Scale Any Industry With Contracts
Consulting isn’t the only way in. The feds buy laptops, parts, and pallets too.
Scale Any Industry With Contracts
The government isn’t just a buyer of consultants and engineers. Last year it spent over $305 billion on products, laptops, parts, equipment, supplies. If you sell something, there’s a version of your business that sells it to the feds.
We’ll Cover
The Products Half of the Market — the $305 billion most people forget exists
Why “Being Buyable” Beats Having the Best Product — the real bottleneck for product companies
The Edge — the IT vehicles that turn a reseller into a federal supplier, and the policy that forces agencies to use them
Opportunity Alerts — where product money is moving, including a vehicle recompete on the horizon
The Play of the Week — five moves to make your product buyable before the next issue
This Week’s Win — a reseller, 600+ laptops, one federal award
Bottom Line Up Front
Most people think government contracting means services — consulting, IT support, staffing. Half the market is products. The government bought roughly $305 billion of them last year.
If you sell a physical good, the question isn’t whether the government buys it. It almost certainly does. The question is whether you’ve made yourself buyable — registered, on the right vehicle, positioned where the orders actually flow. That’s the entire game for product companies, and it’s more winnable than the services side because the barrier is logistics, not a 40-page technical proposal.
The Week In Numbers
Four figures. Each one is a reason product companies should be paying attention.
$305 billion — total federal product spending last year. Defense agencies spent about $253 billion on products; non-defense agencies about $52 billion. So what: the “services-only” myth costs product businesses an entire half of the market they never apply for.
$793 billion — total federal contract spending in FY2025, up $17.8 billion over the prior year even after inflation. So what: the customer is growing, and products are riding that growth.
$10 billion+ — annual order volume run through NASA SEWP, one of the highest-volume IT vehicles in government. So what: there is a pre-built highway for selling tech hardware to every federal agency, and over 100 of its contract holders are small businesses.
0.34% — SEWP’s surcharge on orders, generally priced below GSA Schedule. So what: the friction to transact through the right vehicle is low. The friction is getting on it.
Core Intel Report: The Market Nobody Applies For
Government contracting has a branding problem. Everybody pictures consultants and beltway bandits. So product companies — resellers, distributors, manufacturers, suppliers — assume the door isn’t for them.
The numbers say otherwise. Defense agencies spent about $253 billion on products last year, and non-defense agencies about $52 billion. That’s roughly $305 billion in physical goods. Fixed-wing aircraft topped the defense list, drugs and biologicals topped the civilian list — but underneath the headline categories sits everything else: computers, furniture, tools, safety gear, vehicles, building materials.
Here’s the part that changes how you should think about your business.
On the products side, the bottleneck isn’t capability. It’s access. A services bid lives or dies on a technical narrative — past performance, approach, key personnel. A product order is closer to commerce: the agency needs 600 laptops that meet a spec, and it buys them from whoever is positioned to sell, at the right price, through an approved channel.
That shifts the work. You’re not writing to win an evaluation. You’re making yourself buyable — registered, certified where it helps, and listed on the vehicle the agency is already required to use. Get those three right and a product company can scale faster than a services firm, because the sale repeats every refresh cycle.
What This Signals Next
Expect product procurement to stay durable through FY2026 even as services categories get squeezed. Consulting and advisory spend is under political pressure. Hardware, supplies, and mission-essential goods are not — agencies still have to equip people and run operations.
Translation: if you’ve been watching the services cuts and assuming the whole market is contracting, you’re reading the wrong half. Product money is the steadier bet right now, and the contractors getting buyable this quarter catch the refresh orders all year.
The Edge: Get Buyable On The IT Vehicles
The play for any tech-hardware seller — laptops, peripherals, networking, AV — is the IT contract vehicle. This is the clearest example of how “being buyable” works, and the lesson transfers to almost any product category.
Why it matters this quarter: there’s a policy floor under demand. OMB’s Category Management Policy 15-1 directs federal agencies to fill the bulk of their laptop and desktop needs through a small set of approved vehicles — NASA SEWP, NITAAC CIO-CS, and GSA MAS IT. That’s not a suggestion agencies can route around easily. It concentrates the buying onto specific highways. If you’re on the highway, you’re in the flow. If you’re not, you’re invisible no matter how good your pricing is.
Who should move: resellers, VARs, and distributors of IT hardware. Who shouldn’t: a one-off seller with no inventory pipeline or fulfillment capacity — the orders are real and you have to deliver.
Where it pays off: the IT vehicles above, plus relevant NAICS like 423430 (computer and peripheral equipment merchant wholesalers) and 334111 (electronic computer manufacturing). SEWP alone runs over $10 billion in orders a year, with more than 100 small business contract holders sharing that flow.
The one mistake that kills it: trying to sell to the government “directly” when policy is steering the agency to a vehicle. You can have the best laptop price in America and never see the order, because the buyer is required to shop the vehicle, not your website.
The one move this week: map which vehicle your product belongs on, and find out whether you can get on it directly or need to subcontract under an existing holder while you build toward your own slot.
Your product doesn’t lose to a better product. It loses to a competitor the agency is allowed to buy from.
Competitive Advantage Monitor
The rising edge: small-business status on an IT product vehicle, right now, ahead of the next-generation contract. NASA is developing SEWP VI as the successor to the current SEWP V. New vehicle generations re-open the holder list — which means a window where companies that weren’t on the old contract can compete for a seat on the new one. Those windows close, and when they do, the holders inside collect orders for years. The contractors monitoring the SEWP VI solicitation now are the ones who’ll be positioned when it lands. The ones who notice after award spend the next vehicle cycle on the outside.
Opportunity Alerts
Where product money is moving. Context over volume.
1. SEWP V extension + SEWP VI on deck. NASA extended SEWP V ordering through September 30, 2026, with option periods possible into 2027, while building SEWP VI. Why it matters: the extension keeps the current highway open, and the successor contract is the seat-grab window. Action: if you sell IT hardware, monitor NASA’s SEWP site for the SEWP VI solicitation and draft RFP. Decide now whether you’re pursuing a prime slot or partnering under a holder.
2. Annual workstation refresh cycles. Agencies refresh laptop and desktop fleets on a recurring schedule under the Government-wide Strategic Solutions program. Why it matters: this is repeat, predictable demand — the opposite of a one-time win. Action: identify which agencies in your region refresh on which timeline and get positioned before the buying window, not during it.
Signal vs Noise
What to watch. What to skip.
Signal: vehicle recompetes like SEWP VI. Category management policy that concentrates buying. Recurring refresh cycles. Set-aside status that gets you onto a vehicle small businesses are prioritized for.
Noise: headlines about services and consulting cuts. They’re real, but they’re a different market than yours if you sell products. Don’t let someone else’s bad quarter scare you out of a growing category.
Ignore entirely: “sell direct to the government” pitches that skip the vehicle question. For most product categories, the vehicle is the path. Anyone who tells you to bypass it doesn’t know how the buyer is required to shop.
