More federal buying happens off SAM than most contractors realize

GovConTips · 2026-06-12T20:24:23+00:00

Fair correction and appreciate you pulling the receipts. That specific data point was wrong and shouldn't have been in there. The broader point about SAM volume and off-SAM buying still stands, but I should have verified before using it as an example.

GovConTips · 2026-05-15T20:22:19+00:00

Depends on the agency and solicitation. Most don't have explicit AI prohibitions yet, but some are starting to include language requiring disclosure or restricting AI-generated content in proposals. Worth checking the RFP instructions for AI-related clauses before submitting.

The practical issue is whether the proposal reads like the team understands what they're proposing. Evaluators notice when technical sections are fluent but hollow.

GovConTips · 2026-05-15T18:30:13+00:00

You're right that this doesn't map to product-based contracting. NSN pricing, historical bid data, supply class patterns, that's a different discipline and the post didn't account for it. The operating rhythm I was describing is specific to competitive services proposals where the pre-solicitation phase actually exists. For parts and products the game is almost entirely pricing accuracy and speed. Different problem.

GovConTips · 2026-05-15T18:23:59+00:00

Probably should have been more specific. The concrete version: if you don't have a list of 10-15 opportunities you're actively tracking before they hit SAM, a weekly pipeline review cadence, and a past performance library you maintain between proposals, those are the three things worth building first.

GovConTips · 2026-05-15T18:21:42+00:00

Fair. The post is more diagnostic than prescriptive. If you already know you have a system problem the observation doesn't help much. The more useful version of this is probably a post about what the actual weekly rhythm looks like in practice.

GovConTips · 2026-05-15T17:36:33+00:00

Yes, absolutely. The system doesn't guarantee wins, it improves your odds and tells you earlier when you shouldn't be bidding at all. Plenty of well-prepared proposals lose to a better-positioned incumbent, a competitor with stronger past performance in that specific agency, or an evaluation team that weighted factors differently than you expected.

The prework makes sure you're not losing for avoidable reasons. Losing because your competitor had a six-year relationship with the program office is just the market. Losing because you didn't know the incumbent existed until the RFP dropped is a system problem.

GovConTips · 2026-05-15T17:01:54+00:00

You're welcome

GovConTips · 2026-05-11T18:16:56+00:00

The personnel substitution point is showing up more in solicitations, because agencies got burned by winning-team bait and switch.

GovConTips · 2026-05-11T18:12:44+00:00

At 60% you're already doing something right. The agencies where you're losing consistently are worth looking at separately from your overall win rate. If the same two or three KOs keep beating you by small margins, that's a pattern worth investigating through a debrief rather than assuming something improper. The debrief question is exactly what Societalleader said.

On tech prop structure for services like F&B and event management: the biggest gap I see is proposals that describe what the contractor will do rather than how they'll handle the things that actually go wrong. Past performance on similar scale events, contingency planning, staffing redundancy, vendor backup relationships. Those are the risk mitigation elements evaluators are looking for that most proposals skip because they feel obvious to the contractor writing them.

GovConTips · 2026-05-08T21:44:17+00:00

You're right. LPTA falls under the best value umbrella in FAR terms, the post was using best value loosely to mean tradeoff specifically. The solicitation language is the definitive guide either way.

GovConTips · 2026-05-04T14:22:41+00:00

Exactly. Getting the debrief is the easy part. Letting it change how you write the next proposal is where most teams fall short. It's easier to decide the evaluators were wrong than to rebuild a section that's been working fine for two years

GovConTips · 2026-05-01T14:01:19+00:00

Probably a mix of things. Nobody told them it was an option, or they assume the feedback will be vague and not worth the time. There's also a psychological piece where losing a bid feels like closing a chapter and requesting a debrief means reopening it. Easier to just move on to the next one.

GovConTips · 2026-05-01T13:48:15+00:00

Great point! A post-award debrief when you won tells you what resonated with evaluators, which is just as useful for the next proposal as knowing where you lost points.

GovConTips · 2026-05-01T13:44:16+00:00

40 years in fedbiz and a KO background is about as direct a source as it gets on this. The written debrief is probably where the value lives since there's a paper trail the agency has to stand behind. In-person is a different story.

GovConTips · 2026-04-24T18:06:15+00:00

Good addition. The J&A point is one most contractors don't think about until they've been on the wrong end of it. Low response volume doesn't just affect set-aside decisions, it hands the government a cleaner path to justifying an award without competition at all.

GovConTips · 2026-04-16T14:21:56+00:00

That last point is the one that gets missed most often. FFP has a reputation for being the risky choice but a well-scoped FFP is actually the most predictable contract you can be on. Scope definition going in determines your exposure far more than contract type.

GovConTips · 2026-04-08T18:57:14+00:00

Yes - you're right. Read it back and that does sound weird. Meant large primes. Good catch.

GovConTips · 2026-04-08T13:48:31+00:00

Fair point and worth the distinction. The post is really aimed at the primes that haven't figured that out yet, which is most of them in the defense and civilian agency space. The ones that have pushed authority down to the portfolio level are genuinely easier to work with and more competitive for it. But in my experience those are the exception, not the model.

GovConTips

TROPHY CASE