How to sell to Government.

Since setting up GovCom three years ago to help senior executives and their departments make the most of the digital age, our work has included a heap of stuff we predicted, from sorting out messy websites and duplicate platforms to establishing clear publishing protocols. We’ve worked with management teams on designing robust corporate approaches and of course directly with communications teams planning and executing advertising campaigns.

It’s engaging and varied work and we’ve built a great body of testimonials and case studies that we use in our coaching and education work. Most recently some work on a departmental restructure led to a complete reinvention of job titles and responsibilities. The result was a more harmonious relationship between "IT" and "Comms", the removal of a heap of out of date content and a new process for ensuring that all editorial was checked and proofed before publication.

Oh, and half a million dollars in savings from rationalizing the multiple CMS, hosting and publishing systems in favour of a single, open source and cloud hosted solution which does pretty much everything but make the tea.

Despite all that, we're noticing a real increase in requests for help for companies seeking advice on how to sell to Government.

With the benefit of hindsight of course, it was pretty obvious. Across Australia, Government buyers dominate most B2B markets and manage the types of eye-wateringly large contracts that most businesses would dream of servicing.

At the same time, even in the age of Google, information about the sometimes complex system of procurement is still hard to find. Each department appears to have their own rules and many of the clients we’ve worked with have horror stories to tell about lengthy tendering processes that ask for everything including inside leg measurements only to hear three months later that the tender has been postponed. Sadly, these stories aren’t always an exaggeration.

As a result, many companies we meet have put working with Government in the “too hard” basket. That’s not good for either party. Having spent a few years working in procurement and then managing a number of major contracts, the advice we give is practical and applies to most markets. It neither involves recommending the engagement of "lobbyists" nor suggests that we can introduce you directly to the buyer. If only.

As a starting point, the basic advice we give to all companies wishing to build commercial engagements with Government is simple and entirely free.

1.      Sign up for news of tenders.

It's a statutory requirement now that all Australian Government tenders are published online. Not in one place, sadly, but a simple Google search will take you to the procurement sites for the Federal and State and Territory Governments. Each have abundant information about what to do as well as helpful advisers on the phone. You might be how good they are. Each have some form of subscription service for daily notification of upcoming tenders.

It’s worth bearing in mind that many states prefer to buy from suppliers located in that state but conditions vary by sector and market. Expect daily emails notifying an entertaining range of opportunities. For example; could your company build a website for NABERS or facilitate and organise travel bookings for artists visiting the Opera House? If so, I'd suggest you go the NSW procurement website sharpish.

2.      Explore panels and schemes

Across government, there are a variety of arrangements for companies and sole traders to become “pre-approved” as part of a panel of vendors. Again, there are a frustrating number of different approaches and in many cases more than a handful of forms, but getting onto a panel is well worth the trouble. If nothing else, it helps to be pre-approved once you actually get some work and want to get paid.

3.      Align your services to directly meet their needs.

While finding a single decision maker in a large corporation is still a challenge, increasingly in the digital age, it’s easy to find out what government’s key priorities are. Whether it’s the list of key issues listed on the Premier’s website or the headline challenges listed on many departmental sites, it’s never been easier to work out the key partnership opportunities for supplying to Government. Successful advertising campaign from overseas to tackle obesity? Insights or research on journey planning in big cities? Solutions for public housing sustainability? You've got what they're looking for.

And overall, we’re finding Government buyers increasingly interested in what’s working in the commercial sphere. From IT solutions that avoid the need for big system builds, measurement tools that use existing data and a range of publishing and data solutions, we’re seeing a significant shift in Government procurement towards simpler, agile, proven solutions rather than speculative long term hypotheses with major upfront investment and IT builds that but never deliver.

Our model for engagement is obviously not as simple as just the three points above and I'd be happy to share more to anyone interested. We'd never pretend that selling to Government is a simple process, but what other company sends you daily emails inviting you to apply for business? I'd love to hear of any that do!

About the author.

Alun Probert is Head of the GovCom Group, Australia’s leading public sector communications specialists. We’re soon to announce a major expansion and welcome enquires from anyone who’d like help to unravel the mysteries of working with Government. alun@govcomgroup.com.au