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The Amtower ReportVolume 5, #24, June 26, 2006(The Amtower Report is an e-journal on the Business-to-Government market featuring the opinions of Mark Amtower, and occasionally reader comments. This newsletter is only sent to those who request it. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.FederalDirect.net and if you like this newsletter, please pass it along to your colleagues. To unsubscribe, see directions below. The newsletter is posted each Monday at www.FederalDirect.net, and the latest “Off-Center Observations” is on the home page. All back issues available at http://www.federaldirect.net/newsletterarchives.html)
Item: The question has been raised why I have asked some people who seem to be competitors (Susan Milich last week, Fred Diamond today) to contribute to this newsletter. The first reason is that I like and respect these people. The second is that I offer advice – I do not put programs together. These people put together very effective programs. Item: Ga-Ga over Google. The recent Google announcement of their government search tool, is, for those who read my book – old news. www.Google.com/unclesam has offered this same service for years. Item: Yes, that is yours truly in the latest issue of Entrepreneur magazine. Item: GTSI-North, er, I mean EyakTek, has won the Small Business partner of the year award from Treasury. Senator Stevens must be so proud of how successful the ANC program is. Item: I am interested in any and all feedback on the IBM radio and TV ads that have been running. Do these make sense to anyone? Item: As much as I would like to continue discussing recent snafus in our own trade press, did anyone notice the New York Times article Sunday June 18?: Former Anti-terror Officials Find Industry Pays Better. Apparently after deciding plagiarism is bad PR, the NYT has opted for the tabloid approach to journalism, at least when covering government. In an exhaustive (for us, not them) piece of journalistic haggis, reporter Eric Lipton found that DHS officials leave government service in droves to go to work for private industry that sells to government. If Mr Lipton ever visited DC, he would understand the perpetual revolving door between appointees, K Street and Industry is not news (that is not an endorsement of that behavior, but a simple fact). Mr Lipton, operating on an obviously pre-mediated conclusion, feels that this is due to greed and avarice which is caused by major loopholes exploited by former feds. And I am shocked to find gambling at Ricks. My points: first, most of those Mr Lipton references are appointees, not careerists. Amtower Solution – do away with 7,000 of the 7,500 Plum jobs – presidential appointees. Add a four year ban for working with ANY government contractors and their lawyers and lobbyists for ANY presidential appointee. Some of those mentioned in the article were career Feds, and many of these left government service not so much for the jobs outside, but because they have been frustrated in their jobs by the mis-management of these appointees. Are there problems, loopholes and serious ethical breaches? Yes. Will they be addressed by incomplete, sensationalistic journalism from the NYT? Not likely, but NYT could exacerbate the situation by offering myopic articles as the complete picture. Discussing one surface issue without understanding the culture and the root causes is nothing short of sensationalism. NYT – all the news that is designed to fit in our pre-determined assumptions. Not that I have an opinion.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY: END OF FY End of FY advice from my friend Fred Diamond as we approach busy season. As the end of year quickly draws near, there are still a couple of things your company can do to pick up some odds and ends business. Presumably, your sales and marketing efforts have been priming the pump, so to speak, for the past 24 months to take advantage of last minute sales opportunities. We still see a lot of business closing in September, even though buying has evened out a bit throughout the year. Here are three things you might consider to take get some of the loose change that might be available to you. Bring Unusual Offers to Existing Customers Emphasis here is on existing customers. Go back to the top base of customers 25% more frequently with items that your customer might not expect from you. This might work well for a vendor partner or product line that you're looking to possibly grow in the coming year. If you have a customer that buys a lot of networking gear from you, offer some deals on products out of the norm such as color printers or security software. Get Back on the Phones Everyone should be on the phones at this point and call frequency should be up at least 25% over June and May. At one client, we put a call volume contest in place specifically to drive number of outbound calls. All calls were made to either A or B level accounts. "A" calls went to the top 25 existing accounts, which made up the top 25% of the business and nearly 100 "B" accounts which made up the next 25%. We set up times when everyone made calls and measured the activity. Bring in Lunch and Dinner For 6 weeks, bring in lunch and dinner for the team. Helps maximize focus and keeps everyone targeted on the mission at hand, which is to not let any business slip through the cracks. Doesn't have to be fancy, but should probably mix in some healthier fare to go with the extra cheese pizza and greasy take out Chinese. Fred Diamond
EVENTS WORTH ATTENDING Beware of the schlock vendors, producing minimal value events, events that eat your money with no significant return! The events listed below are among those I think are worth your time, money and effort. Just because an event is not listed below does not imply it is not worth attending. If you want my opinion on a specific event or producer, call me. This topic is addressed more thoroughly in the members section at www.GovernmentMarketingBestPractices.com. June 26-28, 2006, RIO Symposium (formerly U.S. ACE DIM/CIM), Miami, Florida June 27-30, 2006: 7th Annual Dept of Energy Small Business Conference, Seattle, WA June 28, 2006, U.S. Department of Transportation/FAA IA Training and Workshop Washington, District of Columbia June 29, 2006, U.S. Department of Transportation/FAA IA Training and Workshop Washington, District of Columbia July 6, GSA Federal Technology Day – NY, Javits Bldg, July 18-19 FBI Information Security Officer Training Symposium
The Amtower Marketing Report Monday 5-6 PM on WBIS 1190 AM (Annapolis Md, simulcast on www.WBIS1190.com ). Amtower on Success airs Wednesdays from 9-10 AM and will be archived at www.FederalDirect.com *** Thanks The Amtower Report is published by Amtower & Company, and is written for companies targeting the government marketplace. The opinions expressed are those of Mark Amtower unless otherwise noted. Contact us at Amtower & Company, PO Box 314, Highland, MD 20777-0314 (301-924-0058). This material is copyrighted and may not be duplicated, reprinted or otherwise replicated without written permission of the publisher. Email subscriptions are free by request: sign up at www.FederalDirect.net |
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