how to use sam.gov to win a $100,000 contract so number one you do not need a username and password to go into Sam so I'm going to share my screen so here in Sam you're going to go to contract opportunities and you're going to go to Advanced Search and you're going to notice all of the various search categories are here where the mouse is because this website isn't as sophisticated as Google or YouTube typing in keywords this is something that my Flagship company started out offering uh well over 10 years ago is diversity training it's it's challenging to use keywords you see the the latest opportunities from 2017 that's not going to cut it so instead what you're going to want to do is use product or service information so you're going to need to enter NES maybe you're like me maybe you're not I need a list of my nakes uh I also use this to distribute to federal agencies and my team uses this today to share with federal agencies so what's great the NES are here and the descriptions here so that way all you have to do is literally cut and paste you don't even need to go to the n's website so we're going to start off with the N sets in yellow and you may wonder why is this in yellow it is in yellow because you're often asked to identify your primary nakes code and when my Flagship company uh entered the adaa program that is what we were encourage to choose so let's take a look at what happened so I literally just cut and pasted nakes and by doing that you have well over 1,200 opportunities and needless to say that's a lot right there a lot of opportunity so you want to narrow it down what I like to do is I'll look at I like to go to notice type I like to drill down by sources of s and pre-solicitation for the way that my brain processes I like easy I can't have a ton of options it's very overwhelming for those of you that don't have that problem feel free to choose as many options as you desire you can put in all of your nakes codes if you want just personally I found it to be way too overwhelming and I I just didn't find success that's also very vital in this space is you have to know as a government contractor what works for you what works best for you so by choosing source of salt pre-solicitation entering in the admin nakes and of course making sure is up day to date because if not you're going to get older opportunities and these are important I'll create a separate video discussing how to use the older information for business intelligence but for the sake of today's video we're digging into sam.gov so you can win a $100,000 federal government contract so you'll notice this is a request for information it's you have the due date here source is s Homeland Security okay that's great you have plenty of time to respond that's the first thing I look at what is the deadline who is the agency and a snippet of the title I peruse these before I even click and this is something that you should do at least daily if you can because opportunities are posted literally 24 hours a day because government employees are located throughout the world and they're constantly looking for contra directors so let's take a look at one of these I am going to click on Health and Human Services Administration for children and family why because we have a little bit of past performance in this area so I like to hone in on those where at least there's some type of familiarity the other thing that you're going to notice and this is super common is this website is constantly being updated so you will always see some type of notice up here don't worry about it there's always going to be something there that's why it's very important to be patient have your nakes and realize it's not as sophisticated as YouTube and Google it's okay it's not that sophisticated but you're going to get through it you're going to win you're going to win contracts so see the source of Sal see the deadline sometimes that information doesn't match so we want to make sure it matches okay and you may have noticed oh wow what is that is that a something with the screen why is there this random Circle she trying to get my attention no no no and more no the thing about various government websites sometimes you're going to have to need to use various browsers so I purposely use Chrome I love Chrome it's my favorite browser I use it all the time however comma you have to use Firefox Whenever there is an attachment this symbolizes there's an attachment you're going to have to get out of this page and go to Firefox I know what many of you are thinking why aren't you already in Firefox it's just how I do things it's just how I work again you have to do what works best for you this is how I operate okay terrific so we just copy paste over here voila and you will see the attachments and it's going to pull up a PDF and let's dig into this because if simply using sam.gov yielded tons of money everybody would be in Government Contracting like everyone Jeff basil would have said H forget it don't need to ship any more products I'm a th% dis gar Contracting and it it's not the case you all it's not the case so I'm here to add that additional information so you can see there's more to it than searching reviewing and clicking you also have to understand the code what they really desire and if it's for you very important so kind of gleam this and the things that I look for as I review this is what are they looking for what is their requirement am I able to respond in time is this something I'm interested in doing and also am I going to make a profit potentially doing this very very important so this is a lot of background information information I'm going to skip that what's important is going to what they're looking for which is where I'm able to decipher that code check out the code here so they are saying we request that you address the following questions with a direction that respondents do not need to address every question and should focus on those where they have relevant expertise or experience also provide background descriptions Your Role background on Early Childhood care Etc so this is code for we understand that maybe not one vendor has everything that we're looking for but we're open-minded if perhaps your strong suit is number two and number four uh further down here that's great and if you can show the past performance you can demonstrate through maybe your credentials hey hey this is great that's what they're saying to you and also I want you to take note there's a lot of questions literally is from page two all of the way to page four they are looking to you to me as a government contractor to answer as many of these questions that we can answer and literally you'll cut paste answer the question as well as they want background information on you so you notice that here where they're asking do you already provide this type of service are you on a contract vehicle things of that nature which nakes do you bet think best fit this which is great because you have your nakes cheat sheet right you have that and these nakes are those that you should have in Sam if you're registered in Sam or if you're partnering with someone they should have these nakes in their profile or'll be prepared they're going to have to update their profile and add the NES so in some I wouldn't B on this because we don't really have pass performance in this Arena not looking to team with someone but for perhaps someone viewing this this is a perfect opportunity for you and if so go forward with it now you may be thinking okay this is where it ends that was great wow that's kind of a bust it's not a bust not at all not at all why because now you have the contact information for two people that are connected to Health and Human Services and while this particular opportunity is around Early Child uh or early care and education you never know what else they may want to purchase so it's a great opportunity to reach out to these two individuals and as to have a capability brief this is a great opport opportunity and more than likely you can Google the contacts here and also obtain their phone numbers you're going to have to contact them often I recommend at least once a week because they're really busy and their full-time job is ensuring that opportunities are procured opposed to contacting talking emailing every single government contractor who reaches out to them so let's go back okay so let's take a look at the this opportunity technical administrative and programmatic support Taps this is for um us Aid Bureau for resilience and food security so I know just from this description alone that it may not be a good fit because from my understanding us Aid they often want organizations who have a huge Global presence so I typically wouldn't even open this but for the sake of the video I want you to take a look so you see it's a pre-solicitation again you have contact information people you can connect with we're going to move it over to Firefox and something else I want to add often in my early days many people would say things in the government space like oh you can't you can't be a government contractor and use a Mac computer we use PCS no that's a myth many many of my team members use Macs I have multiple Mac computers we never have issues we never do so I just want to put that out there and also believe it or not some government agencies use max so I just want to let you all know that okay so you see the pre-solicitation we already know that there's an attachment there because of the beautiful spinny thing so we see here they're looking for information this is 5 years plus option years okay okay this is exciting so already I know this is well into six figures I mean this could be a million-dollar opportunity and they're saying they're they're they've outlined what they're looking for okay terrific you can see that and you can go deeper into these if you so desire and once again they have questions for you typically a request for information source of thought notice they're asking you for feedback no different than if you're looking for a new cell phone provider you just don't go in and you're like hey AT&T I need a plan okay here's a plan yes that's awesome let's do it usually you have questions like how much is it how many phones do I need to change my phone number can I get a new phone can I add family right it's no different than when you're getting a new cell phone plan or you're looking to potentially change your cell phone plan very very similar so they're asking you to respond to all or part once again they're saying to you hey look we understand you may not be able to respond to every single one of these questions try we'll work with it which is awesome because that means that this agency is probably open to working with an a small business who may not have meet all the requirements who knows but it's awesome that you have that opportunity so you see the questions and once again when you respond you literally cut and paste here's a question here's my answer even if it has a typo you don't have to fix it because they want they want easy they want to see okay great questions for interested bids what you responded them you have answers for each of these terrific okay also this is very very very important you must follow their instruction they are asking that you provide maximum of two pages size 12 font Standard 1 in margins please send your responses in PDF it should be structured in the following way you must do this I'm if you don't want to that's on you it's very important to follow their instruction because you have to put yourself in the mindset of federal government they are saying to you do the best that you can answer the questions that you can answer at the same time please please respond 12in font use this H set of margins please put it in a PDF and if you decide not to do that then why would they want to work with you if you if you can't follow the instructions for a request for information then what's going to happen if they awarded you the work no different again you get a cell phone plan and they said to you the entire year you get 20% off they told you that you're like this is amazing I'm saving 20% at 18 month number one you don't see the savings you're mad because you're already violating the contract it's like a psychological contract and this is like a literal contract right they're violating it they don't want that they want easy easy easy so going back here hey if this is something that's of interest to you you meet the requirement I would definitely definitely definitely respond to this so let's take a look at an RFP in this space what's great about source of saw or request for information is you help to shape the opportunity that they may decide based on the number of responses that they receive they're going to make it a small business or a woman own or service disabled or they may just directly award it to you who knows but it's great because it gives you that opportunity to present yourself to the agency because they don't know you they don't know me how else would they get to know us unless we respond to these opportunities and follow their instruction but when you follow the instruction It also says to that agency we can work with a small business because otherwise they're like going back to the government mindset and we're another small business they couldn't even put this in a 12o font why can't we just work with IBM remember about 25% of government opportunities are set aside for small businesses that's not a lot and that goal is and always met so we want to put our best foot forward because it has an impact on all of us and I know it can be annoying and I know it can be frustrating and I know many of you are probably like really yeah really because it's the easiest way to weed you out okay so we're all about winning though weing in is what I call it so let's take a look at the nakes [Music] again and we're going to go to solicitation and combined solicitation we have the date updated date whenever I choose solicitation or combined solicitation typically the agency already has identified how they are procuring it if it's full and open if it's small business if it's woman-owned if it's AA so therefore I go under set aside and I'll choose the appropriate set asdes and I like short so I don't typically choose every set aside that they have and I want to point out because many people never talk about it there is a by Indian act so if you qualify or want more information please let me know in the comments cuz Hey perhaps make a video on it okay so I chose solicitation combined synopsis solicitation admin total small business because it's it's one of the most relatable set as sides pretty much every single one of you watching you're probably a small business so if you're not that's cool too and maybe I can make a video for those of you who aren't just let me know so you see update a date we're ready to go so we have NASA I would pass on NASA we've had some past performance with NASA it's just I I personally wouldn't been on that just based on it's just not a good fit for us at this point in time it's just not okay so we have another one Health and and human services medical expert services for the vaccine injury I'm not really big on getting involved in things around vaccines because of the potential political Fallout around it if you're interested by all means click on it so let keep going and these are other things to think about because once again if this was just just put the information click respond bam Millions retired at 27 wo everyone would be doing it what's important is you have to think of the second third fourth fifth sixth order kind of sequences that follow if and when you win got to think about that so let's take a look okay EAP solicitation space planning and admin Support Services okay this is interesting and you have Abigail Dale one thing to know when an opportunity is in the sources um the solicitation stage you cannot just reach out to them only when it's RFI source of s request for quote market research hey we want a one-on-one I just want to talk to you that's great what whenever we're talking about there's actually solicitation you must follow the r rules right you must follow their rules so let's take a look oh boy they're going to send us to another website when I see this I'm out I know you're probably like what I know because I really like to narrow down and increase my likelihood of winning and when I'm directed to the FED connect website I'm skeptical I don't want to go that route I may share this link so you all can check it out I'm just always skeptical when they connect you to Fed connect it's just my thing right again it's knowing yourself you must know yourself as an entrepreneur so they have all these amazing attachments when it comes to the solicitation you see the overview here we know point of contacts in Ohio and that's something that's also really important to get you to winning a $100,000 contract using Sam is you you have to be well aware of what your win rate is what you're comfortable with what all these codes mean and it says to me if if they're just reconnecting you to to Fed connect hey there may be somebody that they kind of have in mind who knows maybe I'm reading into things I don't know but let's take a look so this one they're looking to give five indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contracts so that's really cool right and they're explain to you how to submit your questions how to submit the proposals when they should be submitted all of that and then literally you just go through and open every single one of these attachments and you're going to respond ordinally I'd like to point something now anytime that they ask you for past performance questionnaires it's like a bon bonus tip two things one you're going to need to fill out this information for whoever you give this to number two in the Q&A you need to ask the agency if you have cpar that is May you use cpars in lie of a past performance questionnaire the reason for this is because the federal government is really busy so while you know Maria with um Department of Justice is your favorite client and you all are BFFs she may be really busy and it may be difficult for her to actually get to this because often the person completing this has to send it to point of contact and if they don't do that and let's say three of these are required won't be considered for the opportunity sometimes your government clients may say hey just fill it out for me I'll just sign it it's just something that happens just putting it out there there so when it comes to that opportunity hey it may be great for for those of you out there personally I wouldn't bid on it in a followup to this I will focus in on a couple of opportunities I would actually bid on but this is what makes this journey so amazing is look at the number of opportunities that came up 63 and we're just in the second quarter of the government contract here cycle so what I may deem as a diamond you may deem as dust and you're not interested in vice versa but that's what's so great and so cool about being an entrepreneur knowing yourself charting your own course and just being the best you because there's no reason you cannot win a $100,000 contract leveraging Sam so one additional bonus that is and I'll make sure it's share it again is what you're going to want to do if especially if you don't log in or even if you do sign in because remember this site is not as sophisticated as Google and YouTube that is you're going to want to use a Tracker Where you literally you can cut and pce you can add the different information here on this sheet so that you're very well aware of your win rate when things are due who you uh need to contact perhaps put notes in here concerning those you have contacted keeping in cont uh keeping in touch and keeping up to date anytime they release the answers to Q&A because another item that I'll I'll add to this is so let's quickly go back to this opportunity so if you recall they asked for questions so what's going to happen is they're eventually going to release What's called the Q&A the actual answers in the document that they lease becomes part of the requirement so if they say no you must use past performance questionnaires you cannot substitute with cpars you must use past performance questionnaires if they say yes we will extend the deadline okay great they've extended the deadline if they say actually the number of labor hours is500 not 2,000 is500 not 2,000 so you have to be very Mindful and go through every single one of the answers because it's now another requirement want very important and I know you're going to do it you're totally going to do it there's a reason you're here because you're a winner that's why you're here thank you all for watching at least part one I will go more into this because this is one of the most important platforms that exist in this entire space Federal Government Contracting so thank you all all my amazing beautiful govc con winners for watching please like Please Subscribe please share please comment let me know what else would you like to hear about are there particular nakes you want me to cover I would like to cover the religion nakes has nothing to do with me it's about you what do you all want from me again thank you thank you thank you so much have a glorious glorious amazing day and always remember everything is possible possible
