What is B2G Marketing?

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B2G Product (or Service): Many government procurements spell out product and service standards to amazing levels of detail in order to comply with a variety of statutory and procedural requirements ranging from national security to political objectives. The required customization coupled with the large cost of sale of the procurement process makes creating products and services for government agencies very expensive, however, the contracts are often for larger volumes over longer periods of time and so the economics work out to the vendor’s favor in the long run when all these factors are accounted for appropriately.

B2G People (target market): A solid understanding of your target market is so crucial to B2G and B2B success that we break it out of the traditional “four P’s” of marketing. Quite often, the target market in the government market is as narrow as a single component within a single department. This may seem “small” until you realize that for some large agencies at the federal and state levels, even one program in one component in one department can be budgeted in the billions. Because the target market in terms of actual decision makers is often small, it becomes important that you know the contracting officers and review and oversight personnel individually. These should be personal relationships that far exceed the intimacy of knowledge over a typical target market analysis. From these relationships, which are difficult to establish and maintain around the myriad procedural and logistical barriers erected to instill fairness, a true understanding of the relevant government target market can be established.

Another unique aspect of the government sale, and an added complication, is that many large procurements are won by multiple companies acting in partnership to assemble the specific solution for each contract. One company acts as “prime” contractor, holding the master contract and subcontracting out pieces to other firms. Thus, the “target market” for most government contractors include these prime contractors, who broker which companies are included in the largest proposals. To the extent a contractor has good brand recognition and experience with the government end customer, this can help them earn invitations to larger bids through the primes, but does not necessarily secure them a place at the table without good relationships with the primes directly.

B2G Positioning: Positioning is such an important part of the marketing mix that we give it its own “P”. Positioning is just as important for government buyers as it is in any form of marketing, but in the government market it plays a crucial role in helping you communicate clearly to cut through the massive amounts of data contracting officers and program managers must navigate during each procurement. Clear positioning supports your proposal before you’ve decided to bid because it helps your prospective customers understand what your company’s strengths are and when to include you from step one of the process, which is often informal and invitation-only.

B2G Pricing: Most government procurements are made subject to “schedules” on which qualified government contractors have made their government price lists available in advance of submitting proposals on any specific contract. In addition to pre-publishing their prices in publically available schedules, a government contractor must make its lowest prices available on this list. This provides the contractor relatively little price flexibility when preparing specific bids and means that profitability must be found in other ways than a high unit price.

B2G Promotion: Promotion in B2G marketing is just like promotion in B2B or B2C marketing in that your messages must appear when decision makers and influencers are seeking information about your product or service. In the government market the ultimate information vehicle is the proposal itself and it’s vocabulary, tone and specific references can be critical factors in communicating value. There are certainly publications, trade shows and events which can be leveraged to let your target market know about your company and offerings as well, and like the business market they are very specific to the department and/or product area. In addition to the specificity of message and placement needed to make sure your communications are successful, while the audience of “buyers” is often relatively small, the audience of “influencers” on any particular procurement can be quite large and diverse, including political figures and staffs who have oversight responsibility. Their information needs are equally diverse which makes reaching them each with the right message sometimes very challenging. These unique challenges make public affairs and public relations critical pieces of the government marketing function.

B2G Place (Sales & Distribution): As in large B2B sales, a skilled and knowledgeable direct sales force is critical to successful government sales. Government sales people are most successful when they are perceived by their government clients as substantive experts and information resources as opposed to “sales” people. Good government sales teams know their companies’ products and services inside and out, know their clients procurement processes and mission requirements equally thoroughly and are trusted by the client. The marketing department helps these highly skilled sales teams by providing good promotional and branding “air cover” so that the sales people can focus on the details of specific procurements.