A Government Sales Plan for 2021
At Marion Square we spend a great deal of time thinking about and researching the best approaches to enable small, innovative, technology companies successfully enter into the US Government marketplace. Over the years we have developed a proven methodology which enables both short term sales success and lays the foundation for a long term, successful, Government business. In our experience a successful Government go-to-market strategy consists of 3 main pillars:
Understand the market and where to target your resources built a detailed go-to-market plan. Start by doing your research: Assess the market, have a clear understanding of who inside of the Federal Government buys your technology not only from an agency/organizational perspective but also from a role perspective. Understand who are your competitors where are they deployed throughout the Government. Build a plan and a message for each agency and buying persona. Doing this assessment up front will make your targeting and outreach both efficient and effective. :
Gain access to the right contracting vehicles and start this process early. Why start early, for two main reasons:
It will take longer than you think to get your product/service on a schedule like GSA or SEWP
The last thing you want to happen is a Government prospect to say "We want to purchase, what vehicles are you on?" and you have not started the process to access key contracting vehicles.
Develop a Government focused message, use cases and collateral. Don't try to re-purpose your existing Commercial messages. Do the research and understand the Government use cases relevant to your technology. Know and reference the acronym's and related systems in order to make your message and value clear to Government prospects. While it is perfectly acceptable to reference your commercial customer base this should not be the foundation of your message or supporting collateral.
Taking the time early to have these critical pillars in place for your Government's go-to-market process will help to ensure effective use of your resources and from our experience dramatically shorten your time to sustainable Government revenue.