Succeeding with GSA Sales
While contract compliance is essential, the real reason a firm obtains a GSA contract is to generate lots of sales. How you go about this differs by firm and industry. Developing a marketing and sales strategy is essential for long-term success. Here are a few actions and tips to consider implementing.
Initially, you will want to modify your website to reflect the fact that your firm now holds a GSA contract and makes it clear that you are a savvy federal contractor. For a brief illustrated guide on this topic, please download the guide, Make Your Web Site Fed Friendly. You should also issue a press release that announces your recent award. Many services such as Business Wire offer services that target the federal media. You will also want to update your federal capabilities statement to include GSA information.
eBuy
You should become familiar with GSA’s eBuy system, which is especially important for service firms and system integrators. eBuy is similar to FedBizOpps, except that the opportunities posted in eBuy are limited strictly to GSA vendors. And since it is posted in eBuy, you know that the universe of potential competitors is limited to those that already have GSA contracts like yours. You should update your eBuy profile and add e-mail addresses so that your team is notified of pending opportunities.
Beware of Focusing on Traditional Marketing Approaches Alone
Traditional methods for generating federal leads include trade shows, seminars, direct (junk) mail, e-mail blasts (spam) to purchased lists, internal cold calling, outsourced telemarketing, and print and media advertising. These outbound methods are where firms push out the message to the four corners of the country hoping that it will resonate with that needle in a haystack. Those techniques are very expensive … and are far less effective than they used to be, especially in federal marketing.
Federal employees, like all of us, are inundated with marketing interruptions an estimated 2,000 times per day and have constructed a myriad of defenses. In federal agencies, marketing literature is scanned more closely now (since the highly publicized anthrax attacks following 9/11), and walking the corridors of federal buildings is prohibited these days for security reasons. Feds also have been shrinking budgets for travel and trade shows, and anti-terrorism security precludes the release of more federal employee names than ever before.
In addition, GSA asked its federal agency customers how they found out about GSA vendors and solutions to their problems, and GSA found that 75 percent of agencies used the web to research vendor solutions. Fewer than 25 percent used GSA e-library, GSA advantage, or company brochures and vendor literature (see Attracting Federal Clients 2.0).
Consider Adopting a Federal Inbound Marketing Strategy
Given the above factors, firms should consider adding an inbound marketing to their federal marketing strategy. Inbound marketing employs many web-based techniques (i.e., content marketing, social media marketing, search marketing, and lead capture and generation) in an integrated way designed to attract federal clients to your website and generate leads. This is often more effective because it invites clients to start a relationship with your firm, which helps the trust-building process that is essential. Inbound marketing expenditures also have long-term residual benefits as the content will reside on the Internet forever to be found long after the campaign launches.
Being awarded a GSA contract provides your firm with a government-wide contract, marketing cache with federal agencies, and a contract vehicle that makes it easy for agencies to buy from you. However, while a GSA contract delivers the opportunity to win many federal contracts, it still takes work. By implementing the above contract management and federal marketing tactics and strategies, firms should be able to capitalize on their new GSA contract.
<< Page 2 Establish a GSA Contract Management System
