One of the toughest customers to crack B2B: public sector | marketing practice | open microphone

In terms of digital experience, there is a clear difference between the expectations of ordinary people and the capabilities of traditional government infrastructure; this gap becomes more pronounced during a pandemic.

For a company whose core claim is a cloud platform that simplifies digital workflows, the public sector should be fertile ground, then? Well, yes and no.

Before you start marketing to public sector buyers, you need to understand the complexity of central and local government organizations, which may have Kafka-like complexity. You need to talk to them in language that reflects their unique terminology and present your solution in their specific context. And your argument must be convincing: you may face change resistance from potential customers responsible for the smooth operation of key services, which is understandable.

I asked Rubert Rietkerk, Customer Marketing Manager of ServiceNow, to talk to us about how he and The Marketing Practice (TMP) team solved this particular problem to create opportunities in the public sector.

What are the triggers for adopting new methods in your public sector marketing?

Our existing marketing strategy — which works well in other industries — does not generate the quantity and quality of opportunities we need within government agencies. It is difficult for senior decision makers to determine, and even more difficult to reach and persuade. Our marketing and sales teams realize that to have a significant impact on the number and quality of opportunities, we need to start using government language. More importantly, we must convince CIOs, senior civil servants and digital directors of various ministries that ServiceNow is not just an IT service desk provider, but a reliable partner who fully understands their challenges and aspirations.

How did you start?

I think it’s always worthwhile to start small, refine your method, and then promote it more widely. Therefore, in this case, we started with a pilot focused on Norway.

Our marketing team works with TMP to select sales personnel based on their knowledge of the goals of the Norwegian central government. They then studied the structure of various institutions and ongoing initiatives around digital transformation and civic experience.

The messaging room was created to map ServiceNow’s products to the Norwegian government’s policy goals. We have a limited budget for this activity, so we make full use of existing assets; in terms of information transfer, terminology, and case studies, we must make them specific to the content of the relevant government department.

How do you start a dialogue with decision makers in the public sector?

It starts with a detailed data structure to ensure that we can reach all relevant stakeholders. The customer team sends a LinkedIn connection request to initiate the communication process.

The content is consistent with the “discovery”, “exploration” and “proof” phases of the purchase process. We established our credibility in the early stage through regional government case studies and introductions to the sales team. In the “exploration” phase, we mapped typical life events (such as starting a business or moving to Norway) to show how ServiceNow supports digital experiences. On the “proof” end of the scope, we demonstrated the role that our platform can play in the digital transformation of the central government. Virtual events with the theme of civic experience are used as calls to action in communications. Everything is made in Norwegian and uses terms familiar to our potential customers.

Our outbound email and InMail are supported by sales development representatives (SDR) one-on-one outreach and follow-up. The marketing department talks with the SDR team on the phone every two weeks to review the results, provide new customer intelligence, and customize methods.

When did you realize that the strategy started to work?

Because we use a customized landing page with built-in analytics to host our content, we can quickly see that some influential decision makers are interacting with the content we share. This information also supports the event because sales development representatives use it to prioritize their outreach and select topics to lead.

As with any marketing and sales activity, the ultimate measure is whether meetings, opportunities, and completed transactions pass. So far, we have held 14 meetings with senior policymakers and raised US$1.85 million from the Norwegian pilot and the subsequent Belgian election campaign. Our return on marketing investment was 1,714%. The success of the plan means that it is now being rolled out to four other countries in the region.

Thanks to Rubert for sharing the reasons that made this program successful. I think the most interesting thing is that this approach is open to any B2B business-it does not rely on any unusual technology or skills. It does require time and resources for diligent research, database management, and mapping content to the goals of potential customers. And, perhaps most importantly, trust and information sharing between marketing and sales teams, these two functions work together to maximize the likelihood of success.