New Service: HUB Marketing Research

Just a couple of weeks ago, I attended the HUB Expo in Austin to brush up on my procurement knowledge. I had a great time meeting other business owners and learning more about the opportunities for doing business with the State Texas. One presentation in particular stood out as being exceptionally worthwhile:

Laura Cagle, the HUB Director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, put together an awesome presentation on finding the best opportunities for business owners to market their products and services to the state.

In essence, she taught our group how to use the data available on state procurement to find exactly which agencies to target, who to contact at those agencies, and how to find hidden opportunities for contracting and subcontracting via prime vendors (and how to find their contact information as well).

Digging deeper, we also learned how to view winning proposals and the corresponding RFPs, to make reaching out to prime vendors that much more worthwhile.

If you’re interested in her presentation, I did a bit of digging on the web and found an older copy of her PowerPoint presentation on the topic here:

As she was showing us how to locate and assess this information, a lot of the pieces of the puzzle just started to come together and it got me really excited about the opportunities not only to do more business with the state myself, but to help my fellow HUBs who are looking to do the same thing.

After all, everyone wants to have “Insider” knowledge, right?

Knowing which agencies are spending the most on your products or services lets you focus on those agencies that have the greatest need. Knowing the HUB contracting goals for each agency lets you know who might be more willing to work with you if you’re new to the subcontracting process. And seeing exactly how much the state has paid for services or goods like yours in the past gives you an idea of how competitive you need to be on your pricing.

So why aren’t more businesses already doing this?

The problem is, it takes a significant amount of time to go through the various websites, look up the agencies, review their spending trends (Ms. Cagle recommends at least 3 years’ worth) and then look up the prime agencies and their profiles in order to glean more insights.

Done right, it’s very effective. However, doing it right also means hours upon hours of work spent researching, double-checking figures, looking for contracts, and prioritizing who to reach out to and when.

That takes precious time away from running your business, and not everyone can afford to hire on a full time research assistant or marketing staff…

But what if you could get all of the research done for you, and presented in a way that makes it easy to prioritize your outreach?

Let me do the heavy lifting…

I’ve come up with a service that makes it simple and painless to get the research you need.

You give me your business description, object codes, and NIGP codes. I give you a full report that covers:

• The top agencies in Texas who are spending the most in your industry
• Contact information for the HUB coordinator in each agency
• A list of companies who have won contracts in the last three years
• Contact information for each current prime contractor

Plus…

• A series of customizable email templates to use for outreach
• A branded company “one-pager” with your capabilities and value proposition available at a glance to share with prospects

Currently, I’m offering this new service in soft beta phase at a significantly discounted rate. If you’re interested in getting a report of your own, head on over to the HUB services page to get started.