Getting Started with your GSA Schedule Contract

If you’re fortunate enough to have been awarded a General Services Administration (GSA) contract, you should be pleased. After all, only about two percent of firms that work with the government hold a GSA contract. While this is an achievement, most executives now ask, “What’s next? How do I get a piece of this $39 billion pie?”

New contract holders should be concerned with 1) establishing systems to manage contract compliance, and 2) effectively generating sales through the GSA contract.

Manage Your Contract to Ensure Compliance

Here are a few steps to take in the days and weeks following your GSA schedule award. By implementing these tasks early on, you should be off to a great start in becoming a successful GSA contractor.

• Review Your Award Letter and Key Contract Clauses - Your award letter contains requirements that must be completed in a timely manner. Immediately after receiving the award, review the letter carefully and respond to each GSA request.
• Learn More about being a GSA Contractor - GSA will provide you with a publication called “Steps to Success” that is worthwhile reading.
• Prepare Your GSA Pricelist – Whether you sell products or services, you will need to prepare an authorized GSA price list in accordance with GSA clause I-FSS-600.
• Upload Pricing to GSA Advantage— While you are allowed six months to upload your GSA pricing to GSA Advantage, the sooner you upload it the better off you’ll be. Until your catalog appears on GSA Advantage, federal buyers won’t be able to find your pricing and company information, and you will be unable to access GSA-only requests for quotations (RFQs).

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About the Author: Robert Kelly

Robert Kelly is the President and Principal Consultant at TurboGSA, a consultancy thathelp firms expand their federal business with GSA and VA schedule contracts and improvingfederal marketing programs.