Table of Contents
- How do I find customers?
- Requirements under $25,000
- Services contracts
- Know the end user's needs
- Emphasize your unique features
- Focus your energy
- Government contacts
- Previous contract award notices
- For more information
How do I find customers?
If you own or operate a business and are interested in selling your goods and services to the federal departments and agencies, then it is essential to proactively promote your business as a supplier. Let them know what goods and services you have and why you should be their supplier.
Requirements under $25,000
Suppliers who promote their goods and services have better chances to bid on requirements valued at $25,000 or less, considered as low dollar value requirements by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC). For these requirements, PWGSC uses source lists to identify and select a supplier on either a competitive or non-competitive basis. When departments or agencies send PWGSC a requisition for goods or services, they also suggest sources, which PWGSC includes to the bidders list.
If you are doing a good job promoting your goods and services to departments and agencies, you could be considered as a potential supplier.
Services contracts
As a common service supplier for various departments and agencies, PWGSC is responsible for buying about 18 percent of all services on their behalf. For this reason, they must work through PWGSC for both their mandatory and optional acquisition services, i.e. services that must be provided by a common service agency. These include, for example, architectural and engineering services, legal services and the disposal of surplus goods.
Departments and agencies can choose to do their own contracting for services that are not mandatory. Find out how departments and agencies buy your services and market them accordingly.
Know the end user's needs
When you are preparing a bid, you are not allowed to talk to the end users in the departments and agencies.
If you have questions about the requirement, you have to ask the PWGSC contracting officer.
Emphasize your unique features
Make departments and agencies aware of your special selling features. Advise them of the qualities that differentiate you from your competitors.
For example, say your management consulting enterprise is comprised of a group of consultants and technical specialists with post-graduate degrees and 10 years' experience. You may want to mention these special assets to the departmental materiel managers with whom you would like to do business.
If your products are environmentally friendly, you should mention this to prospective departments and agencies. They are being encouraged to buy green and are looking for goods and services that help or do not harm the environment.
Focus your energy
Research your government market and target departments and agencies that use your goods and services.
Use the GCdirectory, a directory of federal government employees, to find procurement personnel including materiel managers responsible for purchasing planning and tasks related to procurement such as stock management, order processing, and materiel distribution.
Tips for finding a procurement contact using GCdirectory:
- From the Department Listing, select the department or agency.
- Enter a search term that forms part of the procurement contact’s title or organization. Consider using one or more of the terms below:
- Contracting
- Materiel Management
- Procurement
- Select which field to search: Title or Organization.
- Select the matching criterion “contains”, then click Search.
Government contacts
Find out which departments and agencies are likely to want to buy your goods or services.
- GCdirectory is a directory of federal government employees with contact information, department name and office location.
- Contacts for GSIN Codes include contact information for the division responsible for the procurement of goods or services.
- Contacts for UNSPSC Codes include contact information about United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC).
- PWGSC Regional Offices can provide information about opportunities in your specific region.
Procurement Assistance Canada can help you to better understand how the government buys goods and services, and how you can navigate the process to find and bid on opportunities. Call the National InfoLine at 1-800-811-1148 for help understanding the federal procurement process or registering for a procurement business number. The line is staffed Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Previous contract award notices
Learn more about the federal procurement process in your industry, including contract values and successful bidders.
View previous contract awards on:
- the Government Electronic Tendering Service (GETS)
- Contract History
- Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Government-Wide Reporting
Find out who is interested in a tender
Join a List of Interested Suppliers (LIS) to show your interest in an active tender notice or check it out to understand the market interest in a notice. An LIS allows businesses to add their company name and contact information to a publicly available list of parties who have expressed an interest in a particular tender published on GETS.
For more information
For more information about promoting yourself to the government, please contact your nearest PWGSC Regional Office.