(#12) Storytelling in Federal Contracting (Simple Tips & Lessons Learned selling for IT firms)

Two British political rivals had dinner with the same woman on separate occasions. The lady was Winston Churchill’s mother, who later compared the two experiences writing: "when I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England”.

Everyone wants to be appreciated. Gladstone was smart, talked about himself and created a great impression. Disraeli was smarter, talked about his guest, and created a great connection.

Talking about yourself does not make a connection with your federal prospects. One of the major problems companies have in their proposals, capability statements, websites, and in most of their verbal and written communications is to endlessly talk about themselves. To exacerbate the problem, sometimes they keep talking about themselves highlighting they are a “customer-focused” company. 

Is this bad? Well, it is not effective, because individuals reading this material find it self-centered, boring, or easy to forget. But can you really avoid talking about yourself when you are trying to sell yourself? How can you NOT talk about your solutions when you are selling your solutions? 

Enter storytelling. The storytelling system would allow you to talk about yourself but in a different way. Storytelling has become a huge part of the government contracting marketing toolkit. But there is confusion as well since the concept can be misrepresented or misused.

Stories are more memorable than most other forms of communication. Some characteristics of stories and how to apply them in federal contracting include:

·      Identify and keep in mind the right elements of a story. Like in any action or adventure movie you can imagine right now, the elements include the hero, the bad guys, the challenge, the mentor, the plan, the training, the fight, and finally, the successful outcome.

·      Think of your customer as the hero who is able to achieve or help achieve the agency’s mission.

·      Think of your company as the mentor, helping the hero to succeed, with a plan, training, advice: your solutions.

·      Think of your customers’ requirements, problems and goals as the movie’s bad guys and challenges. In technology these can be systems that go down, networks that are compromised, data that can’t be understood or leveraged, systems that can’t adapt to business needs, high risks, high costs, lack of control, etc.

Apply these principles to all your written and verbal communications, and they will gain more impact.

For example, the “About Us” sections of the websites usually read “Company X is a federal contractor providing (services), located at (place), etc.”. Some of that information is so basic that needs to stay. Just don’t lead with it. A story presented in the About Us section of your website could be a meaningful actual story that exemplifies the spirit of your company. Maybe you were a witness to your hero (the customer) facing a big challenge. Your customer realized that she had a big problem/opportunity, and that she was responsible to find a solution. This is the “call to action” in a movie, when the main character realized the time for action is now and there is no more delaying. Explain how your company mentored the hero, and she finally succeeded. And later you relate how and why you started your company to help other customers succeed as well.  

In a brochure, describe your services with your customers in a central role. Make your customers characters you are able to help with your mentoring. For example: “Federal leaders need to make decisions involving the most important missions of government like health, security, transportation, and defense. (Your company name) helps our customers deliver the right solutions using all the available data. We convert structure and unstructured data into information that federal leadership uses to make informed decisions”. Then you can elaborate on the services, but you already put your customer at the center of the story.

When describing your services in an oral presentation or in the technical volume of your proposal, the same principles apply. There is no need to start all sentences with "we" or center everything on your firm or solution. You are not the hero when trying to sell your services, the customer is.

Lady Churchill had a good impression of Mr. Gladstone, but she made a great connection with Mr. Disraeli. In a relationship-driven market, which one you rather have?