For a business that wants to work with the government, one of the biggest hurdles is getting a contract. Whether it’s for building roads, creating software, or supplying goods or services, the government contract process can be a daunting task. Add on top the added stress of sales, lead management, and marketing, and it’s easy to see why most vendors struggle to scale their business. Fortunately, businesses can use modern customer relationship management (CRM) systems to handle much of the work. In this article, we’ll cover how what to look for when choosing a CRM for government contractors.
Before we begin, however, why use a CRM? Because well-built customer management software can help government contractors do the following:
- Grow their business with existing customers
- Win contracts from targeted accounts and agencies
- Identify and add more potential opportunities into their pipeline
- Bid on and win larger and more profitable contracts
CRM for Government Contractors: Traditional GovCon CRM Needs
1. Integration with 3rd Party Business Development Applications:
GovCon contractors use various business development tools such as Deltek GovWin IQ, FBO, SAM, etc., to stay ahead of their competition. Therefore, it’s can be beneficial to have a CRM system that can integrate with third-party applications to feed data and insights into the CRM. Deltek CRM, for instance, offers a unique ability to integrate with GovWin IQ and capture leads, relevant documents, and opportunity data automatically.
2. Campaign Management:
Successful GovCon marketing and business development strategies involve launching awareness campaigns and running targeted marketing campaigns to engage customers, capture customer data, and move prospects further down the acquisition cycle. Therefore, a CRM system that offers campaign management functionality is essential. Campaign management may include task management, segmented outreach, and drip marketing tools to manage the lead acquisition and nurturing process.
3. Account Management
GovCon contractors need to manage various accounts such as government agencies, customers, partners, and vendors to successfully manage their business operations and delivery. Account management allows contractors to record customer interactions, communications, account plans, and other critical relationship data that can help guide proposal development and customer acquisition strategies.
4. Contact Management
Every organization has to deal with a significant number of contacts, from potential customers to vendors and suppliers. Contact management may include contact details, contact history, and customer segmentation tools to manage data quality and accuracy.
5. Opportunity Management – Multiple Sales Processes
Opportunity management is a critical aspect of GovCon business operations and requires an effective CRM system to manage and track the opportunity status. Multiple sales processes may apply to different types of GovCon opportunities, from CPFF to FFP. Opportunity management may also include forecasting tools, and pipeline management to help capture and report on opportunity data accurately.
6. Resource Management
Managing resources such as skills, staff, and subcontractors, is critical for successful GovCon operations. Resource management may include skills tracking, assignment management, and resource allocation tools to make sure the right resources are available at the right time.
7. Contract Management
Effective contract management is critical to the success of GovCon contractors. A CRM system that offers contract management capabilities can help manage contract data, deliverables, and contract modifications. Contract Management may include features like contract history, contract task management, contract compliance tracking, and contract deliverable monitoring.
8. Activity Management
Activity management is critical to GovCon companies, as government agencies demand accurate data on project milestones, resources, and deliverables. Therefore, an effective CRM system must have an activity management tool that helps track and manage all the activities related to customer and contract management. Activity management may also include workflows, notifications, and follow-ups to ensure that key activities are completed on time.
9. Document Management
Most GovCon contracts require significant documentation, from executive summaries to technical data packages, to ensure that companies can deliver on their promises. Document management may include document versioning, document control, document sharing, and document approval workflows.
10. Mobile
With GovCon companies working on multiple projects, a CRM system that supports mobile devices is critical to the delivery of projects. Sales teams need access to opportunity data on the go, project managers need to access project status, and field staff needs to update contact data while on the road. Therefore, a CRM system must have mobile app features that offer data security, offline access, and ease of use for all team members.
11. Outlook/Gmail Integration
A CRM system that integrates with these email clients can help capture email threads, customer data, and other relevant communication data to improve customer visibility.
12. Reporting
As with any business operation, GovCon companies need to track and measure their performance against established goals. Therefore, a CRM system that offers reporting functionality can yield invaluable insights. Reporting may include customizable dashboards, data visualization options, and customer analytics tools that can help inform business decisions and make changes to process improvement strategies.
On top of all this, the CRM must be easy to use and learn, allow the team to communicate with one another, and be able to store data on the cloud. That’s a tall order! And with over 4000+ CRM systems on the market, it’s no wonder that many businesses end up either suffering from analysis paralysis or choosing the wrong one for their needs.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you learned something about what to look for when choosing a CRM for government contractors. And just in case you were wondering, at DIGITALSPEC Technologies, we use SalezShark CRM. We find it meets many of our requirements as listed above while being easy to use and providing 24/7 customer service, which has been extremely useful when teaching new employees.
