Making a sales call does not constitute effective marketing. What this guideline is really saying is that you must achieve the first major milestone of winning before the RFP is issued. This milestone will eventually put your proposal into the winner's circle. The marketing techniques you use should be integral to your strategy for winning contracts and growing your business. Making a brilliant presentation and leaving copies of your brochure behind is not effective marketing and is, most likely, a waste of your time and money. Train your staff in the Three Objectives of government marketing and make every contact with a prospective customer another successful step in winning new contracts.

Consider the outlines of two marketing reports by different firms to the same potential customer:


Firm A, using the Three Objectives, made a marketing/sales call and never presented any information about their firm other than business cards. Firm B made a Power Point presentation (with the latest technology) describing the experience and capabilities of their firm. You decide which firm is on a path that leads to a winning proposal.

But, if you are considering preparing a proposal and you have not marketed the prospective customer before the RFP was issued, just understand that one or more of your competitors has a huge head start and advantage over you. If you are to win, you must have a phenomenal strategy to overcome this very large disadvantage.