Ferrisbeboolin

Inside Sales Representative

Resources For SLED/Public Sector Sales?

As someone about to jump into tech sales, I find a lot of info on commercial or private sector sales but not much on public sector. seems like it would be the biggest chance to hit bank since the government got the biggest budget. Can some fellow savages give me some guidance?

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Looooooong and sloooooooow sales cycles full of red tape. Yes, you can make bank but you could also spend years on a single deal only to see budgets get cut.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

It's not worth the effort and risk in my opinion unless you have deep connections or at a company that always gets lots of contracts.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Government is notorious for being price only bids and the sales cycles are like molasses. @LordOfWarcare to chime in?

LordOfWar

Tycoon

Blow it up

The best way is to look up government initiatives, as no one can just spend money if it is not allocated already for procurement.

Gov't has lots of cyber security requirements too, so if you're hitting up say the DMV or registration offices you will need to make sure you tick all their boxes for compliance.

@CuriousFoxis correct that the cycles take forever. TBH your best bet is to get in with the team before they are looking and try to help steer their procurement.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

When I was in Ed tech I dealt h with state governments and as others have said - it. Takes. FOREVER. And price is always so damn important. Value less so

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

I spent 10 years working for or selling into the government. If you understand how they buy (GWACs, partners, disty, etc) you can make great money. Longer learning curve but its a great sector to sell into. SLED is easy, but they are conscious of tax payers. Federal is harder, but they spend money like crazy. Price usually is never the issue. Best solution (usually) wins.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

The only thing longer than selling to the govt is selling to utilities.

But yes, despite the big hurdles you can make a ton of $$$

Arzola

Valued Contributor

-1

Business administration

this is a good point haha

Ferrisbeboolin

Opinionated

Inside Sales Representative

How would being a SDR in public sector work since there’s so few quals since governments only buy around a couple months out of the year?

Thesamiam13x

Celebrated Contributor

Sales

Yea SLED is untapped but not easy to break into without jumping through crap loads of loops.

WhoDey

Opinionated

VP of Sales

Lots of bureaucracy and red tape, everything must go to bid, slow to make decisions.

Mendizo

Opinionated

Sr. Director

Yes, can be very lucrative indeed (I had a government customer on a $1.5 billion dollar 3 year contract), but as others have said, be prepared to work for it. It sounds like you have a range of industries you can target, so don't overpivot on gov. Choose a few top agency targets and start building the relationships.

Know that gov budget cycles lag the overall economy by 1-2 years (especially if you're in the US, where most governments are on biennial budgets). So, next FY they're all about to see some pain. Current estimates are that tax receipts will be down 20%, which is a huge chunk of change, especially when many states have given out tons of their surplus in rebates in order to buy votes, in essence.

I would +1 to LordofWar when he said looking up government initiatives. Many of my biggest gov deals have come from that. If a city or county or state is struggling with a trending issue, or standing up a new program (or thinking of standing up a new program), that is the time to go in and help them understand your value. Right now there is a ton of cash in the US flowing from the infrastructure bills (some agencies are getting $500M+ per project), and that will require a lot of technology support.

In most countries, gov agencies have to go RFP, so you have to get in early. This again comes back to cycle time... you may not see the fruits of your labor for 1-2 years, so you have to be willing to play the long game.

The net of it is, if you cover multiple industries, then start baking a few government opps on the side, but your near-term will likely come from others who can move faster like retail, tech, healthcare, etc.

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Ferrisbeboolin

Resources For SLED/Public Sector Sales?

12 comments

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