Teams charged with business development and sales may work for many years to create a government sale. It could be challenging to determine the opportunity’s real health on any particular day.
Disaggregated teams handling numerous prospects at once risk becoming completely encapsulated within their own company and losing sight of the big picture.
Having a straightforward tool might help facilitate communication between the business development and sales teams as the process progresses.
The “sales wheel” is one such tool, and it’s explained in more detail below.
There are eight key components to federal sales
A roll of wire or service might be sold, as well as a single enormous object like a submarine. It doesn’t matter because all government sales must have these eight components.
“Need” comes first:
The problem and the remedy must be clearly outlined. Agency personnel generally see a requirement when attempting to carry out a task in the field against the backdrop of a changing or new reality. Each agency has a different way of getting the message from the field to the headquarters level. Sometimes a need is not known to agency decision-makers, and businesses are the ones that first recognize the need. When new technologies appear, new applications for them might help professionals in the sector identify gaps.
The “solution” is the following:
Businesses may be able to fill the demand as a provider by offering a product or service. In a perfect world, a remedy would minimize or fix a problem, be relatively accessible, and be reasonably priced.
The requirement is the next word on the wheel
The optimum answer will be found following the methodology. Programs for which money is planned and allotted in the federal budget are supported by requirements. Resourcing and procurement are dependent on a legitimate need for which the government has expressed recognition. There is no reason to spend money if the necessity is not verified. Business developers engage with government clients to accurately define, record and validate requirements for a significant portion of their time.
“Funding” is crucial
Justified requirements are financed. The budgeting process is mostly open, and a lot of it is accessible online. Whatever one’s contact in a program office may have intimated is coming, the reality is laid out in plain and white in the budget documents and appropriations legislation. Appropriations that support the spending of funds are required for the execution of a transaction.
“Relationships” is another crucial component
It goes beyond simply who one knows. Any sales team or company developer can build relationships. The majority of those who work in the government sector either exclusively focus on their commercial ties or rely on social media platforms for their first outreach. Federal customers come in many different forms. Instead, it’s a constellation of significant individuals with varying degrees of influence in business, government, and Congress. The business development and sales teams may increase the size of an opportunity by orders of magnitude by being aware of and properly educating those key contacts.
Another crucial component of the wheel is “support.”
Through the sales process, relationships may either transmit or prevent support for the item. Relationships with people who are knowledgeable about the demand and the variety of solutions that the proposed solution competes with might be beneficial. The most significant relationships for a firm are those that support the finest answer in its eyes. Without assistance, the sale may go through based alone on its merits.
“Capacity” is a further spoke on the wheel
When a company offers the federal government a service that claims to address a need, the good or service must deliver what is promised at the specified time and location. Promises of a solution for which capability has not yet been demonstrated will end a federal partnership very immediately. Teams must be open and honest about any offers or new technologies. If something isn’t quite ready, it’s not a huge deal, but the vendor needs to be upfront about it. Future sales will be greatly hampered if you don’t deliver.
The “contract” is the last item
Even if the greatest solution to a problem is already in place and available, the government cannot pay for it without a contract vehicle.
A complex acquisition procedure that aims to safeguard the government at every turn concludes with the award of a contract. Many sales teams, especially those introducing new capabilities, ignore this crucial component of the transaction. A contract vehicle is necessary to link a program, initiative, capability, or business to real government financing. There are several solutions to this problem, but they must be applied specifically and not as an afterthought.
The eight components are as plain as they appear. It’s astonishing how many businesses, throughout the business development and sales departments, are unaware of where they stand for each of the eight.
An easy method for a leadership team to assess where they stand on the difficult path to funding is to think of the eight components as the spokes of a wheel. Every part highlights a crucial element of the sale.
Not for the weak of the heart is the federal sales procedure. It is designed to be difficult. Unlike in commercial transactions, efficiency and economy are not the motivating reasons behind federal sales.
A straightforward tool that may support any company’s internal management and evaluation process is the sales wheel.
