Securing a government contract can be a game-changer for any organization—but especially for teams that live and breathe the proposal process. For RFP teams, bid and proposal professionals, contract managers, and capture and business development managers, understanding how to get government contracts isn’t just about chasing opportunities. It’s about building a repeatable process that ensures compliance, competitiveness, and credibility.
Government buyers operate in a highly regulated, process-driven environment. That means if you can master the structure—registration, eligibility, capture strategy, and proposal compliance—you can position your organization for long-term growth in a stable, lucrative market.
Understanding the Government Contracting Landscape
Government contracting represents one of the most stable revenue streams available to private industry. Agencies at the federal, state, and local levels spend billions of dollars each year procuring everything from software and consulting to infrastructure and logistics support. Unlike the private sector, however, the public sector is governed by strict procurement rules designed to ensure fairness, transparency, and value for taxpayers.
For bid and proposal professionals, this environment is both challenging and rewarding. Every step of the process—from opportunity identification to proposal submission—is defined by structure. Understanding the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the System for Award Management (SAM), and agency-specific procurement guidelines gives your team a clear competitive advantage. Once you know the rules, you can align your processes to meet them, ensuring every proposal you submit is compliant and credible.
Step 1: Lay the Foundation – Eligibility & Registration
Before you even look for solicitations, you must ensure your organisation is eligible and properly registered.
Key actions:
Register in the central portal: For the U.S. federal market, you must register in the System for Award Management (SAM) and obtain a Unique Entity ID (UEI).
Understand your business size, certifications and status: The contracting regulations (e.g., the Federal Acquisition Regulation – FAR) use definitions of small business, disadvantaged business, etc.
Get your internal house in order: That means making sure you have past performance data, financial systems, compliance tracking and a capabilities statement. One reference guide emphasises that market research, reading solicitation details, and preparing compliant proposals is critical.
Why this matters for your role:
Capture / BD managers can evaluate whether the organisation has the right eligibility and competitive posture before chasing a bid.
Proposal managers ensure that the registration and compliance pieces are clear to avoid disqualification.
Contract managers should verify that any contract awarded meets the eligibility criteria and your organisation has fully registered and understood obligations.
Step 2: Market-Research & Opportunity Identification
After eligibility comes the strategic question: Which opportunities should you go after, and how do you find them?
Market-research tasks:
Smart RFP and capture teams don’t just react to open solicitations—they forecast them, analyze spending patterns, and target agencies whose needs align with their capabilities. Track upcoming solicitations, pipeline, forecast and buying patterns (spend data) so you are not just reactive but proactive.
Effective market research begins with understanding who buys what you sell. Which agencies use your type of service or product? What are their procurement cycles? Who are the incumbent contractors currently holding those awards? Capture and business development teams should work together to build a pipeline of upcoming bids and maintain a shared view of potential fits, estimated values, and deadlines.
This proactive approach ensures you’re ready long before an RFP drops. Instead of scrambling to respond to an unfamiliar opportunity, you’ll already understand the agency’s mission, pain points, and past buying behavior.
Opportunity identification:
Use portals (like SAM.gov, agency procurement sites) to monitor solicitations.
Filter for contracts that fit your organisation’s core competencies, size, and strategy.
Evaluate ‘fit’ in terms of capability, past performance, and winning potential.
Prioritise being first to understand the solicitation rather than being last to throw in a bid.
For your role:
Capture/BD should lead the market-intelligence effort and decide which opportunities align with the firm’s strategy.
Proposal professionals should contribute by analysing solicitation criteria early, building compliant structures and help shape opportunity response strategy.
Contract managers should feed back from deliverables and contract admin to the capture/proposal team so that lessons are learnt.
Step 3: Build a Capture Strategy and Capability Statement
A strong capture strategy is a critical part of learning how to get government contracts. It’s where many organizations separate themselves from the competition.Capture management isn’t just about collecting intel—it’s about shaping your position before the solicitation is even released. Engage early with target agencies where possible, attend industry days, and ask clarifying questions when draft RFPs are posted. These actions not only signal your interest but help you tailor your future response to the agency’s specific needs.
At the same time, create a clear and professional capability statement. This one-page summary is your organization’s introduction to government buyers. It should highlight your core competencies, differentiators, past performance, certifications, and contact information. A strong capability statement positions you as a credible and experienced vendor and often serves as the first impression you make on an agency or prime contractor.
For capture and BD teams, this document is a networking tool; for proposal professionals, it becomes a key source of standardized company information; and for contract managers, it sets clear expectations about what the organization is capable of delivering.
Step 4: Write a Compliant, Compelling Proposal
The proposal stage is where strategy becomes execution. Every RFP is different, but one constant remains: compliance. The government will not evaluate your solution if it doesn’t meet every mandatory requirement. That means formatting, page limits, submission portals, and file naming conventions all matter.
Start by dissecting the solicitation carefully. Identify evaluation criteria, mandatory sections, and weighted scoring areas. Proposal managers should assign ownership to each section early and ensure that subject matter experts understand the evaluation criteria guiding their content.
Beyond compliance, your proposal must tell a clear, persuasive story. Align your solution directly to the customer’s mission and challenges. Use evidence—metrics, case studies, and past performance data—to demonstrate credibility. Show how your organization mitigates risk, offers cost savings, or delivers measurable outcomes.
Before submission, implement a rigorous quality review. Every section should be proofed for accuracy, consistency, and alignment with your corporate messaging. Even minor errors in compliance, formatting, or pricing can jeopardize an otherwise strong submission.
Role-specific impact:
Proposal professionals drive this work and coordinate with SMEs, writers, graphic designers, pricing teams and reviewers.
Capture/BD should have helped shape the proposal by providing insights on customer voice, differentiators and partner strategy.
Contract managers should be consulted during proposal development to validate deliverability and risk management of proposed solution.
Step 5: Manage the Contract and Deliver with Excellence
Winning a contract is only the beginning. Effective contract management is essential for maintaining your reputation and securing future work. Once awarded, conduct an internal kickoff meeting to align stakeholders, clarify deliverables, and confirm reporting requirements.
Contract managers should maintain meticulous records of communications, performance reports, invoices, and modifications. Federal and state contracts often undergo audits, and transparency is crucial. Regular performance reviews help ensure that deliverables remain on schedule and within scope.
Strong performance can also translate into competitive advantage. When agencies see that you deliver quality work on time and within budget, you become a trusted vendor. That trust opens doors to contract extensions, renewals, and future solicitations where past performance is a key evaluation factor.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Even experienced teams in the RFP/bid and capture space sometimes fall into traps. Here are the common ones and how to guard against them:
Under-estimating the time and resource commitment: Government proposals often have tight deadlines and extensive requirements. Plan backwards from the deadline and build in reviews.
Poor registration or missing eligibility: If your entity isn’t properly registered, you might be ineligible and waste time.
Solving the wrong problem: If your proposal doesn’t speak clearly to the customer’s objective, it may get rejected—especially when evaluation criteria emphasise understanding of the requirement.
Weak past performance evidence: Agencies look for demonstrated experience. Make sure you document and present your past successes clearly.
Disconnect between proposal and execution: If your contract team can’t deliver what your proposal promised, you risk poor performance, disputes or future exclusion.
