Every business, most importantly government contractors, need to ask themselves the following question: why would my ideal customer want to do business with me, considering all of the competing alternatives available. Have you asked yourself that question? The answer to that question is your unique value proposition. All of your communications, most importantly your website, need to communicate the essence of the unique value that your company provides to customers. What does a picture of an eagle do to communicate your unique value proposition?
I don't need to tell you that the B2G sales process is changing at a dramatic pace. The ongoing federal budgetary problems are making selling to the government infinitely more difficult. Just this week, Obama announced plans to reduce the size of our military to pre-World War II levels. Despite the fact that the world is probably more dangerous than it's every been, this is the reality that defense contractors are facing. In an LPTA (lowest price, technically acceptable) purchasing environment, contracts are being re-competed and new contract vehicles are becoming more competitive.
I am a member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and have attended matchmaking events that match government buyers with potential sellers and prime contractors with potential partners. Let me be clear why I attend these events - I want to sell inbound marketing services to government contractors!
When I attend these events, I ask questions to help me understand what buyers and sellers think about the current state of the B2G buying process. When I ask government contractors if they're using inbound marketing techniques, I usually get one of 2 general responses:
When I ask buyers, I hear something different than what the smaller contractors say about the sales process:
Many government contractors are formed when their leadership, who have extensive relationships in government agencies, retire from government or the military and form government contracting businesses. They are able to exploit their relationships and demographic categories like disabled veteran status, minority ownership and small business status to bring business in the door and get their companies up and running.
So what happens when:
Government contractors need a plan B for their revenue generation strategy.
Inbound marketing is a way for government contractors to transition from a relationship-based growth strategy to one that is not dependent on an individual or a small number of key employees. Inbound marketing is not a quick fix - it takes time to develop website authority and social media reach. Inbound marketing is a scalable and sustainable revenue generation strategy to help contractors develop a viable ongoing business model. Reasons for governement contractors to implement an inbound marketing strategy include:
Government contractors have unique requirements for their marketing efforts. For example, a contractor that services the intelligence community will not be publishing case studies and success stories on their website! But there are great opportunities for government contractors to get started with inbound marketing and get a jump start on their competition. Unlike B2B marketing, the B2G inbound marketing arena is not highly competitive and a contractor that starts today will have a head start on competitors that wait. Are you interested in learning how you can use digital marketing in your government contracting company? Schedule a free, no-obligation digital marketing assessment with Rapidan Strategies.