Public tenders in Stage 1

A federal agency that posts a solicitation has money set aside and a date to respond by. That's as clear a buying signal as exists. The trouble is finding the ones that fit your work before the window closes, without someone on your team searching SAM.gov every morning.

Stage 1 searches it for you and puts the agency on your Board.

What it watches

Stage 1 reads SAM.gov, the US federal contract opportunities system. Once a day, it searches opportunity titles for the topics you listen for and the tools you replace, the same words your Brain and plays already use.

It keeps four kinds of notice. Solicitations, presolicitations, sources sought and special notices. Anything marked inactive is dropped.

The first search looks back 30 days. After that it looks at the last two, so nothing posted between runs slips past.

What lands on the Board

Each match puts the agency on your Board as an account, marked Government and US. The signal names what they're buying and when responses are due.

Published an RFP for cloud data platform migration support, responses due November 14

A public tender is one of the strongest signals in Stage 1, at the top of the scale with any RFP. So it moves an agency up the Board on its own. The account shows the recommended move for any RFP. They're buying now, so go to the economic buyer and ask to be considered.

From there it works like any account. Open it, read the signal and the source, and approve it if you want to work it.

How to turn it on

Public tenders are opt-in, per play. When you create a play under Plays, tick Watch public tenders. The play has to watch the RFP family for it to run. A play with it on shows Public tenders on in its summary.

If you don't sell to the federal government, leave it off. Nothing changes.

Tenders only come from SAM.gov today, so they cover federal work. State and local buying shows up through the news and the other sources Stage 1 reads, and state and local procurement signals covers what to watch there.

Why it matters for services

Most services firms treat public sector as a separate business with its own bid team. Some of it is. But a sources sought notice is an agency asking who can do the work before it writes the solicitation. That's the moment to show up with a point of view, not a 200-page response a month later.

Reading SAM.gov as a services firm goes into which notices are worth your time. RFPs, when to bid and when to walk is the honest version of the bid decision.

Stage 1 doesn't write your proposal and it doesn't register you as a vendor. It tells you which agencies just asked for work you do, and by when.