General Services Administration (GSA) schedules are the largest and most widely used acquisition vehicles in government.

Experience shows many companies do not make the most of their schedules for many reasons. Therefore, this article offers five practical tips a schedule-holder can take to optimize their investment in 10 minutes per day or less.

1. Review Requests for Quotes (RFQs) Daily to Identify Potential Bids

Quickly scan the headlines on the front page of eBUY (GSA’s web portal) to determine if an opportunity meets your bid/no bid criteria. Schedule holders will see an average of 15 new bids weekly on Schedule 70 alone and a greater number in the fourth quarter of the government’s fiscal year.

2. Use Requests for Information (RFI) and Sources Sought Notices (SSN) to Grow Your Pipeline

While approximately 50% of RFIs become Request for Quotes (RFQs), the odds are favorable an RFI or SSN will become an RFQ. Therefore, add RFIs and SSNs of interest your pipeline. Many RFIs can take a year to transform into RFQs, so there is still time to implement your win strategy.

3. Identify What Products an Agency is Buying

Approximately 25% of bids on GSA Schedule 70 are for new products or license renewals; providing service-based schedule holders with insight into what hardware and software products an agency is using or plans to use.

4. Use eBUY as an Analysis Tool

By tracking RFI, SSNs, and RFQ bids from a certain agency or market segment, you can detect trends in a customer’s method of acquisition, set -aside patterns, and requirements.

5. Share Your Knowledge with the Business Development (BD) Team

Inform your BD team about what trends you see and how they can use GSA schedules to help drive business to your company.