How Government Marketing Is Different From A Sales Pitch In Private Sector

One of the biggest, and often fatal mistakes a business person makes when entering the government market is to treat it just as they would when entering the private sector market. It runs true in those instances where the particular business is extremely successful in selling its products or services to consumers or other businesses and tries to apply similar tactics in the federal market. You must be wondering if the strategies and tactics work elsewhere, why would they not work in the government market?

So, here comes the most obvious difference between government marketing agency and selling to the private sector.

This is flawed logic because the government marketing agency is dramatically different from the private sector, not only due to the accounting and financial requirements, but also in terms of operations. There are also unique industry-specific terminology and very specific purchasing/procurement processes in government marketing agency which differ greatly from the private sector.

To better understand the processes and differences, let’s take a look at the two tracks newcomers generally follow when entering the federal marketplace: The Top Down or the Bottom Up tracks.

Bottom Up Track

Many business people enter the federal market by following all the clearly stated processes: they register in CCR.gov, fill out every form and enter every database possible. They check and apply for all possible government marketing certifications and attend every meeting, conference and outreach session possible. They essentially start at the nascent stage of the business development and get the way up.

What’s Good & what’s bad

The Bottom Up approach is amazing as it comes with clear directions about who wants to fill out forms and following a process, it is relatively easy and, it seems like it is very straightforward.

Top Down Track

The companies that have been successful selling big-ticket services or products to the consumer or business market generally use the sales process of starting at the top, just as they would in the private sector. They have learned that if they get the buy-in of the top decision-maker, the subordinates will follow his/her lead?

Dead Air

They are sadly disappointed when nothing happens. They have no idea what went wrong, because all of the typical “buying signals” told them they had full agreement and the VIP loved them and their wonderful service or product.

Who Are the Decision-Makers

Real decision-makers comes with legal authority to deal with the tax dollars, negotiate, purchase, and sign their name on the government’s behalf on the contract. For contracts worth over $25,000, most often there are layers of people from the small business representatives, the contracting officers and specialists to the technical representatives and program managers who will be involved in the decision-making process.

When Neither Top Down or Bottom Up Works

To be successful in government marketing agency, a business person will invest the time and energy to learn the decision-making process, identify the various levels of people and try out every avenue to meet those goals and build relationships. The process involves following all of the steps of the “bottom-up” approach, but adding a very important sales step: identifying the real decision-makers and spending the time to build strong relationships so that they feel comfortable in doing business with a firm.

Relationship Building is the Key to Success

The most successful firms have invested time and effort in nurturing public relations. They go to conferences, vendor outreach sessions, one-on-one meetings, speed-matching sessions, every place that they have the chance to meet, shake hands with and look eye-to-eye with the people who buy what they sell. This is how the concept of government marketing agency actually works.

Successful business people, irrespective of doing business with federal government or private entrepreneurs are always prepared with a great Capability Statement, get their homework done and researched upcoming opportunities and are ready to discuss how they fit into specific needs of that agency. And they also know what purchase vehicles that agency uses to buy services and products.

In summary, a successful business person will know the decision-makers (and the decision-makers know them!), make it easy to do business with them and have the right purchase vehicles lined up so that there is no risk for the government.