GET DAILY E MAIL BID ALERTS FROM FEDBIZOPS€¦ · too narrow, you will miss opportunities. Each...

Copyright©2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc.

The key to receiving daily emails alerts with Bids specifying your specific product or service

from FedBizOps is accurate NAICS codes and Keywords. If NAICS or Keywords are too broad in

meaning, then your mail box will fill up with time‐wasting Bids not appropriate for your firm. If

too narrow, you will miss opportunities.

Each federal Bid in FedBizOps has a single NAICS code associated with it and a description of

the goods and service as well as an explanation of the Bid. If your Keyword appears anywhere

in a Bid, then that Bid will be emailed to you. For example, if your firm is an office furniture

company and you use “chair” as a Keyword, then you will receive all Bids containing the word

“chair” including Bids that have nothing to do with office furniture such as patio chairs, kitchen

chairs, pool chairs, lounge chairs, airline pilot Captain’s chair, and even Chairman and

Chairwoman.

For that reason, this tool has 2 parts

Finding NAICS and Keywords that best match your firm’s products,

Creating the Daily e‐Mail alerts from FedBizOps for your firm’s products.

NAICS and Keywords that work best 1) Start a file for this tool. Keep and save your notes because you will be adding/deleting

NAICS and Keywords over time to test their ability to send you the “right” Bids for your

firm.

2) In your own words, list the Keywords that describe your firm’s products and services in

your notes.

3) The best source for NAICS codes is The Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/ . Find the “2012 NAICS Search” box and enter a

keyword(s) for each of your firm’s products/services. Each time you click a new

keyword(s), NAICS codes will appear that contain the keyword(s) in the description. Press

the 6‐digit NAICS code to get a description of the code. Maintain a list in your notes of the

6‐digit NAICS codes that represent your firm’s product/services.

GET DAILY E-MAIL BID ALERTS FROM FEDBIZOPS


4) Identify your major competitors that you believe are active in the federal market and are

considered a “small business” in the eyes of the SBA. Then go to

http://web.sba.gov/pro‐net/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm which is SBA’s Dynamic Small Business

Search. At the top of the page in the box “Location of Profile”, choose the state of your

first major competitor. Go down almost to the bottom of the page to a box marked

“Searching for a Specific Profile” and on the line that says “Company Name or Trade Name”

enter the first competitor’s name. Below your entry ensure the box “Do ‘First Letters’

Matching” is checked. Finally, at the bottom of the page click “Search Using These

Criteria”. A new window will open with the name/location/description of the firm. Click on

the Name. A new page will open with a large amount of data for the firm. Scroll to the

bottom and you will find the NAICS codes and Keywords for this top small business

competitor. These will help you develop your firm’s final list.

SAMPLE – SOFTWARE FIRM

In the above example of a software firm, the competitor is using 10 NAICS and 3 Keywords.

Go to your Notes and write the competitor’s name and their NAICS codes and Keywords.

Repeat this process with other top small business competitors. Be sure to change the “state”

for the competitor’s main office or change to “any state” in the “Location of Profile” at the top

of the initial page. When completed, you now have the universe of good NAICS and Keywords

that you and your top federal competitors have identified. The last step is choosing the best

Keywords and NAICS codes for your firm.


5) Process for choosing the best NAICS and Keywords a) Divide your firm’s goods and services into major groups. For example, an office

furniture dealership may have 4 groups: workstations (cubicles), Casegoods (desks,

chairs, files, etc.), installation, and interior design. Each group is clearly different.

b) In your notes, create a Workbook to manage your NAICS and Keywords data. Make

columns with the major product groups at the top of the headings. Place each NAICS

and Keyword under the appropriate heading as best possible. You now have a

Workbook to test NAICS and Keywords in groups.

c) On the next page, when you create the “Daily E‐mail Alerts” on FedBizOps, you will

create a different alert for each of the product groups on your Worksheet. In the office

furniture example above, the dealer will create 4 “Daily E‐mail Alerts” with different

names: Workstations, Casegoods, Installation, and Interior Design.

d) Testing NAICS and Keywords (begins on next page) i) Testing depends on either the size of your firm’s market and the frequency your

products are bid. There are several approaches: firms with large federal markets

(national, Virginia, Texas, California, etc.), firms with small federal markets such as

central Kansas, and firms fortunate to have a narrowly defined product such as

Safety Consultants which have single NAICS code.

ii) Firms with large geographical markets and products frequently bid will want to start

with 1‐3 of the most specifically defined Keywords/NAICS in each product group from

the Workbook. The goal is to get as many of the most specifically defined

Keywords/NAICS codes as possible in each product group without a large number of

Bids unrelated to your firm. Remember, you only need one of the Keywords/NAICS

to match on a Bid to have it sent to you.

iii) Firms with small geographical markets, or narrowly defined products will follow the

process in d(ii) above but it will take only a few combinations to eliminate the

NAICS/Keywords that create unwanted Bids that are unrelated to your firm.

e) While not obvious at the beginning, you will find getting the best NAICS codes and

Keywords for FedBizOps to be the most productive time you spend in growing your

Federal sales. This is why:

i) Your firm will receive more Bid opportunities than your competitors giving your firm

more chances to win contracts. Unless a firm reads this article, it takes years to

realize different agencies use different NAICS codes with different Bid descriptions.

ii) Time is not lost searching email boxes of Bids not related to your firm. Your “win

rate” will improve with more time to work the Bid.

iii) Bids are not lost because they were in an email box of unwanted Bids.


iv) If your Sales People are receiving Bids directly from FedBizOps, they will not become

disillusioned wasting time evaluating “bad” Bids. Keep them motivated with high‐

potential bids, not unproductive administrative work.

v) You can save the $2,000‐$5,000 per year fee thousands federal contractors pay private consultants to send them this information under their logo.

vi) With timely Bid notification, your firm has the option to explore alternative

strategies. If not confident of winning, sub‐contracting can be investigated by

contacting the likely winner, or group of winners, in the “Interested Vendors List” of

the Bid web page.

Creating the Daily e‐Mail alerts from FedBizOps for your firm’s products. For federal Bids over $25,000 open to the public, FedBizOps.gov is the single point‐of‐entry. A

few federal agencies have their own bid procurement websites but the initial notices for most

of these Bids also appear on FedBizOps.com.

1) Create an Account on FedBizOps.gov. a) Individuals representing their firms need to have an account on FedBizOps.com in order

to establish the Search Agents for e‐Mail Bid Alerts.

b) Before starting you will need your firm’s 9‐digit DUNS number.

c) Go to https://www.fbo.gov . In the middle of the page within a green box marked

Vendors/Citizens, click on “Register Now”.

d) This will take you to the registration page. Enter the 9‐digit DUNS number and click

“Proceed”. On the next page, the Company information should be populated. If not,

simply enter the correct information. Follow the online instructions to complete the

remainder of Account Registration. If you experience difficulty, additional information

can be found on pages 10‐14 in the Vendor Guide at


https://www.fbo.gov/downloads/FBO_Vendor_Guide.pdf . The Vendor Guide is also a

good resource for firms using the full capabilities of FedBizOps.

e) After completing online registration information, you will receive a validation email to

confirm your email address. Follow the directions in the email to complete the final

step in creating your Account.

2) My FBO

a) Go to www.fbo.gov and enter your Username and Password in the green box marked

Vendors/Citizens. Click “Login” and your My FBO page will open. From My FBO, you

can directly manage finding the Bids and the process of submitting proposals.

b) Additional information on using all parts of My FBO can be found on the Vendor Guide

starting on page 19 at https://www.fbo.gov/downloads/FBO_Vendor_Guide.pdf .


3) Search and Create Saved Searches a) “Search Agents” is the FedBizOps term for the collection of Keywords, NAICS, and other

data used to identify Bids for your firm’s products.

b) From My FBO click “Search and Create Saved Searches”. This opens the “Opportunities:

Advanced Search” page that contains all the options for a Search Agent. At the top of

the page, “Place of Performance State” reduces the geography of the search by entering

the state. Hold CTRL for multiple states. These states are your firm’s geographical

market. If no states are selected, the search reaches out to all 50 states and D.C.

c) The “Set Aside Code” section can reduce the Search Agent further by checking one or more small business categories. If a small business is looking for subcontracting

opportunities, they would not check any box. This gives them visibility to Unrestricted

Bids as well as the large firms bidding these projects.


d) Generally, you would click all 5 of the boxes in the red rectangle below. This identifies the Procurement Types that apply to the Search Agent.

e) Keywords and NAICS can stand alone or combined in a Search Agent. The key to finding

the right Bids for your products is finding the right Keywords and NAICS codes by testing

different them alone or in combinations. In the example below, an Environmental

Consulting firm ran a search using NAICS code 541620 for Environmental Consulting

Services (red star) and received 49 different Bid notifications recently. Just by changing

the NAICS to 541690 for “Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services” in

combination with Keyword “environ*” (red circles), the new search provided an

additional 15 Bid notifications not previously received.

Important! Click the “TIPS” button (to the right of entering Keywords) to see different

methods of entering Keywords and combinations of Keywords. In the example above,

the asterisk after “environ” tells the search engine to find all words that start with

“environs”. This will find words like environmental, environmentalist, environment, etc.


f) Search Results. By clicking on the “Search” button of the Opportunities: Advance Search page, the “Search Results” page will appear. The Search Results page provides

all the notifications based on the Keywords, NAICS code, and other qualifies entered on

the Opportunities: Advance Search page.

If you are satisfied with the search results and want to have this Search Agent generate

daily notices to you, click “Save Search Agent” to start the process.


g) Search Agent “Label”. Create a label for the Search Agent in the area marked “Search

Agent Label”. The label needs to describe the Search Agent so it can be recognized in a

group of other Search Agents.

Click the “Save and Schedule Search Agent” button (double red rectangle) to schedule

the frequency of running the Search Agent with results sent to your email address.

h) Enable/Schedule Your Search Agent. On the next page, click “Yes”.


This will open two boxes that schedule the frequency of the Search Agent. If you make

no changes, then the Search Agent will run daily and you will receive the notifications

daily.

Click “Save” and you have scheduled a Search Agent to run at the frequency you set.

i) Managing Search Agents. From Opportunities tab on top of page, click “Search Agents”.


The “Search Agents” tab contains all saved Search Agents. From this page, all Search

Agents can be managed. Note the importance of labeling Search Agents with a good

description. Also, note the changes that can be made to a Search Agent on the right

side. Each Search Agent can be “Edited” to modify the Keyword or NAICS, change the

“Schedule” of the frequency of the run, or “Delete” the Search Agent.

If you become aware of a specific Bid expected from a Contracting Office, then you can

create a Search Agent in order not to miss the release of a specific Bid. That is the case

for two of the Search Agents with the word “Watch” in the name.

j) The Difficult Part – Creating a number of Search Agents to maximize Bids for your

products while minimizing “junk” Bids unrelated to your firm’s products is the most

difficult part. As stated earlier, this may be the most productive time you spend in

federal new business development.

i) The starting point is the Workbook you created of Keywords and NAICS codes that

work best.

ii) Keep notes on the new Search Agents you test and the results. You will be referring back to Search Agent results often.

iii) Depending on your firm’s products, consider running Search Agents for distinct

product groups within your company as well as an overall company Search Agent.

iv) Start a new Search Agent from My FBO page in paragraph (2) above using a

promising Keyword and/or NAICS. When you generate Search Results in paragraph

(2)f above, evaluate the Notices. Things to look for in the Search Results:

(a) number of “good” Notices that match your firm’s products,

(b) number of “bad” Notices that do not match your firm’s products,

(c) time frame for the Notices you checked, and

(d) number and types of both NAICS and PCS codes of “good” Notices.

To get this information, check the title of the Notice because it usually is a good

indicator. Otherwise open the Notice and give it a quick scan. The NAICS/PCS codes

for the “good” Notices can only be found by opening the Notice and looking at the

bottom of the “General Information” box on the right.

v) At this point, repeated testing with Search Agents will identify the best group of Search Agents that maximize Bids for your firm’s products while minimizing “junk”

Bids unrelated to your firm’s products.

Good Luck and Good Selling!

GET DAILY E MAIL BID ALERTS FROM FEDBIZOPS€¦ · too narrow, you will miss opportunities. Each...

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