPrime offers real-time notification of new government sales leads and bid opportunities, with a primary focus on operations & management services, software and information technology, architectural and engineering services, and construction services industries. BidPrime is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Contact:

Larry Walker
BidPrime
512.722.6222
www.bidprime.com

###