Andy Howard was quoted in an Industry Market Trends article discussing how to land a government contract. “Selling to the government is different from selling to the private sector,” he explained.
Howard advised that “the absolute first thing any business should do before it tries to secure a government contract is to spend the time, spend the money and exert the effort to understand that doing business with the government is everything but doing business as usual.”
“At the federal level, for example, there are unique contractor registration and contractor reporting and disclosure requirements,” he continued. “In many instances, there are a host of socio-economic and contract administration obligations that are unique to government contracting, such as—in some cases—adopting anti-discrimination and affirmative action programs and policies, or divulging cost, profit and other pricing information to the government that usually is closely guarded information usually not shared with commercial customers.”
Howard also suggested that after a prospective vendor gathers information on the government market, it “should explore what kinds of contracting opportunities are available to it. Federal contracting opportunities are advertised on the Federal Business Opportunities website, and many states maintain similar online resources.”
Howard advised that “the absolute first thing any business should do before it tries to secure a government contract is to spend the time, spend the money and exert the effort to understand that doing business with the government is everything but doing business as usual.”
“At the federal level, for example, there are unique contractor registration and contractor reporting and disclosure requirements,” he continued. “In many instances, there are a host of socio-economic and contract administration obligations that are unique to government contracting, such as—in some cases—adopting anti-discrimination and affirmative action programs and policies, or divulging cost, profit and other pricing information to the government that usually is closely guarded information usually not shared with commercial customers.”
Howard also suggested that after a prospective vendor gathers information on the government market, it “should explore what kinds of contracting opportunities are available to it. Federal contracting opportunities are advertised on the Federal Business Opportunities website, and many states maintain similar online resources.”