Boost Your Marketing Knowledge: Understanding California’s Competitive Bidding Process
Navigating the California Public Contract Code: Competitive Bidding Essentials
Understanding the legality of your practice is part of the job, but how it integrates into your marketing automation and revenue operations are whole different turfs. In this article, we’re going to help you understand how to get more sales by breaking down how competitive bidding works – the law side of it. You won’t believe how uninteresting breaking down the California Public Contract Code’s competitive bidding is. Doing government contracting work is an entirely different animal, and if you have no idea what you’re doing, you’ll be scammed. Knowing the laws and how to interpret them is vital to making sales. We’ll go through this not-so-exciting journey together.
In short, the California Public Contract Code’s competitive bidding sections provides a framework all forms of governmental entities need to use to obtain contracts. These requirements are put into place to ensure that governmental entities are receiving quality services and physical goods within parameters of reasonability. For governmental agencies, this section of the Code can be extremely burdensome, but it is a large safety net for marketing professionals. By understanding how it all works, you can simplify the process of building a business around government contracts. When we dive deep into how government contracts are acquired, we enter a realm filled with jargon and tedious processes. However, it is with the utmost importance to understand that the capabilities of revenue operations and marketing automation should be used as your safety net. Have no worries because we’ll enlighten you on how to automate the entire process of getting contracts.
The California Public Contract Code has 4 different sections when looking at competitive bidding: 1.) the preparation of the contractor’s bid, 2.) opening of bids and written responses, 3.) awarding of contract, and 4.) prohibiting the contracting entity from entering into the contract after award is made. The document itself is referenced in the California Government Code sections, including § 10295, 10302, and 10304. For sturdy contract lawyers, this is a comfortable place to be; however, for us salesmen, we’ll break these difficult words down to help you avoid fraudulent bids.
The easiest way to understand how contract acquisition works in California is by looking at it with a blank slate. If you were designing a funnel where you had to go through a series of stipulations before you were able to go through the conversion process, that would be the award. The critical part of acquiring the award is understanding what kind of team needs to be in place, what sort of information to provide for the contract, and how to rank top of the list through the use of marketing automation. We’ll break down how to do just that.
Can you automate compliance? Yes! You can use your marketing automation and revenue operations to automate the screening process and compliance for contract awards. Many people don’t realize that the Bids and Tenders service will allow them to automate the process for awarding government contracts. This service will allow businesses to set-up streamlines for communication, which helps to keep an organized structure within your sales team. It is a process automation tech that automatically sends emails, reminders, and any other pieces of information to maintain sanity throughout the entire purchasing process.
The 3 most essential elements in terms of demographics when it comes to winning and getting awarded government contracts are: 1.) meeting the qualifications for bidding requirements, 2.) being capable of adhering to any specified waiting periods or work stoppages, and 3.) being knowledgeable about the best salary rates for different occupations in the area (or other rates, depending on the item/service being requested). Therefore, your marketing strategy could revolve around an automated compensation model that is specified for the project(s) you’ll be bidding on. For example, if you’re bidding on multiple construction projects, you’ll need to get a basic understanding on what civil engineers would be complimentary at the time of execution and sell that knowledge alongside your proposal.
The California Public Contract Code’s competitive bidding system requires various things of contractors. The most obvious is that you’ll have to offer up a bid for any of the purchases/service provides listed. The second, biggest requirement of governmental entities is that they require proof of insurance, licensure (in some cases), and bonding. When you submit a bid, they will make you fill-out mostly – if not all – of the previous items stated. You’ll have to look for authorized bonding agents that are in alignment with the project. For example, if it’s a construction project, then you’re most likely going to need a surety bond or a notary public timestamp (in some cases). As confusing as the last two statements were, they go to show that there are several core requirements that your revenues need to cover. If you don’t have a high-level understanding of what needs to be done for these projects, you can lose out on thousands of dollars without even knowing.
Your sales team should be working towards understanding these entire sections of codes for government contracts. The California Public Contract Code has details that are identified in §10295 and § 10302. For those that like visual aids, here’s a diagram that shows roughly how the entire bidding and contracting process plays out. The terms are similar to those that are used for other types of contracts, such as contracts for the purchase of supplies or services. In general, the low bidder will prevail and be awarded the contract, barring any type of offer for the greatest revenue share (a contracting entity will pay the governmental agency the highest amount).
The reason why you haven’t thought about this before is because taking a look at the Public Contract Code is akin to looking at an entirely different funnel system. It’s also written in legalese, which makes it extremely boring. Even with that said, it is well worth it to learn how to navigate creating a process automation structure around it. You can even build a whole marketing strategy around it – it’s easy to manipulate!
In some cases, an agency may try to award the contract to a contractor that submits a bid higher than you, if that contractor has an established relationship with the agency. However, this is not the case as the legality surrounding the situation would dictate that you’re entitled to a higher level of quality, should you have a higher bid than a contractor that has had a prior relationship with the governmental agency. When you’re organizing your sales team for government contracts, you need to know in advance what sorts of employees you will need. You could open a whole vertical that provides government contract sales intelligence, or combine it with your automation systems to create a contract award software. The only thing stopping you from doing so is about a thousand dollars and a good contract lawyer.
For more insights on navigating the complexities of government contracts, check out the comprehensive approach to competitive bidding in California.
