Government Contractors and Marketing: Bridging the Divide

By Peter Mirus

I have worked with government contractors in professional services throughout my career. During that time, I have heard many of these firms say that marketing is of little importance in addressing the challenges and priorities facing their businesses.

From one standpoint, this is understandable: government contractors typically acquire new contracts through RFP response. If this is the sole method for acquiring new business, what is the point of marketing?

The answer is that within the framework of government contracting, a good deal of brand strategy and marketing process (market research, opportunity identification, message development, etc.) is performed under the heading of Capture. The most successful government contractors actually undertake a very thorough Capture process.

But is there a role for branding and marketing outside of Capture? Absolutely. Market visibility and credibility is extremely helpful in maintaining competitive advantage. In this article, I will focus on four areas where this advantage can be realized:

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Talking to the Government: A Beltway Bandit Myth

By Sylvia Montgomery

Funny thing about myths and urban legends: repeat them enough and they begin to sound like the truth. For example, take the myth that companies can’t learn anything meaningful from decision makers in the government.

Just yesterday, I was having a conversation with a prospect looking to expand in the Federal public sector. I asked, “Have you considered conducting client research with current and past clients and maybe even some of the ones that got away?” The response I got was, “You can’t talk to the government!” At that moment, the myth surfaced its ugly head.

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Government Buyer Tells All

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

Please forgive the tabloid-like headline. I simply couldn’t resist. This story is so revealing and so relevant for professional services firms that want to sell their services to the government I didn’t want it to get lost beneath a less provocative headline.

How valuable would it be to have a top government procurement executive tell you the right way and the wrong way to sell to him? Well, that’s exactly what happened to me this week. Now at Hinge we don’t sell directly to the government, but many of our clients do. So the topic was of intense interest to me.

The procurement executive was none other than the legendary Greg Rothwell. If you are not familiar with him, here’s a brief introduction. Greg recently retired after 34 years in the federal acquisitions community. During that time he served in 10 agencies, including Interior and Treasury. But perhaps his most notable achievement is that he stood up the massive procurement function for the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He personally developed several of the largest procurement programs in history. After his retirement, Rothwell started a private consulting firm, Evermay Consulting Group so he is now free to tell it like it is.

He did not disappoint. Here are a few of his key insights:

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CEOs Weigh in on Government 2.0 at Obama Administration Briefing

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

On January 14, the Obama administration held a series of events to support its campaign promise to use technology to make government more transparent. A selection of executives and CEOs, largely from the tech sector, were paired with government officials and asked their opinions on how technology could be better used to streamline government programs.

Among those in attendance was Craig Newmark, founder of Craig’s List and Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer. The administration is pushing for the use of new technology in an effort to improve the efficiency of antiquated government processes using technology similar to the private sector.

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Invizion - a Firm to Watch in the GovCon Space

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

As you may know, Hinge conducts regular research on professional services firms and their clients. We are just finishing data collection on a national study aimed at identifying professional services firms that are growing fast, even in this challenging economic environment. The good news is that there are some impressive performers.

Today, I’d like to highlight one such company, a technology firm called Invizion. They operate in the GovCon space and are focusing on the security market.

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Deltek Survey of Government Contractors Shows Paths to High Growth

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

Sometimes the data speak volumes. I recently had that experience when reviewing the new survey of government contracting firms released by Deltek. The survey, called Clarity 09, is a great resource for anyone who sells professional services to the federal government (and you can download it for free).

Here is the first nugget that caught my attention: How should you approach proposal writing if you want to maximize growth? Be selective (the so called “write fewer and win more” strategy)? Or should you maximize proposals to maximize wins? How about a compromise and be moderately selective?

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