Allen Federal recently had the opportunity to sit down with a newly retired federal CxO official to hear how companies often blow their chances to make a good first impression.  Number one, according to this individual, is the need to think more broadly about your customer’s mission.  If you think you’re just there to promote a cyber solution, for example, your message may be too narrowly defined.  Explaining how that cyber solution can solve not just the problem at hand, but can help improve an overall mission can be important to success.  At a minimum, it shows your client that you’ve done enough research to understand the larger challenges they face and the role your cyber solution plays in helping.  Plain language messaging also helps.  Too much technical talk can leave many feds confused about what your solution does, whys it’s important, and the need it is intended to address.  Save the details for true techies.  Using easy-to-understand lingo to describe how your solution can be part of an enterprise