When interfacing with government customers while doing business development or capture, you need to remember that you are still dealing with people. The government has its own rules, and the process is hard to navigate in the beginning. Government officials have their own culture and language, but all the universal rules for building business relationships still apply.
When you build a relationship with government representatives, you have to take a multidimensional approach. Your first task is to create a contact plan using phone calls, visits, and, to a lesser degree (and very cautiously), e-mails. You need to build as many relationships as possible, with as many contacts at the agency as you could possibly find time to get acquainted with.
The reason you need to go wide and not only deep is that your main government contact could up and leave after you've invested all your time and efforts into building that one relationship. For example, in DOD people frequently get reassigned after only a couple of years in the office. Therefore, you want to ensure that you establish a larger footprint at the agency.
The government universally despises sales people, so your goal is not to sell yourself and your company; your goal is to become their trusted adviser.
When you build a relationship with government representatives, you have to take a multidimensional approach. Your first task is to create a contact plan using phone calls, visits, and, to a lesser degree (and very cautiously), e-mails. You need to build as many relationships as possible, with as many contacts at the agency as you could possibly find time to get acquainted with.
The reason you need to go wide and not only deep is that your main government contact could up and leave after you've invested all your time and efforts into building that one relationship. For example, in DOD people frequently get reassigned after only a couple of years in the office. Therefore, you want to ensure that you establish a larger footprint at the agency.
The government universally despises sales people, so your goal is not to sell yourself and your company; your goal is to become their trusted adviser.
