Navigating the Goverment Marketplace by Roy Cales

10:05 am | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

The Secret

Recently the book “The Secret” was released.  Now in full disclosure I have not read it.  My understanding is that it purports to give you the secret to being happier and wiser.  I can’t speak to the accuracy of the book, but I can tell you there is a secret to being successful in providing service to the Public Sector.  If you follow this simple rule you will experience success beyond your wildest expectations.

Do what you say you are going to do, for the price you said you would do it.

Of course, everyone says, “we all do that”.  Yet, time and time again companies don’t.  Usually, it’s not intentional.  They start by not truly understanding what the public sector client is asking for, after all bureaucratese is a different language, then, they under quote the job in order to win the bid.  Things really go down from there as they can’t figure out why the client is demanding so many changes and expecting them to eat the cost.  It’s not long before we are reading about another failed government project and possibly another bankrupt government vendor.  I am continually amazed at the number of large Fortune 500 companies that fail to grasp this simple concept.  Of course there are some companies that have based their entire growth strategy on this technique.  Tell them whatever they want to hear and quote them an unbelievable price.  Then jack your revenue with change orders.

Before you can successfully do what you are going to do, you need to understand what they really need.  It won’t be in the bid documents, they won’t be able to explain it to you, but they will know it when they see it.  You have to understand their business.  You need to literally “feel their pain”.  Then and only then can you give them a winning and deliverable solution.  Once you have that you can wrap an accurate price around it.  The days of winning a government bid and then change ordering it into profitability are gone.  Governments have become much more astute when it comes to project management, but their own rules often complicate the process of procuring the right solution.

If you are the one who deciphers the code, then you can be the one who gets to do what you say you will, for the price you quoted.  But remember, shhhh, it’s a secret!

04:13 pm | 3 recommendations | 2 comments

IT and The Weather Channel

I have come to realize that having Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel broadcasting from your hometown is not necessarily a good thing.  If you live in Florida and it’s during hurricane season, it’s a really bad thing.  I live in Tallahassee, Florida and we spent last weekend with Tropical Storm Faye.  Half of Tallahassee is under water and the other half is focused only on the wet half.  No one however seems to be talking about disaster recovery.  It seems to me that seeing many of your neighbors underwater and looking at pictures of kayaks floating down streets near your datacenter would prompt visions of hot sites and business continuity……..

It never fails to amaze me how little Government puts resources into disaster recovery.  I don’t mean the front line technologists.  I mean the policy and decision makers.  Let’s face it; the public sector has to run lean.  Budget cuts are the flavor of the year.  Yet no one ever acknowledges how critical it is to have a business continuity plan.   When I was CIO of Florida we constantly found agencies whose idea of disaster recovery was to put tapes in a non climate controlled mini warehouse, which happened to be located in a flood zone.  Yes, a flood zone, in the State that seems to breed hurricanes.  The few agencies that had an actual hot site were rarely budgeted for actually testing it.  These are agencies that are responsible for peoples’ lives.  It seems to me someone would wake up and smell the disaster.

If you have any disaster recovery horror stories waiting to happen or that have already happened, let me know.  Everyone loves a good horror story, even Jim Cantore.

01:38 pm | 2 recommendations | 2 comments

Got Politics?

It’s the election season and we are inundated with headlines on the players, policies, perceptions, peccadilloes and politics. For my clients who sell to the public sector we have a recurring conversation that is focused on winning in a political world.

When you are in sales, even if you don’t get passionately wrapped around an elections cycle, you will be affected by the outcome. Many times I hear how someone rigged a deal or that it’s too hard to do business with government. Rarely is there any true corruption and government is no harder to do business with than any commercial sector. You just have to understand the language and know the rules. The people you meet with day-to-day, the government workers who serve as the implementers and practitioners of the solution, are keenly aware of the politics. In fact, often these are the folks who waved signs, worked in precincts and made calls for the political leadership in that territory. Politics matter, so you have to be attentive and sensitive. Selling to government is a relationship business.

The vendor has a role, which is best positioned as a partner to the government sector. Mr. and Mrs. Vendor should feel the public sector’s pain and be committed to the right solution for the right price.

The customer has a role, which is best described as the public servant who wakes up day-in and day-out knowing that it is imperative for them to serve their leadership and the public they represent.

The lobbyist has a role, and no, it’s not buying dinners and throwing parties. The lobbyist serves as a liaison to the customers and the vendors (i.e. their clients). The lobbyist is an interpreter, and advisor.

If you understand these roles and how they work together you will have great success. If you don’t understand or choose to ignore your role, you are in for a disappointing ride. When an effort goes off the rails, it’s often because of politics or perception. There’s many outside influences and even more outside influencers. Whether you are a donkey or an elephant, you can thrive, but you need to understand the rules of the game.

Tell me about how you used the rules of politics to crush your competition or how you became road kill to a savvier player.

10:36 am | 4 recommendations | 1 comment

Translating Government Gobbledegook

Many times we have left a meeting and discovered everyone on the team interpreted the meeting differently.  It’s as if we all went to a different meeting.   Communicating and understanding effectively is difficult in the best of circumstances.   When you are meeting with public sector officials, the results typically fall into the category of bad circumstances.  In Government, they just speak a different language.   Of course, it’s like that with most things.   

For instance, at home, when my children were infants, my wife would ask – “Do you think we should check on the kids?”  At first I was under the impression this was a yes or no question.  Later, I learned that it wasn’t a question at all.  What she was really saying was - “Please get out of bed and check on the kids.” 

Now, imagine if your job in the private sector is to sell to government.  Talk about challenges.   Working your way through what Florida Governor Charlie Crist calls “Government Gobbledegook” can be a full time job.  To overcome the problem the Governor issued an Executive Order in 2007 to adopt plain language plans.   Even the Federal Government has a 10 year old mandate to ensure the use of plain language.   

Still, it’s hard to make heads or tails out of what is being said.  That’s why it’s necessary to have an interpreter available.   Check out these speaking points taken from conversations with some of our nation’s CIOs (followed by the rest of the story):

• We want to build a more efficient organization.   (as long as I have the same staff and the same budget or less).
• We believe in competition (as long as I keep my current provider at a lower cost).
• We are ready to move on this (in about 18 months) 

Learning to understand the language of government is similar to learning to understand your spouse.  Either you invest a lot of years, or you get yourself a translator.