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Survey of 24,000 Federal Contracting and Small Business Officials tasked with locating potential vendors and suppliers
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A fedXccel survey of federal contracting officials provides insight on how Small Businesses need to market their products and services based on buyer preferences. The objective of this survey was to help guide Small businesses looking to market to federal agencies.
Many Businesses end up being frustrated with expensive marketing solutions that do not appear to work. This survey sheds light on strategies that Business should pursue for maximizing return on marketing investment.
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Survey of 24,000 Federal Contracting officers looking for Small Businesses
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The results of the "What Are Federal Buyers Looking For - Survey 2009" help Small businesses make actionable marketing investments based on facts and actual buyer preferences. The survey results provide invaluable insights into what works and what does not work while marketing to federal agencies.
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A sampling of Federal agencies that responded to the survey include:
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Civilian |
Defense |
Healthcare |
Homeland Security |
- Housing and Urban Development
- Department of Agriculture
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Department of Treasury
- US Postal Service
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- Army
- Air Force
- Navy
- Defense Finance and Accounting Service
- Defense Logistics Agency
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
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- Center for Disease Control
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Food and Drug Administration
- Health Resources and Services Administration
- National Institutes of Health
- National Cancer Institute
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- Department of Homeland Security
- FBI Academy
- Federal Bureau of Prisons
- Law Enforcement Online
- US Coast Guard
- Department of Justice
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Summary of Findings:
 GSA Schedule and its effective marketing are critical for "getting on the radar"
Professional website with past performance, and access to pricing is required
Maintaining electronic contact with "pre-researched" buyers is essential
Need to know specific sections of theFederal Acquisitions Regulation (FAR)
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1. Are you a Federal Contracting official with a need to conduct research about Small Businesses with regard to prime contracts, simplified acquisitions or purchase card procurements?
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2. How do you go about searching for Small Businesses/Suppliers? Provide your first choice.2. How do you go about searching for Small Businesses/Suppliers? Provide your first choice.
This was a multiple choice question and most users indicated GSA schedules as the first place for searching qualified vendors followed by CCR. A significant number of buyers used Google for finding suppliers and also reviewed SBA websites, Agency records, Historical vendor lists on previous procurements, FedBizOpps, Contacts/referrals in other related/similar agencies, other local means of information, Thomas registers, 8(a) certification pages and vendor catalogs.
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3. What information resource are you most likely to use while researching prospective vendors?
This was a multiple choice question where Federal buyers were asked to select their preferred information source for collecting vendor intelligence. The majority relied on the vendor website, followed by capability statements.
A sub-segment analysis of the responses showed that 52% of Civilian Buyers would rely on the Website compared to 56% of Defense Buyers. Other sources for information included responses to RFI’s posted on FedBizOpps.gov, known past performance and registration data submitted to agency websites.
In summary, a well designed corporate website that allows the buyer to easily access information is critical for successful marketing. The website should also allow easy access to a well written capability statement that can be downloaded and/or emailed. Expensive brochures and tri-folds appear least likely to deliver marketing ROI.
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4. What information about a Small Business is most important to you?
This was a multiple choice question where Federal buyers were asked to select what aspect of a potential vendor they cared most deeply about. Clearly, most buyers cared about the vendors’ past performance, followed by Setaside status, and GSA Schedule information amongst others.
A sub-segment analysis of federal buyers shows that Defense agencies are less likely to care about GSA Schedules and a bit more about Past Performance and Setaside status than Civilian agencies. Buyers in Homeland Defense include DHS and DOJ are most likely to view favorably vendors that have matching past performance.
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5. How can Small Businesses make it easier for buyers to collect information and perform research?
This was a multiple choice question where Federal buyers were asked what Small businesses could do to make it easier to conduct research. Most respondents wanted easy access to Past Performance (33.2%), Pricing/GSA Schedules (31.1%) and Capability Statements (29.6%).
Other comments included making is easy to locate Setaside status in Business Cards, Websites etc., and updated registration in CCR/DSBS.
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6. What information would you like to see on the vendor’s website? How important do you consider each of these to be while searching for vendors?
This was a multiple choice question where Federal buyers were asked to select (by importance) specific information they cared about on a Small businesses website.
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7. What are the areas that Small Businesses need to improve upon, so that they can effectively communicate their capabilities? Please rank by importance.
When Federal buyers were asked to provide areas for most improvement by Small businesses – they clearly stated the need to provide a complete description of capabilities (82.3%). This was followed by Knowledge of the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR) (76.3%) and the need for a Professional Website (51.6%).
Statement of capabilities is clearly a weak point for most businesses. A key area for improvement is to provide the capabilities in terms that Federal agencies search for or buy.
Professional marketing materials were perceived only to be “Slightly Important” (51.6%). Clearly, these results should help Small businesses prioritize their marketing spending in the manner that yields most effective results.
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8. What sections of the FAR should Small Businesses be intimately familiar with?
FAR Part 13 was the most frequent answer followed by FAR Part 12, 19, 15, 10 and 8 in order of weightage given by respondents. Part 5 and 6 were also given some magnitude. The areas of federal acquisitions addressed by these regulations in descending order of importance are:
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9. How should Small Businesses conduct outreach to register their capabilities and to register for potential opportunities including Simplified Acquisitions, Purchase Card or GSA Schedule procurements?
When asked how Federal buyers would like to be reached, they clearly preferred electronic communication over paper. Other comments included “keeping updated website”, “via our Small Business Office” or “by responding to our FedBizOpps postings”. Some respondents made comments like “Stop inundating my mailbox!”. Clearly, businesses need to be cautious about sending irrelevant emails.
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10. How would you like a Small Business to keep in touch with you over time?
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| Looking for real answers? Call fedXccel at (301) 217 0113 to setup a risk-free consultation and see how your marketing investment can deliver contract wins through effective and actionable solutions. |
