
Ask HN: How do you sell to governments and large organizations? - hsikka
I&#x27;ve been seeing repeated mentions of early warning systems for a lot of diseases, but not too much technical development! I think I could hack something together that would be an interesting proof of concept and function as an effective early warning system, using my ML and Public Health background. Of course, I don&#x27;t know who to directly sell to, its not like most businesses or consumers are interested in reducing disease burden, government folks seem interested though!
======
BostonEnginerd
I sell $1m+ pieces of equipment into large companies, not governments and the
key is to network throughout the company and build a coalition of interested
people for your product. For example, at one company I've worked with - I've
spent loads of time talking to people with similar positions at each site they
have and have run loads of demos for each of the groups.

Each of the groups pushes the need up to their local management, and the local
management talks to corporate. A key factor in our success has been getting
corporate to hear a similar message from multiple sites asking for our
equipment.

It takes a really long time to make anything happen - often on the order of
2-3yr.

~~~
rpedela
How does one network throughout the entire company as an outsider?

~~~
stuntkite
This is a bit long winded, but here's how I figured out how to walk through
the front door and get a response at a big org.

I used to be a founder in a legal services startup. We wanted to get in with
the largest SomeTypeOfLegalService firms in the US and didn't really have a
direct line. Something that really worked for us was doing a little research
on not so much who would make the final decision (but also that) but who our
product would appeal to the most. Something that worked for me was calling the
front desk. Reception is the key to everything, they know when the CEO has a
doctors appointment and how the CTO likes his bagels.

I would call the front desk with the aim of talking to the receptionist and
NOT being salesy. Frequently they are busy as hell. The first time you call
they will probably give you the brush off. Knowing who Production Manager
"Mike" and CTO "Dave" are I would say something like "Hi Suzy, I'm stuntkite
with blahblah. We are a legal tech vendor. We've got this amazing widget yadda
yadda. I have a few questions about your firm. I know you're probably busy, is
there a way where I could get a few minutes of your time to ask some questions
about X Firm?"

I would say 90% of the time, they are too busy, they seem reasonably offput
because no matter what this is salesy. But it's tech so I fair better than
phonebooks salesman. Suzy is too busy so I tell her "Well, I just want to ask
a few questions about X Firm. We have an editing and delivery platform. We are
partnering with a handful of large firms and customizing a demo and sending it
out on an ipad as a gift so people can experience what we have to offer. Can
you give me a call back when you have a few minutes so I can pick your brain?"

Usually I actually got a callback. If I didn't, I called back the next day and
usually got my details. I would figure out who the biggest gadget dork was and
ask about how suzye liked working there. You get a lot from that. Then ask how
it is working with Production Manager Mike. Then we would package up two ipad
minis in custom paper boxes and engrave the tablet on the back. Build a white
labeled build with some demo data. Tailor the boot experience and papercraft
to an interest or aesthetic we can figure out about the execs. Have a courier
deliver both ipads with a box of cookies with a thank you card for the
receptionist. She'd drop off the ipads at the guys desks. They get a neat
unboxing experience, with a note. They turn the thing on scope it out, and we
get a callback. Sometimes it took a little bit, but usually within a few days
we got a ring.

Sure it's spearfishing, but all in the expense was less than $1500, though I
did personally handle the art. It never failed to get an excited callback. And
I think we only had one company that didn't convert because they thought we
might one day compete with them. (we never did.) Also, none of them closed
over night. One of them took like 4 years to close? But we got noticed.

The key to every bit of it though was being genuine and specific. Also we
absolutely believed in our product and it was cool, different, and worked. We
were very different than the rest of the market, so it was hard to get
established ops to look at us. We had tried trade shows and contract sales and
a ton of other stuff. I think maybe we had our name heard a bit before, but
this really did work. Also, everything falls apart if you don't take care of
the reception desk. You make sure they are excited that they talked to you,
then they will help you get stuff delivered. Also, almost every time they were
great assets/partners going forward with the company through the best and
worst times.

The other good way is to hire a sales guy that's an insider. They are
expensive but worth their weight in gold if you can find them. I still don't
know how to find them.

~~~
sporkland
Isn't giving an expensive-ish gift like that against most company policies?
And in the worst case, the government, against the law?

~~~
GlenTheMachine
It is _absolutely_ against the law for a civil servant to accept a gift like
that. We can accept very small gifts; the value changes, but it's something
like $20 per year. And even then, if it's a company that's trying to sell you
some new product, it's frowned upon. It looks bad. So most people would turn
down a gift larger than, say, a company branded ball-point pen.

I don't let contractors buy me bottled water, and I don't accept rides from
them except in dire circumstances. I insist on driving.

------
GlenTheMachine
Most US government agencies don't have discretionary money to spend. That
means that you can have the greatest idea in the world, and still may not be
able to find a buyer.

Selling to the government usually entails one of three things:

1) You can sell a commodity by being a registered vendor, e.g. through the
GSA. GSA registered vendors have usually agreed to prices up front, which
eliminates some of the red tape. But this doesn't seem to match your
situation.

2) You can find an announced opportunity. In other words, the government is
telling you that it wants something. You can then write a proposal to sell it
that thing. These opportunities are normally advertised in FedBizOps. They are
openly competed. The catch here is that you have to be able to provide what
the government tells you it wants. You can't tell it what it should buy.

3) You can respond to a SBIR, BAA, or other R&D award announcement, for
instance from NASA, the NIH, the CDC, etc. This seems to fit your situation
most closely. However, as with #2, these announcements are generally tailored;
they are intended to produce a final product or prototype, which performs some
function that the agency already wants. If they don't want what you have,
you're out of luck. But unlike FedBizOps announcements, they are often more
open-ended, and hence more suited to new ideas or technologies.

You can also play the long game: develop some neat tech, and then try to build
support for it within government, which then leads to an opportunity like #2
or #3. This entails a lot of behind-the-scenes politicking, which is what (for
instance) large defense contractors are good at. It may entail lobbying
Congress, or getting your tech in front of generals, admirals, or senior
agency management, and then being able to wait a few years until the next
appropriation cycle (or two or three) rolls around. For obvious reasons, this
is difficult for startups and small businesses to pull off, especially if you
don't already have personal connections to the agency you are selling to.
Successful small businesses that sell to government are often started by
people who have these ties already in place when they start.

~~~
tuxidomasx
Bonus points for landing government contracts if you can fit into one of the
underrepresented/minority/disadvantaged group or small business categories.

There's basically a quota that some percentage of contracts must be awarded to
those groups.

~~~
fern12
If going the small business route:

-Make sure you qualify as a “small business” under SBA regulations

-Make sure you have the necessary accounts (DUNS number & CAGE code) to accept Purchase Orders and be awarded a government contract. [https://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/#1#1](https://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/#1#1)

-For instances in which the agency may pay you via credit card, make sure that you have some way of accepting credit card payments that does NOT use a third-party intermediary like PayPal.

------
santiagogo
I sell SAAS to banks. Here are some tips for selling to large CO's I've picked
up in the process:

1\. Get your foot in the door with a small deal. Try and close a small deal,
sell them a pilot, a three month trial or sell a small component and then grow
your way in. Closing a large deal from the start is close to impossible.

2\. When you have an entry point, get several members of the management team
on board. As BostonEnginerd mentions, demo and network to everyone you can and
try and get them on board. Executives at large established CO's tend to be
risk averse even if they have decision making power, so they will try to
shield their decisions as part of a team evaluation result.

3\. Be prepared for a very long sales cycle. Some of the best deals will take
really, really long to close. Work on as many leads as possible so you don't
get demoralized if one doesn't come out and keep emailing them even if you
haven't heard from them in six months.

4\. Be persistent. Even if they desperately need your product, sometimes large
CO's are so bogged down in bureaucracy and day to day operations that it will
take them a long time to fit you in their agendas.

5\. Large CO's suffer from severe FOMO. Use this to your advantage, show them
a competitor who is doing something similar. Even if it's a test 8 time zones
away, this will definitely shake them up.

As for your product. A successful early warning system for disease should be
easy to sell to a large health insurance company which could potentially save
millions or billions from preventing insurance claims. It could also be
possible to sell it to an established software vendor in the health care
industry.

------
JoblessWonder
There are a ton of posts that correctly point out that networking is by far
your best bet. Getting someone on the inside to advocate for your product is
going to be your best return on time investment.

Outside of that:

You need to be able to quantify what your product can do for the organization.
It might be a cool concept, but you need to transfer that into real dollars,
lives, or customers to get anyone's attention. Do the research to tell them
what they need to hear to consider your product. "Right now you are spending
$20 million on disease prevention studies in rural counties in Virginia. With
our software, you can get the same actionable data, faster, and more reliable
for $2 million."

Also, these organizations are like huge tankers. Don't assume that just
because they haven't implemented a system yet doesn't mean someone in the
organization hasn't considered it yet. They take forever to change course.
They are all probably using some piece of infrastructure that could be
upgraded but hasn't because "it just sort of still works." Breaking through
that can be impossible.

------
jbob2000
I had a close friend who developed exactly the system you’re talking about,
his website is [https://sitata.com](https://sitata.com)

Originally, his goal was exactly what yours is - sell to governments. He even
had a close contact within the right department in the government!

As you can see, his business has since pivoted to providing this information
to people traveling abroad. From what I recall, he pivoted because you can’t
sell to the government if they don’t want it. You have to wait until the
government wants something and then you can put together a proposal and go
down procurement lane.

~~~
boffinism
> you can’t sell to the government if they don’t want it.

100% my experience. Saying to a government 'here's a solution you never
considered to a problem that isn't your immediate priority' gets you nowhere.

~~~
mi100hael
In my experience even saying "here's a solution you've been considering to a
problem that is a priority, just not your current top one" still gets you
basically nowhere.

------
dhruvkar
An IndieHackers interview went over this exact scenario [0].

Collaborating with progressive, growing, local governments worked well for
their product (transit planning). It helped that they were Code For America
fellows.

My understanding from this (and life experience), is that working in the same
shoes as your intended customer shortens a product's learning curve
significantly.

0: [https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/052-tiffany-and-
danny-o...](https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/052-tiffany-and-danny-of-
remix)

------
jumpman500
Directly selling to anyone independently is almost impossible if you haven't
networked appropriately or have substantially impressive qualifications. Lots
of the bigger corporations (in America at least) have a select list of
approved consulting groups that they're willing to sign an SOW with. You're
not gonna even get in the door if you don't work with one of them. Not as
familiar with selling to the government but I'm sure it's similar and probably
more hoops to jump(probably get paid a lot less too).

I'd work on formulating your idea more. Early warning systems for a diseases
with ML seems like it could mean almost anything. Narrow it down to a specific
use cause and a specific methodology. Why is it better than existing methods?
What's the value it's going to bring to the government or corporation you sell
to? Why should they believe you? How long will it take for you to have a
viable product? What are the risks of using your product? (lots of false
positives could make your idea more harmful then helpful) What's the
performance monitoring plan?

I'd try networking with people that do consulting data integration/analytics
in health care industry/medical device industry. Pitch your idea to them, see
how they react (people might already be doing what you're thinking). Got to
learn the industry, if you're going to be able to sell to them. Good luck!

------
nurettin
Where I live, government opens a bid, some suppliers join the bid, then the
government officials select one of their relatives at random.

------
jpm_sd
While GlenTheMachine has done an admirable job answering your "headline
question", I think for your particular area of expertise you might also look
for support from a public health-oriented non-profit like the Gates
Foundation.

------
chrisbennet
As someone mentioned the other day, a lot of these government contracts are
written to select for predetermined vendor. The request for proposal is just
going through the motions to make it seem like it was open to anyone.

------
igrekel
We sell to large, mostly state owned, corporations. In most cases that means
going through answering Request for Proposals (RFP) where you need to show how
you will meet a set of requirements for a price. Prior to issuing a RFP, often
the organization will try to look for what is possible or what exists out
there, this is usually done through a request for information (RFI). We
usually try to build a relationship prior to these processes by regularly
talking to people in these companies, helping them to solve some of their
problems. That way they know about us and notify or invite us to answer when
they issue an RFI or RFP. That all takes a long time, sometimes years, and you
don’t get revenues for any of this.

Now this probably is not the most appropriate course of action for you. We
initially started as a proof of concept for a branch of a large state owned
company. If it’s small enough and doesn’t require too much spending or too
much involvement, you can probably avoid the RFP process. But you need to know
someone in charge inside, ideally more than one. You can try cold calling or
meeting them in a conference but it is easier if you can use a network. If
someone else in their industry or their company or maybe a well expert or
industry researchers can vouch for you.

Also since it’s a potential ML project, if it’s a public organisation, you may
be able to access the data though other means either because it is already
public or by simply requesting it. In some jurisdictions, you may request data
from public institutions. Once you have the data, you can build you proof of
concept and pitch it to the organisation or someone you could use to network
your way in.

------
MarkingTime
While the Government is a trustworthy client - meaning that they pay their
bills, getting in and building the trust necessary to clear the regulatory
barriers in place, is a substantial challenge. Selling directly without an
established base of paying customers and high-profile success stories is
exceedingly difficult, sadly.

Networking, as some HN commenters mentioned, is one step - but procurement
networking events are littered with hundreds of bright eyed entrepreneurs
seeking to secure a government contract.

Bidding through the RFP process is another route - but often takes a very,
very, long time, and could outlast the life of the company.

Another option is to capture the attention of a lawmaker or administration
official who is looking to solve the very issue you have a solution for. I.e.
they have a lot of constituents who are concerned about early disease warning
systems and therefore they want to find a solution that disrupts the status
quo.

Depending on how deeply you care about this issue - you could also seek out a
fellowship (via tech congress or another non-profit seeking to increase tech’s
engagement in government) or look to participate in the digital service (which
is a non-partisan group of civic minded technical experts who are just looking
to make government work better).

------
flarg
I PM an ML project for pharma for a moderate sized consultancy and we
regularly use (or buy!) smaller organisations that have the products or
expertise we need. Maybe approach a couple of consultancies with similar
offerings in the market and work with them? They usually have the contacts you
need.

------
brixon
With lots of regulation, red tape and time.

Try to find the small business guides for the target agencies:
[https://www.cdc.gov/contracts/cdc-and-small-
business/index.h...](https://www.cdc.gov/contracts/cdc-and-small-
business/index.html)

------
fergie
Generally, these contracts will be made available through a tender process. If
the value of the work is less than a certain amount (in my locale it is
$65000) then you can circumvent the tender process and sell directly to the
government.

In practice, a large IT provider may have been awarded a contract through
tender to provide all technical services, and they will then subcontract to
other vendors (such as yourself). This can be a good way to circumvent onerous
vendor requirements that may be attached to the customers tender process.

------
ageitgey
This is specific to the field of public health software:

Step 1: Figure out what group might want to pay money for this.

In this case, options might be orgs like the UN in Geneva, CDC in Atlanta,
NGOs in Washington DC, people give give money to NGOs on the US West Coast, or
specific NGOs supporting the region most affected by the disease in question.

Research, funding and staff organization tends to follow specific diseases. So
you need to learn about the world of the disease you are targeting. You need
to find out who cares about eradicating that disease and talk to them
directly.

2\. Figure out if any of those groups actually have money to give you for this
work

NGOs are involved in thousands of these kinds of projects, from tiny one-off
research projects to larger co-ordinated efforts. You need to meet some of the
actual people working in this area, see what the state of the art is, see who
is funding research, etc. Some diseases get tons of funding (Polio, HIV, etc)
and some get almost none.

3\. Convince one of these groups that you have the expertise to solve the
problem. Your public health background could help here.

This can be done best by first building contacts and convincing someone let
you do a proof-of-concept. But this is going to be hard if you have few
contacts or in the field already.

Conferences about the specific disease you want to target can be a good way to
network. Talk to the people who pay the research bills. They go to tons of
these conferences.

4\. Failing that, join or work with a small consulting group that already has
existing contracts with NGOs/Government and is looking to expand into a new
area

This is a great option and probably your best bet. Many of these consulting
companies are really small and work on personal trust. But it still requires
finding out who does work in the field and making some contacts.

5\. After all this, see if any of these groups are even able to budget for
this work

You'll quickly learn some hard truths of public health software:

* Most of the problems are organizational (not technical) and not easy to solve

* People are really busy and change jobs frequently. Turnover (due to unstable funding, etc) is a big problem.

* The world is overflowing with prototype solutions that half work and no one remembers they exist or how to use them.

* Solutions that work great on your computer might fail completely in the field running on a 486 with a radio internet connection.

You might find out that a solution like you imagine already exists and just
needs someone to come in and help run it or improve it. Maybe that's a quicker
way to help.

~~~
ptrott2017
In addition to Agietgey's excellent answer.

Look for Non-profits working in this area who do work for the larger NGOs -
they tend to be smaller and more accessible and also have specialists who will
understand where you are coming from. For example the Gates Foundation is the
NGO but they do a lot of disease modeling through the institute for disease
modeling ([http://www.idmod.org/](http://www.idmod.org/)) - they also fund
other R&D in this area.

Similar when you review papers in this area - look to see which institute or
org the authors are from. One example of an open science journal in this area
is: [http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/infectious-
disease...](http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/infectious-disease-
modelling/)

There is a lot of work in this area and the community is in general pretty
welcoming and helpful. Reach out. Good luck.

------
DEADBEEFC0FFEE
One of the problems will be that the people you need to convince, will likely
have a very low tollerance for false positives. Another challenge will be
getting access to real data, and the human checked analysis you'll need for
training. There are a lot of health coding systems out there, you'll need to
pick one.

Network with people on advisory boards, medical professional groups, they will
have the ear of others and will help you connect your solution with problems.
Health insurance might be a good avenue.

------
zachruss92
It my experience, it's all about networking. I have multiple fortune 500
clients as a consultant and all of those clients came from referrals. I think
your best bet is to speak with people in the private and public sector about
your idea (i.e. would they be willing to pay $$ if you had a working model)
and gauge interest from there. You'd be surprised how many people are willing
to talk shop in a more casual setting (meetups, conferences, etc...)

------
rhodysurf
SBIRs are a good entry point if you are talking US

------
rorykoehler
A significant percentage of our business is government. We apply to tenders
mainly. We also apply to be on procurement portals as vendors. We also have
strong relations with our existing customers which can help inform us of
potential opportunities that have just become public knowledge but are maybe
not widely advertised.

------
XFrequentist
Canada's CDC (Public Health Agency of Canada, my current employer) is looking
for something along these lines:

[https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/101.nsf/eng/00029.html](https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/101.nsf/eng/00029.html)

~~~
exikyut
Google Maps (the version that doesn't exist ;P) probably offers an exact
solution for this. It's probably only available to (and advertised to) defense
contexts though.

I unfortunately don't remember the bit of info I read that (with some
extrapolation) made it obvious that this existed, and my bookmarks are an
unruly mess so I know it would take me an entire day to find it >.> my
apologies

~~~
localcdn
If you ever find it, I’d love to take a look :>

------
huntertwo
Might be worth thinking about hospitals or for-profit companies first. They
seem to have more incentive to adopt new technologies. I say this because
private industry tech seems to always be ahead of government tech.

------
cosinetau
You could go to entrepreneur meetups nearby and try to feel out other people
with experience in government sales and affairs.

There's a great one in Seattle called Seattle Startup Open Coffee.

------
julienfr112
With patience, lot of it. Like multiplying estimated time between first
contact and sale by 10.

------
1996
I try very hard not to. The hassle makes it just not worth it.

------
kolbe
I hate to be cynical, but quid pro quo?

