Selling to the NSW Government

Speaker: Shivendra Kumar, Business Connect specialist advisor.

Today I'm going to talk to you about how you can sell your goods and services to the NSW Government, as well as what resources and support you can access.

So over the years, the NSW Government has simplified the process.

It starts by the agency advertising for an opportunity on the buy NSW website.

Once the opportunity is there, small businesses can access it and they can access it either by searching the buy NSW portal, or they can be proactive and subscribe to the portal and be notified when a relevant opportunity presents itself.

Then the businesses of course have to submit for the opportunity, submit a proposal or tender in whichever way the opportunity presents itself.

The government agency then collects all the submissions and they go through an evaluation process after which businesses are shortlisted.

After the shortlisting process, the selected vendor is identified, the contract is awarded.

The NSW Government buys in various different ways.

One of the easiest ways to do business with the government is to register for schemes through the buy NSW portal.

The other way, of course, is the tender process. So that's a direct quote to businesses that are usually on the panel that the government can do business with.

But for some low value transactions, low value goods and services, the government also goes out to get quotes.

They also have a request for proposals or expression of interest.

The government's very transparent in terms of how it purchases. The NSW Government looks at the price, it looks at the technical requirements, but it also looks at the impact of the particular opportunity when given to a business.

In terms of the guidelines or the specifications, it's always documented in the tender documents. So small businesses that are looking to sell their services to the government need not only focus on price.

The NSW Government prioritises a concept called value for money. And value for money considers the impact it will have on the local community, on the local industry, in the particular regions, but also the solutions that they're bringing in.

Are they going to be engaging more local subcontractors? Will they be giving opportunity for local jobs?

Now, there's also the technical elements to it to say if it's, for example, if it's supplies for a local hospital, they will have of course the standards for those products.

To be competitive when you sell to the government, you've got to keep in mind a few factors.

The first one is you've got to know your buyer really well. The second part there is to understand what they're trying to buy and why they are buying that.

Let's say a tender that has come from, let's say the NSW Department of Education, you'll start seeing patterns.

So as you get to know the buyer, you'll start seeing some similarities in how they purchase and how their opportunities are sort of structured.

Once you understand that you can sort of tailor your response to align with their requirements, that also gives you a competitive advantage.

But on top of that, also being able to demonstrate compliance to any regulatory requirements, any accreditations, licences that's required to deliver the particular good or service.

The Service NSW Business Bureau can help you at every step of the process.