How to Sell to the Government: Public Contracts as a Sales Channel

The solicitation ran forty-two pages, and Dana read the first one three times.

It was a Tuesday night, the warehouse long closed, and she was in the back office with a yellow highlighter and a cold cup of coffee. The county school district wanted to buy paper towels, liquid hand soap, trash bags and disinfectant for its schools. Exactly what her company sold every single day to apartment buildings and restaurants.

She had found the solicitation by accident. And the first thing she thought was: "This isn't for me."

That sentence almost cost her one of the best customers her company would ever have.

Can a Small Business Sell to the Government?

Yes. Cities, counties, states, school districts, hospitals and federal agencies buy products and services all the time, and they are required by law to do it in the open and through competition, most often through a formal bid or quote process. At the federal level, the rules live in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and registration happens through SAM.gov. Small businesses get an edge built into the system: many contracts are set aside exclusively for them, and agencies have small business goals they are expected to meet. It is not a shortcut and nothing is guaranteed, but it is a sales channel open to any properly registered company.

Dana's problem was never size. It was the map.

Week 1: What She Thought She Knew

Before that Tuesday, everything Dana knew about government contracts came from Gary.

Gary ran a similar distribution company across town, and the two of them kept running into each other at chamber of commerce breakfasts. He talked about public bids with the confidence of a man who had tried once, years ago. "It's a rigged game. You only win if you know somebody. And the government never pays."

Dana had repeated that line for years without checking a single word of it.

When she finally opened the solicitation for real, the first surprise was how many rules were written down, and how few friendships. It was all there: what the district wanted, in what quantity, to what specification, which documents it required, how bids would be evaluated, when and how it would pay. Nothing was secret. A lot of it was boring.

Week 2: The Registration and the Paperwork

To sell to a public agency, a company has to prove it exists and that it is in good standing. Dana made a list of everything the solicitation asked for and started crossing items off:

Vendor registration. Federal buyers use SAM.gov, where you get a unique entity ID. States, counties and many cities run their own vendor portals, and most post their bid opportunities there. Dana registered with her state and county.

Good-standing paperwork. Tax clearance, a business license, proof of insurance. One document had expired; it took her a week to fix.

Company documents. Business formation papers, tax ID and, in some cases, references: a letter from a customer saying you delivered what you promised. Dana asked the property manager of one of the buildings she supplied.

It wasn't hard. It was laborious, the kind of work that scares off lazy competitors.

Week 4: The First Bid (and the First Loss)

The district ran an invitation for bids, the most common format for everyday goods and services. Suppliers submit sealed prices, the agency compares them, and the award goes to the lowest responsible bidder that meets every requirement in the document.

Dana submitted hers with sweaty palms. She watched the award date come and go. Then she found out she had lost.

She lost again three weeks later, on another one.

That's when she did what Gary never did: instead of concluding the game was rigged, she went looking at who had won and for how much. Bid results are public. And she noticed something simple. She was bidding on huge-volume items against distributors who bought straight from the manufacturer. On smaller, more specific items, the competition was a different story.

Month 6: What Changed on the Fourth Bid

On the fourth one, Dana didn't try to win everything. She picked only the line items where she had a truly competitive price: refill-pack liquid soap and one specific disinfectant she already bought well. A few of the items were set aside for small businesses only.

She won two of them.

The district didn't buy everything at once. The award became a blanket purchase agreement: a contract in which the agency locks in the winning price and orders as needed over a set period. In practice, orders that arrive over the months, without her having to sell all over again each time.

She didn't get rich. She had to plan her cash flow, because public payment follows its own timelines and steps, and one month it ran late. She learned to calculate freight and taxes before bidding. But she gained something no apartment building ever gave her: a customer that announces in advance what it is going to buy.

What Gary Still Doesn't Know

At the last chamber breakfast, Gary complained that restaurant traffic was down and that the property managers were renegotiating their contracts.

Dana had felt it too. Only she had one more road: the blanket orders, two solicitations under review and her paperwork always current.

They have the same trucks, the same inventory, the same suppliers. One of them has one more sales channel. The other has an opinion about it.

How to Start Selling to the Government, Step by Step

1. Choose where to look. Start with your own city and county, and the neighboring ones, where freight and logistics work in your favor. Follow their procurement portals and bid boards.

2. Get compliant before you need to. Keep your licenses, insurance and vendor registration current. Plenty of companies lose the chance because they discover an expired document the night before the deadline.

3. Read three full solicitations before you bid on the first. You'll learn the vocabulary, the deadlines and the requirements common to your industry.

4. Study the results of bids already closed. They show who wins and in what price range. It's free market research.

5. Bid first where you have a real advantage. Specific items, smaller lots, contracts set aside for small businesses.

6. Run the full math. Purchase cost, freight, taxes, payment terms and minimum margin. If it doesn't add up, don't bid.

Public Contracts Are One Channel. They Shouldn't Be the Only One

Dana saw a risk early: depending on the government is as dangerous as depending on a single big customer. Budgets change, payment schedules tighten, a solicitation doesn't repeat. A company that lives only on public contracts also lives in feast or famine.

What made the difference for her was treating bids as one channel among several: the apartment buildings, the restaurants, referrals from the chamber and, now, public agencies. If one cools off, the others hold. If your company leans too hard on one buyer, it's worth reading what to do when your business depends on one big customer.

And that leaves a question for you: how many channels like this exist for your business that you've never checked, only because someone, one day, told you they weren't for you?

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide, by Luiz Philipe Campos, has government contracting among its 100 channels, alongside cold email, phone prospecting, field sales, trade shows, associations, partnerships, marketplaces and dozens more, organized in 10 parts. For each one: what it is, a practical example, the first step to test it, who it works best for and what it costs to try. The bonuses are a scoring spreadsheet to rate every channel and pick your first three, and a 30-day, day-by-day plan to launch the first one.

It's the map Dana would have wanted long before that Tuesday night.

Next step

Don't depend on a single way to win customers

Everything in this article works better when new customers arrive every month. Most businesses depend on two or three channels and suffer when one of them slows down. The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide shows 100 ways to win customers, a practical example of each one and the first step to test it spending little or nothing.

• ✓The 100 channels, one by one, from the best known to the ones almost nobody uses
• ✓A practical example and a low-cost first step for each channel
• ✓A simple way to choose the channels that fit your business now
• ✓Bonus: Channel scorecard
• ✓Bonus: 30-day test plan

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

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Access is immediate and payment is one-time, with a 7-day guarantee through Hotmart. You don't have to test all 100. You just have to find the three that make sense for your company and start with one.

Dana and Gary are characters created for this text.

Frequently asked questions

Can a small business bid on government contracts?+

Yes. Any properly registered company can compete, and small businesses get preferential treatment in many purchases, including contracts set aside for them and goals that agencies are expected to meet. You do have to satisfy the solicitation's requirements, such as current licenses and registrations.

Where do I find government contracts for my business?+

At the federal level, SAM.gov lists contract opportunities. States, counties, cities and school districts post theirs on their own procurement portals. Start with the agencies in your city and neighboring ones, where logistics work in your favor. Following the bids in your industry for a month already shows you the size of the opportunity.

Is selling to the government rigged?+

Not in the way people assume. Solicitations are published with written rules, and bid results are public. Competition is real and compliance paperwork is demanding, but what decides most awards is a complete, correct bid at a competitive price, not who you know.

Does the government pay on time?+

Payment terms follow the rules of the solicitation and the contract and can vary from one agency to another. Delays can happen, so it is important to plan your cash flow and not depend on this channel alone. Reading an agency's track record and talking to other vendors helps you estimate the risk.

Where do government contracts fit among customer acquisition channels?+

In The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide, selling to the government appears in the part on active prospecting and direct sales, next to cold email, phone outreach and field sales. The guide shows the first step to test each channel and what the test costs, so you can decide whether public contracts belong among your first three.

Does it work for my type of business?+

Yes. The channels cover local businesses, service providers, online stores, B2B companies and professionals. The guide helps you pick the ones that fit your case.

How do I receive the guide?+

Right after payment, Hotmart sends the access to your email. You can read it on your phone, computer or print it.

What if I don't like it?+

You have a 7-day guarantee. If it isn't for you, ask for a refund through Hotmart within that period.

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide

100 ways to win customers without depending on a single source of sales

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee