Your Business Blogger has been on both sides of the table as buyer and seller in government procurement. A few months ago, I worked with a client selling to the public sector, working at the Baltimore/Washington Area Government Procurement Fair.

Follow-up and persistence is key for selling in any market. But are the rules different in government sales? In particular, when are you making a pest of yourself?

Gloria Berthold, President of TargetGov gave a compelling presentation, reminding small business owners that some government selling has lengthy, challenging sales cycles. What is needed?

“Persistence, Persistence, Persistence,” she says.

Gloria reminds us that sales reps often quit too soon. They will bail out before they get tossed out.

Persistence. I was fortunate to have a sales trainer over two decades ago who taught how to measure persistence. In the high-pressure elite cadre of medical sales. His advice:

If you’re not getting thrown out of an account once a month, you’re not working hard enough.

This is always a challenge: balancing being nice, with being good . . .and persistent.

Sorry. Being nice is over-rated. Your Business Blogger always recommends being good.

But most of us sales guys want to be nice and good and never want to quit.

So when does persistence begin to look like lunacy?

Typical sales managers will typically berate their teams to never give up! to keep pounding the pavement! overcome that objection! flog that prospect!

I know. Your Humble Business Blogger used to do the berating.

Which takes us to the follow-up of being on the receiving end. As a sales prospect.

I was in the sales cross hairs of [brand-X]. Now, I love sales guys — The easiest people to sell to are other biz dev cheerleaders like me. However…

J., the capable sales VP from [brand-X] telephoned me three times — on his fourth attempt, I took the call. Alert Readers will remember the 70 minute sales presentation I endured from this marketing outfit.

During J.’s call I referred him to my blog post — full disclosure and all that — on their presentation and some observations/criticisms. (File under Prospect Alienation Program.) After the call I get a gracious email from J. wishing me success yady yady ya. He’s a class act. But it ends there.

Six hours later I get another email from M., at [brand-X]. The, “I’m from Harvard and very smart” CEO. It looked like a form letter or worst, much worse — spam. He closes with:

P.S. Just a reminder that it takes three months to produce a [brand-X product] - so if you want this tool ready by next quarter, we need to start now.

Start Now. NOW NOW NOW

(A “PS” is very effective in persuasive writing: it might be the only thing the prospect reads.)

Anyway, my good friend M., from Harvard, also attached his client testimonials. He forgot that he sent me 11 gushing pages of hard copy, harvesting an entire California Redwood forest to put paper in mailboxes across the country.

Now if there is any one screw-up any company must avoid is having the company name, like, say ‘[brand - X],’ in the same sentence as ’spam.’

Smart small businesses know the difference between sales resistance, dealing with objections– and smart selling and account management.

Our [brand-X products] avoid unnecessary paper waste, help preserve our valuable natural resources such as forests and oil, protect wildlife habitats, and do not contribute to landfills.

See more outstanding selling wisdom at GrowABrain postings on Salesmanship.

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