Getting a face-to-face meeting with a prime government prospect isn’t always easy.  There’s only so much time on anyone’s calendar and not all of it can be allotted to contractor meetings.  Once you have the meeting scheduled, here are three tips to give you the best chance for success: 

1.  Be Prepared to Listen:  While you certainly want to make sure you talk about your great solutions, asking questions and listening first can help you shape what you say so that it’s of greater interest to your government contact.  Speak first and run the risk of missing key points or, worse, saying something that might annoy your prospect. 

2.  Know Who You’re Talking To:  Are you meeting with a technical person, program manager, acquisition specialist or someone else?  It’s important to know beforehand so that you can tailor your message to the appropriate audience.  Techies like to get specific, but so too do acquisition professionals who want to know how to get your solution, not just what it does.  Similarly, if you’re there to make a high level presentation and a tech person is in the meeting, you want to make sure that you have the right tech person from your side to match. 

3.  Follow Up:  You had a great meeting and the prospect is interested.  That’s what you want.  Next week, though, you’re scheduled to be at a conference.  Make sure you take time to call or e-mail from the event.  Failing to follow up is more prevalent than you might think and it essentially means that you’ve wasted a good opportunity.  Don’t leave your prospect hanging.  Reach out and touch someone (as the old saying goes.)

  Lastly, remember that it is the government market we’re talking about.  Today’s meeting may be just the first of several before you close business.