Buying Professional Services on a GSA Contract

Have you encountered an agency who wants to buy professional services from you, but doesn't know how to buy services  off GSA Schedules.  To help you and your clients understand this, we have prepared this brief whiteboard video entitled, “How do Agencies buy Services through our GSA Contract?” 

GSA launched its new reverse auction platform this month, which it hopes will deliver increased savings for federal agencies on the most commonly purchased office products, equipment and services. The auction site is at reverseauctions.gsa.gov  

2012 GSA Schedule Winners and Losers

2012 was a challenging year for many federal contractors, and overall contract dollars declined 9%. GSA Schedule contractors fared much better, however, where the overall decline in GSA schedule sales declined less than 3%. 

Since 2009, thousands of small businesses have weathered the economic storm by taking advantage of federal programs designed to channel federal contracts to small firms.  Two of the more valuable programs include the GSA schedule program and the Simplified Acquisition Procedure program. 

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?”

Slight Decrease in overall GSA Schedule Sales but some Schedules Thrived.

GSA has released GSA Schedule sales figures for the entire FY2011, which ended September 30, 2011. Overall schedule sales dipped to $38,591,523,579 or 1.5% decline over 2010 figures.  You can view raw figures on our GSA schedule sales page.  This slight decline may not come as a surprise as the government is tightening its belt, and stimulus funds have been expended.  [Note:  These 2011 results do not include VA schedule sales.]

Prior to or immediately after your GSA contract award, you should have a training session to brief sales reps on the benefits and requirements  of this new GSA contract.  The basics include

GSA’s eBuy system, is an online system that allows federal agencies to post requests for Quotations (RFQ) and requests for proposals RFP.  eBuy is a nice benefit of having a GSA contract that is exclusively available to GSA schedule contract holders. 

Admittedly, this will not be ground breaking advice nor make your GSA schedule sales skyrocket. But these tips will make it easier for your Federal clients to remember you and make their life easier.  I have heard this requested by numerous federal clients over the years and not long ago I heard it again, so I thought it would be worthwhile to pass along.  The two things many Federal’s ask for are: detailed email signature line and more descriptive information on business cards.