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To win government contracts, you need to hunt like a hawk to find problems in government that you can solve with your product or service. Host Rick Wimberly of Government Selling Solutions says that's only the beginning. Even with a problem identified, you may find that your local, state or federal prospect, despite their acknowledgement of the problem, isn't really interested in solving the problem...at the moment. Be patient and keep the relationship alive, Rick says, as he tells a story of how a client thought an opportunity was dead, only to see it come back alive on a holiday eve. 

In a departure from the norm, podcast host Rick Wimberly discloses the type of listener he envisions as he prepares Myths of Selling to Government podcast episodes. He says he doesn't consider his audience to be people who believe the get-rich-quick-selling-to-the-government ads. Instead, Myths of Selling to Government targets those who are committed to the craft of winning government contracts. They realize the timeframe is long, and the work is tough...before it becomes rewarding.

There's a reason it takes so long to close a government contract. You've got to sell it twice! In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government, host Rick Wimberly talks with a government contracting expert about why this is true. Kevin Jans of Skyway Acquisition calls the two sales you must make to win a government contract: the "technical" sale and the "business" sale. The technical sale is to the people who are trying to solve a problem. The business sale is to the people who are in charge of the organization's contracting. Kevin says their interests and considerations are totally different, they don't work in the same chain of command, and they may not even know each other. Kevin and Rick offer tips on how to build pipeline and succeed winning government contracts within this tough reality.

With greater access to communications channels, we often communicate is reactive mode - that is, in response to someone else's urgency. This isn't always bad, but when it becomes the practice, rather than the exception, it interferes with your ability to plan your work and work your plan.You would think this would make us more cautious and conservative with the volume of information we produce and consume. However, just the opposite is happening. We just can't help it.In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government, host Rick Wimberly talks about the three elements that must be present for us to communicate effectively with our prospects and, well, everyone - relevance, timeliness and reliability.

Emotional Intelligence is the ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess and manage the emotions of oneself, and of other individuals or groups. What does that have to do with selling to local, state and federal government? A lot, it turns out.In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government, host Rick Wimberly makes the connection between emotional intelligence and government selling with help from Christopher Wright. Chris is an accomplished government salesperson himself, plus hosts a podcast called The Wright Mind, which focuses on mental health issues.Chris (https://www.wrightsmind.com)and Rick  (www,govselling.com) talk about how successes in government selling generally comes when the government seller understands the emotions the prospects are experiencing relative to the problem the seller and buyer are trying to solve together.  

This episode of Myths of Selling to Government reviews the most popular episodes of the last twelve months. Interestingly enough, they represent a good cross section of the government selling lessons we teach. The most popular episode was a lesson on catching up when you're late to entering a quest to win a government contract. We offered five tips.  Go in asking, not pitching. Remember information objectives. Acknowledge competition.  Be genuine and upfront, even candid. Accept you're coming from behind, and be confident. We elaborate in the episode.The second most popular was "One of the Biggest Mistakes in Winning Government Contracts".  Spoiler alert: the mistake is failing to understand the process your government prospect will use to actually make the purchase. It's not enough to convince the end users that you can help them; you've got to do more. We talk about how often we hear stories about this failure in our Government Selling Solutions (www.govselling.com) consulting practice, and suggest solutions.The third most popular was one of our favorites, "What Really Makes Salespeople Tick When Selling to Government". We replayed some of our interview with sales expert Dave Hanna who laid out his beliefs about what makes government salespeople successful. They may not be what you would think.

In our Myths of Selling to Government podcast and in our book, Seven Myths of Selling to Government, we've made it clear that we're not a fan of cold calling during the quest to win a government contract. We've reasoned that there are so many more things that must be done to get potential buyers' attention. But, we found a worthy opponent to debate whether cold calling can work in government sales. Mike Dombo of Kensington Sales Group does nothing but cold calls to government for his clients. He approaches cold calling in a different way than most people do. He's very unassuming and uses a key phrase in every call. The approach and phrase are unveiled in this episode of  Myths of Selling to Government podcast episode. 

You can't go it alone when trying to win a government contract. The maze to win is complex, tricky and sometimes treacherous. In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government, host Rick Wimberly reveals the best help you can get to win. The help may not come from where you might think, and it's difficult to find. There are important rules and best practices to follow, but finding this help is critical.  No, we're not talking about hiring Government Selling Solutions as your help (but, we're available if you want to talk).

The federal government spends over 500-Billion-dollars each year on grants for state and local government. That's a lot of money! And, grant awardees will buy a lot from vendors to spend the money. To say government sales is often driven by grant dollars is an understatement. In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government, host Rick Wimberly talks about making a nice living selling products and services to government agencies that used grant funds to buy. He shares a strategy for getting proactive in early stages to provide an advantage over others who are chasing the same grant dollars.

You know what's more frustrating than not having enough channel partners for your government sales efforts? Having partners that aren't helping you generate government sales revenue. In the Getting the Best Out of Your Government Sales Channel Partners episode of Myths of Selling to Government, host Rick Wimberly of Government Selling Solutions tells a story of how a company won partnerships with much, much larger government vendors. Then, the smaller company convinced the much larger companies to become aggressive in producing government sales revenue for the smaller company.   In this true story, Rick was skeptical  that the new larger partners would really give the smaller company a seat at the grown-up table until he saw it really work. What motivated these big companies? The question is answered in this episode of Myths of Selling to Government.

It's bound to happen. A new boss or owner joins your company and doesn't really understand selling into local, state and federal government markets. They've been told the sales cycles are long, but when it comes down to it, they have a hard time grasping just how long and unpredictable they are. What do you do?In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government,  Rick Wimberly of Government Selling Solutions tells the story of a change at the top of one of his clients from someone who was patient and understood that government sales is different to one who didn't. In this episode, you'll get specific advice about what to do when you find yourself in this situation. 

It's easy to get wrapped up in the complexities of government procurement and selling to government. Yes, it can be complex. But, there are tricks of the trade that will make it easier for the government to do business with you, thus easier for you to win government contracts.Rick Wimberly and his guest discuss some of these tricks on this episode of Myths of Selling to Government. OK, they're not really tricks; they are things that you should be doing anyway.

What do you do when you're coming from behind in a government sales opportunity? Face it, all of your efforts to identify and pursue a government contract early in the sales cycle are not going to be successful every time. In this episode, host Rick Wimberly of Government Selling Solutions offers five come-from-behind tips after making the point that you can still win, even if your competition has a head start.

Of course, everyone wants to hit their government contracting forecast every time. It's not easy, perhaps impossible. Government procurement activity has strong potential to develop twists and turns that produce surprises. In fact, the biggest surprise is when there is no surprise. In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government, we disclose the only solution we've found in our many years of selling to government that counters the unpredictability of government sales. Join host Rick Wimberly of Government Selling Solutions as he unveils the secret... (which, as it turns out, is not really a secret after all). 

We talk about it a lot. When trying to win government contracts, it's always better to get ahead of the procurement process, including Requests for Proposals.  By the time an RFP has been published, chances are good that procurement preferences have been established and a vendor, perhaps the incumbent contract holder, already has an advantage.New solutions are available that use artificial intelligence as a research tool to find out if an RFP is in the future for a particular product or service for the government. In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government, we talk with OnTopical, a Canadian company that uses artificial intelligence and spiders to find early stage discussion of a challenge government faces that could lead to a procurement of a particular product or service. The AI and spiders go beyond typical searches of government publications, meeting minutes and procurement announcements. In the episode, host Rick Wimberly of Government Selling Solutions, challenges his guest to explain how their tool supports some of the basic tenets GSS teaches in its podcasts and contract engagements.

How would you like government sales prospects to come to you? Wouldn't that be much better than you trying to cold call your way to a government contract? In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government with Government Selling Solution's Rick Wimberly, the successful government sales pro shares secrets to getting government sales prospects to seek you out as they look for a solution to a problem. Rick doesn't promise that a get-them-to-come to me strategy is less work than cold calling. It's not. But, the sales and marketing techniques surrounding the strategy help lead to government contracting success, produce well-qualified leads and shorten government sales cycles. For experienced and beginning government sales and marketing professionals.

There are many things that can go wrong when trying to close a sale to local, state or federal government. You can think you're well-positioned to close a particular deal you've been cultivating for months, only to find out right at the end of the sales cycle (or at least what you think is the end) that you're not as far along as you thought. You may have been seeing many buying signs, but still...We talk about these last-minute surprises, One of the Biggest Mistakes in Winning Government Contracts,  in this episode of Myths of Selling to Government hosted by Rick Wimberly. We also offer a solution. Hint: know more about the government client's purchasing process than your client coach does.

We often wonder what underlies the success of people trying to win government contracts. We posed the question (and others) to the best sales manager we've known. Dave Hanna figures he has managed over 300 salespeople in his years. Your host, Rick Wimberly, was one of them when Dave was General Manager of the Government Business Unit of a communications company and Rick was his Sales Manager. Rick and Dave have spent hours pondering the question of What Really Makes Salespeople Tick. So, we invited him to the studio to talk more about it. Dave is our honored guest on the Myths of Selling to Government.A common theme for Dave is reflected in this statement, "In my mind, the best salespeople I've been associated with are more interested in their customers than themselves."  Surprisingly enough, Dave says it's not really about beating the competition. He says, "That's easy." Listen to the episode to learn more whether you're an individual contributor, sales leader or founder trying to figure out why you're not selling more to the government.

No doubt, you want to impress your government sales prospects and customers with your company's abilities.  In fact, you want to dazzle them, right?  That may be fine, but sometimes you're better off telling them "No".  In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government with host Rick Wimberly, we give examples of what can happen to a company and its employees, including business development folks, when the answer is "yes" when it should be "no".

While the government seems huge and daunting (a very safe assumption), it's amazing how small the circles are of people doing similar work in the government for different organizations. That makes use of referrals particularly effective.  In this episode of Myths of Selling to Government sponsored by Government Selling Solutions, host Rick Wimberly tells the story of a young sales protege' who took a risk on a referral, found success and produced a darn fine example on referral selling when trying to win government contracts.