How early should you identify a sales opportunity in the federal market? The answer is that an opportunity must be identified before anyone, including the customer, knows that an opportunity exists. Our customers frequently say "We don't want potential opportunities. Instead, we want contact information for potential customers that know they have a problem, have approved money to solve the problem, and are ready to contract out to solve the problem." Although it would be ideal to come across the opportunity described above, everyone in the market knows about such opportunities and it's likely your competitors have already sold the customer.
Companies can research sales opportunities, or the re-bids of existing contracts, in sales databases which are sold as subscription services. Although the opportunities listed are often solid leads, the competition is intense. In the case of re-bids, the incumbent vendors have been selling the customers for the entire duration of their contracts. The critical question is how potential customers can be targeted before your competitors find them. There is no secret formula to developing a federal sales plan - - it is just focused research.
The development of your company's federal sales plan is an art, not a science. Furthermore, companies find that their federal sales plans improve as they gain experience in the federal market. If it's an art, how do we get started?
In a general sense, you need the following:
- Agency information
- Organizational data
- Titles and contact data for end users and official buyers
- Historical data on who is buying what product or service
When doing research on the Internet, you need to focus your efforts. Consider the following tips:
- Geographic focus - Small businesses selling commercial products and commodities and small service companies can focus on the agencies in their geographic delivery or service area.
- Functional - Companies selling training, IT services, recruiting, human resources, etc. can focus first on an agency and then the people who head related departments within an agency. For example, such companies would want to target the training director, the chief information officer, the head of personnel, etc.
Secondly, commercial companies (like fedmarket.com) compile and refine the data to save you research time and expense. Even the specialists, such as our company, have to do research because we don't have the ultimate "what they buy" list that you hoped existed somewhere.
The Federal Sales Plan eLab
Develop a Federal Sales Plan for Your Company
With the Help of Experienced Federal Marketing Consultants
The Federal Sales Plan eLab is for companies that want answers to the question "Who are the persons we need to call to get federal business?" Our instructors will walk attendees through the process of developing a company-specific sales plan to the extent that attendees should leave the eLab with a completed federal sales plan.
The Federal Sales Plan eLab is not a seminar or a course; it is a hands on interactive event. Our experienced federal marketing consultants will lead attendees through the process of creating their corporate plan. At the conclusion of the event your company should have a completed federal sales plan.
The Federal Sales Plan eLab is a two-day event held monthly in Bethesda, Maryland.
Price: $2,900 per person
Sign-up for our Federal Sales Plan eLab today!
Register Online - Click Here
Questions? Call 888-661-4094 press 8.
For more information on federal sales download the following White Papers:
Locate End Users Specific to Your Product or Service:
Fedmarket.com can provide you with current end user contact data. Our Industry Specific End User Contact Data provides you with a spreadsheet of end users to help you reach those who are instrumental in placing a product or service request with a buyer. For more information call a sales representative today at 888-661-4094 and press 8.
If you need help with any other product sales, call or write as follows: (888) 661-4094 Press 8 for sales@fedmarket.com.
