GSA Schedule and Federal Market Research

This week I am going to go over how to do some basic federal market research. The average small business with a GSA Schedule does over $1MM per year in federal sales. However, before deciding to pursue a GSA Schedule, it is recommendedto drilldown your federal market segment to determine your market size.

Here is how to conduct some basic market research in the Federal Marketplace.

Firm: Hypothetical Company
- Provides Language Services
- Small Business
- Location “xxxxxxxx”

STEP 1: The starting point is GSA eLibrary – for this illustration, I will look at and type in the text field box “Translation Services” http://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/home.do

This search generates several different schedules in which to choose from. However, GSA Schedule 00CORP II The Professional Services Schedule (PSS) is the schedule that fits my current search.

STEP 2: 00CORP II The Professional Services Schedule (PSS); under this schedule, I find 382 1 Translation Services as the SIN that matches what Hypothetical Company does.

STEP 3: Clicking on SIN 382 1 brings up all the companies that belong in the schedule. Look for firms that are also small businesses and in the state of Colorado for example. Only one firm that is similar to it is on the list.

STEP 4: Highlight and Copy the name of the firm similar to Hypothetical Company and then go to USA Spending https://www.usaspending.gov/#/

• Click on Award Search and slide down a little to click on Advanced Search
• To know how well the firm did for a specific Fiscal Year, Time Period is where you can select the year you are interested to know how much the company performed for that year.
• At the Recipient tab, you may indicate in the text field box the name of firm you are doing a market research on, then hit the Submit Search button.

RESULTS: This illustration shows that the firm’s clients are Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of Veterans, Department of the Treasury, and Office of Personnel. The Award ID with the GS in front can tell which contracts were awarded directly off the firm’s schedule. However, please remember that a great deal of firms are also found from GSA Advantage Listings which is more than likely how the Dept. of Health found this schedule holder.

This is a novice approach to Federal Market Research; however, this quick and easy approach can immediately yield results, for the majority of firms a GSA Schedule is a good investment.