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sign_here_pls

Account Executive

Fire Starter
Contributor
Member
+1

Selling software to state and local gov - possible to speed things up?

At the start of the year, we moved to selling into verticals and I'm selling to state and local government pretty much exclusively for the first time. I've already learned a ton this first quarter and a half, and the ARR tied to most of the deals is definitely exciting. But the pace is EXCRUCIATING and I've never seen such disconnected organizations in my life. Anyway, enough complaining. 

Sellers who've had success selling into state and local government accounts at a startup - how did you do it and is there any way to truly influence their purchasing processes?
🧠 Advice
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braintank
Politicker
6
Enterprise Account Executive
Did you oversleep the day they handed out verticals?
sign_here_pls
Fire Starter
3
Account Executive
Ya know maybe I did and just had a nightmare that this is what I got assigned
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
2
Sales Rep
Love a good The League reference
Pachacuti
Politicker
5
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
Gov't and Utilities seem to be the holy grail of selling, but they are very hard to sell into and unless you have the patience for a 1-3 year sales cycle, you need to stay away.

Example -
You sell the best widget ever. Everyone loves its and is buying it like crazy. You approach a Gov't Agency about it. They love it and want to buy it. BUT they have no budget. Their budget was set 6-12 months ago.

So they say they will budget for your widget for the next FY. That FY could start in 6-18 months, depending on how they do their budgets (annual -vs- biannual). So now you're waiting 6-18 months for the START of their FY. It still could be another few months of waiting for them to get around to an RFx or a sole source.

Between now and then, many things can change. Priorities get realigned, emergencies happen, new people are elected, etc... So your widget, which is a must have item now, gets put on the back burner for another 1-X years.

That's what selling to Gov't is often like.
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
5
Sales
Set your close date out a year further than you actually think so that if/when it comes in, it seems like it was faster. That’s all I got.
HVACexpert
Politicker
4
sales engineer
Government and federal work is always slower than normal since everything has to be approved and touched by 5859469583 people.
sign_here_pls
Fire Starter
0
Account Executive
Seeing this big time. And usually none of these people ever willingly interact with each other.
oldcloser
Arsonist
4
💀
You know, a mouse is actually an elephant built to government specifications.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
4
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
The government reps at my previous employer always always were top of the leaderboard. However, it was very much contingent on who was buying what and their understanding of the buying cycle.

The nice thing about selling to government is that they do have "use or lose" money that they have at their disposal; the trick is to be an approved vendor and have good relationships. Sometimes that works in your favor.

The bad thing is that getting to that stage can be grim, and if you're not aware of their budget cycle, it can be very very tedious. The time spent educating may pay off with a PO out of the blue many (many) months later.
Fenderbaum
Politicker
2
Retired Choirboy🪕
Most California state government agencies have that "use or lose" factor. Late March, April, May, and early June always were the spending spree periods before the new budget came through July 1st, if it was on time. From my vantage point, I saw PO's approved just because it was the lowest price, no matter the quality. And to answer the original question about speeding things up... not a snowball's chance in hell.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
This is normal. Welcome to hell.
3
Senior Account Executive
IMO deadlines make decisions, even in govtech. Ask if they have any timelines such as budget years, using grant funding by a certain date, etc. I would expand the buyer's map since govt is a "buy by committee" sell and discovering who really pushes the deal - your champion, purchasing, or executive management.
Maximas
Tycoon
2
Senior Sales Executive
All the same almost in any country.
Bureaucracy is the keyword that gets things taking forever and way longer than usual!
sign_here_pls
Fire Starter
0
Account Executive
Yeah I’m seeing a lot of that also. Working a large Opp that should’ve closed last month but internal politics getting in the way now and it’s likely to push into late summer. Nightmare fuel.
Justatitle
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
Ronald Reagan famously said "The 9 scariest words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help""

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