NAICS and Keywords that work best

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Randall Golden
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1 GET DAILY BID ALERTS FROM FEDBIZOPS The key to receiving daily s alerts with Bids specifying your specific product or service from FedBizOps is accurate NAICS codes and Keywords. If NAICS or Keywords are too broad in meaning, then your mail box will fill up with time wasting Bids not appropriate for your firm. If too narrow, you will miss opportunities. Each federal Bid in FedBizOps has a single NAICS code associated with it and a description of the goods and service as well as an explanation of the Bid. If your Keyword appears anywhere in a Bid, then that Bid will be ed to you. For example, if your firm is an office furniture company and you use chair as a Keyword, then you will receive all Bids containing the word chair including Bids that have nothing to do with office furniture such as patio chairs, kitchen chairs, pool chairs, lounge chairs, airline pilot Captain s chair, and even Chairman and Chairwoman. For that reason, this tool has 2 parts Finding NAICS and Keywords that best match your firm s products, Creating the Daily e Mail alerts from FedBizOps for your firm s products. NAICS and Keywords that work best 1) Start a file for this tool. Keep and save your notes because you will be adding/deleting NAICS and Keywords over time to test their ability to send you the right Bids for your firm. 2) In your own words, list the Keywords that describe your firm s products and services in your notes. 3) The best source for NAICS codes is The Census Bureau at Find the 2012 NAICS Search box and enter a keyword(s) for each of your firm s products/services. Each time you click a new keyword(s), NAICS codes will appear that contain the keyword(s) in the description. Press the 6 digit NAICS code to get a description of the code. Maintain a list in your notes of the 6 digit NAICS codes that represent your firm s product/services. Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 1

4) Identify your major competitors that you believe are active in the federal market and are considered a small business in the eyes of the SBA. Then go to http://web.sba.gov/pro net/search/dsp_dsbs.

2 4) Identify your major competitors that you believe are active in the federal market and are considered a small business in the eyes of the SBA. Then go to net/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm which is SBA s Dynamic Small Business Search. At the top of the page in the box Location of Profile, choose the state of your first major competitor. Go down almost to the bottom of the page to a box marked Searching for a Specific Profile and on the line that says Company Name or Trade Name enter the first competitor s name. Below your entry ensure the box Do First Letters Matching is checked. Finally, at the bottom of the page click Search Using These Criteria. A new window will open with the name/location/description of the firm. Click on the Name. A new page will open with a large amount of data for the firm. Scroll to the bottom and you will find the NAICS codes and Keywords for this top small business competitor. These will help you develop your firm s final list. SAMPLE SOFTWARE FIRM In the above example of a software firm, the competitor is using 10 NAICS and 3 Keywords. Go to your Notes and write the competitor s name and their NAICS codes and Keywords. Repeat this process with other top small business competitors. Be sure to change the state for the competitor s main office or change to any state in the Location of Profile at the top of the initial page. When completed, you now have the universe of good NAICS and Keywords that you and your top federal competitors have identified. The last step is choosing the best Keywords and NAICS codes for your firm. Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 2

3 5) Process for choosing the best NAICS and Keywords a) Divide your firm s goods and services into major groups. For example, an office furniture dealership may have 4 groups: workstations (cubicles), Casegoods (desks, chairs, files, etc.), installation, and interior design. Each group is clearly different. b) In your notes, create a Workbook to manage your NAICS and Keywords data. Make columns with the major product groups at the top of the headings. Place each NAICS and Keyword under the appropriate heading as best possible. You now have a Workbook to test NAICS and Keywords in groups. c) On the next page, when you create the Daily E mail Alerts on FedBizOps, you will create a different alert for each of the product groups on your Worksheet. In the office furniture example above, the dealer will create 4 Daily E mail Alerts with different names: Workstations, Casegoods, Installation, and Interior Design. d) Testing NAICS and Keywords (begins on next page) i) Testing depends on either the size of your firm s market and the frequency your products are bid. There are several approaches: firms with large federal markets (national, Virginia, Texas, California, etc.), firms with small federal markets such as central Kansas, and firms fortunate to have a narrowly defined product such as Safety Consultants which have single NAICS code. ii) Firms with large geographical markets and products frequently bid will want to start with 1 3 of the most specifically defined Keywords/NAICS in each product group from the Workbook. The goal is to get as many of the most specifically defined Keywords/NAICS codes as possible in each product group without a large number of Bids unrelated to your firm. Remember, you only need one of the Keywords/NAICS to match on a Bid to have it sent to you. iii) Firms with small geographical markets, or narrowly defined products will follow the process in d(ii) above but it will take only a few combinations to eliminate the NAICS/Keywords that create unwanted Bids that are unrelated to your firm. e) While not obvious at the beginning, you will find getting the best NAICS codes and Keywords for FedBizOps to be the most productive time you spend in growing your Federal sales. This is why: i) Your firm will receive more Bid opportunities than your competitors giving your firm more chances to win contracts. Unless a firm reads this article, it takes years to realize different agencies use different NAICS codes with different Bid descriptions. ii) Time is not lost searching boxes of Bids not related to your firm. Your win rate will improve with more time to work the Bid. iii) Bids are not lost because they were in an box of unwanted Bids. Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 3

4 iv) If your Sales People are receiving Bids directly from FedBizOps, they will not become disillusioned wasting time evaluating bad Bids. Keep them motivated with highpotential bids, not unproductive administrative work. v) You can save the $2,000 $5,000 per year fee thousands federal contractors pay private consultants to send them this information under their logo. vi) With timely Bid notification, your firm has the option to explore alternative strategies. If not confident of winning, sub contracting can be investigated by contacting the likely winner, or group of winners, in the Interested Vendors List of the Bid web page. Creating the Daily e Mail alerts from FedBizOps for your firm s products. For federal Bids over $25,000 open to the public, FedBizOps.gov is the single point of entry. A few federal agencies have their own bid procurement websites but the initial notices for most of these Bids also appear on FedBizOps.com. 1) Create an Account on FedBizOps.gov. a) Individuals representing their firms need to have an account on FedBizOps.com in order to establish the Search Agents for e Mail Bid Alerts. b) Before starting you will need your firm s 9 digit DUNS number. c) Go to In the middle of the page within a green box marked Vendors/Citizens, click on Register Now. d) This will take you to the registration page. Enter the 9 digit DUNS number and click Proceed. On the next page, the Company information should be populated. If not, simply enter the correct information. Follow the online instructions to complete the remainder of Account Registration. If you experience difficulty, additional information can be found on pages in the Vendor Guide at Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 4

https://www.fbo.gov/downloads/fbo_vendor_guide.pdf. The Vendor Guide is also a good resource for firms using the full capabilities of FedBizOps.

5 The Vendor Guide is also a good resource for firms using the full capabilities of FedBizOps. e) After completing online registration information, you will receive a validation to confirm your address. Follow the directions in the to complete the final step in creating your Account. 2) My FBO a) Go to and enter your Username and Password in the green box marked Vendors/Citizens. Click Login and your My FBO page will open. From My FBO, you can directly manage finding the Bids and the process of submitting proposals. b) Additional information on using all parts of My FBO can be found on the Vendor Guide starting on page 19 at Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 5

3) Search and Create Saved Searches a) Search Agents is the FedBizOps term for the collection of Keywords, NAICS, and other data used to identify Bids for your firm s products.

6 3) Search and Create Saved Searches a) Search Agents is the FedBizOps term for the collection of Keywords, NAICS, and other data used to identify Bids for your firm s products. b) From My FBO click Search and Create Saved Searches. This opens the Opportunities: Advanced Search page that contains all the options for a Search Agent. At the top of the page, Place of Performance State reduces the geography of the search by entering the state. Hold CTRL for multiple states. These states are your firm s geographical market. If no states are selected, the search reaches out to all 50 states and D.C. c) The Set Aside Code section can reduce the Search Agent further by checking one or more small business categories. If a small business is looking for subcontracting opportunities, they would not check any box. This gives them visibility to Unrestricted Bids as well as the large firms bidding these projects. Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 6

The key to finding the right Bids for your products is finding the right Keywords and NAICS codes by testing different them alone or in combinations.

7 d) Generally, you would click all 5 of the boxes in the red rectangle below. This identifies the Procurement Types that apply to the Search Agent. e) Keywords and NAICS can stand alone or combined in a Search Agent. The key to finding the right Bids for your products is finding the right Keywords and NAICS codes by testing different them alone or in combinations. In the example below, an Environmental Consulting firm ran a search using NAICS code for Environmental Consulting Services (red star) and received 49 different Bid notifications recently. Just by changing the NAICS to for Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services in combination with Keyword environ* (red circles), the new search provided an additional 15 Bid notifications not previously received. Important! Click the TIPS button (to the right of entering Keywords) to see different methods of entering Keywords and combinations of Keywords. In the example above, the asterisk after environ tells the search engine to find all words that start with environs. This will find words like environmental, environmentalist, environment, etc. Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 7

8 f) Search Results. By clicking on the Search button of the Opportunities: Advance Search page, the Search Results page will appear. The Search Results page provides all the notifications based on the Keywords, NAICS code, and other qualifies entered on the Opportunities: Advance Search page. If you are satisfied with the search results and want to have this Search Agent generate daily notices to you, click Save Search Agent to start the process. Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 8

9 g) Search Agent Label. Create a label for the Search Agent in the area marked Search Agent Label. The label needs to describe the Search Agent so it can be recognized in a group of other Search Agents. Click the Save and Schedule Search Agent button (double red rectangle) to schedule the frequency of running the Search Agent with results sent to your address. h) Enable/Schedule Your Search Agent. On the next page, click Yes. Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 9

This will open two boxes that schedule the frequency of the Search Agent. If you make no changes, then the Search Agent will run daily and you will receive the notifications daily.

10 This will open two boxes that schedule the frequency of the Search Agent. If you make no changes, then the Search Agent will run daily and you will receive the notifications daily. Click Save and you have scheduled a Search Agent to run at the frequency you set. i) Managing Search Agents. From Opportunities tab on top of page, click Search Agents. Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 10

11 The Search Agents tab contains all saved Search Agents. From this page, all Search Agents can be managed. Note the importance of labeling Search Agents with a good description. Also, note the changes that can be made to a Search Agent on the right side. Each Search Agent can be Edited to modify the Keyword or NAICS, change the Schedule of the frequency of the run, or Delete the Search Agent. If you become aware of a specific Bid expected from a Contracting Office, then you can create a Search Agent in order not to miss the release of a specific Bid. That is the case for two of the Search Agents with the word Watch in the name. j) The Difficult Part Creating a number of Search Agents to maximize Bids for your products while minimizing junk Bids unrelated to your firm s products is the most difficult part. As stated earlier, this may be the most productive time you spend in federal new business development. i) The starting point is the Workbook you created of Keywords and NAICS codes that work best. ii) Keep notes on the new Search Agents you test and the results. You will be referring back to Search Agent results often. iii) Depending on your firm s products, consider running Search Agents for distinct product groups within your company as well as an overall company Search Agent. iv) Start a new Search Agent from My FBO page in paragraph (2) above using a promising Keyword and/or NAICS. When you generate Search Results in paragraph (2)f above, evaluate the Notices. Things to look for in the Search Results: (a) number of good Notices that match your firm s products, (b) number of bad Notices that do not match your firm s products, (c) time frame for the Notices you checked, and (d) number and types of both NAICS and PCS codes of good Notices. To get this information, check the title of the Notice because it usually is a good indicator. Otherwise open the Notice and give it a quick scan. The NAICS/PCS codes for the good Notices can only be found by opening the Notice and looking at the bottom of the General Information box on the right. v) At this point, repeated testing with Search Agents will identify the best group of Search Agents that maximize Bids for your firm s products while minimizing junk Bids unrelated to your firm s products. Good Luck and Good Selling! Copyright 2015 Federal Marketing Tools Inc. Page 11

FedBizOpps (FBO) & Create Bid Alerts

FedBizOpps (FBO) & Create Bid Alerts Start Bidding TODAY How to Register in Text FedBizOpps (FBO) & Create Email Bid Alerts How to Register in FedBizOpps (FBO.gov) If your business is in the market for $25,000+ contracts, then one of the