Collateral

Collateral is 99% credibility 1% informative

• Prospective partners and customers want to say no to you: Prospective customers and partners are incentivized to tell you no. Or really, they won’t tell you no, they will nod politely, take your card and then never follow up and never take a meeting. So our goal is to quickly communicate that:
  • We are not a risk
  • We have something valuable to offer
• Marketing Collateral: And our marketing collateral is there to convey these messages.

Your core pieces of marketing collateral:

• Your elevator pitch: your 30 second summary of what you do, and why you are better than the competition
• Your business card: The classic business card with some extra federal market specific information
• Your capability statement: Your company’s resume. It has key information about what you can do:
  • Your product and service lines
  • Your past customers
  • Information about you and your team
• Your website, LinkedIn page, and DSBS: These are all basically digital capability statements

Your collaterals’ key message: We are not risky

• People are going to decide whether you are credible before they read your capability statement, and possibly before they hear your full elevator pitch. So you need to convey credibility fast:
  • Confidently deliver your elevator pitch
  • Handout a business card and capability statement that look professional
  • Speak about concrete pieces of work you’ve done rather than generalities
  • Have all of your infrastructure in place (website, registrations, etc)

Your collaterals’ second message: We can do something

• You may be credible, but if they don’t need your product or service no amount of schmoozing is going to help you make a sale so make sure that your collateral:
  • Makes it very clear what you do
  • Gives concrete examples of previous projects you’ve done
  • Tells people why your approach is better than the vendor they are using today
• Help people decide whether they could work with you quickly