One of my favorite colleagues just closed a large deal with a government agency. He has worked on this deal for quite sometime.
He atributes his success to networking, where he met the original person who had a relative within this government agency. He also said that when they went down one path for specific services offerings, and that didn't pan out, he got his contact to think more strategically and they creatively came up with another potential service offering that did make sense for this organization.
I was pleased because I originally introduced him to the company whose services he is representing to this agency - when I first met him by phone (he is a virtual associate, and subsequently I met him in person) -- I knew he might be a good fit with the service company, and sure enough, once he was more confident of what he really had to offer, and he persisted with his prospects, his big "elephant" deal came through.
One benefit of selling to government is that they had a year end deadline to meet in June - giving additional leverage to bring this opportunity to closure.
Next time you are in a room with other business professionals - think outside of the box - the people you meet may not be your prospects, but they could introduce you to them. If this has happened to you, pleas share your experience in the form of a comment.
