Growing your FY23 pipeline: Five sources of actionable market knowledge

By Kevin P. Young, Principal Marketing Intelligence Analyst

I have been fortunate to have a “first career” in print journalism–New York Daily News, Gannett Newspapers / USA TODAY and The Associated Press–where we learned immediately that no one source of information, whether “primary” or “secondary,” is acceptable; that confirmations and validations are critical.

The same dynamic holds true in our federal government industry, where news, notes and rumors run like unabated streams–and information must be confirmed and validated to call it true and “actionable” market knowledge.

In federal fiscal year 2023, which just kicked off on October 1, there are myriad contacting opportunities for GovCons of all shapes, sizes and disciplines–from the normal federal budget programs and cycles–to existing and new procurement vehicles, such as Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA), Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), and Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts; to the significant programs recently announced by the current administration: The five-year, $1.2 trillion Critical Infrastructure agreement and the $860 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) commitment.

As we all know from our high school civics class, the federal government is composed of three distinct branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial, whose powers are vested by the U.S. constitution in the Congress, the President and the federal courts, respectively. The U.S. government also includes our armed services as well as of dozens of independent agencies, departments, councils and offices. Last I looked, there were 96 reported independent executive units and 220 components of the executive departments.

All annually procure products, services, solutions, technologies, capabilities and/or staffing.

According to Industry expert, author, speaker and radio host, Mark A. Amtower: “There are many pieces to the government market puzzle; without all the pieces, the picture is never complete … There are many ways to succeed in the government market; each path is different … The government market is only sexy if you really like money.”       

There are many ways to uncomplicate the government market puzzle; to keep current and smart on the market and its prime and subcontracting opportunities, which I “capture” – pun intended – into five key areas:

(1) Primary information sources, which include Program Management Offices (PMOs); Procurement / Contract Offices (COs or KOs); Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBUs); Prime Contractors; and Industry Experts and Influencers.

(2) Secondary information sources, which include strategic and tactical Plans of agencies and departments; Office of Management and Budget (OMB); U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) / Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS); BidNet; Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) / www.SAM.gov; FedConnect; U.S. grants; and many others.

(3) Licensed market knowledge, which includes Bloomberg Government (B-GOV); Deltek GovWinIQ; GovPurchase / National Bid Network; state Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs); and many more.

(4) Conference organizers, such as Federal Business Council (FBC); GovConectx; National Conference Services, Inc. (NCSI); and many others.

(5) Media outlets, such as Defense News; FCW; Federal News Network; GCN; Government Executive; Potomac Tech Wire; Virginia Business Magazine; Washington Business Journal; Washington Technology; WDC ABC7 and NewsChannel 8; and many others.

I truly believe, after nearly 35 years in the federal industry, that hard work is ultimately rewarded. The more time and effort devoted to accurately identifying and qualifying opportunities–and networking–the more robust will be your business development pipeline–and the more success will be in your sights.

As one our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, was fond of saying: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

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immixGroup’s Market Intelligence team will be happy to help you identify FY23 opportunities to grow your pipeline. Contact us for more information.

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