Those of us engaged in government sales often must approach a prospective client without the benefit of a “bow wave.” A bow wave in this context is any action on the part of your enterprise that leads the way into a prospect’s mind by delivering marketing messages via a wide variety of means. This can be telemarketing; print or internet advertising; trade show representation; and major mail campaigns, among others.

Many of the commercial providers of solutions to government do not have the resources essential for creating this bow wave. So, in the absence of this powerful asset, what are we to do when making initial contact with a prospective client? The answer is that we do not depend upon the brand equity of major Fortune 1000 concerns that permit instant recognition among government buyers. Rather, we must depend upon detailed knowledge of an area of topical interest to the buyer.

A hypothetical example of such an opening when addressing a manager within a program office may be: “I understand that when submitting requirements to your acquisition office, it is now imperative that you can demonstrate that all your requested needs must comply with the most recent FISMA standards. We provide a software solution that specifically addresses this need and guides you through the compliance process and provides the citations from within the standards that will now be included with your requirements submission.”

If the problem is real, the prospect’s interest is piqued by your knowledge of his needs and timing. Ultimately, you will have to offer proof — statements to substantiate your claims. However, there is no opportunity to provide this until you have the buyer’s interest. If you are from major systems integration or other large commercial organization, the marketing that precedes your call is oftentimes sufficient to engage the client.

This is not normally true when you phone a government facility and introduce yourself as a member of a virtually unknown organization. The buyer’s first thought is: “Who is this?” Not, “Does he understand my operation and my needs?” Therefore, if your organization lacks this “bow wave,” it is imperative that you immediately go to the heart of the problem. Failure to do this will often lead to a rejected phone call or, at best, a perfunctory conversation that does nothing to move you toward your goal of a meeting and further discussion of the applicability of your solutions.

Information on specific activities within the government, even at the program level, is available readily from literally scores of sources such as Set-Aside Alert, Government Computer News, Federal Computer Week, National Journal, daily news articles on Internet sites, and dozens of other information assets that are available for the “looking.”

Therefore, until your enterprise chooses to establish its own “bow wave” to clear a path for your sales entrance, you must apply the techniques that have repeatedly proven successful. Use all available intelligence to provide a sales entrance tool that allows you to connect to your targeted agencies and programs.

(Peter Adler can be reached at padler@senecacreekconsulting.com.)