Finding government contracting points of contact before the RFP drops is one of the most powerful moves a small business can make in federal BD.

In this episode, host Eric Coffey walks through his exact process for identifying and reaching the right people inside federal agencies — using free, publicly available tools — so you're building relationships during the planning phase, not scrambling when the solicitation hits.

What you'll learn in this episode:

How to use Acquisition Gateway to uncover real names and emails — including small business contacts and program managers tied to specific forecast opportunities
Why industry day PDFs are a goldmine — Eric breaks down how the MICC (Mission and Installation Contracting Command) industry day reveals names, responsibilities, and project types most contractors never bother to find
How to use SAM.gov to access archived industry day documents — including historical MICC PDFs packed with incumbent info, partner agencies, and organizational contacts
The LinkedIn and AI research method for profiling contacts once you've identified them from forecast listings
The exact outreach framing to use when cold-contacting a POC you found through a forecast — so you don't get ignored

EPISODE CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction to the Federal Help Center podcast

0:27 - Why BD before the RFP is the winning strategy

1:26 - Using Acquisition Gateway to find forecast opportunities

2:13 - Filtering agency forecasts by NAICS code and set-aside

2:43 - Finding small business contacts inside forecast listings

3:42 - Researching program managers and end users on LinkedIn

4:40 - Using AI and Google to profile hard-to-find contacts

5:38 - How to approach a cold outreach to a forecast POC

6:07 - MICC industry day PDFs as a federal contacts goldmine

7:06 - Army Corps of Engineers and other industry day resources

7:35 - Finding archived industry day PDFs on SAM.gov

If you want to learn more about the community and to join the webinars go to: https://federalhelpcenter.com/

Website: https://govcongiants.org/

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding