On a quiet street in Savannah, Georgia, two small businesses, Lincole Tec and Mallet Prime Consulting, open their doors every morning with the same hope: to get government contract leads. But only one succeeds each quarter.
- Lincoln Tec bids on 12 Projects- gets NONE
- Mallet Prime bids on just 5 Projects- lands 3
Why is that? What is Mallet Prime doing differently that helps streamline their government contract bidding process? The answer is simple.
While Lincole Tec spends most of its time scrolling through government portals, viewing outdated listings, and manually filling out spreadsheets with potential leads, the team at Mallet Prime sips their coffee and waits for their government contract lead alerts to enter their inboxes.
Their secret: they outdo their competition by relying on government contract software, a quick, flexible, customizable, and fast tool that frees them from the hassle of frantically switching between SAM.gov, state portals, and outdated PDFs.
They avoid three major setbacks:
- Wasting hours on contracts that don’t match their capabilities
- Investing effort into bids that were already awarded elsewhere
- Burning out from searching across multiple sites with no results
On the flip side, Lincoln Tec does the complete opposite: wasting time on manual searches that ensure failure. Let’s analyze how the company can do better in the future.
Why Government Contract Search Is Inefficient
It wasn’t skill. It was the Approach.
If someone were to list down all the reasons why some companies get government contract leads and others don’t, it will all boil down to this one phrase: They had the right Approach.
So why are so many contractors still stuck on manual searches, and what’s the alternative? Before we discuss the latter, let’s see why manual searches are outdated.
Manual search can seem like chasing a moving target that you can never really catch. The process is daunting, time-consuming, and sadly, non-rewarding in the end. The reason? Well, it is an amalgamation of three core issues.
- Your sources are scattered: Contracts are spread across so many portals, it’s hard to keep track. Talk about SAM.gov for federal, jurisdiction-specific state sites, and local agency pages. And the worst part? Each portal comes with its own set of rules.
- You have to register separately for each system. Say hello to entering repetitive details on each site. Not just that, you also have to keep a spreadsheet to track all the unique codes- NAICS, commodity, etc., for each platform.
- You face Time-Heavy Browsing: If this was not enough, be prepared for having no centralized filter for your respective industry. You spend hours and hours scrolling through irrelevant listings and outdated bids. In the end, you have a lot of fatigue and no relevant government contract leads.
Let’s explore each of these in detail now.
Time Drain: Where The Hours Go
Experts note that government construction bidding “demands significant time” and that manual searches leave firms wasting hours on low-ROI. Moreover, Government contract bidding is a complex process, especially because even the most “advanced websites” like SAM.gov have a poor UI-UX design that makes it hard for companies to browse for the simplest of contracts.
Additionally, businesses waste 15-20 hours filtering through profiles, downloading and reading PDFs, checking eligibility for their businesses, and tracking deadlines.
Take the example of Lincole Tec to understand how the process works. Sarah, the lead researcher, logs onto her computer at eight and starts digging. This is what a normal day looks like for her.
- 8:00-10:00 a.m.: She digs through government sites, state procurement sites, and local agency portals.
- 10:00-1:00 p.m.: She filters opportunities by NAICS codes and downloads dozens of solicitation PDFs.
- 1:00-3:00 p.m.: Reads each PDF to check the scope and eligibility of each project.
- 3:00 Onwards: She spends on compliance verification, checking reviews, and tracking deadlines.
And just like that, she wastes hours and hours doing the same thing over and over again, only to realize that all she has are
- Redundant projects
- Outdated timelines
That’s not all. Manual searches are the perfect recipe for an ROI disaster.
It’s Not Just Time: The Strategic Cost of Manual Search
When assessing contracts, you may think: I’ll take any project that falls into my lap. But that’s a trap you do not want to fall into. Not all government contracts are created equal. You have the High-value contracts.
- The ones that match your capabilities
- They fall within your past performance scope
- They offer multi-year and scalable work
These are the ones you really want. There are also the low-value ones that have tight margins, unclear scopes, or low chances of winning due to heavy competition.
The problem with manual searches: Without smart tools, you waste time on bids, and you won’t win and miss the ones you could’ve nailed.
So you might wonder: What’s the alternative to manual searches? Is there a way out? Let’s discuss in the next sections.
Pivot To Smart Discovery: A Centralized Platform
Government contract searches are complex and time-consuming, but they are also very rewarding. Think of it this way. The US government isn’t just the biggest employer, it’s also the biggest customer. With hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts awarded every year across federal, state, and local levels, there’s no shortage of opportunity.
From cybersecurity firms and construction crews to marketing agencies and food vendors, businesses of all sizes have a chance to win big. The catch? You have to know where, but more importantly, how to look.
Once proposals are submitted, only a select few win the contract. So, what sets the winning bidders apart? It’s not just timing or luck—it’s strategy. The edge lies in having the right tools. A smart government contract management software like Lead Pursuits helps you cut through the noise, spot the right opportunities early, and position yourself at the front of the line.
- Search thousands of contract documents from one simple bar
- Access every public opportunity across all government agencies
- Get contract matches tailored to your business profile
- Stay updated with alerts and a deadline tracking calendar
- All data in one place, no more scattered portals or tabs
Turn Search Fatigue into Competitive Advantage
Governments are always on the lookout for small business contractors, like in the USA, where the government searches for small businesses through the DSBS (dynamic small business search platform). However, it’s not very easy for small businesses to do the right thing and invest in contract software. They need to make trade-offs all the time and ask themselves:
- We have a limited budget- do we spend it on an extensive workforce for manual searches?
- Do we invest in an all-in-one solution with an initial down payment but long-term ROI efficiency?
Lead Pursuits simplifies the entire government contracting process, helping you bid smarter, faster, and more confidently. By organizing complex data into one clear platform, it saves your team hours of manual work, so you can focus on what truly matters: growing your business and winning more contracts.
With built-in compliance support and tailored insights, you reduce guesswork, improve efficiency, and stay ahead of the competition.
Save valuable time and boost your win rate. Book your free demo with Lead Pursuits today.
