Is "Ethical Stalking" the Key to Market Research?

When it comes to market research in government contracting, the American Small Business Coalition's Guy Timberlake has some controversial advice: Stalk your competitors. And your customers.
The term "ethical stalking started as a joke," Timberlake says. "It stuck because it really is what you're doing in all the right ways -- building a business case for why the government should work with you."

Fill in the Blanks with Public Information

When Timberlake talks about stalking, he's not referring to calling your customers and hanging up, or following them down the street. Instead, his "ethical stalking" concept involves using information in the public domain to "fill in the blanks of what information you already have or have access to."

Watch the full archived Webinar video and download the presentation slides [PDF].

GovCon Business Development Weekly: Guy Timberlake Discusses Research and Ethical Stalking, September 13, 2011 from GovWin Team on Vimeo.

"In any business, including government contracting, information is king. And good, timely information reigns supreme," said Timberlake. Your decisionmakers need good information to make sound decisions.
Any capture activity has an associated cost; however, the advent of the Internet means that some once-costly research is now cheap and easy. Timberlake advocates filling in any gaps in information gained from subscriptions to such services as INPUT with these techniques:

• Mine "open-source intelligence" data such as searches of search.usa.gov.
• Use Google Alerts to keep tabs on a particular search term, contract name, person or company.

Try These Data Sources

A plethora of data sources, previously relegated to print, are now available online:

• Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database
• Small Business Administration (SBA) dynamic search tool
• FedBizOpps
• Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)
• USASpending.gov
• Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Exhibit 300 documents
• Media such as newspaper, magazines and radio
• Public data such as government reports
• Official data such as budgets, demographics, hearings and legislative debates
• Professional and academic data such as conferences, symposia, academic papers and expert reports

"Round out the intelligence you have rather than throwing something at the wall and seeing what sticks," said Timberlake. "Instead, have a validated process and solution: insight into requests for proposal (RFPs), opportunities, and so on."
The data you gather this way allows you to "be smarter about the decisions you make" in what opportunities to pursue, said Timberlake.

Use "Gray Literature"

Timberlake also advocates the use of "gray literature," data that companies mistakenly release online. This gray information can take the form of trip reports, working papers, discussion papers, unofficial government documents, proceedings, preprints, research reports, studies or market surveys. Google alerts are especially adept at digging up this kind of information.

The Right Way to Get Ahead?

Should businesses be using these tactics to gain information about customers and competitors? Have you used "ethical stalking" approaches? Let's hear it in the comments.

Question and Answer Session with Guy Timberlake

GovCon Business Development Weekly: Audience Questions from September 13, 2011 from GovWin Team on Vimeo.

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Lindley Ashline is the Web editor at GovWin.com, the network that helps government contractors win new business every day. She can be reached at lindleyashline@deltek.com, or you can follow her on Twitter @lindleyashline.

Source: Is "Ethical Stalking" the Key to Market Research?