Monday, a good start!

I was worried about what Monday would bring. Actually I have reserved most of the day for the presentation I was going to participate in, the name: Small and Midsize Business Partner Forum - Finding Revenue Opportunities in the Public Sector.
before that event I have been listening to the great presentation from 2 PAL members, Kim Walker and Oliver Kiel. I have to say that they convinced me that selling licenses is a good alternative. Let me elaborate the topic a bit more:
B4Contact, the name of the company where I work, is not a big fan of selling licenses. Even we make it when needed we are not focused on increasing sales of it. Why? because we are focused on selling our SharePoint Simple CMS solution and related services. So, how come that now I think selling licenses is a good opportunity? Well it is simple, licensing is one more reason for your customers to establish a relationship with your company. Most customers like to receive IT services from one provider instead of many. That is because customers like to establish a "trust" with providers capable of helping them.
That means that I could be selling SharePoint services to customers that started a business relationship with us because they needed new licensees. And of course that business brings other kind of benefits like more revenue, more support and credit from Microsoft.
Here a couple of pictures from Kim's presentation:



But what about my presentation? Well, I have no pictures of it but I can share with you the conclusion of it:
Making business in the public sector is not as difficult as it looks. All the members of the panel had the same experience and no matter from which country they come. In all the cases the recipe is the same: Award the success achieved with your customers, find the "hero" within and help them to share their experience.
All the presenters experienced a huge growth in their business, in some cases of 80% per year! It happens because the communication within the public sector works better than in the private sector (where most of the persons are in "defensive" mode against competition).
My part of the presentation was focused on the success we are getting in the education sector in Slovenia. And the most important from it can be summarized in the following points:

1. It is not a problem if you run a small business. If you have something to offer to the public sector don't be afraid.
2. Find partners that could help you. Microsoft is a good alternative because of the Partners In Learning initiative and their many citizenship initiatives.
3. Concentrate in making your customers feel special! Most of them are tired and bored of bad or low quality trainings and events organized by Ministries or other public organizations.
4. If you are a European based business check for your local EUGA representative and get to know how can they help you to participate in tenders.
   

Please feel free to contact me if you have some question regarding the topic. I will be very glad to contribute.