Six Suggestions

As first step, identify which government agencies are buying the type of products or services you sell.  In the same way that you target commercial customers, you need to target the right government agencies.  There can be hundreds of government agencies in any region or zone.  In the US, there are more government agencies than I could count (see http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml).  The EU has even more.  If you are not familiar with which agencies buy in your industry, post a question to this effect on a forum or blog of a quality e-marketplace in your industry and ask the question.  You are likely to get at least a few responses directing you to particular agencies.  In addition, call some government agencies and ask around.

Second, you need to target the right industries.  Currently, there are certain industries that are benefiting under different countries’ stimulus packages more so than other industries.  For example, the US stimulus package is particularly targeting energy, healthcare and HUB Zones (economically depressed regions) and the EU packages are particularly targeting the auto industry and Eastern Europe.  Maybe these are not industries or regions that your business has traditionally sold into, however, is it possible that your business could target government customers in those industries or regions?  Certainly, your chances in those industries may be greater than in other industries with less stimulus funding.  Join the discussion or start a forum posts on some quality e-marketplaces in your industry to see if others have ideas on how to target industries or regions most benefiting from the stimulus packages.

Third, before you start searching for stimulus opportunities, make sure you get your business ready to do business with the government.   Doing business with the government is NOT like doing business with a commercial customer.  Government contracting is regulated by public procurement laws and there are often registrations and forms to fill out before you can even submit a government contract.  I discuss this further in my MatchB2B blog:  www.matchb2b.net/blog/index.php?cur_cat_id=4.  Again, forums and blogs on e-marketplaces in your industry can be a great source of help in working through these issues.

With the above background diligence done, you are now ready to search for opportunities.  Arguably, your first point of call should be government websites that advertise stimulus contracts and bids.  Unfortunately, most countries do not have a single ‘clearing house’ that advertises all government contracting opportunities.  In the US, for example, Federal contracting opportunities exceeding $25,000 can be found on FedBusOpps (http://www.fbo.gov) or on USASpending (www.usaspending.gov/).  However, state and local government contracts are found on the individual state and local government agency websites.  There is also no specific website to find US stimulus contracts.  While federal agencies receive the bulk of the stimulus funds, state and local agencies are also getting billions of dollars that they will, in turn, spend on their own procurement processes.  Therefore, all levels of government offer opportunities.  In Europe, the system is more harmonized – EU public procurement opportunities that are above certain contract values are published on the TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) website, with information about each procurement published in 23 EU languages.   See http://ted.europa.eu/.   Of course, opportunities below the contract value threshold for TED (which varies per EU directive) are not on TED (http://simap.europa.eu/supplier/opportunities-in-europe/index_en.htm).

Because of these gaps, searching non-government e-marketplaces is an excellent way to fill the gap.  Many private e-marketplaces are more commercially oriented and easier to search and navigate than some government sites.  They also often do the work for you in collecting bids from all levels of government.  In addition, you can often sign up (as you can on many government websites) to receive notices and alerts for bids in your industry.  In Australia, a website called TenderLink (http://www.tenderlink.com/) advertises tenders from all levels of government and is an excellent resource for finding government bids in Australia.  In many cases, these websites charge a fee to access the government bid and download them.  For example, in the US, FindRFP (http://www.findrfp.com/) and Bid Sync (http://www.bidsync.com/) both advertise government bids and charge membership or transaction fees.  However, there are websites that advertise government bids that do not charge a fee.  For example, RFPdb (http://www.rfpdb.com/) in the US does not charge a registration fee, but works on a ‘credit’ system – credits are awarded each time you post a RFP (request for proposal) on the site, and those credits can then be used to access RFPs on the site.

In addition to searching e-marketplaces for prime-contracts with government agencies, also remember to search e-marketplaces for sub-contracting or partnering opportunities for government contracts.  Many businesses need to sub-contract a portion of the job.  E-marketplaces often present sub-contracting opportunities.  In the US, for example, ARRA stimulus sub-contract opportunities can be identified on a government website - http://web.sba.gov/subnet/search/index.cfm.  Sub-contracting or teaming may be a great way for you to start doing business with the government, learn the intricacies of government contracting and build relationships with government purchasing agents, without having the full responsibility of being the prime contractor.

Tell us your views

I turn now to some questions for you.