Tuesday, July 28, 2009

MeritDirect Coop - July 9, 2009




For the 4th time I was fortunate to get the lunch speech for the Merit Direct B2B Coop. Merit is a direct mailing list management and brokerage firm in Westchester NY. I have been a friend and client since they started ten years ago, and I have several excellent friends who work there and more friends who are clients.

The conference is like a reunion. While there are always new people there, many of us go to see friends we may not otherwise see very often and to renew acquaintances. There is nothing like networking with friends.
My speech was a brief history of direct marketing since the 1980s and it was very well received.
However, regardless of the quality and impact of any speech, the limelight from it fades ever so rapidly.



Wednesday, July 22, 2009

GSA Schedule 70 Sales - 2008

My friend Richard Mackey (www.CapitalReps.com) negotiates and manages GSA Schedules for a variety of companies. Several years ago he ran a report on Schedule 70 that had some remarkable statistics (I used this data in my first book Government Marketing Best Practices), so I asked him to run the numbers for me for 2008 (Schedule 70) to see if anything had changed. Things have not changed.

The results:

Total FY 08 Schedule 70 Sales were $15,901,412,897 (down from past years)

Total # of comapnies on Schedule 70 in FY 2008: 5,615

Dell's market share has dropped to 6.43% - years ago, they had almost 10%. 6.43 isn't bad though!

Top 50 Market Share 53.63% - about the same as the past

# of Firms Selling less than required $25k 45.97% - up a lot

# of Firms Selling less zero 38.62% about the same as the past


We have run these stats for several Schedules over several years and the general results are:

-the top 2% of the companies on any Schedule take over 60% of the $

- the middle group takes about 35%

- the bottom third usually take little or nothing.

Now keep in mind that the GSA Schedules only account for about 15% of the toal federal spending.

But what does this tell us?

1) Most companies in the government market are in a passive mode, sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring because they have a contract.
2) Most companoes with GSA Schedules do not know how to leverage these into sales.
3) That the very proactive companoes out there understand how it is done.

If your company is not in that top tier, y0u need to start your education process NOW!

Take a look at www.GovernmentMarketMaster.com to start that education process.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Blog Name Change

Amtower Off Center is my radio show, and it has a brand of its own. You can listen to my shows in the archive at www.FederalNewsRadio.com and you can listen live in DC on 1500 AM or on the web at the web site at noon every Monday.

The blog is still me, attitude intact, but it is different from the radio show. Amtower on B2G is what I do - business to government marketing, business to government sales, business to government BUSINESS.

My first book, Government Marketing Best Practices, was about selling to the government. My seminars are about selling to the government, my web sites, www.GovernmentMarketMaster.com
www.GovernmentExpress.com
www.FederalDirect.com
are about selling to the government.

And now, a little more clearly, Amtower on B2G is about selling to the government.

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

GovTips

GovTip of the week:
There are thousands of government contractors on LinkedIn. Many of these are open to connecting with other contractors directly and through the groups on LinkedIn. Listen to the free audio on using LinkedIn for B2G at http://www.governmentmarketmaster.com/sampleaudio.html


There are a ton of events, emails, blogs, podcasts and other "information" sources that only seem to regurgitate readily available info. Many of these venues still get it wrong, mangling the facts, adding opinion as fact, or worse, perpetuating market myths.

Since 1991, I have produced over 120 events (seminars, conferences, summits, in-house sessions and more) to provide real, actionable information on doing business with the government. When I don't know something, I find those who do, experts like Steve Charles (a sales and contracting expert and EVP at ImmixGroup), Courtney Fairchild (GSA expert and president of Global Services, Inc), Max Peterson (Federal sales expert and VP, Civilian, Dell), Bob Davis (business development expert formerly of CACI and Accenture), and many others.

Many of these people have presented at Amtower & Company events, some have been featured on my radio show (noon Monday, Amtower Off Center, 1500 AM in DC, archived and simulcast at http://www.federalnewsradio.com/ ).

And now we are accumulating the vast majority of this information at http://www.governmentmarketmaster.com/ . This is a paid member site, but the cost is low and there is new information every month - podcasts and webinars.

Take a look.