Selling to government starts before the tender

Look beyond the tenders that are live today

For a smaller business, selling to the public sector can look like a race to respond to published tenders. Linda Striano, Head of Customer Success at Stotles, suggests starting much earlier.

In her DigiGov interview with HIKOMORE, Linda describes Stotles as a platform for teams looking to find and pursue public sector opportunities. Her advice for smaller suppliers is to look at contracts approaching expiry, potentially 18 or 24 months ahead, and build those opportunities into a pipeline.

That time creates space to understand buyers, make relevant contacts and learn where the business’s offer could fit. The point is preparation before a tender arrives, rather than relying entirely on a deadline-driven response.

Finding an opportunity is only part of the work

Linda describes a journey from searches and opportunity alerts to deciding whether to bid and bringing the necessary information together. She also explains the role of customer success support, tailored to what a team is trying to achieve.

The Stotles website presents market intelligence, buyer research and bid management within its public sector sales workspace. Those are the company’s descriptions of its offer; the interview’s more useful lesson is how a business organises the work around it.

Asked about success rates, Linda avoids giving one percentage for smaller businesses. An established public sector supplier and a company entering the market for the first time are starting from different positions. It is a helpful reminder to judge an opportunity against your own experience and readiness.

A tool is not a strategy

Linda’s closing advice is direct: plan how to approach the public sector. Longer sales cycles make early networking, contacts and outreach important.

For HIKOMORE, the takeaway is operational. Before adding another platform, decide who will research buyers, maintain the pipeline and assess whether each bid is worth pursuing. Software can support those decisions; the team still needs to make them.