From the American Express Study to The Usual Suspects and the Estimated Cost of Doing Government Business Amtower Delivers Powerful Insights

Besides referring to this current period in the above video as “one of the scariest times in recent memory” relative to being on the front lines of government procurement, Mark Amtower delivered a number of very interesting insights during this afternoon’s broadcast as he both explained and quantified the cost of pursuing business with the United States Government.

Centered on his new book “Selling To The Government: What It Takes To Win In The World’s Largest Market” the revelations provided through our discussion on today’s PI Window on Business were interesting to say the least.

During the 30 minute segment Mark provided more than just anecdotal references citing studies such as the one conducted by American Express which found that on average it takes 19 1/2 months from the time a small or even larger supplier begins their efforts to win a contract to actually generating revenue at an annual cost of $89,000. Now Mark stressed that this isn’t all out of pocket expenses, but includes time and related resources however, the investment is nonetheless real and significant. In fact so much so that being a small company in today’s market, Amtower and Associates would not likely chose to pursue government business based on these figures.

This is of course is one of the reasons why he wrote the book, as a means of guiding or navigating a prospective supplier through what he called the “convoluted and complex U.S. government market.”

Other interesting points that Amtower raised during the broadcast included his confirmation that little has changed over the years relative to the majority of government business being done with just 20 companies or the firms he called the “Usual Suspects.” Ironically, he also mentioned that just 10% of all money spent actually goes through the GSA contracts . . . just 10%! SO through what vehicles is the remaining 90% being directed.

Besides tuning into the actual show (Selling to the Government: Competing in the World’s Largest Market), the answers to these as well as other questions are available through . . . you guessed it – Mark’s book.

30