THE MAXON GSA POST
Volume 1 Issue One | August 4, 2006
GSA Business Development
INTRODUCTION
Beginning with this issue we will be sharing our strategies to help drive profitable government sales in your markets. These articles will be short and to the point and in a sequence that can hopefully be followed in a logical path. Our goal is to email these out weekly up through the end of the fiscal year end 30-September and monthly after that. These articles will be posted on maxongsa.com as submitted and will be available to review on demand. Additionally we are adding a Maxon GSA email address that will be checked daily to address your government sales and compliance questions. Whether you are new and just getting started to sell to the government or part of a seasoned GSA sales organization our hope is that this information adds value to your success.
GOVERNMENT TEAM
Maxon is pleased to announce the addition of Abe Soria to the Government/National Accounts team. Abe comes to with twenty years experience the United States Air Force that included extensive compliance and support experience. In his new role he will support our aggressive expansion of state and local furniture contracts around the country, support compliance and business development strategies within our growing GSA market.
WHERE TO START
It is calendar week 31 and fiscal year week 43 … only nine weeks left in the government fiscal year. As is typical for this time of year our seasoned GSA distribution channels around the globe have many demands on them to produce space planning and proposals for their government end users. There is also, however, a group of you who are new to this market and may need a little coaching.
So where do I start?
During this fiscal year-end period, the majority of GSA sales are generated by the Department of The Defense (DoD). In most parts of the country and many areas of the world there are U.S. Military Installations (Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard) that require goods and services including office furniture. For example, in Texas there are seven Air Force Bases, (Goodfellow, Dyess, Sheppard, Laughlin, Brooks, Randolph and Lackland). In the Washington DC / Northern Virginia / Maryland area there are over twenty military installations, the Florida Panhandle and Southern Alabama have approximately twelve, Alaska seven, Colorado six and so on. I can email you a list of military bases in your area upon request and you can ‘google’ for further research on specifics as each location has its own web site. The market for furniture and related services is huge and almost every year each base presents new projects for the taking. Other federal agencies are also in a buying mode as well. Everything from Homeland Security, Department of Energy to the EPA and the Justice Department also have furniture projects. Your local ‘blue’ pages in the phone book and on-line identify the local addresses of these agencies.
Who do I contact?
Maxon’s strength is end user driven. Military sales can happen ‘top down’ but it also works ‘bottom-up’ or by identifying end user appropriations (spending) or by contacting the ‘Public Works Department’ or similar base facility functions. The installation contracting office may be a good start but rarely do they know of specific projects until it is too late. A good relationship with Contracting early in the year may be useful in developing opportunities for project proposals. Once on the base and in front of prospective buyers be sure you prepare a ‘presentation package’ that would include MAXON literature, GSA Term Sheet, Dealer Capabilities and some extra copies as you most likely will discover new projects while on site. Most, if not all, of this presentation material is available on maxoninfo.com.
NEXT ISSUE
- Maxon GSA Product and Contract Capabilities
Just a reminder that GSA (Federal) pricing will be held at the September 12, 2005 level through the upcoming buying season ending September 30, 2006 … Starting October 1, 2006 GSA will be utilizing the new July 2, 2006 Commercial List Price Book.
Got GSA Questions? gsa@maxonmail.com
| Government Team: |
Director Government/National Accounts: Jeff Woodward Sales Contract Administrator: Abe Soria |