Most government sales business today requires a structured process to be followed. Unlike the commercial side, the government has a significant amount of public reporting and transparency, as well as multiple rules forbidding favoritism. Not paying attention to these rules results in many vendors losing bids without even being considered, a common rookie mistake.
While PWIN (percentage win), is clearly an easy metric to apply to sales and performance of capture with a targeted customer base, it doesn’t lend itself so easily to the government arena. That’s because there are a number of fundamental differences between government and the open market, and it’s important to understand these differences if a vendor wants to be successful on public Organization bids.
Government contracting holds great promise, but it continues to confound many businesses, leaving only a few mega-entities and adept companieswinning bids regularly. There are core reasons why this occurs and it often has to do with sellers not having a planned process in their approach.
As your company starts looking for new opportunities, you’ll realize how much information you need to make smart business decisions about which opportunities to pursue. The federal government awards thousands of contracts worth billions of dollars each year.
Narrowing down the list to something manageable requires a lot of information. Thankfully, virtually every bit of information surrounding government contracts is publicly available.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are available in an assortment of platforms, serving a variety of needs for government contractors. The process of Capture Management – both planning and management – requires a complex mix of data collecting, customer intimacy and understanding of their requirements, teaming, competitive analysis, pricing, communication, reminders and continuous internal management reporting and updates.
As you review the various types of CRM capabilities that exist across many of your potential solutions, it can be a challenge to define the types of capabilities that are most important to your organization. Elaborate branding may have you focused on specific capabilities that are not necessarily aligned with what adds the most value to your organization, especially since the pipeline of a government contractor can be incredibly different from other organizations’ pipelines.
Is there a true need for your organization to access the CRM via an app, if the information captured doesn’t specifically address the strategic direction and processes of your organization?
Probably not.
Government agencies may be a solid source of income, but they also require a significant investment of time and resources to close a deal, depending on the length of your sales cycle. The open-bidding process often goes through several layers with fewer potential contractors competing at each step. As you manage your capture through all the different stages, networking and making contacts is a big part of the process. Given the complexity of agency structures, no one person makes the final decision on bids. This fact makes building relationships a must – and that’s where Industry Days come in to play.
The most important thing you can do is take a long look in the mirror and ask the question: “Am I ready for this fiscal year?” Maybe not – status quo may not be enough to be ready. You know a surge in government spending is on the horizon, but you may not have everything in place within your organization to ride the wave.
