Module 6: Marketing to Government

Although most major bidding opportunities are advertised publicly on MERX and in newspapers, many smaller ones are filled using source lists maintained by individual departments and agencies. Thus, it is important that suppliers inform the Responsibility Centre Managers (RCMs), contracting personnel and other potential buyers of goods or services in their regions of their capabilities and capacities. Marketing goods or services to government buyers is a little different from marketing these commodities to any other potential buyer.

In Module 6 you will learn about the following items related to marketing to Government:

• Research the Market
• Dos and Don’ts
• Follow up
• Other marketing techniques
• Module 6: Quiz

Research the Market

As with any marketing plan or process suppliers should consider:

1. Research the Market
2. Learn the Basics
3. Prepare the Business
4. Register on Supplier Inventories
5. Market the Product

1. Research the Market

Suppliers who want to sell their goods or services to government buyers must first do some basic research on that marketplace. Information can be found with the departments and agencies themselves, the Contract Canada database, and MERX.

2. Learn the Basics

Suppliers can approach government RCMs and contracting officers without knowing how government buys its commodities or how the contracting process works. However, this means that suppliers would likely waste valuable marketing time in acquiring the basics.

Contracts Canada has developed some seminars for suppliers to assist in the process of learning to do business with the federal government and marketing their products or services to government.

3. Prepare the Business

To be effective in marketing to government departments and agencies, a business should be visible. Ideally, this would include a track record of sales to non-government entities, some of which might be used as references for other potential buyers.

The business must appear to be a business, which means at a minimum, it should have stationery and business cards, preferably with a business address, phone and fax numbers or perhaps a Web site.

Promotional materials describing the suppliers’ goods or services, or basic information on the company, its goods or services, objectives, credentials, capacities and current clients, are very effective ways to leave something tangible with potential clients.

4. Register on Supplier Inventories

New suppliers can register on supplier inventories before they actually start to market their goods or services to government departments and agencies.The most important databases to be registered in are considered to be the Contracts Canada database and the Industry Canada Strategis Aboriginal Business Directory.

5. Market the Product

A business that is properly prepared can now begin to market its goods or services to government. New suppliers should call on the contracting and material management personnel in a department initially, then perhaps on a yearly basis.

Dos and Don'ts

As with any business environment, government offices have their own culture. The following may provide a guide to that culture.

Do:

• be professional;
• know the purpose of the visit;
• make an appointment;
• be on time;
• dress appropriately;
• remember that this is marketing... not selling;
• make an oral presentation concerning the company and its products;
• prepare questions to ask; and
• have calling cards and other promotional material, if appropriate.

During the initial marketing efforts, suppliers may find it useful to invite the RCM to their plant or office for a familiarization visit. This will help make the RCMs more comfortable in dealing with a supplier with whom they are not familiar and may even facilitate future business.

Don’t:

• assume everyone is familiar with the PSAB;
• complain about the volume of business someone else receives;
• expect special treatment;
• try to make a sale; and
• be afraid to ask lots of questions.

Follow Up

After an initial marketing visit to a potential government client, suppliers should follow up on the contact made.

Short term follow-up:

Suppliers should write a letter to people in the organization with whom they met.

• thank the individual for the meeting;
• confirm that any action suggested by the official has been initiated; and
• include any requested material.

Long term follow-up:

Suppliers should maintain regular contact with departmental personnel to reinforce the impression created by the initial meeting. Normally this is done by telephone to save time and effort for both parties.

Other Marketing Techniques

Suppliers can approach the material managers in a department to ask for space in a building lobby or central area where they could set up for a day to demonstrate their product to a broad base of potential clients in the department or agency.

In some cases, depending on the goods or services provided, the federal market for the commodities may not be physically near the supplier. In other words, suppliers may fulfill procurement requirements no matter where they are located, even when goods and services are purchased centrally in Ottawa. Obviously, this makes marketing more difficult and expensive for firms located in the regions. Here, suppliers may want to consider other marketing options such as:

• focused mailings or e-mails to market to a potential client;
• forming marketing alliances with suppliers located centrally or regionally and;
• using INAC PSAB co-ordinators in the region as a conduit to make co-ordinators in the other regions, as well as headquarters staff, aware of the suppliers’ capabilities or capacities.