How to Build Your Pipeline With the Right Federal Contracts

Finding the Right Opportunity

A common challenge many business developers face is knowing whether or not their company is qualified for a certain opportunity. Different federal agencies have specific compliance requirements and regulations that can be difficult to navigate. Understanding what the solicitation specifications are and determining if your business can accomplish what it asks are vital first steps in the contracting pipeline.

Another problem is finding quality, actionable opportunities in the market. Without enough solicitations or reliable, up-to-date information, federal contract pipelines come to a halt, stalling the process and wasting money. But how can companies find the right opportunities for growth when there’s a shortage in the market?

Bloomberg Government offers a suite of workflow tools that enable business developers to easily uncover new solicitations and contracts. Whereas other software only scans the title and description of RFPs and RFIs, BGOV Opportunity Search is the only solution with keyword search capabilities that take you inside related documents provided by agencies.  The fast, accurate, and reliable information also saves you time and resources to focus on open opportunities.

In-depth agency and company pages also provide you with accurate and timely data on key players in the market. Agency profiles give you a general overview of government spending trends and critical documents to help you find the right opportunities and build a strategic pipeline. Company profiles keep you up-to-date on the latest mergers and acquisitions, provide intelligence on partners and competitors, and gather subcontracting information to help you forge strong business relationships.

BGOV can also help companies determine if a contract is right for them. Surfacing opportunity knowledge and qualification details is quick and easy. Gather recompete data, place of performance information, security clearance requirements and more with the most powerful search tools on the market. With BGOV, business developers save time and money searching for optimal opportunities, enabling them to focus on building robust contract pipelines and securing deals.

Creating a Federal Contract Pipeline

Creating a robust contract pipeline is essential to any federal business as it’s the primary engine driving growth. While the specifics of each strategy will be unique depending on your business, the contract, your competition, and the target agency, there are five general stages of an effective pipeline:

1. Identify Opportunities: The first phase of a federal contract pipeline involves searching for actionable opportunities in your target market with specific keywords. Once you’ve identified a contract you’re interested in, you need to gather as much information as possible for the next step.
2. Qualify Opportunities: Without first understanding the opportunities you’ve identified, you’ll be bidding blindly on every job. You need to know which government agency is buying, what the contract asks for, and the necessary contact information.
3. Connect and collaborate: Federal contracts are often large projects that require multiple parties working together. Maintaining contact with the agency and potentially partnering with another company can help your business build relationships, increase its win rate, and expand its network.
4. Capture the contract: Capture managers come in to help strategize the best way to secure the contract. This requires reliable data on current market conditions, competitors, and the target agency.
5. Bid to win: The final stage of a contract pipeline involves writing and submitting proposals, either alone or with a partner network, to win the deal.

Business developers face numerous challenges in building these pipelines. Whether it’s finding and centralizing accurate data, getting fast and current intelligence, or understanding the larger picture with limited information, creating a viable strategy can quickly become a daunting task.

Bloomberg Government provides a single, reliable source for current information with continuous updates to ensure you stay ahead of the curve on contract updates. Backed by legacy data, artificial intelligence and machine learning pull important details and supporting documentation for your specific contracts and opportunities. And with expert analysis, you receive more context on each opportunity for the entire perspective.