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Module 3: Find Demand. Written explanation, fictional example, and sources.
Educational content. Follow the applicable solicitation and contract. Official sources are provided below.
10 min · Progress tracking is not available yet
After this lesson you should be able to tell a pre-solicitation notice from a solicitation notice, recognize an award notice as something that already happened, and treat a sole-source notice as a limited-competition listing rather than an open request for everyone to bid. You should capture files only when the listing is actually a request your company might answer.
The notice type on SAM.gov still has to be checked against the attached files.
SAM.gov says Contract Opportunities include pre-solicitation notices, solicitation notices, award notices, and sole-source notices. Those labels are not interchangeable. A listing is not an award, and an award listing is not a new request for offers.
A pre-solicitation notice is usually an early synopsis that a buy is coming. FAR 5.203 generally requires that notice to appear at least 15 days before the agency issues a solicitation, or before a proposed action the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source, with commercial and other exceptions. Seeing a pre-solicitation notice does not mean you already have a request for quotations in hand.
A solicitation notice is the posting that points to a request for offers or quotations. FAR 2.101 defines a solicitation as any request to submit offers or quotations to the Government. That is typically the package you later store in an AsherGate draft, together with every attachment and amendment named on the listing.
An award notice reports a contract that already exists. It can help you learn who won and what was bought. It is not a request for you to submit a bid on that same action. A sole-source notice flags an action the agency does not intend to compete on a full and open basis. FAR 6.302-1 is one authority: when supplies or services are available from only one responsible source, or for DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy the requirement, full and open competition need not be provided. Other authorities exist. Read the notice and any justification. Do not treat a sole-source listing as an open RFQ.
Using the Pineshadow story below, four SAM.gov listings share a similar product word. Only solicitation notice AG-TYPE-26-0518 is a request for quotations. The pre-solicitation is earlier market notice. The award notice is last year’s buy. The sole-source notice names a different vendor.
Download the solicitation PDF and its two attachments for AG-TYPE-26-0518, then create one AsherGate draft for that notice. Leave the award and sole-source listings out of that draft. Do not submit anything.
Fictional example
Pineshadow Flagpoles LLC is a fictional outdoor-hardware shop in Flagstaff, Arizona. It makes hinged aluminum flagpoles for municipal parks. It has an Active SAM.gov registration and no federal award.
A search for flagpoles returns four fictional listings from a fictional Coconino Civic Grounds Desk: a pre-solicitation for next quarter, solicitation AG-TYPE-26-0518 for 18 hinged poles with quotes due 4 November 2026 at 1:00 p.m. Mountain Time, an award notice for last year’s 12-pole order, and a sole-source notice naming another vendor for a matching replacement finial.
The team copies the solicitation notice number and downloads that RFQ plus two drawings. They create an AsherGate draft named AG-TYPE-26-0518 Pineshadow. They keep the award and sole-source listings in a team note as context, not as files to answer. Nothing is submitted.
Each official source is listed with the teaching claim it supports. Product behavior is labeled separately. Review dates are when AsherGate last checked the page.
SAM.gov / GSA · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: Opportunities include pre-solicitation notices, solicitation notices, award notices, and sole-source notices.
Acquisition.gov · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: A solicitation is a request to submit offers or quotations to the Government, including invitations for bids, requests for proposals, and simplified requests for quotations or offers.
Acquisition.gov · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: When 5.201 requires a notice, it must generally be published at least 15 days before issuance of a solicitation or before a proposed sole-source action, with commercial and other exceptions. Times run from GPE publication.
Acquisition.gov · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: When supplies or services are available from only one responsible source, or for DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided.
Acquisition.gov · Official source · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: Contracting officers publicize contract actions to increase competition, broaden industry participation, and assist small businesses in obtaining contracts and subcontracts.
AsherGate · AsherGate product · Reviewed 2026-09-27
Supports: A company draft stores the files for one notice you chose to capture. It does not classify SAM.gov notice types or submit a response.