Presolicitation Notices Explained
A presolicitation notice on SAM.gov is the government’s formal heads-up that a solicitation is coming. It appears before the request for proposals, sometimes weeks or months before, and it tells the market what the agency plans to buy, roughly when the solicitation will be issued, and under what conditions. For contractors who know how to […]
Draft RFPs: Why Smart Contractors Comment Early
When an agency publishes a draft request for proposals, it is offering contractors a rare opportunity: the chance to change the solicitation before it becomes final. Most firms ignore draft RFPs. They wait for the real thing, then discover requirements they cannot meet, evaluation factors that favour a competitor, or instructions that make no sense, […]
RFI Responses That Get You Noticed
A request for information, or RFI, is the government’s invitation to teach it something before it buys. Unlike a solicitation, an RFI asks for knowledge, not a price, and unlike a casual inquiry, it is published, structured, and read by the people who will shape the eventual procurement. Firms that respond well to RFIs gain […]
How to Respond to a Sources Sought Notice
Responding to a sources sought notice is not bidding, and treating it like a bid is the fastest way to waste effort and annoy the reader. The agency is doing market research. It wants to know whether capable firms exist, what they can do, and whether its requirement is realistic. A good response is short, […]
How to Find Sources Sought Notices on SAM.gov
A sources sought notice is the federal government’s way of asking, before it writes a solicitation, whether the market can do the work and who can do it. For a contractor, it is an early warning system. The agency is telling you what it plans to buy, roughly when, and under what conditions, months before […]
How to Follow a SAM.gov Opportunity and Get Amendments
Following a SAM.gov opportunity is one of the smallest habits in federal contracting and one of the most consequential. Solicitations change after they are posted. Deadlines move, specifications are corrected, questions are answered, attachments are replaced, and entire sections are rewritten. A bidder who never follows the opportunity misses those changes, and a bid built […]
SAM.gov Place of Performance Filter Explained
The place of performance filter on SAM.gov answers a simple question that can save a firm a great deal of wasted bidding: where will this work actually be performed? A solicitation may be issued by an agency in Washington, performed at a base in Texas, and open to firms anywhere, or it may require daily […]
SAM.gov Keyword Search Tips That Actually Work
Most contractors search SAM.gov with the words they use to describe their own services, and then wonder why they miss opportunities. Agencies write solicitations in their own language, and the same service can be described in half a dozen ways across different agencies. Keyword searching works, but only if you search the way agencies write, […]
How to Read a SAM.gov Contract Opportunity Notice
Every federal contract opportunity on SAM.gov starts as a notice, and that notice is the single most important document you will read before deciding whether to bid. It tells you what the government wants to buy, who is eligible to compete, when your proposal is due, and exactly how to submit it. Yet many small […]
SAM.gov Saved Searches and Email Alerts Setup
New federal contracts appear on SAM.gov every day, and the best opportunities often move fast. If you only check the site when you remember to, you will miss solicitations that close before you ever see them. SAM.gov saved searches and email alerts solve that problem: you define the criteria once, and SAM.gov sends matching opportunities […]