Is Public Sector Business for Us?

Office Supplies, Imaging, and Technology • Jan 28, 2015

In the sales world, as in most endeavors, if you don’t know what you don’t know, there are potentially negative repercussions. In 2014, federal, state, and local governments in the United States spent $1.6 trillion outside of government pensions, healthcare, education, national defense, and welfare.

In 2015, the projected spending is set to rise to $1.7 trillion. For a historical perspective, the number was “only” $0.9 trillion in 2000. In 2015, there is growth to be realized, sales to be made, and potential new markets to enter.

Why vs Why Not Pursue Public Sector Business?

At BidPrime, we work with a variety of businesses in terms of the importance of public sector business to their bottomlines. BidPrime’s clients have a relatively equal mix of customers, both public and private. While other clients, public sector business is their only, sole source of revenue. There are also a number of clients whereby public sector business, while not to be ignored as a mere footnote, is a supplement to their revenue numbers.

We understand why some companies steer away from government work. For some businesses, either because, 1) their services and solutions are in no way a fit for public sector entities, and/or 2) public sector business is in no way a strategic match for the business. If you cannot respond to 1 and 2 with, “Yep, that is us. I can say, “in no way”, to both of those conditions”, what is the hold up? Is it…

1. Too time consuming to learn how to pursue and win public sector opportunities and to setup a process to win.

You have a variety of resources available and BidPrime’s clients have found that, once you learn and implement the protocol, you can streamline much of the process. By the way, there are additional resources being put in place and user-friendly tools being implemented.

Contact your local Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Center (APTAC). APTAC has over 300 local offices. They will go through the acquisition process in detail and this is worth noting, regardless if you use them or not, your tax dollars are already paying for their services!

Visit their websites and follow up by contacting your local government purchasing offices. The procurement professionals have a vested interest in ensuring that potential vendors know and follow their prescribed process(es).

Ask within your network. It is quite likely you already have friends, peers, colleagues who are already pursuing and winning public sector business. Somebody out there was growing their bottomline with the $1.6 trillion earned in 2014.

2. Opportunities are too difficult to find.

If we had a dollar for every minute we spent in our prior sales lives networking, cold calling, researching, prospecting, asking for referrals, we would have a bunch of dollars. While some businesses use the time consuming and archaic process of manually researching government websites, most others use automated notification services for bid requests / RFPs. Simply, you setup your business profile and receive the RFP / bid request notifications in your email inbox. At that point, you can quickly review and determine if the bid request/RFP is of interest to your business.

3. Too labor intensive to prepare responses to bid requests/RFPs.

Of course, larger companies, and some small, have a person or team dedicated to reviewing the incoming bid requests/RFPs and preparing, submitting, and following up on the applicable responses. As noted above, you have resources available to direct you, many of the processes are now fully automated, it will not be long until you fine tune and implement the process for you and your business.

Do a quick evaluation of how much time you are currently spending on prospecting. Regardless of how insignificant the task(s) appear, account for all of your time. Now, envision a world in which decision makers, budget, authority, need, timeframe, all of that, are advertising that they need your widget, and want it now!

4. Opportunities are too limited.

At any given moment, BidPrime’s technology works in real-time, there are 60-75k bid requests/RFPs spread throughout the below, and many, many other, industries. We encourage you to take a free, zero obligation look, try the service, and decide if public sector business should be a part of your strategy. BidPrime will send you the bid requests / RFPs of interest to you, and only the potentials of interest to you. Also, BidPrime will provide you with a Market Analysis to give you a historical perspective on the activity, within your scope of solutions and services offered.

* Aerospace and Defense
* Architecture and Engineering
* Automobile and Air Transport
* Building Maintenance
* Clothing, Textiles, Uniforms
* Computer and Network Hardware
* Building Construction
* Energy and Lighting
* Environmental
* Financial and Insurance
* Food and Food Service
* Heavy Machinery and Industrial
* Information Technology
* Medical and Healthcare
* Office Supplies and Imaging
* Park, Sports, Recreation
* Professional Services
* Public Works, Water, Sanitation
* Radio and Communication
* Rental and Leasing, Real Estate
* Security, Fire, Safety
* Software
* Transportation and Highway

As sales professionals work pipelines, network, negotiate, and navigate through the various tasks and “must do’s” involved in development of new business, are valuable opportunities being overlooked and lost? In 2015, adding public sector business can be a game changer for you and your company.