The Government Marketing Forum recently held a networking event that featured a discussion on innovative partnerships that increase sales.� The discussion panel included Joanne Connelly of ConnellyWorks, Bob Lohfeld of Lohfeld Consulting Group, and myself.� The most important takeaway that was emphasized throughout the panel was the importance of a strong relationship and clear communication among marketing, sales, and business development personnel.� The panel agreed that too often these departments work against each other instead of working together toward a common goal.� CDW-G was repeatedly used as an example of a company with an excellent relationship among their marketing, sales, and business development teams.�

The Government Marketing Forum is an open, peer venue for marketing, sales, and business development professionals in the government market.� The forum will provide networking opportunities and panel discussions once every other month to share ideas and hear from leaders in the field.� The steering committee for the Government Marketing Forum comprises of some of the most elite marketing companies in the government arena including: 1105 Media Inc., Amtower & Co., ConnelyWorks Inc., Federal Business Council, ImmixGroup , Market Connections, Inc., and Sage Communications.
To learn more about the Government Marketing Forum and its events, go to http://www.fbcinc.com/gmf/.
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Research is a significant investment for any organization. Equally important, a poorly designed or executed program can have a seriously detrimental impact on your organization’s ability to make effective and timely decisions. The tips below will help ensure you gain the most value from your research provider and, as a result, your research project.

Involve your research firm from the start
Call the research firms you’re considering and discuss your business intelligence needs before issuing an RFP, as their input may actually help you refine your objectives and create a more level playing field for comparison of proposals. And, once you’ve selected the research firm, get them involved from the very beginning, as their expertise will be very valuable in defining and developing an effective program.

Provide thorough input to the project
Surprises and secrets between clients and research companies are non-productive and, in some cases, even detrimental to research programs. To ensure your research partner optimizes the program design and execution, share a complete overview of your organization’s current status — both good and bad — in the beginning, and maintain that openness throughout the project.

Ask for more than one option
Ask your research firm to provide alternative approaches — including the pros and cons of each— for meeting your research objectives. This may not only save money, but also provide ideas for enhancing the project.

Stick to the program
While unexpected occurrences sometimes dictate last-minute changes, do your very best to avoid them. Changing course midstream puts you at risk of incurring additional charges and may increase the chance of data errors or oversights.

Trust your research firm
Choose a research partner in which you’re highly confident so you don’t have to micromanage the project. Once things are underway, step back and let the firm do its job.� However, do expect periodic updates and reporting throughout the project.

Understand what your research firm really means
In reviewing the management presentation of the report findings, ensure your research firm has clearly articulated the data analysis and has shared their opinions on the business implications to your organization. And, like most businesses, research has its own special language. During the project execution or management presentation review, don’t hesitate to ask if you or your associates don’t understand terminology, acronyms, data representations, or anything else.

Provide feedback to your research firm
Developing and executing research programs is an intense, highly focused endeavor. As such, most research firms develop a strong sense of ownership in the studies they conduct. After your research firm completes your project, provide them with honest and thorough feedback. Whether good or bad, it can go a long way toward improving future research projects.

View research as a team effort
The best clients treat their research firm as part of their team and utilize them as such. A team attitude, joint proposals, and joint presentations to executive stakeholders can truly have positive impacts.

Align with one full-service firm
Working with multiple research firms to execute your research projects may prohibit them from accumulating as much knowledge as possible about your firm and market. And, it’s unlikely you’ll receive long-term commitment and attention from any of them. Furthermore, some specialized firms may promote their method of research rather than recommend what would actually be the best approach for meeting your objectives. Partnering with a single full-service research firm — one with expertise in both a wide variety of research methods and in your specific market — usually results in better value in terms of program quality, client service, and prices.

*Adapted from Practical Marketing Research by Jeffrey Pope

I recently attended an Executive Women’s Special Interest Group for Women in Technology (WIT). The event focused on work-related situations – specifically dealing with demanding clients. The panelists at the event emphasized the importance of having open communication with clients. This should include being able to diagnose where their demands are coming from (typically internal pressures), demonstrating the impact of the demand to the client (whether it’s more time, personnel, or money), and forcing prioritization when demands get excessive.�

People often forget that a business relationship should be peer-to-peer – not master-servant.� In the end, the business you’re conducting with a client should be just as good for you as it is for them.�

As a member of the Government Marketing Forum steering committee, I want to invite you to participate in our first event on:

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Tower Club, Vienna, VA
5:30pm - 8:00pm

The Government Marketing Forum is an opportunity for marketing, sales, and business development professionals in the government market to share ideas, hear from leaders in the field, and to network with the best and the brightest.

At the upcoming event, an interactive panel, led by Chris Dorobek, Editor in Chief, Federal Computer Week, will discuss The Business Development – Marketing Connection - “Innovative Partnerships That Increase Sales”.  I will be joining Chris on the panel along with Joanne Connelly, President, ConnellyWorks, and Bob Lohfeld, Lohfeld Consulting Group.

The cost for this event is $35 and will cover light hors d’oeuvres.� For more details and to register, please visit:� http://www.fbcinc.com/gmf/.

I hope you will take advantage of this exciting opportunity.

If you’re a government contractor, you’ve likely heard of the Federal Procurement Data System — Next Generation (FPDS-NG), the GSA’s central database repository of statistical information on federal contracting.� With a web interface that allows government agencies to enter data directly into the system, FPDS-NG offers information on many contracts almost immediately.� In fact, this past year the GSA updated the system with a new look and additional data as well as enhanced reporting and tools to further improve data timeliness and accuracy.�

Indeed, many contractors seeking information on a specific contract refer to this portal, which offers free access to more than 12 million contract actions spanning the entire federal government.

However, some don’t realize that FPDS-NG can be leveraged as a more powerful resource for data mining.� Market Connections and several of our government contractor clients often utilize it as a key source for secondary market research as well as a tool for developing and/or refining primary research studies.� For instance, the database can reveal:

• Contract awards by contractor type, including large business, small business and education
• Proposals or statements of work for specific contracts�
• Procurement habits and trends of specific government agencies and departments
  Competitors who are under government contracts to sell specific kinds of products or services
• Estimated market shares of products, services, or companies based on spending within the overall government or within specific agencies/departments

Here’s a case in point.� A client recently asked Market Connections to conduct a survey of government agency decision makers regarding a group of products and services.� However, because the client was primarily a commercial firm with only a handful of government customers, they weren’t sure which agencies to target with their offerings or, therefore, the survey.

Since Product Service Code (PSC) data is available in the FPDS-NG, Market Connections determined the appropriate PSCs for the products and services of interest.� From there, we ran a report detailing the dollar value for each PSC by agency and department.� With granular spending data relevant to their offerings, the client was able to intelligently prioritize and target government entities, to which Market Connections then targeted the survey.

Of course, FPDS-NG is a sophisticated self-service tool.� So, to optimize searches and create useful reports, users should first review the User’s Manual and help files to familiarize themselves with the system.� To learn more, visit http://www.fpds.gov or call us here at Market Connections.

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