#Government Sales
Totohealth, a Kenyan startup providing pregnancy monitoring via SMS in 6 counties across Kenya learned the hard way how tricky government sales can be. The short version they explained was simply
“There’s a lot of nos before you get a yes.”
They explained their strategy for government sales as being connnected with four principles.
##Let Them Introduce Themselves
This was a great hack Totohealth developed. They let the client introduce themselves first, that way they can get an idea of what the client wants before they begin their pitch and can modify it.
“We also had an example in Turkana, over time you learn how to do things. We used to present before the county tells us what they want. Over time we learned to let them introduce themselves first, then take our pitch to suit them. You have the same slides but you focus on different things.”
-Felix Kimaru
But bigger than that small strategy was the idea that their pitches should be tailored to the specific goals of the government they were talking to.
In Kenya, they made their pitch about achieving that country’s MGDs (Mellenium Development Goals):
“We speak to them about their problems and how we will solve them. For example, Kenya did not achieve their MGDs, we went to them about how they can achieve them. We told them if you get all parents on board you will improve on your health indicators. Think about the end user, what problems are they facing, speak about that.”
In the Kenyan county of Machakos, they focused their pitch on better utilizing the hospitals and ambulances the county already had:
“For example, we went to Machakos, it’s a very progressive county, we realized that even though they had all these ambulences, mothers were not delivering in hospitals. They had a call center but they weren’t talking to each other, but by using us, we knew when mothers were due and could pick them up from the villages. For them what was most important was getting mothers to deliver in hospitals. Then it was easy to say by the way we also do these other things. As long as you speak to their objective it’s easy for them to want you to be part of what they want to achieve.”
Tailoring their pitches like this made it easier for governments to say yes.
##Stay Honest
Totohealth also learned that their reputation was critical when it came to selling to governments.
“If you’re not clear about that, for example if we become corrupt in one county you have to be corrupt everywhere else because they all meet.”
“There’s a thin line. If we pitch to you as the minster of health for a county, they say ‘this is awesome but for me to approve I need something’. That’s when we start on different paths, then it’s about what we can give you, you approve the budget and get the commission.”
-Felix Kimaru
##Track Data
Data was also critical. Totohealth realized that even with connections, a good reputation, and a focused pitch, governments were hesitant to invest in something that wasn’t backed up by data.
“Number one, it’s always a hard sell without examples of what you’re trying to sell. The reason it was hard is we didn’t have data.”
-Felix Kimaru
##Remember, The First Sale Is the Hardest
Taking all of this as a whole, it was very difficult for Totohealth to get their first government client. The good news was that after that, the process became much easier.
“It took us a while to get our first county on board, but once we did it became very easy.”
When we talked to them, increased government sales were putting the company on track for more expansion and access to their product.
“This week has been interesting, we’ve locked down one new county, we’re excited with that county we’re running a pilot for about 3K parents but has access for 10K parents”