See my response above. Yes, they technically must ask publicly as it's extremely difficult to justify sole source acquisition. However, in reality, for smaller

See my response above. Yes, they technically must ask publicly as it's extremely difficult to justify sole source acquisition. However, in reality, for smaller contracts most PM's will all but ignore applicants they don't know personally. You have to engage face-to-face in some way (e.g. at a symposium, reaching them through your network, finding their phone # or email). Some PM's are responsive and will entertain a discussion while others just want to keep their job by mimimizing risk and maintaining the status quo, and will simply blow you off. I don't have (and doubt there are) stats on this, but I suspect chances of winning a blind award (without a face-to-face meeting) are virtually zero.