Ask questions, questions, and more questions. By the time you've talked to your fifth agency, you'll know all the questions you should have asked the first four. Sounds like good advice. Target marketing - rather than attempting to sell everything to everyone, concentrate your efforts on a small number of agencies most likely to produce profitable sales. Not merely reacting to advertised bids.
Personal contact counts.
Make personal sales calls when possible. If you are attempting to make your first sale, all they have to differentiate your company from the hundreds of others that approach them is your appearance, verbal communications, and marketing materials. Sometimes the best opportunities in government sales occur when a key person remembers who you are when a procurement opportunity comes up. Catalogs, brochures, postcards, phone calls, etc., all will help keep your company name in front of the buyers. And when you do get chance to bid, read those bid documents thoroughly .