Selling To Government

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With e-governance projects on swing, government buyers provide big growth opportunity.

Finally, our Indian government both at state level and central level have understood the importance of having a robust IT infrastructure. They are ready and eager to invest in products and solutions that give them that.



With the central government and state government’s plans to computerize their offices and complete their e-governance projects, there is an increased IT orders expected to come in most reseller’s way. While the returns may take longer but the business in this case is assured. There are few basic points to keep in mind when pitching for a strategic government account.



To begin with the reseller should be able to leverage the distributor’s programs and personnel to target government orders. Most big distributors have special team to target the government segment and often offer schemes and incentives to resellers who can get them government orders. The reseller should partner with a distributor and offer to close the deal for the distribut

or. That way the channel partner will be able to get a better credit as well as margin from the distributor. In turn the partner must pass on part of the benefit to the government buyer to create long-standing relationship.



Another way to go about selling to government and getting more margins out of it is to partner directly with the vendor. A product vendor generally will offer the partner financial support and higher margin than a distributor. The VAR should connect with the vendor’s team that sells to government to channel more business towards him. Be open with the principles when selling competitive products as part of a solution. Take advantage of partner training programs that vendors hold to train the staff on technology on products and get right certification. That strengthens a VAR's credentials with the government buying agency.



Now not all VARs or SIs are trained in all technology. But if they need to bag a particular big order that also ha