8 ingredients to fire up your sales pitch

Having a track record that can be tailored to a new contract opportunity is a plus when trying to sell a service or solution to a federal agency, said Paul Strasser, chief operating officer at Pragmatics Inc.

Whatever you’re going after, “you have to back it up with past performance and references,” he said. “You have to add value, and you have to show where it will add value.”

Strasser said effective sales pitches include snapshots of past performances that have solved problems the contracting agency also is seeking to solve. Those pitches might include:

• Capability Maturity Model Integration level metrics.
• ISO 20000 certification.
• Defect reduction rates.
• Time to delivery.
• Code production efficiency.
• Ticket closure rates.
• First call resolution data.
• Meeting or exceeding service-level agreements.

“They portray a powerful story that they really resonate with real proof and real metrics,” Strasser said.