The fastest way to make a sale in the defense industry is not to the government or military, but to another defense business…

It might sound a bit odd, but truly the fastest way to get products in the hands of the government or military end user is via their existing Prime contractor purchasing them directly from you. It’s not always the most monetarily efficient acquisition maneuver for the Gov/Mil, but it is the simplest and quickest. You as the third party product provider can work a standard commercial B-to-B contract with the Prime, or the Prime can purchase direct from your commercial purchasing endpoint. It also helps to have an agreeable Prime contractor when the Gov/Mil requests this kind of action, as it is often easy or more difficult depending on the willingness of the Prime to execute quickly.

Ultimately if you are a product company, always have a readily accessible way to sell your products direct to customers, and be willing to have Gov/Mil customers simply work through their Primes to purchase your products when speed is of the essence. Getting listed in the GSA catalog is great, getting a sole source contract is very useful, but those and all the other options for direct purchase of products by the Gov/Mil take time. The most ideal thing a Gov/Mil COR can say when they want something purchased today is, “Hey (Prime Contractor) please go purchase X number of Y product from Z vendor in support of task ABC on your DEF contract via existing funds on CLIN GHI.”