I have seen many customers come up with great messages about their products and services. They often struggle in the federal space because they don't know how to gain a foothold in the market. A lot of people want to pick up the phone and start calling like they did in the commercial marketplace, but they don't know who to call or how the federal sales game works. They simply just don’t understand.

Services that can provide your business with a targeted marketing list of federal buyers that your business needs to talk to is in order. If you want your content marketing to be successful, your target needs to get narrowed down. At the key, pivotal moment, you need to be able to explain in ninety seconds or less how federal buyers will use your product. In my experience, these calls cannot be routed to a service. Only knowledgeable people within your organization can make these calls, and have these conversations.

Once you have your list together, here are the key points you need to focus in order to close the sale:

1.Credible – provide reasonable grounds for being believed, numbers and statistics can help here.

2.Agreeable – a mindset of working for a win-win for both parties.

3.Interactive – having a two-way conversation, asking questions to see if your product can solve a problem. Don’t talk over the federal buyer, you might even have the wrong person on the phone but failing to listen will end their desire to help you.   

4.Captivating – tell a good story about yourself or your product. You must be interesting to hold attention and you must hold attention to make the sale.

5.Relevant – have a focus on making sure the person you are talking to would have a need for your product. Often telling stories about how people with similar needs are using your product is especially helpful.  

6.Entertaining – make sure the person on the phone is learning something new while enjoying themself.

7.Confident – it’s important that you believe in yourself and your product.  

8.Powerful – at times points need to be forceful, especially when being challenged on a product benefit.

9.Funny – a humorous anecdote is important to be memorable and break the ice. 

10.Inspirational - Drive your opinion about your product or service and why you believe in what you are doing.

Practice your routine, writing down any potential questions from federal buyers before you go live. This increases your ability to tailor future pitches to your target market.

Note that the federal market is different than the private sector, but federal buyers have many of the same basic needs. The sales cycle is a little longer than the private sector, but its longer sales cycle helps protect your market, so it is a two-way street.

If you need assistance finding your way in the federal marketplace and/or developing targeted lists, I always recommend contacting an industry expert such as ez8a or Fedvital. Neither charge for an initial consultation.