6 tips for finding opportunities in the $80 billion federal IT market

By Tim Knob, data analyst, and Barbara Austin, database manager

The government market is a huge opportunity for the tech industry. But it’s also one of the hardest to navigate, from following all of its rules and regulations to even finding the best opportunities that align with your company’s tech specialty.

What many in the industry may not be aware of is the vast amount of publicly-available resources that can help unearth some of those opportunities. There’s everything from Exhibits 53 and 300 to government websites full of valuable information on priorities.

One resource is immixGroup’s Market Intelligence proprietary database, which helps us direct our clients to sales opportunities within 68 tech categories. We recently outlined how to home in on opportunities in a webinar you can listen to here. But first, let’s start with seven tips to get you started:

1. Get familiar with the most important documents. The ITDashboard will give you access to Exhibit 53, which is the budget request for the upcoming FY, and Exhibit 300, a document that lays out all the planning and implementation of major IT investments in the federal government.
2. Focus on specific agencies and offices in need of your technology.  You can narrow your search by highlighting terms specific to your offering and locating them within budget documents.
3. Figure out who to call. Once you’ve determined the agencies you want to engage with, you’ll need to determine your best point of contact. You can do this through agency strategic plans, government presentations and even job postings. You never know who will give you the information you need to reach the end user.
4. Familiarize yourself with your target agency so you can tailor your message and product capabilities. Government customers are far more receptive to callers who understand their overall strategy and biggest pain points.
5. Tap into other resources. This includes the 5-year strategic plans available on agency websites. They contain long-term objectives, major new acquisitions and IT and strategic human capital planning. The plans for the Trump administration are due to the Office of Management and Budget by June 2017. Also check out FedBizOpps, which serves as the single government point-of-entry for federal government procurements over $25,000; USAspending.gov, which tracks how government dollars are being spent; and the Federal Procurement Data System, which has detailed information on contract activity over $3,000.
6. Don’t forget about your current customers. While new license sales are the name of the game in government sales, selling to your previous install base can’t be ignored. Your install base is still buying new products and that sale will be easier, cheaper and more likely to pan out than with a new customer.

To learn more about finding government IT sales opportunities, listen to Uncovering New Public Sector IT Sales Opportunities on-demand. Click here to learn more about immixGroup’s Market Intelligence team.