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