Turn year-end disappointments into successful pursuits

By Kevin P. Young, Principal Market Intelligence Analyst

As we come into the last six weeks of the fiscal year, there are high expectations that the deals in your pipeline will come in before the clock strikes midnight on September 30. While many deals will undoubtedly come in – including an occasional bluebird or two — there will be some disappointments as well.

For the deals that did not come in, there’s also going to be a lot of after-the-fact analysis of why you did not win. Here are some of the most common reasons deals DO NOT come in:

• You did not have a clear understanding of the client’s requirements and issues
• Your technical solution was not a good fit
• Your pricing was not competitive
• You did not have strong relationships with the (1) key decision maker and/or influencer, (2) program office and/or (3) contracting officer
• You assumed your potential client’s stakeholders were predisposed to YOU as “neutral” or “positive“

What can you do better in the next fiscal year – besides righting the obvious alluded to above?

Make sure for each opportunity:

• The procurement aligns with the strategic direction of your company
• The procurement will occur within the next federal fiscal year
• Your client has secured funding
• You have the right offering, technical solution and past performance
• You have the available resources and skill sets to respond
• YOUR risk is acceptable
• You know who your competitors are and that you have a competitive advantage over them

There’s always an opportunity for turning lessons learned into actionable opportunities. Going forward, make sure your lead screening and process criteria are clearly articulated to your staff. By more carefully evaluating opportunities up front and continuously assessing your progress against your criteria, you should up the odds of success.

Want to keep on top of IT trends in public sector? Subscribe to immixGroup’s Government Sales Insider blog now.

Need help in identifying and targeting the right FY2023 opportunities? Connect with immixGroup’s Market Intelligence team to see how we can help.