CIRAS Government Contracting Specialist
Did you know that as the client, you play a very important role in helping your counselor set up an effective BidMatch profile? The BidMatch system is a tool that PTAC counselors offer to their clients to help identify bid or proposal opportunities.
As with most things in life, feedback is important to the process.
When setting up a BidMatch profile initially, your counselor likely will send you the link to our online BidMatch profile form.
Prior to completing this form, I encourage you pause and do a 10-minute brainstorm on all of the products or services your business offers. Write these down.
Next, log on to your favorite search engine and type in these keywords plus “NAICS.” This will help you identify any NAICS codes that might fit your business. (The NAICS code is a classification system managed by the U.S. Census Bureau. NAICS codes are assigned to each federal procurement and may be used by states as well.)
List these NAICS codes in the appropriate field on the form. Also, add the keywords to the form. Note: the keywords should not be overly general.
Another way to identify applicable NAICS codes for the opportunities you seek is to work with your PTAC counselor and conduct some market research on your competitors. What contract awards are they winning? What NAICS and Product Service Codes (PSC) are they registered for in SAM? Do these apply to your business? If so, add them to your BidMatch form – then, take it a step further and add them to your SAM.gov registration, if you have one.
Once you submit the form, you should begin to see daily or weekly emails with a summary of bid opportunities listed.
Here’s the most important part: Reconnect with your PTAC counselor after two or three weeks and share with them what is working and what is not. This will help your counselor refine the search criteria based on your feedback, and it hopefully will lead to a better list of opportunities. This tool should work for you. If it’s doesn’t, then we need to pause and assess what needs to be fixed.
Your PTAC counselor should be a resource that you connect with fairly often. It’s always a good idea to keep them in the loop. We don’t know what you are experiencing, if you don’t share with us. We are a resourceful bunch and are here to help, however we can!
For more information, contact Melissa Burant at mmburant@iastate.edu.