How is a small market research firm in South Portland, Maine, growing its revenues by 20% per year?  According to its Director of Research, Dr. Brian Robertson, the answer is Maine PTAC, the Maine Procurement Technical Assistance Center.

In fact, says Dr. Robertson, Maine PTAC provides Market Decisions with daily assistance.  Each morning, Dr. Robertson opens his e-mail to find a communication from PTAC with information on government agencies seeking bids for work that Market Decisions is well suited to provide.  Those e-mail leads have helped Market Decisions grow the company’s share of government contract work from 40% in 2000 to 80% in 2005, and, according to Dr. Robertson, is largely responsible for the company’s 20% annual growth in revenues.   Upwards of 80% of its government contract work now comes from the Maine PTAC leads, according to Dr. Robertson, who says his company is anticipating $2million in sales this year.

The leads provided to Market Decisions originate from Maine PTAC’s Bid Match Service.  “What makes our bid match service so effective,” according to Maine PTAC’s Ernie Gray, “is Maine PTAC’s skill at developing precise client profiles coupled with our extensive knowledge of the government market.” 

A client profile, also known as a search profile, is used to search the Internet to find the government announcements that best match it.  “Designing a search profile with key words and other elements that ‘nail’ the right matches is our expertise,” says Gray.  The service, provided at no cost to the user, can be critical in helping businesses locate government agencies in need of services it offers.

“Being in our business can be a tricky thing because people call it by many things – surveys, studies, or research,” says Dr. Robertson.  That can make it difficult for a small company to search on its own for appropriate government opportunities.   Because of that, says Dr. Robertson, “The Maine PTAC e-mails have been very good for us.”

Dr. Robertson says that most of the government contracts Market Decisions has secured to date are for local and state governments.  Much of that work, says Dr. Robertson, led to the addition of  seven new full time positions and 28 new part time positions since 2000.  Those contracts have kept the company “so busy” according to Dr. Robertson, that Market Decisions has had difficulty putting time aside to pursue its next goal:  accessing federal contracts.  When his company is ready to turn its attention to those federal contracts, Dr. Robertson knows that Maine PTAC stands ready to help.   “Maine PTAC will make it much easier for us to get into that marketplace,” says Dr. Robertson, about Market Decisions’ bright future.