Asher’s Secrets to Selling More to The Government – Part 2
The benefits of government sales training through Asher Government run deep. Our trainers have combined decades of experience selling to the government and acting as consultants for up-and-coming contracts. We aren’t simply selling you a list of contacts – we know the strategies that work, closing deals and winning contracts.
An investment into training seminars will pay off for years to come, as the benefits of government sales training become clearer. For newcomers to contracting, in particular, our strategies can make the difference between success and failure.
Five More Ways to Close Government Sales and Win Contracts
1- Use strong marketing messages
Your marketing messages should focus specifically on the prospect’s needs. How will you solve their problems, optimize their systems, and provide ROI on their spend? Avoid spending too much time bragging, and never engage in hyperbole you can’t back up. Focus on them and their needs.
2- Provide memorable solutions
Newcomers tend to focus on their technology and spout a lot of statistics. Neither of these approaches works. Stories and videos are what your prospects will remember, particularly when those stories and videos are directly illustrating the solutions you provide.
3- Always improve your closing techniques
Even great closers can always get better. Keep training yourself to read their body language. Recognize when they’re ready to buy. Know when to walk away if they aren’t going to buy. Always seek to improve your tactics.
4- Create long-term relationships
We said in the last blog there was a lot of churn in government employment, and that’s true. However, the contacts you should truly treasure are the long-time career civil servants. Even if they change positions, keep in touch with them! You never know when they’ll have a need for your services or know someone else who does. Speaking of which…
5- Get referrals
So, few salespeople think of this. If a prospect likes you, and your pitch, but simply isn’t in a position to buy, they could easily know someone else who you can target. Referrals are almost always excellent leads since they’re hearing about you from someone they already trust.
Take Your Contract Bidding to The Next Level with Asher Government
Even a single seminar can help your organization and staff realize the benefits of government sales training. Take advantage of our expert knowledge – contact us today to begin the process!
Four Crucial LinkedIn Marketing Tips for Defense Contractors
Asher Government Training programs are designed to provide a full spectrum of information on how your organization can become more proficient at selling to the government. We stay current on the latest in sales techniques and marketing tips for defense contractors so that we can continue to provide top-quality training for our clients.
One of the most recent revolutions in government marketing has come from social media. It’s not just for B2B and B2C! LinkedIn has increasingly become part of government purchasing programs as well, and can be another vital tool for helping you get those contracts first!
Our Tips for Defense Contractors;
1 – Optimize Your Profile for Your Target Agencies
Your LinkedIn Profile isn’t a purely factual space, it’s also your opportunity to make your first impression on the departments and agencies you’re targeting. Write your company description to match! Be sure to include plenty of keywords and proficiencies relevant to the contracts you’re seeking. This will make it more likely that government buyers find you before you even have to get their attention.
2 – Demonstrate Real Thought Leadership
With over one hundred million users, standing out on LinkedIn can be difficult. That’s where thought leadership can make the difference. Stay up-to-date on events and trends in your industry. Recognize good ideas coming out of other members or groups, and share them on your profile. However, more importantly – add your own ideas. Thought leadership means doing more than just following trends. Put your own spin on things, and add value – even to your social posts.
3 – Join Relevant Groups – Or Make Your Own
Social media, by its nature, is not a solo effort. You might be competing against other organizations on LinkedIn for contracts, but you should also join with them in Groups centered around your shared business interests. This can help you establish thought leadership, and it will also build contacts you could leverage for shared contracts in the future.
4 – Always Seek Better Contacts
Leverage all the tools within LinkedIn to build contacts with decision-makers within your target departments. This is another benefit to joining groups – you may be in a group with the very people you’re trying to impress. It’s also worth paying for a paid subscription, for unrestricted access to the InMail messaging service.
Need more defense contracting marketing tips and advice? Asher Strategies can help. Contact us to discuss our seminars!
Four Ways to Identify Successful Federal Business Development Consultants
There is certainly no shortage of self-proclaimed federal business development consultants out there, all trying to latch onto your growing contracting business. The question is, how can you tell the real pros from the wannabes? After all, as the saying goes, “Those who can’t, teach.”
Well, there are highly-proficient federal business development consultants out there. Finding them is a matter of asking the right questions beforehand, and being willing to follow your instincts if you don’t like the answers you’re hearing.
Four Key Aspects to Investigate Before Hiring Any Federal Business Development Consultants
1 – Competency and Experience
More than anything else, you need consultants who have genuine experience running a contracting business or, at least, have a significant record of successfully winning contacts. Ask to see some proof that they have real-world successes to back up their claims of expertise.
Likewise, always be wary of consultants who only want to talk about their list of contacts. “Who you know” is a major part of contracting, but it’s not everything. You want a consultant who’s more than just a walking Rolodex.
2 – Look for Organization Conflicts of Interest (OCI)
If your potential consultant has ever worked directly for the government or the military, there’s a chance they’re under an OCI – which works much like a non-compete agreement in the B2B world. Ask them directly if they’re under an OCI and, if so, what restrictions are on their consultancy. It could save you considerable wasted time,
3 – Ask for A Clear Statement of Work
An above-board business development consultant will be willing to provide a statement of work that covers issues such as:
- Services to be provided and/or scope of consultancy
- Fees and/or fee structures
- Any guarantees
- Timeframe of service
- Termination criteria
This is a common tool in the consultancy world. Be very wary of anyone who doesn’t want to put these matters into a formal agreement.
4 – Trustworthiness
This can be difficult to gauge and may come down to gut instinct, but it’s still a crucial part of hiring a business development consultant. You are trusting that consultant with your business’s future! If possible, get references and contact them directly. That can help you decide if the consultant is one you can trust.
Asher Government Training Strategies: Clear-Headed Business Development Consulting
Asher Government Training has a team of highly-experienced professionals here to aid your development. Contact us to learn more.
Government Sales Training to Win Government Contracts – 4 Reasons Why Government Contract Proposals Fail
Asher Government Training has a long history of providing government sales training to win government contracts, and much of that is focused on helping our clients avoid common mistakes that lead to missed opportunities. For newcomers, government contract bidding is a difficult and risky process. We want to help as many contractors as possible avoid common pitfalls.
There are many reasons a contract bid might fall through, and sometimes it’s not even the “fault” of a bidding company. However, when people come to us looking for government sales training to win government contracts, these are some of the key areas we focus on.
Four Major Missteps to Avoid When Bidding on Contracts
1 – Misunderstanding the Buyer
This is a basic aspect of sales in any field, but one which many contractors fall foul of: Not understanding their buyers’ wants, needs, and desires. These contractors pitch their product, rather than pitching solutions to agencies’ problems. They probably don’t do enough research, or don’t get face-to-face with their buyers, and fail to provide the solutions which agencies are looking for. Look for someone to coach you on needs, in an up-front legal manner.
2 – Not Offering Enough Value
Forming a clear value proposition is at the heart of successful contract bidding. It’s not enough to have (X) service at (Y) price. You need to differentiate yourself from everyone else who’s also providing (X) service. Other failed contractors make claims they cannot back up. A winning contract provides substantial value and makes it seem totally plausible that such value will be realized.
3 – Too Little Preparation and Field-Work
We could fill books with the stories we’ve heard of promising companies who rushed through the RFP process and skimped on their research, leading to failed bids. Or perhaps they waited too long, trying to jump on a bandwagon that’s already left them behind. Either way, the solution would have been more work and thought up front.
4 – Lack of Leadership Support
Contract bidding is truly a whole-business process. Senior leadership cannot think itself “above” participating in RFP development and the larger bidding process. This isn’t a “fire and forget” process where a leader can say “make a contract bid happen!” then wait for successes to take credit for. They need to be hands-on throughout.
Asher Provides Proven Government Sales Training to Win Government Contracts
If you’re ready to kick your bidding into high gear, contact us today for information on our training programs.
How To Dominate IDIQ’S Competition and Win More Task Orders
In theory, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity -IDIQ- contracts are supposed to reduce competition and maximize the probability that contractors will be able to win highly lucrative contracts. In practice, of course, that is rarely the reality. Competitions for IDIQ contracts are still fierce, and many companies still fail to benefit from a move into government contracting.
Asher Government offers government sales training workshops to succeed in IDIQ contracts. We help you learn to avoid the pitfalls common to IDIQ contract bidding, and succeed while the other companies fail.
Common Pitfalls in the IDIQ Process
Asher Government is here to ensure you don’t fall prey to the same mistakes that others make. Or if you have, we’ll see that you don’t have it happen again!
For example…
A prime spends far too much money chasing down an IDIQ vehicle win… but then lacks the resources to properly exploit it. Or else they failed to do their homework, overspent, and ended up winning too little to actually justify their costs. They wallow in red ink while watching their competitors grow.
Or…
A sub on an IDIQ is initially excited to be part of a team on a large contract but later discover that they are only getting the crumbs. They only see the occasional task order requests, nothing like the orders they had expected. They might not even hear from their prime for weeks or months, putting them so far behind their competition in understanding the government customer they couldn’t hope to prepare a winning proposal.
Asher Strategies wants you to be smarter than this. We want you to win, while your competition gets left behind.
Be Prepared To Do What It Takes
Our strategies aren’t about just winning a task order or two, or always being the sub to someone else’s prime. Our government sales training workshops to succeed in IDIQ contracts prepare you to be the number one contractor in your field on your IDIQ contract. We’ll teach you the skills you need to get all the business you could possibly handle while dominating your competition.
Our training workshops show you the roadmap to mastering IDIQs and task orders. We focus on bidding as well as getting more tasks on your current contracts. With Asher training on your side, you can see greater success throughout your contracting. Contact us today to learn more.
Grow Your Government Business Faster Than Your Competition
The competition to get government contracts – particularly the lucrative IDIQ contracts – is fierce. There are entire industries built upon nothing but providing services to the many arms of the US government, and competition can be fierce to be among the winners.
The government sales training seminars we provide at Asher Strategies are about helping you build the skills to succeed, and grow your business even as others fail. There are many key traits of a company which consistently grows its government businesses. These are only a few of the skills we can teach you:
Top Traits of Growing Organizations Focused on Government Sales
- A Constant Capture Posture
There is no ‘down time’ in government sales contracts. Even if you are already at 100% capacity, you should still be seeking to nail down every new contract you possibly can. Should you ever find yourself in the enviable situation of not being able to get the work done, there are plenty of options -such as subcontracting- to increase your fulfillment capacity. One of the things that really hurts long term growth is the roller coaster ups and downs of work which happens when pressure for sales is only applied when you need the work.
- Don’t Limit Your Options
One of the biggest traps a government sales organization can fall into is being seen as a single-service company, only good at one specific function. Avoid this, because it may mean an end to growth. Selling new things to your current customers should be about 15% of your revenue growth. Seek multi-department, multi-service contracts and demonstrate your flexibility. Position yourself to provide as many services as possible, without losing the ability to deliver quality.
Harness the full power of your organization, not just one or two departments, to help expand your service offerings and be recognized as a reliable partner for many functions.
- Be Willing to Form Partnerships
Despite the fierce nature of the game, it’s sometimes inevitable that partnerships will need to be formed to fulfill a particular government contract or request. Be flexible enough to allow this to occur when necessary. Even if it means splitting profits, having part of the pie – and the internal contacts which go with it – is far better than having none.
4.Your Greatest Marketing Is Excellent Execution
Whatever the contract requires, see that it is done right. The companies who get contract after contract, from agency after agency, are the ones who have demonstrated their competency. Deliver consistently excellent results and you will become favored by your customers and the procurement officers.
Learn from The Best at Asher Strategies
Asher Strategies is here to share all our best secrets in our government sales training seminars. Contact us to grow your business while others fail.
