Beyond the Bid: Industry Insights That Win is GovSpend’s webinar series designed to give B2G vendors practical, data-driven strategies that go far beyond just responding to bids—highlighting how to uncover hidden opportunities, influence purchasing decisions earlier, and make the most of GovSpend’s powerful tools. In the fourth session of the series, host Paige Mockler homed in on consumables (office supplies, medical products, food service goods, etc.) and how vendors can use data-driven strategies to find and win government opportunities that never go out for bid.
With only 20% of government spending going through traditional RFPs, this session tackled the critical question: What about the other 80%?
Why Waiting For The RFP Isn’t Enough
Many vendors find themselves stuck in a reactive loop: waiting for bids to drop, only to discover that another supplier has already shaped the specs, or the agency made the purchase without an RFP at all. Others spend time pursuing prospects who are either too early in their budget cycle, locked into contracts, or unclear about what they need.
Paige laid out a clear picture of the typical challenges:
- Opportunities flying under the radar (like sole sourcing or p-card purchases)
- Timing mismatches—too early or too late
- Lack of visibility into agency budgets and existing vendor relationships
- High staff turnover disrupting outreach and relationship-building
But rather than viewing these as roadblocks, the session showed how GovSpend users can treat them as signals and overcome them with the right tools and strategies.
Go Beyond The Bid: Strategies That Work
To tackle those challenges head-on, Paige introduced a data-backed approach that puts users in the driver’s seat. The goal: stop chasing and start anticipating.
Here’s how GovSpend clients are shifting their strategy:
1. Use Bid Alerts As A Starting Point
Even if an RFP isn’t a perfect match, it’s an entry point. Using GovSpend’s AI tools, users can quickly:
- Summarize RFP requirements
- Identify key contacts
- Draft introduction emails that stand out
Rather than simply submitting a proposal, Paige encouraged reaching out to procurement contacts to introduce your brand, share your catalog, and start building a relationship.
2. Dig Into The Data
With just a few clicks, users can explore historical purchasing data for any agency. Want to know what kind of toner a district buys, how much they pay, and who their preferred vendors are? GovSpend’s spending module reveals:
- Exact purchase history
- Vendor pricing comparisons
- Quantity and brand preferences
This level of visibility helps vendors avoid pricing themselves out of contention and ensures that their proposals are based on real-world agency behavior.
3. Refine Your Search With “The Power Of 3”
Paige shared a proven method for building relevant searches that produce cleaner, more actionable data:
- Product or service (e.g. gloves, toner)
- Descriptive attributes (e.g. nitrile, powder-free, HP, black ink)
- Unit of measurement (e.g. box, pack, gallons)
By using these three layers, users can surface transactions that are highly aligned with their offerings—making it easier to identify prospects and price products correctly.
4. Let Filters Do The Prospecting
Rather than manually searching for leads, users can apply filters to:
- Isolate agencies spending within a specific dollar range (e.g. $4K–$25K, under the bid threshold)
- Identify recurring, low-threshold purchases
- Sort by agency type or location
Once you’ve found your ideal agencies, GovSpend’s contact database lets you pinpoint who to reach out to—whether it’s a procurement officer, IT lead, or school cafeteria manager.
5. Get Ahead Of The Contract Clock
GovSpend’s co-ops and contracts module is a powerful tool for tracking opportunities before they hit the bid stage. By filtering for contracts expiring in the next 90 days (or longer, depending on your sales cycle), users can time their outreach perfectly—well before a re-compete begins.
For example, if a district’s vending machine contract ends in July, reaching out in April or May gives you time to make an impression and offer an alternative.
6. Know What Agencies Are Talking About
By transcribing and analyzing public meetings, GovSpend’s Meeting Intelligence module uncovers “spoken” buying signals long before they appear in any bid database.
Some of the real-world examples shared in the webinar included:
- A school board struggling with $19K in unpaid student lunch debt
- An agency anticipating a $20K spike in medical supply spending
- A district discussing a budget cut for office furniture
With AI summarizing these conversations, users don’t have to sift through hours of recordings. They can spot needs early and tailor their outreach accordingly.
Putting It All Together: Working Smarter, Not Harder
What ties all of these tactics together is a shift in mindset. Rather than chasing public sector dollars after they’ve been posted, Beyond the Bid teaches vendors to use data, tools, and timing to be present earlier, speak more relevantly, and win more often.
GovSpend empowers users to:
- Build better proposals with competitive pricing
- Identify and prioritize high-value prospects
- Streamline outreach to decision-makers
- Spot early buying signals through real-time meeting data
As Paige reminded attendees, even adopting just 10% of these strategies can significantly improve your effectiveness. Whether you’re in sales, bid coordination, or a bit of both, GovSpend offers more than alerts—it offers insights and leverage.
Next Steps
If you’d like help customizing any of these approaches in your own GovSpend account, reach out to your relationship manager or email support@govspend.com. The GovSpend team can assist with optimizing bid alerts, building historical spend reports, or generating targeted contact lists.
Did you miss the live session? Don’t worry! A full replay of the webinar—along with a link to the slides—is available here. If you sell in other sectors besides Consumables, check out the topics for our future sessions of the Beyond the Bid series and register here, or read a recap post of one of our prior sessions.
If you are not yet a customer, request time with our experts to learn how GovSpend can help you go beyond the bid and win more contracts.
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