THE MAXON GSA POST

INTRODUCTION
Continuing from our April newsletter, this issue 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 regularly up through the end of the fiscal year end 30-September. They will also be posted on maxongsa.com and will be available to review on demand. Additionally, there is 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.

NOT YOUR ORDINARY FISCAL YEAR
As of the date of this newsletter, it has been an interesting year in terms of federal spending. Although the Federal Government has been funded by a Continuing Resolution, spending across the board has been non-stop from all branches of the military and federal agencies. From the US Forest Service to the National Guard, requirements still exist and are being fulfilled. Indications are that it will be an early fiscal year end so Space Planning and funding proposals may have to be completed in August versus the traditional September time frame.

CORRECT FEDERAL CONTRACT INFORMATION
During the final weeks of FY2006, many federal orders were being issued with Maxon’s old Kent address. Shortly after the start of the new FY, a complete audit was done to ensure all federal websites contained the correct address for Contracting Officers to pull the information from. We are still receiving orders with the wrong address, please check all correspondence to ensure the following address is reflected on all correspondence, proposals, purchase orders, etc…

Maxon Furniture Inc.
660 SW 39th Street, Suite 150
Renton, WA 98057

All required contract information is on Maxon’s GSA Customer Information Sheet available for download at www.maxongsa.com.

WHERE TO START
It is calendar week 25 and fiscal year week 38 … only 15 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 resources 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

Got GSA Questions? gsa@maxonmail.com