Many attendees at our Federal Sales Academy seminars ask: “We have something truly unique that the federal government just has to have. Should we hire a lobbyist or go to our congressman or a high level administration official to help us sell it?”

You are wasting your valuable time and money unless:

You have contributed so much money that the congressman actually knows your name.

You are so active in the congressman’s political party that you are newsworthy.

You are a connected Texan.

You are connected to a pork project or a highly visible local initiative.

Not only is a top down approach to sales expensive it can lull you into believing that something is happening and divert you from what you really should be doing. Further, pressure from the top can alienate the mid-level procurement decision makers.

Well if top down isn’t going to work, how about bottom up. Most federal sales are made from the bottom up or better yet from the middle up. You must search out that particular end user with both pain and the money.

The person you are seeking is usually somewhere in the middle and probably is either hiding from you or already has a favorite vendor. The person will need your products and services in achieving their job and what you provide will probably have an impact on the individual’s performance, salary, and/or promotion.

Make my pain go away really means help me do my job better. The person you are looking for can be an engineer, technical specialist, program specialist, branch chief, division head, program manger or Chief Information office. It depends on the circumstances. Finding them and then getting through the glass wall (resistance to sales calls) is not easy but that is what you have to do.

Leave the top down approach for the multi-billion dollar deals.