Differentiate or Die! · Differentiate or Die! How your company can get on the radar of key government influencers and primes . It’s easy to be average But average will get you

Differentiate or Die!

How your company can get on the radar of key government influencers

and primes

It’s easy to be average

But average will get you nothing in the government market

Specialize

then excel!

A little background- I was

• The second child…

• One of a hundred in 2008…

• #3 in 2009…

Copyrigjht 2012, Mark Amtower 4

I am

• Among the best known people in the GovCon community

• The only consultant in the GovCon market to win the Top 100 marketers

• Always working on improving my online presence


Let’s start off with a premise-

That you are here because you’d like to win more federal business-

Agreed?

So, how are you going to stand out?


What are you currently doing to

Raise your visibility in a way that resonates within your

community?

Relationships rule in the GovCon community

But how & where are you developing them


Networking Activities

• Association participation

• Attend agency briefings

• Find and/or create venues to share

• Attend seminars

• Leverage LinkedIn

• Develop relationships with key players


Quick Quiz: do any of these messages resonate?

• Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business

• Ensuring Your Success Through Our Experience

• Our business philosophy is to provide a quality product at a fair and reasonable price through the teaming/partnering concept.

• Intelligently adapting technology


Your message is a first impression

And it needs to sing your song loud and clear


Which of these messages

Will you respond to?

Hi, my name is Mark

I’m a marketing guy who does what everyone else does

Hi- I’m Mark Amtower

I help companies stand out & win business in the world’s largest

market

If you own intellectual real estate – say so!

Define it- Claim it- Defend it

Can you

Define your intellectual real estate in terms that resonate in your niche?

Eric Schmidt’s message

Is short and to the point


Is Database Visions

The only company that offers Oracle services?

Intellectual real estate

Can be claimed in ANY market niche



Neil Gordon: Decorating with Fabric

• Drapery expert

• “green” drapery

• Blogger

• Hosts 2/x month “lunch & learns”

• Has become pervasive in NYC area

• Recognized by the ‘trade” & federal facility managers as “the drapery expert”


Developing your expertise

• Read the trade publications- comment on the articles

• Professional education/certificates

• Find and/or create venues to share: blogs, webinars, podcasts, seminars

• Attend seminars


There are two things to do…

Differentiate your company, then differentiate your staff

Differentiating your company

• 1- define your area of strength.

• 2- envision where you are in your niche- what is your market position?

• 3- what makes your company different?

• 4 – will this resonate in your market?

• 5 – can you support your claim to this niche?









Differentiating your staff

• 1- In-house training program

• 2- Professional certifications & CEUs

• 3- Ongoing industry education

• 4 – Demonstrated employee retention

• 5 – Consistent social media activity/training


Content and Context

• 1- develop content that supports your niche claim

• 2- content as webinars, white papers, podcasts, blogs, video, e-books, etc

• 3- share the content in the right context (venue)

• 4- share in LI groups, Twitter, YouTube, online press releases….




Content may be king

But delivery is the ace!

Carahsoft Technology

• 7 years old • Software reseller • Intense ongoing staff training • Fastest growing company in the government

market • End of year 7- $1 billion in sales • All organic growth • An archive of over 1,000 webinars





You don’t have to do it all….

But what you select to do, do very well!


Home stretch

What separates the winners from the whiners


7 Habits of companies that don’t win • The battle cry is “I’m going to get to it!”

• “We want a level playing field”

• Web site is full of platitudes & adjectives- no beef; LI profile less informative than web site

• Employees offer no consistent message

• All conversations prefaced with small business status

• They’re waiting for the phone to ring


7th Habit

Whining about

OCCWs

7 habits of companies that DO win

• They know what they do well & say so

• Web sites with more than simply capabilities & business status

• Active on social media & trade groups

• Generating pertinent content

• Disseminating pertinent content

• Employees proactive & on message


7th Habit

Learning from losses &

improving win ratio

Let’s end with a premise-

That you are here because you’d like to win more

federal business- So, what are you doing next?

Differentiate

And thrive!


Thank you!

Mark Amtower

[email protected]

Look me up on LinkedIn


mailto:[email protected]�

Documents

Differentiate or Die! · Differentiate or Die! How your company can get on the radar of key government influencers and primes . It’s easy to be average But average will get you