Across the nation, state and local government agencies are working feverishly to modernize their systems, enable a better citizen experience, and manage a more remote workforce.

When you consider the opportunity, it’s truly astounding—state and local government entities are poised to unleash a staggering $2.3 trillion on technologies and services this year.

To put that into perspective, that’s Brazil’s entire GDP, and Brazil is the 8th largest economy in the world.

With that much money in play, the competition is fierce for government contractors. New businesses registering are up 20% (Source: GovTribe), while state and local government employees are overwhelmed. We’ve heard executives in big cities, small counties, and states lament the number of cold sales calls they get a week (sometimes up to 40 calls and 5x that in emails!).

The blueprint for winning in the state and local market has changed.

• Discovery, learning, and evaluation have shifted to the digital realm, with 67% to 80% of the buying process now taking place without any sales rep engagement.
• Governments are buying more narrowly with more information at the onset about what is both available and required to meet their needs now and in the future.
• The buying committee has expanded in a way that sellers often need to educate and engage 15+ individual decision-makers before a project can move forward.
• Government buyers expect vendors to walk in the door fully aware of their priorities, underlining the crucial need for comprehensive understanding. (Some are even infamous for ending meetings abruptly if a sales rep asks, “What is keeping you up at night?”)

Gone are the days when companies could pair an RFP aggregator with attendance at a handful of conference events to fill their pipeline and hit their number. To win in this new environment, you need a more modern approach.

In this four-part series, we’ve put together a modern blueprint for your next state and local win.
 

Step 2: Build impactful content.

GovExec conducts the M4PS survey every year, querying 200+ state and local government decision-makers about their content consumption and buying behavior.

M4PS is a crucial tool for understanding the preferences and behaviors of your potential clients, providing valuable insights into what actually works to connect with prospects and convert.

Is your prospect:

• Conducting early research to explore options?
  You should develop white papers that analyze data thoroughly and clearly communicate who wrote them and when.
   
• Determining key specifications for the project?
  Focus on articles and demos.
   
• Choosing a vendor?
  You need case studies.

Case studies ultimately influence who wins.

GovExec has always been a trusted partner in helping state and local government contractors generate research reports, white papers, and articles. Now, we have a dedicated community team that aggregates case studies from state and local governments, nonprofits, and companies in a database that thousands of government officials use each week to source and evaluate solutions.

Why do state and local decision makers turn to us? We’re a trusted, unbiased third party with a team that understands what it takes to craft impactful case studies.

Leverage our access to reach your prospects where they are:

• Post case studies as evergreen content that can be used in email campaigns
• Syndicate them to generate leads
• Turn them into a webcast to feature leaders and bring the story to life
• And so much more.

43% of state and local government decision-makers said they had contacted the company provider after consuming valuable online content.

So, when you have good content, it needs to be everywhere.

In a market where 90% of sales go to the first company at the table, 

you should have started yesterday. 

Reach out to Solutions@GovExec.com to implement the best intelligence for a winning strategy.
 

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series!

Read Part 1: Get intelligence, not data.