About 70% of our revenue comes from the federal government, including cleared work. We specialize in this space and have customers across a half-dozen or more agencies.
The sales cycles can still be pretty long, but mostly for IDIQ's with $30M+ ceilings. We've received small $500k contracts that took over 9 months to award and, on the other hand, $3M+ contracts that took just a month.
A lot depends on the department/agency, and even organizations within the department/agency. It varies so widely but the key is getting to know your customer and anticipating the cycle. Relationships are absolutely crucial to getting government sales - the boilerplate they put out as RFP's hardly ever tell the full story of what the customer needs.
Also, leverage your set-asides and find reputable partners to team with. Can't stress this enough - it's the only way to compete against the behemoths in the market who have far more name recognition amongst contracting officers (who can be extremely risk averse). If the government isn't your target market, you can start winning work as a subcontractor and working your way up the ladder, getting to know your program manager customers who make the purchase decisions.
The sales cycles can still be pretty long, but mostly for IDIQ's with $30M+ ceilings. We've received small $500k contracts that took over 9 months to award and, on the other hand, $3M+ contracts that took just a month.
A lot depends on the department/agency, and even organizations within the department/agency. It varies so widely but the key is getting to know your customer and anticipating the cycle. Relationships are absolutely crucial to getting government sales - the boilerplate they put out as RFP's hardly ever tell the full story of what the customer needs.
Also, leverage your set-asides and find reputable partners to team with. Can't stress this enough - it's the only way to compete against the behemoths in the market who have far more name recognition amongst contracting officers (who can be extremely risk averse). If the government isn't your target market, you can start winning work as a subcontractor and working your way up the ladder, getting to know your program manager customers who make the purchase decisions.
Two books I recommend as well - http://www.apress.com/9781430244974 and http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Billion-Entrepreneurs-Government-...