Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics (OPAL)
Commercial Sales Practices
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CSP Concepts | Instances When You Are Required to Submit Full CSP Disclosures | Required Information | Useful Resources
CSP n. The Commercial Sales Practices (CSP) form is the document through which your firm relates the pricing, terms, and conditions it offers to its commercial (non-federal Government) customers. All information is required and must be provided before your offer can be sufficiently evaluated. Failure to provide accurate, current, and complete CSP information may result in the return of your offer without further consideration.
CSP Concepts
MFC vs. TC
Most Favored Customer
As part of your CSP disclosures, you are required to identify your most favored customer (MFC). the MFC is defined as the “customer or class of customer that receive(s) the best discount and/or price agreement on a given item from a supplier, regardless of terms and conditions.” When determining your MFC, include any commercial (non-federal Government) entity that does business with your firm. Your assigned contract specialist will conduct a price analysis and develop negotiation objectives based on a comparison of the offered Government price to the MFC arrangement. This is a required disclosure.
Tracking Customer
The tracking customer is agreed upon by both the Government and your firm and is established at time of contract award or when you add products to the contract. Similar to the MFC, the tracking customer is the customer, or category of customer against which awarded FSS pricing is tracked throughout the life of the contract. The tracking customer must represent the Government’s discount.
Estimated Sales
When completing the CSP you are required to disclose your annual commercial sales for the proposed items as well as your projected (or actual) sales to the Government for the same items. The data disclosed should be from the most recent 12-month time period, or your firm’s most recent fiscal year.
Required Disclosures for Dealers/Resellers
If your assigned contract specialist determines that you are a reseller with insignificant sales you may be required to submit relevant manufacturer data as well as a manufacturer letter of supply for each offered manufacturer.
Instances When You Are Required to Submit Full CSP Disclosures
Solicitation Proposal
During the proposal phase all offerors are required to complete and return Document 05 — Commercial Sales Practices Format. All offerors must respond to questions 1–4, and question 5 (dealers/resellers) as applicable.
Product Addition Modifications
Depending on the circumstances of your product addition request you may be required to submit full CSP disclosures with your request for modification package.
Paragraphs 1 & 2
If you are adding a SIN to your contract then you must submit the information requested in paragraphs 1 & 2 of the CSP with your request for modification package. You are not required to submit this information if your offered products fall under a SIN already on contract.
Paragraphs 3–5
Similar to paragraphs 1 & 2 of the CSP, you are required to provide full disclosures in paragraphs 3–5 if you are seeking to add a SIN to your contract. If the information is the same as disclosed at time of contract award you may submit a statement that “the CSP has not changed from time of contract award.”
| CSP-1 Question | Solicitation Proposal | Product Addition - New SIN | Product Addition - Existing SIN |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) 12–month value of actual sales to the general public | x | x | NA |
| (2) 12–month estimated or actual Government sales | x | x | NA |
| (3)Is the proposed Government price equal to or better than the MFC? | x | x | x |
| (4)(a) Figure 515-4.2 | x | x (or statement of not change) | x (or statement of not change) |
| (4)(b) Do you deviate from the commercial sales practices disclosed in 4a? | x | x (or statement of not change) | x (or statement of not change) |
| (5) Dealer/Reseller disclosure of manufacturer’s CSP | x (if applicable) | x (as applicable)(or statement of not change) | x (as applicable)(or statement of not change) |
Required Information
In accordance with the parameters outlined in the table above you may be required to submit some or all of the following as part of your CSP disclosures:
- Commercial Discount Practices: Are the terms offered to the Government equal to or better than your commercial customers? Do any deviations from your standard practices result in better discounts or concessions?
- Commercial Pricing: Provide 1 copy of your current published commercial catalog/price list; Complete figure 515-4.2 for each SIN and customer or category of customer.
- Estimated Sales: Provide the 12-month sales value to the general public and your estimated (or actual) sales to the Government.
- Proposed Pricing: Provide your proposed Government pricing for each line item that you are offering. We recommend that you use the pre–formatted spreadsheet.
Useful Resources
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