Myths About Selling to the Federal Government By Tom Basile Seneca Creek Consulting Myth: All we need is to hire someone with a great Rolodex! How many times have you asked or been asked in an interview “Ms. X, tell us who do you know in these agencies.” Valid question? Well to some extent, yes. If a company is hiring a sales professional to work a single agency full-time, then hiring someone that has walked the halls and is familiar with the people, culture and contractual environment is important. If you are hiring someone to carry your message across multiple agencies, chances are that the sales professional will not know everyone. They should, however, fully understand the process for selling into the government and through partners. Ideally, they bring a track record of past performance in your target agencies. It goes without saying that the person’s track record and integrity are just as important as who they know, maybe more important. You can know a lot of people but if they don’t respect you they won’t buy from you. However, even if a person has a lot of contacts it does not mean they are credible. Contacts come and go in the government because jobs change. In the military, people rotate typically on a two-year basis. Contacts are great but most importantly you need to understand the particular agency or military command’s business and have a compelling message on how you can solve a particular problem. A good professional sales person will first do the homework to fully understanding how the agency does business and the challenges faced by the agency. If you have the right message, past performance, and solution to a recognized problem then any seasoned, professional sales person can get a meeting with the right person. Meetings alone do not close a sale but they are the logical start in the sales cycle to closing business. (Tom can be contacted at tbasile@SenecaCreekConsulting.com.)