Winning Government Business

The 6 Rules and 9 Absolutes for Small to Medium Businesses

Thomas Pollock

• Publisher: THINQ Learning Pty Ltd
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780648802112
• Edition: 2020
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Small Business
• Index: Business

Like never before Australian governments are embracing the vitality and diversity of small businesses when they partner with the private sector.

The digital economy now means SMBs and big businesses can vie for government business on a more level playing field.

Yes, the big business bidding teams are still strong, but they can be rigid and cumbersome. Unlike your SMB …

You can compete. You can win.

It’s not easy, but at least it’s a fairer fight these days.

And this book is your insider’s guide for how to go about it.

In simple, clear and direct steps, Winning Government Business: The 6 Rules and 9 Absolutes for Small to Medium Businesses sets out how your SMB can claim its own slice of the government pie.

When I started pursuing government work, for a long time it felt like I was trying to break in a pair of shoes that was a size too small.

I was uncomfortable most of the time. I got ‘blisters’ as I poked and prodded into different government departments with little-to-no meaningful outcomes. After some time, this fruitless pursuit meant my morale developed a limp.

In those days I had a massive stubborn streak, so I pushed through. I was committed to breaking in my government shoes and decided it might go faster if I got smarter about it. I realised there were four things I didn’t know enough about:

1. A map of the different government departments
2. Their function
3. Departmental goals and strategic objectives
4. Key personnel within the relevant departments.

The key

I’ve worked with a lot of government officials over the years. Many have generously given me their time for phone calls, emails and meetings. They’ve helped me learn more about them, their departments, their challenges and their strategic goals. They’ve helped me navigate the twists and turns of working with government. Without them, I wouldn’t have achieved much at all in the government sector.

One day I was sitting down with a distinguished senior government official and he said something that really resonated with me, and not just because it served to grow my Government IQ. During this meeting I had been explaining how I knew our company could help a certain department but that our approaches were coming up short because we didn’t know enough about their needs to position ourselves as a solution’s provider.

“Knowledge is power,” I concluded with a shrug.

The official shook his head ever-so-slightly and corrected me:

“When working with government, knowledge isn’t power. Understanding is power. When we find a supplier who understands how we work, understands our problems and challenges and understands what we want, then we know we have a company that we can confidently partner with.”

Grow your government IQ

If you, as an SMB, decide to devote time and energy to attracting government work, then you’ll need to increase your knowledge and understanding of the area, or areas, within government that you’re targeting. Here’s a non-comprehensive list of questions you need thorough answers to:

• What exactly do they do?
• How many staff do they have?
• Any chance of an organisation chart?
• What projects do they have on?
• What projects have been completed?
• What are their objectives over the next 12 months?
• How do they make purchasing decisions?
• How do they plan to meet their departmental goals?

Start, but don’t stop, with Google

You might have to think laterally to get the answers; you might just have to get Googling. In fact, Google is a great place to start because government departments publish a lot of information about themselves.

Want to know the names of some business managers with the Department of Whatever? Google it and you’ll likely get some answers from the departmental site, LinkedIn or some other web source.

Want to find out which departments are planning projects around digital transformation? Google it: you might be surprised at how much information is publicly available.

Beware: just because it’s on Google, doesn’t mean it’s true. The search results you find must be validated.

Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe

After you’ve done your first round of Googling, you’re ready to subscribe to the newsletters that many government departments produce. When you do, you automatically tap into an information feed that reveals what said department is doing and planning to do.

These newsletters aren’t the pot of government gold at the end of the rainbow, but they will increase your knowledge of different government departments. I’ve noted a few examples for you at the end of this section.

Talk to the people

Googling and newsletter subscriptions are simple and you can do this immediately, the next — and the most powerful — way to grow your government IQ is to talk to the people who are in the thick of it. You’ll soon gain real insights into government areas. Like a kid offered a cupcake, you must grasp every opportunity to speak to and network with government staff. Pretty quickly your government IQ will grow. You’ll uncover many interes...

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction, The biggest unicorn of them all
• Chapter One, Knowledge is understanding, not power
• Chapter Two, Strength in Numbers
• Chapter Three, White Horses and Jedis
• Chapter Four, When No Means Yes
• Chapter Five, Do the Math
• Chapter Six, Persist or Perish
• Chapter Seven, It All Starts With a Phone Call
• Chapter Eight, Never Start With the Unicorn
• Chapter Nine, Ask For Help
• Chapter Ten, Learn By Losing
• Chapter Eleven, An Open Secret
• Chapter Twelve, Straight From the Unicorn’s Mouth
• Chapter Thirteen, We’re In! Now What?
• Chapter Fourteen, Get Steve Smith Out!
• Chapter Fifteen, It’s The Government, Jim, But Not As We Know It …
• Chapter Sixteen, Making Small Business Stronger
• Chapter Seventeen, Goodbye For Now
• Afterword
• Glossary of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements