“The government market is so enormous, there really is no excuse for not targeting.” I said that in a recent podcast…and when I heard it played back to me I realized it sounds a bit judgy. Sorry for that.
My intent was not call people out for not targeting, so much as it was to call people out who know they should be targeting, but still don’t. Targeting is hard. It’s hard to say no to opportunities. To see the fish swim right past the boat and not take a swipe at them with your net.
Chasing lots of opportunities feels like we’re making progress. It feels productive. Since activity does not equal productivity, we need to find ways to tell the difference.
Before we get to the specific ways to dig deeper and deeper into targeting, we first much start by embracing the mindset of abundance. While “mindset” sounds foo-foo and hokey, having a mindset of abundance is the first place to start to be able to target so effectively, so ruthless and without prejudice that we can turn down a six-figure contract because we know, in the end, the value is much less than the large revenue bump it would give us.
What does abundance mean? The book answer is “an extremely plentiful or over-sufficient quantity or supply.” In the context of the government market, it means there is always another opportunity. There is always more than you can chase. Watch the “Target or Forget It” webinar or listen to a few of our targeting podcasts and you’ll see how to find those opportunities.
The volume of opportunities shows that scarcity is illogical. Seeing the raw number of contracts, contractors, task or delivery orders, RFIs, RFPs and so on shows that the challenge will never be running out of options to chase…it will always be picking the right ones.
Once you embrace a mindset of abundance, you’ll stop chasing the wrong things because you know there are more right things than you could ever chase.
Example: most Skyway members don’t have more than a dozen contracts. Embrace abundance and let the average or even good ones go. Focus on the few, the perfect few.