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As with any other type of marketing,
it’s always worth informing potential
customers of your existence and what they
do. If you sell to consumers, you know the
importance of keeping a positive, regular
message in front of them, whether it’s
leaflets, a newspaper advert or a follow-up
call. If you sell to businesses, it’s just
the same.
When making yourself known to the public
sector, it’s always best to be direct.
Here’s a quick guide on how you should
market your company depending on what it is
you sell. |
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Staying in
regular touch benefits certain
types of companies more than
others, specifically if
• You trade in lower value
products (particularly costing
£20,000 or less)
• You offer
time-/compliance-sensitive
services
• You offer something truly
unique which is unlikely,
because of scarcity, rarity or
the fact it is new to the
•
market, to appear in a tender
document any time soon
• You run events and are looking
for exhibitors or visitors
• You sell publications relevant
to the public sector
• You run training courses
If what you offer matches one or
more of these criteria, your
company could be costing itself
a lot of money by not staying in
touch with the buyers in charge
of these services. |
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The best rule of thumb with orders like
these is to try to establish some kind of
recognition of your company name and what it
does with buyers.
Unlike with the spot orders, these types of
contracts are likely to come up much less
frequently. Make sure you get on to their
approved suppliers lists and try to be
noticed every 6 weeks or so.
With many types of these contracts, that
recognition you build up could mean that
contacts within the public sector bodies
will contact you to let you know of any
impending work. |
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On-the-page
advertising and paper/internet
directory advertising has its
uses but remember that you will
be surrounded by your
competitors on the page after
the same business as you. There
is also limited evidence that
these methods are used when
buying or purchasing service –
by all means, don’t rule them
out but be aware that making
direct contact is always
preferable.
Sit down and make a list of the
types of organisations and
departments within those
organisations most likely to
need what you’ve got to offer.
If you need any help doing this,
please call us on freephone 0800
652 6627 and we’ll put the list
together with you together with
finding the most appropriate
contacts.
Remember that buyers and
purchasers will need to believe
that you can actually provide
the service. Only target those
organisations in the
geographical locations it’s
worthwhile your company
covering.
Our data offers four distinct
approaches for you to reach
buyers –
Direct mail – the most
expensive way of sending
information out to potential
customers but that with the most
pulling power.
Telephone – try to build
a relationship with your
potential customer. Giving a
call and introducing your
products and services will give
a human face to your
organisation and make you more
likely to stand out.
Email – using email
cleverly, for example, sending
out a newsletter once every
other month with relevant
information about your work and
how it fits in with them could
be a big boost to your
recognition.
Fax – the least likely to
get you new business. |
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Is there a big
change in the law that buyers
will have to react to? Will your
buyers be forced into bringing
in the goods or services you
offer in the next few months?
This is the ideal opportunity to
get in touch with these
organisations.
For example, a recent chance in
the law requires schools to
secure their perimeters with six
foot fencing. The fences have to
be tough, durable and vandal
resistant. This change in the
law created opportunities for
all fencing companies in the UK
and obligations for schools to
buy them in. This is a situation
where a definite need is coming
up which has to be catered for –
make sure you know your market
inside out and whether it
applies to the public sector. |
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Just sending marketing messages to all
available contacts, even if they appear
relevant, can sometimes dilute the
effectiveness of a campaign. Sometimes, it’s
just better to target people at specific
management levels.
At the same time, it is sometimes better to
communicate with people at all management
levels (this approach is known as ‘top down’
and ‘bottom up’) as there may be a number of
buying influencers at different levels
within the organisation and this approach
will increase both the effectiveness and
influence of the communication.
Which is appropriate depends on the nature,
value and type of product / service being
offered, the organisation type and structure
of the functional responsibilities of
contacts being considered.
A good rule of thumb is that those
products/services likely to be “bought” will
be much more likely to have decisions
influenced by lower levels of management.
Those likely to be “purchased” – it
In many of the larger public sector
organisations, there are many thousands of
people working across different directorates
at different locations with different
responsibilities.
It may seem that the best route to take
would be to contact either the Overall or
Departmental ‘Purchasing Manager’. However,
this can often be ineffective as people with
specific responsibility for using the
products and/or services being offered may
have a more direct influence or initiate a
‘Buying Decision’.
For example, within local authorities
(although similar distinctions exist across
the Public Sector), annual contracts are
usually administered by the central
purchasing departments. They involve the
purchase of standard goods and services,
which are required throughout the year;
examples include fuel, paper, building
materials and office supplies. |
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Something else
to consider is whether or not
the people you’re targeting are
specifiers (client side) and/or
actually have an operational
role (contractor side).
A good example is within local
authorities where, in some
cases, the organisation will
have a range of departments and
ontacts with a responsibility to
provide services, but the actual
work is carried out by another
department (they are often
called ‘Direct Services in the
case of Street Cleaning/Fleet
Management/Highways Maintenance,
etc).
In addition to internal splits
(sometimes called ‘soft splits’)
within organisations, there are
many examples of organisations,
departments and contacts within
the public sector who specify
the work that needs to be done
and use external contractors to
provide those services.
These sometimes take the form of
PPP’s (Public Private
Partnerships) where the private
sector take over providing the
services, with the public sector
monitoring
performance/effectiveness and
satisfying their statutory
obligations.
In short, when planning a
marketing or research campaign
into the Public Sector it is
important to consider what
organisations and which people
to target in order to maximize
the effectiveness of a campaign
and to avoid alienating people
which have no interest in /
responsibility for the services
being offered. |
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