5 reasons why you might not be selling on G-Cloud

In our experience, and we have 80 years between us, there are 5 reasons why companies are not selling.

Here are 5 reasons why:

In this free expert advice piece, you will find out what are the most common pitfalls stopping suppliers from winning public sector business on G-Cloud.

After all, 786 companies have sold & 48% of them are SME’s. They are doing something right. And, so could you!

Find out if the problem lies in your:

• Sales Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Listing
• Lack of understanding G-Cloud
• Security accreditations

1) Sales Strategy

Time and time again we are asked by prospects ‘why am I not selling on G-Cloud?’ our reply is, “what have you done to make sales?” Have you attended public sector events, webinars, and seminars? Have you pushed your availability to government out through marketing campaigns? Do you have a dedicated sales person making enquires? Have you delved into and set your sights on particular departments/sectors?

If you haven’t done the above you shouldn’t be surprised you aren’t making any sales. Just being on G-Cloud isn’t enough to be successful in selling to government because there are 19609 other options. You are a needle in a haystack.

2) Marketing Strategy

Too often we find that we go on our client’s websites and don’t see any mention of G-Cloud or the service they are offering to government. Get your message out there and tell government you are open for business!

3) Listing

So, you’re on G-Cloud but you don’t know what’s going wrong? There are a few reasons why your listing could be holding you back:

You haven’t made the most of features and benefits  

We often see this, suppliers that were in such a rush to complete their G-Cloud application that they didn’t use up their 10 features or only included 5 slap dash benefits. Being limited by word counts can be frustrating but it is so important that you fill the space given to you and don’t repeat what is included in the body of the listing. Whilst it is great that you offer 24/7 webchat, that is covered later in user support so no need to repeat it in your features and benefits. Your features and benefits should be your snappy headlines about what is great and unique about your service. But be sure to avoid meaningless marketing fluff written to impress. Only use words that are widely used and that might just be search terms too.

Not uploading a Service Definition

For G-Cloud 9 it wasn’t mandatory for suppliers to upload a Service Definition so many didn’t. Not a wise choice in our experience, buyers are slow to adapt to change so to be in with a fighting chance upload a Service Definition. Here you have been given, without word restriction the chance to really drill down into the nitty gritty of your service offering, include case studies, client logos and a longer overview of your G-Cloud service. This is also where buyers look at how to take up your services, if your competitor has submitted their Service Definition and you haven’t, this might already knock you off the shortlist.

Not crafting your service listing with the buyer in mind

A common pitfall of unsuccessful suppliers is the way they have approached their listings, they haven’t crafted it with the buyer in mind. Here you really need to step into the shoes of the buyer and think if I were looking for my services what would I search for? Spend some time jotting down some killer keywords and have a search on the Digital Marketplace, see how many results you get and most importantly if you are within those results. One of the beauties of the Digital Marketplace is that it is publicly available information, use this to your advantage and check out what the competition is doing and find out where you’ve gone wrong.

4) Lack of understanding G-Cloud

If you don’t know how the framework works how are you supposed to educate a buyer? It is important to be able to effectively communicate the time and cost benefits of using G-Cloud. Make yourself an advocate of the framework and unlock its secrets! Attend the CCS G-Cloud buyers and supplier webinars, read the Digital Marketplace buyers and suppliers guides and take our G-Cloud Supplier Essentials course. The more informed you are about G-Cloud the more confidence you will instil in your buyers.

5) Security Accreditation

The research in our Best Practice guides revealed that 60% of successful SMEs were ISO27001 accredited and SME’s with a successful sales record were 50% more likely to be ISO27001 accredited than SME’s with no sales. Whilst you don’t have to have any security accreditations to be on G-Cloud they are good differentiators and may help you whittle your way onto a shortlist if you have them. If you are in front of a more cautious buyer who isn’t used to working with smaller providers, having ISO27001 could give them that sense of familiarity that they need to do business with you.

But if you’re a small company and don’t have the money or resources to dedicate to ISO27001, a good way to get a recognised security certification under your belt is to get Cyber Essentials certified. Cyber Essentials is not as comprehensive as ISO27001, but it does show that your organisation is accredited to a government endorsed standard. There were whispers that future iterations of G-Cloud would make Cyber Essentials mandatory so get ahead of the game…

Also with GDPR on the horizon it would pay to have demonstrable data protection processes in place ASAP.

Now you know the 5 most common reasons that stop suppliers making sales on G-Cloud and hopefully you now know what you can do to change your fate, but if you still need a helping hand get in touch.