Before we delve into conquering government business development, let’s fill you in on a few of our biases and underlying beliefs about winning government contracts. You’ll see these woven throughout the blog. They are fundamental to our approach and, we believe, your success.
1. Belief one: Integrity
Federal government, state and local government buy products and services with taxpayers’ money – OUR money. We take this seriously. Because of this, we believe we have a duty to provide government with products and services that meet expectations that they set. Keep your promises! This doesn’t mean you have to give away the farm. You shouldn’t. It does mean you should approach the effort to win government contracts sale the strongest measure of ethics and honesty.
2. Belief two: Listening
Our parent company is named Galain Solutions, Inc. “Galain” is a Native American Indian word meaning “listen”. It’s at the heart of the government selling secrets.
The harsh truth is government contracting processes often make “selling by listening” difficult. Pre-bid meetings, RFPs (Requests for Proposal), contract vehicles, etc. all are designed to water down your ability to influence the buyer even when your intentions are honorable.
There’s a tremendous amount of accountability in government contracting. No one, not even the Mayor…or the President… really has the ability to write a check to a vendor without visibility and accountability. In order for the government to contract to buy something, there’s a complex maze of things that must happen before checks are written.
3. Belief three: Processes for Winning Government Contracts
We’re not big fans of imposing weighty, rigid processes on sales folks. However, we have observed certain consistent behaviors of top producers. They’re not afraid of process! A few years back, we oversaw a study on behaviors of top government sales performers, the results of which can be made available by reaching out to Government Selling Solutions.
We found, among other things, that successful sales people appreciate good processes. Yep, that’s right. They even embrace them. Now, weak performers…they hate them.
We believe outlining and distilling certain habits (many of which include natural tendencies) into a repeatable, teachable process can really help individual results. We’ve seen it first-hand.
4. Belief four: Patience
We’re going to show you short-cuts to winning government contracts, but they may not be what you would think. Our short-cuts come from placing you on a path, showing you how to navigate it, and encouraging you to stay on the path − even though the path is a not a short one.
Government contracting sales cycles are long…real long. Pretty much everyone knows that, but often we see people lulled into a belief that they’re going to get lucky and huge government orders are going to fall from the sky in short order. They say they know better, but when a year passes and government sales haven’t closed, they start looking toward the blue sky. When they see nothing but blinding light, they lose patience and get off the path on which they embarked.
Don’t get us wrong. Even the best of paths need navigational adjustments. But getting too far off the path means you just waste time trying to find your way back. This is a common problem in government contract sales. We’ve seen it time-and-time again. But, the rewards for staying the course can be quite nice indeed.