You’ve decided you want to sell to the government, and you have the resources in place to make that happen. Now, you must determine which opportunities you want to bid on – but it might not be as easy as you think. The bid/no-bid decision can be complex, so here are four questions to ask yourself before making a bid decision.
1. Can my price beat the incumbent’s price while still maintaining a high profit margin?
Often, the government will stick with the current contract holder (incumbent) instead of awarding the contract to a new company for convenience purposes. If the incumbent has been doing great work and has proven organizational skills, then why change contract holders? It’s a risk for contracting officers to award a new company if they are already satisfied.
Therefore, how do you decide if your bid will be compelling enough to win over the contracting officer? Research. Research can help find the incumbent contract and determine your company’s level of competitiveness when it comes to pricing and past performance. Additionally, it can help determine if your pricing will come in high enough without drastically affecting your profit margin.
2. What does my company’s scope of work look like?
If you don’t have past experience in a certain area, the government may choose someone else’s bid over yours. Therefore, it’s important to determine if a bid matches your line of work. Need help with this? The capture (government business development) and research teams are here to help.
The JetCo Solutions research team keeps clients’ needs in mind while looking through hundreds of new solicitations each day. Using an array of search tools and techniques, the research team makes specialized searches for each client, ensuring we’re only seeing bids that align with the clients’ best interest.
3. Does my company have the current capacity to fulfill this job?
The size of the job might drastically affect your company’s ability to fulfill the order. It may take too long to plan logistics, or the time frame may not work well. Maybe your company would like to go after this bid in the future but would struggle to fulfill the order in the present day. Either way, the size of the job must be thoroughly analyzed and compared to your company’s current capacity before you make your bid/no-bid decision.
4. Will the opportunity’s location affect my profit margin?
There may be a bid that perfectly aligns with your company… except that it’s halfway across the world. For some companies, this may not be an issue, but for others, the added cost of travel, hotels, taxes, fees, and more could be a deciding factor in their bid/no-bid decision.
At JetCo Solutions, our research team has an in-depth knowledge of clients, allowing them to pinpoint opportunities that align with clients’ geographic limitations. Knowing clients’ small preferences can go a long way in maintaining bidding efficiency.
Overall, without taking pricing, the scope of work, job size, and location into account, a bid loss is likely to occur. Utilizing the right talent and resources can make your bid/no-bid decision simple and can save you time and money in the long-run.
Need some assistance with your government sales? We’re here to help. Contact us and we’ll set up a time to chat.
About the Author
The JetCo Solutions team is determined. We only win if you win, and we want you to succeed at every step of the government contracting process. View our team.