If you’re moving into the government market, be sure your representatives understand their audience.
“If you’ve got the CIO of the Pentagon on the phone, they don’t want to talk to a telesales rep,” said Jim Garlow, director of advertising for IT products marketer CDW. “They want an account manager who understands the business.”
CDW, which does $6 billion in sales annually, has a government marketing subsidiary CDW-G, which accounts for $1.5 billion of those sales annually. The market – which will spend $65 billion on IT products in 2005 -- represents a huge opportunity for the company, said Garlow.
The market is steady, but it does have its challenges, he noted. Three-dimensional mailings go under great scrutiny to get past the front door, and if corn starch is used in catalog mailings, mail rooms get worried about anthrax.
CDW-G was formed in 1998. The venture didn’t succeed at first, mainly because the company just tried mailing its regular catalog into government offices. When they started focusing on specific segments of education, state and local government, and the federal government, the business took off.
The company markets itself through trade shows and conferences and traditional media such as radio in the Washington area during the busy season. Targeted magalogs such as State Tech and Fed Tech have also been created. These publications feature vendor written articles targeted to the sector and case histories. Things like this are important to show that you understand the market and aren’t just a “generic vendor,” said Garlow.
Nothing in marketing to the government is radically different from general business-to-business marketing, but marketers to have to understand the nuances, said Mark Amtower of Amtower & Co., a federal marketing consultancy.
There are 80,000 government sectors in the United States, and over 20 million government employees. Government spending represents one-quarter of the gross national product, he said.
“The government market is huge,” he said. “If you don’t segment properly, your prospecting will lead to nothing.”
Amtower noted that it is key to understand what motivates public servants. Most take great pride in their work and feel their market is unique. They want to be treated intelligently, and don’t want to be made fun of, he said. “Jokes don’t work.”
The end of the fiscal year – Sept. 30 for federal and June 30 for many local municipalities – is the busiest time of year for buying, he noted. House files of government buyers should be mailed to at least four times between June-October.
Garlow and Amtower spoke at the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing’s annual DM Days on Thursday at Navy Pier. The conference concludes on Friday.
