I am looking for exact, detailed steps for selling a men's grooming
product to the US government, specificically, the military. My product
has been accepted in the commercial marketplace, but does not yet have
an NSN. There seems to be a plethora of information on how to
introduce products to the military, get it on a New Item Schedule and
get my company listed as an approved vendor, but I can not boil it
down to concise, actionable steps, which is what I am looking for. A
complete answer will show me the necessary steps, documents, filing
offices and timeframes for doing this. A substantial tip will be added
for information on valuable and accurate competitive pricing and
bidding tips to ensure my product(a compact alternative to shaving
cream) gets a fair shot at the business.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 23 May 2004 07:30 PDT

Hello kickstan-ga,

I appreciate your frustration here.  Doing business with the military
seems to require a PhD in procurementology!

The problem, of course, is that there is not one set of procedures,
but dozens, or hundreds, depending on who you are trying to sell to,
what you are trying to sell, and what route you think is best to gain
entry to the military-contractor complex.

There's no clearcut roadmap covering all possibilities, but there are
some excellent guidance materials.

Are you familiar with this site?

http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/Doing_Business/index.htm

This is, in my experience, the best starting point for the ABC's of
doing business with the military for a small business like yourself. 
If you haven't seen this site before, please review the step-by-step
procedures carefully.

If you've covered these steps already, let us know what additional
information you need in order to make your next move.

Best of luck.  Look forward to hearing back from you.  

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by kickstan-ga on 23 May 2004 09:02 PDT

Yes, I've been to that site many times, but the more I look at it the
more cross-eyed I get. I guess I was hoping to pay a researcher to cut
through all the confusing steps and tell me exactly what I need to do,
what classifications I would fall under and how/where to proceed, step
by step. Kind of a "selling to the military for dummies" that is
specific for me. Hope that helps.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 23 May 2004 13:21 PDT

Thanks for the quick feedback, and it does help.  

It would help even more to understand how far down the path you've
gone, with the instructions at the "Doing Business" site I mentioned
earlier:

http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/Doing_Business/index.htm


Is it that you've been through all the steps, and they didn't help?

Or is it more that the instructions are confusing?

For instance, as I walked through the instructions, and took a look at
the links and documents they reference, one of the first things I came
across is this itemized list of 2003 procurements:

==========

FY2003 ST28 - Procurement Actions by Federal Supply Code and Contracting Office

8520 Toilet Soap, Shaving Prep & Dentifrices A.F. Arizona Luke AFB 56
CONS/CC 1 $35,760
8520 Toilet Soap, Shaving Prep & Dentifrices Army/ODA Arizona Fort
Huachuca ACA, Fort Huachuca 2 $26,635
8520 Toilet Soap, Shaving Prep & Dentifrices Army/ODA Kentucky Fort
Knox ACA, Fort Knox 2 $35,000
8520 Toilet Soap, Shaving Prep & Dentifrices Army/ODA New York New
York Wiesbaden Contracting Center 1 $42,060
8520 Toilet Soap, Shaving Prep & Dentifrices Army/ODA Oklahoma Fort
Sill ACA, Fort Sill 1 $69,929
8520 Toilet Soap, Shaving Prep & Dentifrices Army/ODA S Carolina Fort
Jackson ACA, Fort Jackson 2 $232,798
8520 Toilet Soap, Shaving Prep & Dentifrices DLA Penn Philadelphia
Defense Supply Center Philadelph 6 $927,705
8520 Toilet Soap, Shaving Prep & Dentifrices Navy California San Diego
NSC FLEET & INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY CENTER 3 $17,022

8530 Personal Toiletry Articles A.F. Colorado Air Force Academy 10
ABW/LGC 2 $121,300
8530 Personal Toiletry Articles Army/ODA Alaska Fort Richardson ACA,
Fort Richardson 1 $279,306
8530 Personal Toiletry Articles Army/ODA Georgia Fort Gordon ACA, Fort
Gordon 2 $48,909
8530 Personal Toiletry Articles Army/ODA Kentucky Fort Knox ACA, Fort
Knox 2 $29,000
8530 Personal Toiletry Articles Army/ODA Texas Fort Sam Houston ACA,
Fort Sam Houston 2 $49,973
8530 Personal Toiletry Articles Army/ODA Washington Fort Lewis ACA,
Fort Lewis 1 $3,069
8530 Personal Toiletry Articles Navy California San Diego NSC FLEET &
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY CENTER 3 $13,378
8530 Personal Toiletry Articles Navy Louisiana New Orleans NAVSA NAVAL
SUPPORT ACTIVITY 1 $59,400

==========

So...you wind up with category names for shaving supplies and
toiletries, identification numbers, who is buying, how often they buy,
and how much they spent during the year.

With some more digging, it may be possible to find out actual contact
names at the different procurment offices, etc.

Would that type of information meet your needs as an answer to your question?

I doubt if I (or anyone) could walk you step by step through the
entire process for the reason I mentioned above -- there isn't just
one process, but hundreds, depending on who you wind up doing business
with.

However, I could certainly supply some additional information, along
the lines of the details I just described, in order to get your foot
in the door, so to speak.

Let me know if this would be of interest.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by kickstan-ga on 23 May 2004 15:28 PDT

Well, I guess both. The steps have been confusing. I'll tell you
exactly where I am (and am not):
Step one: knowing the fed supply class and NAICS code. I was unable to
figure out what either should be for me.

Step two: DUNS Number. I was able to take care of that.

Register with Centralized Contractor Registration. Awaiting receipt of
DUNS number, but that should be pretty straightforward, I think. I'm
all set there.

Step three: Identify Your Target Market within DoD
I'm lost. The DoD report is for prior years and I am looking for
current RFPs to respond to. It also doesn't appear to be helpful
information. What am I missing?

Step four: Identify Current DoD Procurement Opportunities. Also, I
need help in figuring out how I use this resource correctly and
efficiently.

Among the things I need here are where to identify and act on
*current* procurement opps.

Step five: I haven't even gotten there yet, but it seems pretty straightforward.

Step six: Investigate Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Contracts
Explanation of what this is and how to make it work for me.

etc. etc. from there.

Let me know if you need more clarification and thanks for taking interest.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 23 May 2004 19:12 PDT

I'd really like to be able to help you out with this, but frankly, I'm
having trouble knowing quite where to start....it's like trying to
find the beginning of a big, tangled-up ball of string.

Your best bet may well be to find a friendly procurement specialist to
talk to, and who can act as a guide and mentor.  In that respect, have
you tried contacting the PTAC (procurement technical assistance
center) in your area?  If not, give them a holler...they're
specifically designed to help out small businesses (which I assume you
are) negotiate the maze of government procurement, for the military as
well as for other federal purchasing oportunities.

The PTAC contacts around the country are listed here:

http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/publications/sbs/sbs.html

Please give them a try if you haven't already, and then get back to me
with a status report in a few days.  Let me know if they are helpful
or not.  If they get you past steps 1,2 and 3, I might be able to help
you out with steps 4 through...whatever!

Good luck.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by kickstan-ga on 23 May 2004 19:55 PDT

Thanks so much. I will give them a try after memorial day and let you
know where I stand from there.