The Amtower B2G Market Report

The Amtower B2G Market Report
Volume 3, #20, May 17, 2004

(Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.FederalDirect.net and if you like this, please pass this along to your colleagues. To unsubscribe, email me at amtower@erols.com). Past issues available at http://www.federaldirect.net/newsletterarchives.html)

In this issue…
1) Amtower Off-Center Observations
2) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Frontal Assault
3) Events
4) One-Minute Marketing Clinic: Other eNewsletters I Read

AMTOWER OFF-CENTER OBSERVATIONS

Item: It never fails. As soon as a Road Show ends (I was in San Jose, San Antonio, Denver and Chicago in April doing Government Marketing Best Practices), I get calls and emails from these cities asking when my seminar will be in that town. The good news is at least they are asking, and there is one more live session in Virginia on May 26. The better news is we will be taping the May 26 session and archiving it for those that have been unable to attend. Then we will web-cast the first Fall show from the Tower Club. This will not preclude a Fall Road Show, but it will limit the Fall event to cities which we know have a good attendance record.

Item: Government Computer News received a slot in the “Media Power 50”, representing what the B2B editors and reporters find to be the most influential business publications. GCN is one of six IT publications (the others are Baseline, CIO, ComputerWorld, CRN and InformationWeek). For the complete list, go to www.btobonline.com. For those not familiar with B2B, it is a very good business marketing publication, my personal favorite.

Item: Market Connections annual Federal Marketing Report is out and it is really valuable. Level the playing field with the 2004 Federal IT Marketing Report. Get the information used by your competitors...Download a FREE Executive Summary of the Report Now! www.marketconnectinc.com/win.

Item: Inquiries that come in regularly always include the GSA Schedule vendors with a common question: I have a GSA Schedule and we are not making much/any money from it. How can you help?

Regardless of what is sold, my initial response is always the same: what are you doing specifically to promote your company to the government? How are you identifying and targeting the buying clusters most appropriate for your product or service? If you want an immediate or quick fix, there is no such thing. If you need assistance, I can help. This is an incremental market and if you are not here for the long haul, with the right skills, you might as well leave now.

Maximizing your presence in any niche in the government market requires knowledge, patience, execution, then more of the same.
Not that I have an opinion.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: FRONTAL ASSAULT

Recent issues of Business Week have addressed the pending IBM Workplace vs Microsoft Office wars. IBM will be targeting the business users with Workplace, and leave the at-home user alone. Only another corporate giant could seriously launch a frontal assault against Microsoft. This will be fun to watch. It is important to us as IBM has chosen the office environment. And for both companies, the government office environment is huge. The fallout will be felt by all of the government channel players: integrators, resellers, developers and others.

Of the several types of marketing warfare, the frontal attack is usually the most difficult. First, it requires a true weakness in the entrenched opponent. Entrenched positions are hard to unseat (people hate to change), so the weakness has to be there, and it has to cause pain. The attacker has to be able to substantiate the weakness (in the mind of the buyer) and offer a replacement that makes change desirable, even necessary. Substantiating the claim leads to the second requirement.

The attacker has to be able to sustain the attack. The duration of a successful assault is almost always longer than anticipated.

IBM has an opponent in Microsoft that is truly dominant, but Microsoft has exploitable weaknesses. It is not universally loved and its programs are full of bugs. If IBM offers a strong alternative to MS Office, Big Blue could return to its previous glory years. IBM also has the bankroll to sustain the attack.

But do they have the will to sustain what promises to be a long battle? When IBM bought Lotus, they showed little enthusiasm for the long battle necessary to unseat Microsoft. This is a topic we will visit often.

EVENTS

GOVERNMENT MARKETING BEST PRACTICES – May 26, 7:30-11:00 AM, Tower Club, Vienna, VA
Info at www.FederalDirect.net/bestpractices2004.html

FEDERAL CHANNELS: Selling and Marketing to the Government

Date: July 19, 2004
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Location: Fairview Park Marriott, Falls Church, VA

The Federal Marketplace has undergone significant change in the past few years. Federal Channels 2004 will feature sessions on the most recent changes to the federal business environment and the best methods for using those changes to your advantage.

This is a really good informational and networking event, with something for people of any skill level, novices and professionals alike. The FBC staff spends lots of time putting together a good program, and they have some great presenters.

Sessions will include presentations covering the following 3 key areas.
1.Agency Focus - The Federal Landscape
2.Gaining Entry and Access Methodology
3.Procurement and Contracting
See full details at
http://www.fbcinc.com/federalchannels/default.asp

ONE-MINUTE MARKETING CLINIC: OTHER ENEWSLETTERS I READ

As a marketing professional, I try to stay current with what works anywhere, then apply it to government marketing when it makes sense. So here is a quick review of things I read.

Deb Weil’s WordBiz Report, free at www.wordbiz.com. Debbie is a friend, member of my client Board of Advisors, and she writes a great, informative free e-newsletter on the business of writing for the web: blogs, e-newsletters, and web content. I am co-sponsoring her upcoming Business Blogging seminar on June 30. She was also interviewed in the latest BtoB, referenced in Off Center Observations.

Federal Market Updates from the Immix Group (www.immixgroup.com) is a very thought provoking e-newsletter on the business of selling to the government. Steve Charles column is always worth reading and keeping for future referal.

CapITal Reps (www.capitalreps.com) weekly news wrap is a good capsule of what went on in the government information tech universe. Especially useful for those who do not have time to read all the other publications, as Richard Mackey links to several of the weeks most pertinent articles.

www.MarketingSherpa.com has a very good B2B e-enewsletter.

**

As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Mark Amtower

The Amtower B2G Market Report is published and copyrighted by Amtower & Company. It combines our former newsletters into a single, bi-weekly newsletter for companies targeting the government marketplace. Contact us at Amtower & Company, PO Box 339, Ashton, MD 20861-0339 (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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