It’s important to find out as much as you can about the government agencies you may be working with and what they’re asking for before bidding on government opportunities. By doing market research before you start bidding, you can greatly improve your proposal and increase your chances of winning the contract. Whether you’re new to government bidding or not, it’s beneficial to continue finding ways to improve your proposal process and make your business stand out over your competitors.
By utilizing a government bidding solution like Periscope S2G, you can easily find thousands of government bidding opportunities from various federal, state, and local agencies across the United States and get notified of the ones that match your business. You can also easily conduct your own market research by viewing closed and awarded solicitations to see what contracts were awarded for, and you can even see what other suppliers are currently viewing the bids you’re interested in. This will help give you a competitive edge and will provide you with more time to draft a competitive proposal.
Here are some tips on how you can conduct market research to improve your proposal process, leading to more big wins for your business.
One of the first things you should do before writing up your proposal is to do some research on the agency you may be working for. Find out more about what they do, what they’re looking for, where they’re located, and what types of bid opportunities they’ve issued in the past. You want to make sure you tailor your proposal exactly to their needs and make it unique to what they’re requesting. This will show that you really took the time to get to know them and that you care about delivering the best possible products or services. On Periscope S2G you can easily search through different agencies’ open and closed bids to learn more about them, which will better position your business for future opportunities you’d like to bid on.
There’s always going to be competition in the government bidding world, as there are often many different suppliers bidding on the same opportunity. Getting to know who you may be up against can help make your proposals more competitive. Do some research on what they can provide and what contracts they may have won in the past and see if you can provide something better. A great way to find out who you may be up against is by looking at what companies are interested in the same opportunity you are, which you can easily do on Periscope S2G. When you click on a bid opportunity, you can see how many page views that bid has gotten along with a list of companies that are currently interested in the opportunity. From there you can do your own research to learn more about them, which can give you an advantage when it comes time to start writing your own proposal.
Looking through past bid opportunities that relate to the products and services your business sells is also a great way to get ahead of the game. As a registered supplier on Periscope S2G, you can filter your bid search to include closed and awarded bids, along with other filters such as keywords, location, bid end date, and more to find more specific results. From there you can view the documents and specifications, see who bid on the opportunity, and what it was awarded for, which can help you plan for future opportunities. You’ll be able to determine what bids may have been too high or too low, which can be great information to know when you’re ready to bid on similar opportunities, improving your chances for success.
A lot of times certain products or services a government agency is requesting can have a lot of moving parts and very detailed specifications. Make sure you read through all the documents carefully and confirm you can provide all that’s being asked in the time frame they’ve requested. If you don’t think you can fulfill the contract in its entirety, it’s best to hold off and save your time and resources for something you know you can put your best foot forward on. Many agencies won’t even consider your bid if you’re missing something or did not correctly include all that they’re looking for. Just make sure you’re confident in your proposal and what you can bring to the table, and it will greatly improve your chances of being selected.
Doing your research is important before you start bidding on any new opportunity. Once you feel confident enough that you can write a competitive proposal, don’t hesitate to start. You may not win every contract, but as you keep going and gaining more experience, you’ll improve your chances immensely. By registering as a supplier on Periscope S2G, you can conduct most of your market research right on our platform, making it easy to keep track of everything. Gain access to thousands of bid opportunities a month and get notified daily of the ones that match your business, so you can spend more of your time writing those winning proposals!
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