Book Review: "Selling to the Government" by Mark Amtower

It is my great pleasure to review a new book by Mark Amtower, a widely acclaimed thought leader in marketing to the government, a well-recognized author, popular magazine columnist, and a show host on Federal News Radio. I have had a privilege of knowing Mark in part through his active participation in the Federal IT Group.

Having worked on the frontlines of government management and IT consulting for nearly a decade, I found Mark's work to be an excellent resource on how to build up robust sales capabilities in this market while utilizing your existing hands-on expertise. An easy read, the book effectively captures the essentials of what one needs to know about positioning your business, forming the critical alliances, and developing a reliable, long-lasting infrastructure - something that seasoned business development professionals would undoubtedly benefit from refreshing upon, as well. Unlike many other "selling to the government" coaches that tend to overtly focus on the "selling" side of things, Mark also goes to great lengths to make his readers get a firm grasp of the playing field by helping understand the tangled web of federal contracting regulations and practices.

The book has "practicality" spelled all over it - it is filled with "stories from the trenches" and truly actionable advice. Those pressed for time will find the to-do lists at the end of each chapter particularly useful in that they conveniently summarize the major points raised and help one assess whether reading the entire chapter is worth its while.

A segment of the Federal IT Group that Mark's work would especially appeal to is small businesses executives. With the newly released Office of Management and Budget 25-point IT Management Reform Plan calling for reducing the barriers of entry for small innovative technology companies, the discussion on navigating the basic small programs, targeting new opportunities, researching the existing contracts and competitors, and building the key relationships could not come at a better time.

One of the overarching themes of this book, as well as the focus of an entire chapter titled "The Missing Link", is making sense and, more importantly, extracting true value out of social networks, blogs, wikis, and other Web 2.0 tools of trade, with a large section being devoted to a medium that brought our group together - LinkedIn. A point, which Mark consistently reinforces throughout the book (and offers a number of practical suggestions around), is: "If your company is not approaching social networking in a focused way, developing an overall strategy, and using the necessary tactics to meet the strategic goals, you are falling behind quickly. Developing a social media strategy is no longer an option for any company."

As a final word, Mark Amtower's book is not (and does not pretend to be) a one-stop shop for all the knowledge necessary to sell to the government. It is, rather, an innovative gateway, designed by a trusted expert in the field, to discovering what it really takes to make inroads in this highly complex yet highly lucrative market and succeed through continuous learning. I highly recommend it to the entire government contractor community.

http://www.amazon.com/Selling-Government-Compete-Worlds-Largest/dp/047088133X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292811555&sr=8-1