Federal Gov't Sales
Business Development -- Start with the Internet
By Richard White
May 20, 2005, 09:39

Firstgov.gov, is a search engine that organizes and centralizes federal agency information. It searches over 30 million web pages. It takes some rudimentary experience in web searching to use it properly. If you get frustrated using it, keep this in mind: it has revolutionized the business development process.

Once at an agency website, look for links to such gold nuggets as these:

• The contracting organization
• Doing business with the agency information
• Official buyer names and phone numbers
• Organization charts and end-user contact directories
• Procurement forecasts
• Active contract listings
• Public bids
• Advanced announcements of upcoming public procurements
• Credit card holder contact data

The business development information available at agency websites varies from sparse to very rich.

If an agency website does not contain organizational directories with titles and phone numbers, call the Directors Office or Public Relations Office and ask for the agency telephone directory, organization charts, and agency program publications. Usually they will send you the information without a formal Freedom of Information Request, if the information is available as an off-the-shelf publication.

Several commercial government directories are available on a subscription basis. Fedmarket.com offers Business Development Roadmaps for Selling IT Solutions, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense.

We do the initial Internet research for you. These three roadmaps provide business development information on the Internet in an organized and structured format, including end-user and official buyer contact data.

End-users for your product and service can be identified by calling the official buyers who’ve purchased your type of product or service and asking about the end-users with whom they work. Sometimes official buyers are listed at agency websites. At the very least you will find the phone number of the contracting organization for the agency.

Fedmarket.com offers FedBuying Intelligence, a subscription service that provides a history of what products and services individual federal buyers bought, from whom, and for how much. This service allows users to look at the buying history of each individual buyer within an agency. It includes official buyer contact data.

Try using local and federal blue page telephone directories to find the federal offices, facilities, and military base in you geographic are. Our MilBase subscription service allows you to search for all of the military bases in a geographic area, including searches by state and zip code. http://www.fedmarket.com/bidProducts/milBase/index.php

Learn the complete picture of federal sales through one trip to Washington, DC. Attend our "Selling to the Federal Government" seminar. This seminar expands upon the information in this installment series.