As of 2018, the average Request for Proposal (RFP) response was 116 pages. 

To turn in a response that is comprehensive and at the standard needed to compete for a government contract takes a lot of valuable man hours. 

As a govtech innovator looking to sell to local governments, you can expect the RFP response workload and timeline to expand. 

In fact, according to a 2019 report by Bonfire, IT related projects take public sector organizations the longest to complete. 

While interested government vendors pour time and money into detailed proposals, we all know RFPs are usually issued with a particular vendor in mind. This reality can make your genuine effort futile compared to the months of relationship-building of an invisible competitor. 

The data clearly shows that if you don’t have a strong understanding of the government decision making process, you risk wasting significant time and money responding to an RFP.

So how can you maximize your chances of securing a competitive local government contract without spending time and money responding to an RFP designed for someone else?

Companies with government contracts focus on validation before chasing projects. 

As an innovator looking to beat out other bidders and win a government contract, your local government procurement strategy must begin long before you see an RFP issued. 

Developing a pre-proposal strategy is particularly important if you are interested in becoming a local government vendor. Because unlike the Federal government, local governments likely do not have terabytes of historical data or a robust team of experts to immediately point them in the right direction. 

But at the same time, they don’t have the financial flexibility to make mistakes. 

The stakes are high and resources are low, which makes local procurement decisions feel weightier than other government deals. 

The locality you want to do business with must consider you a trustworthy steward of taxpayer dollars, which involves more than a low price tag. That process is called validation, and starts long before an RFP is issued. 

Government decision makers will validate your goods, services and team based on more than just cost. 

It’s a common myth that in every deal, the government looks for the lowest cost provider. Especially in services as complex as civtech, the lowest cost does not necessarily mean the best value. 

When you add in the price of underperforming contracts, (36 percent of firms in a recent Deloitte survey stated that suppliers were failing to meet growing demand and new vendor requirements) a quick decision based entirely on the bottom line might end up costing the buyer. 

That’s why governments, and especially local governments, use a diverse array of metrics to validate vendors before the procurement process starts. 

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Here’s a list of questions local governments might ask themselves when evaluating a potential vendor. 

• How does our neighboring locality meet this need?

When a local government is wondering who the trustworthy vendors are, they look next door. 

Neighboring localities typically operate under similar guidelines and serve similar residents. There is no easier way for an official to learn who is offering a relevant, affordable, legal service than to just pick up the phone and call their counterpart in the neighboring town. 

For you, this means that business can boom beyond county lines, but you need to start with the first success story. 

Even if you can’t start a geographic domino effect immediately, connect localities so that your former or current clients can vouch for you. 

But keep in mind, leaders may see value in comparison regardless of location. For example, Baltimore may call Queen Anne’s County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland a comparative neighbor, while on paper, it has much more in common with Washington D.C. when you consider demographics, size, and governmental structure. 

So cast your net wide and don’t assume localities compare apples to apples.

• How does our neighboring competitor meet this need?

The whisper network among friends also exists among competitors. 

Localities with similar needs, demographics, priorities, and assets often find themselves competing for the same economic development opportunities, state grants, or federal funding. 

Contracting with the right vendor to deliver a cutting edge service for a competitive price can give local governments an edge on the competition. 

Knowing how your competition is growing, changing and addressing challenges is also a good business practice. 

When you’re telling a potential government buyer their local competition is underperforming because they’re not using your services or over-performing because they are, you can leverage that touchpoint. 

• How might working with this vendor impact our brand?

You’ve heard that a brand is a promise. When you walk into your favorite fast food joint, you’re confident you’ll be lovin’ it, eating fresh, or living más. 

Local governments also have a brand to protect, but it’s centered on service delivery. 

Choosing to trust the wrong vendors can have a negative impact on a local government’s overall brand. 

According to the 2021 Deloitte Global Chief Procurement Officer Survey, eleven percent of Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) stated that issues with their suppliers damaged their public brand. 

• What are the financial risks associated with this vendor?

Let’s keep busting the myth that being successful with state and local government contracting is just a matter of offering the lowest price tag. To smaller governments, financial feasibility is much more than the sticker price. 

Local governments consider hidden organizational costs that can be challenging to build into your contract. 

• How much staff time will be dedicated to the negotiation and the onboarding? What about internal orientation and ongoing training? Do we have to hire new staff? 

• Does the government buyer have the option to make a one-time purchase, or does the purchase require a subscription? What are the ongoing costs, and which department should be responsible to foot the bill? 

• How aligned is this purchase with the administration’s long term goals? Will the purchase withstand morphing budget priorities over the course of fiscal years?

Local government buyers will ask these questions, and more. To validate yourself as a vendor before negotiations begin, address these concerns head on with flexibility and empathy.

• If we contract with this vendor, who would be working with us?

This may seem like a simple question, but government buyers are, first and foremost, members of a community. 

They’re public servants who, at the end of the day, are acting in furtherance of the public good. No matter how unique and innovative your offering is, it will benefit from a human vouching for it. 

Government buyers, including Chief Procurement Officers, Chief Technology Officers, project team leads, and even the end user want to know who controls the vision for your goods or services, and most importantly - who they will be liaising with on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

The last thing they want is to be ghosted by a vendor. 

Take time to introduce yourself and your customer support team as mission-driven people, because the government buyer is leaning on you to be the expert in your product.  

Ask yourself the same questions potential buyers consider when validating a vendor - and then advertise those answers. 

Now that you have an idea of what questions local government purchasers are considering as they validate vendors, look in the mirror and evaluate what the answers would be for your offerings. Then develop a marketing strategy to message those answers with precise, sensitive copy and doable calls to action. 

As with any effective modern B2G sales strategy, effective messaging boils down to nuance. Local governments are already asking these questions of vendors - you can choose to answer them, or you can choose to throw nice-sounding spaghetti at the wall. 

For example, you can toss all sorts of entertaining promises up on your vendor website, but the chances are that government buyers will immediately dismiss it as advertising (which it is). 

A common refrain we heard in local government: “I’ll believe it when we pay for it,” in response to a disingenuous sales pitch or a meeting bloated with promises. Procurement guidelines are already so strict, government buyers know empty promises will not yield a contract.

Do the groundwork to win government contracts. 

It’s no secret that securing a coveted government contract, and all the business that can balloon from a single contract, requires work before the RFP is even released. Prove yourself before the proposal by focusing on validation. 

Anticipate the criteria government buyers use to evaluate potential vendors and then craft messaging that directly speaks to your meeting that criteria. Your future self, and your future clients, will thank you for clearing the road ahead.

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