EPISODE 707: Building Strong Federal Systems Integrator Partnerships with AWS Leaders Mike Blake and Jillian Swenson

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Today’s show featured an AWS Public Sector Partner Sales Leaders Jillian Swenson and Mike Blake.

Find Jillian Swenson on LinkedIn. Find Mike Blake on LinkedIn.

JILLIAN’S ‘ TIP:  “Differentiate yourselves from your peers by leveraging new GenAI tools to reduce repetitive time-consuming tasks and gain new insights into your customers. It’s going to free you up and help you bring more unique value to your customers.”

MIKE’S TIP: “Cultivate a positive mindset and resilience. Selling to large integrators can be very challenging. Develop techniques to maintain motivation, overcome rejections, because there will be rejections, and celebrate your successes. Prioritize building those relationships and really understanding these companies. Focus on the customer’s needs, earning their trust, rather than just going for the hard sale.”

THE PODCAST BEGINS HERE

Fred Diamond: We’re talking today with Jillian Swanson and Mike Blake from Amazon Web Services. We’re talking about the channel, we’re talking about alliances, we’re talking about working in the partnering side in the public sector sales arena. We have some very specific questions. We have a lot of people, Mike and Jillian, who are in the channel who work for alliances or are starting their career in alliances, and the shows that we’ve done with the various Amazon Web Services people in the past have gotten some great insights. I’m excited to get deep with you both. Why don’t you introduce yourselves before we get to the questions, and then we’ll go from there? Jillian, why don’t you go first?

Jillian Swanson: Thanks, Fred. I am Jillian Swanson. I’m with Amazon Web Services. I’m part of our federal partners organization, and I lead a team comprised of sellers focused on federally-focused ISVs, resellers, and consulting partners.

Fred Diamond: You mentioned ISV, what is an ISV, for people who don’t know?

Jillian Swanson: Independent Software Vendors. They are building software solutions for the federal government.

Fred Diamond: Mike Blake, give us a little bit of an introduction.

Mike Blake: Thanks, Fred. I also work in the federal partner organization here at Amazon Web Services, and I’m a sales leader for a territory we call Aerospace and Defense Mission Partners. It’s a group of partners that are comprised of traditional aerospace and defense contractors. My partner account managers manage all aspects of the sale with these particular partners. They’re also customers. It’s an interesting dynamic and excited to be here.

Fred Diamond: Jillian, how important is having prior federal contracting experience and understanding the procurement process when selling to these companies? One of the big things in selling to public sector, federal, state, and local for that matter, is that there’s a unique procurement process that actually has to follow laws. How important is it to having that type of understanding in order to be able to sell to those companies successfully?

Jillian Swanson: You’re spot on, Fred. Having federal contracting experience is critical when you’re selling to or with federal systems integrators. AWS and our partners must comply with the FAR, which stands for the Federal Acquisition Regulations, which you were referring to. In addition to the FAR, there’s really strict compliance requirements that vendors must understand, such as cybersecurity standards or specific certifications. Understanding the FAR and those other compliance requirements, and then being able to navigate these processes efficiently and effectively, helps us earn trust with our partners and customers. It’s also really critical to understand how the customer wants to procure. That’s a component of meeting your customer’s needs. Being able to ensure a path to procurement that aligns with the partner and the customer’s contractual requirements is table stakes when you come into the federal space.

Fred Diamond: Mike, Jillian just mentioned security. How important are factors such as security clearances? Also explain what that means, compliance and regulatory requirements when selling to federal systems integrators. If you wouldn’t mind just defining those as well for people who may not know.

Mike Blake: There’s a number of different types of security clearances in the federal government. DOD specifically has a whole host of different security clearances. These are very important for companies and personnel that want to do business in the federal government and do business with large federal systems integrators doing business with the federal government. It’s very dependent on the nature of the work that you’re going after. Jillian also alluded to a couple of different things related to the FAR, so there’s a myriad of cybersecurity, export control, and regulatory items that need to be paid attention to when selling to the federal government or selling with these large federal systems integrators. Federal acquisition regulations, which apply a lot to the civilian agencies. You have a defense federal acquisition regulation, which applies to the defense and intel portions of the business.

Federal Information Security Management, also called FISMA. That’s a lot of the InfoSec standards, requirements for federal agencies and contractors that your systems must adhere to. We also have FedRAMP, also called Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, provides a standardized approach for security assessments, authorization, and continuous monitoring of solutions that are being put into the cloud. If you’ve heard of the word export control, that typically refers to ITAR, which is International Traffic in Arms Regulation. If you’re exporting some encryption technology, the federal government wants to know what that is and if it’s an exportable item. There are ITAR regulations that often have to be adhered to. Then not specifically mentioned yet, but I’ll bring it out there, there’s small business regulations. Think possible small business set-asides, contract requirements like 8(a), veteran-owned, women-owned business. These are all things that are often considered mandatory to do business with federal integrators and also the federal government. Folks need to pay attention to those.

Fred Diamond: We have a lot of listeners around the globe who listen to the Sales Game Changer podcasts regularly. I’m based in Northern Virginia, right outside of Washington, DC, which is why I have had a lot of sales leaders and channel alliance leaders from the public sector markets. But if you’re not in that marketplace, you’re probably wondering, why all these regulations? Should I even think about bringing my solutions to the public sector?

The reality is, it’s a humongous marketplace, and so much happens that then happens in the commercial space. A lot of times we refer to the public sector, specifically the federal, as Fortune One, referring to such a large marketplace. There’s so many opportunities, there’s so many great agencies looking for solutions to bring to the citizenship.

Jillian, let’s talk about some of the unique challenges and some of the considerations around product customization, integration, or support when working with these customers. Are there unique challenges or considerations around those topics?

Jillian Swanson: Absolutely, Fred. Customizing products for federal customers can present several unique challenges. I came into this business as a software developer back in the day working on weapon systems. You take any large-scale enterprise system that you would do in the commercial space, and then you have an entire layer of things that you need to add on once you start working with the federal government. First of all, they have really stringent security and compliance requirements. Any customization has to adhere to those requirements, including data protection, access controls, encryption, and compliance with some of the regulations that Mike talked about, like FISMA and FedRAMP.

Federal agencies are also really challenged because they’ve relied on a lot of legacy systems that have been used for many, many years. When you start integrating customized software with these legacy systems, it can get really complex. You have to carefully consider the interoperability of the systems, how you do the data migration, and potential disruptions to existing workflows. Federal agencies typically operate at a really large scale, serving a wide range of users and handling a significant amount of data. That just continues to compound the complexity of the issues.

Customized software solutions have to be scalable and interoperable with these other systems to accommodate the agency’s needs that integrate seamlessly into their existing IT infrastructure. Think about all the change management efforts and training programs that also have to ride along and ensure user adoption and minimize disruptions. That can be very challenging because they’re subject to more scrutiny and more processes than what you typically see in a commercial setting. Lastly, federal procurement is known for lengthy cycles, budget constraints, things like that. This can create a significant gap between the generations of technology adoption and what your customer is currently using.

Fred Diamond: I was actually listening to NPR before we got on today’s show, and they were talking about the ubiquity of what’s called the CR, the continuing resolution. We’re doing today’s interview in the end of the summer of 2024. Of course, there’s a presidential election coming up in the United States in November. There’s a lot of interesting factors that happen around this time.

Mike, Jillian had referred to the procurement process. Give us some of your insights into navigating the often lengthy, and it is a quite rigorous procurement process required by federal systems integrators.

Mike Blake: That’s a super important point that a commercial company or a commercial seller entering the federal market has to be aware of. Some of these sales cycles can be 12, 18, even 24 months in length, and it requires a thorough understanding of product policies, being registered in systems, working with the integrators, supply chain management team. They very often have their preferred suppliers. You have to be registered with them. To get registered with them, there’s a lot of paperwork involved and it requires developing compliant comprehensive proposal responses if they ask you to participate in one of their proposal bids. Then of course, having the stamina and a lot of documentation and following a very rigid process is a must for anybody entering the market.

Fred Diamond: Jillian, you touched on technology before. What technology areas or emerging trends are you seeing increased demand for from the federal integrators currently?

Jillian Swanson: Federal integrators are constantly adapting to emerging technical trends to meet the evolving needs of federal agencies. Cloud computing continues to be a significant trend, good for us. Federal agencies are increasingly adopting cloud-based solutions for improved scalability, cost efficiency, and agility. Our integrator partners are leveraging our cloud infrastructure platforms and services to deliver customized solutions.

Another trend is AI and ML technologies. They continue to gain momentum in the federal space. Federal integrators are exploring the use of AI and ML to enhance data analysis, automate processes, improve decision making, and strengthen cybersecurity. Cybersecurity, as we’ve already talked about, overall remains a key trend. As cyber threats continue to evolve, federal integrators are focusing on innovative cybersecurity solutions to protect sensitive government data and systems. This includes technology such as advanced threat detection, secure coding practices, identity and access management, and encryption. Federal integrators are also exploring the use of blockchain technology for secure and transparent transactions.

RPA or robotic process automation is another key trend. RPA involves automating repetitive and rule-based tasks using software robots. Federal integrators are also leveraging RPA to streamline administrative processes, reduce manual errors, and improve operational efficiency with federal agencies. It can help federal integrators deliver customized solutions that automate routine tasks and free up resources for more strategic work.

The internet of things, or IoT, continues to be increasingly adopted by federal agencies to gather real time data, enhance situational awareness, and improve decision making. Federal integrators are also leveraging IoT to develop customized solutions that enable our agencies to monitor and manage assets, enhance security, and optimize resource allocation.

Last, I’d have to say that agile development and DevOps is a key trend. These practices are being adopted by federal integrators to accelerate software development and delivery. These approaches all focus on iterative development, collaboration, and automation, enabling federal integrators to deliver customized solutions more quickly and efficiently. At the end of the day, it’s all about how do they drive down the cost and deliver solutions for their customers.

Fred Diamond: One of the other things about the federal marketplace is that you mentioned things like threat detection and cybersecurity. The government’s doing stuff to protect the citizenry, to protect the world, and to make the world a better place from a defense perspective, of course. But also, there’s infrastructure, there’s health and human services, education. A lot of times when I’ve interviewed sales leaders about why are they focusing on the public sector marketplace, besides the fact that it’s a very lucrative potential marketplace, the mission of a lot of the public sector, specifically defense agencies, and of course, civilian too, is to make the world a better place and make it a safer place for our generations to come. You gave a great idea of explaining all those technologies that go into it.

Mike, why don’t you bring us home? To wrap things up, what advice would you give to sales professionals who are new to working with large federal systems integrators?

Mike Blake: My advice would be to invest time upfront, understanding their processes, their contract vehicles, and their clients. The more you understand about the integrator and who they’re serving, the better equipped you’ll be. Understand the strategic direction of the actual organization. As you’re selling into a company, understand what’s important to them. I would also take the time to build relationships throughout the organization and understand how their executives define success for the company that you’re trying to work with. I would align your products and services to solutions that help them achieve success. Then I would be prepared for pricing pressure, long sales cycles, which we’ve talked about. Then I’d try to get on their key contract vehicles early and working with them on the proposal phases. If you’re working with them upfront, developing solutions that meet a need for a given proposal, you make it through that process. They win the contract, you’re already on contract with them, and so you have a better opportunity to sell with them on that solution.

Fred Diamond: I like one of the things you just said, is these are long-term contracts in most cases. In a lot of cases, it’s not like a sale was made and then you’re done. There’s the opportunity to further develop, recompete, and grow once you get in there as well.

Mike and Jillian, you’ve given us so many great ideas about how people can be successful selling to the public sector marketplace. Give us an action step, something specific that they can do right now to take their sales career to the next level.

Mike Blake: I would say cultivate a positive mindset and resilience. Selling to these large integrators can be very challenging. Develop techniques to maintain motivation, overcome rejections, because there will be rejections, and celebrate your successes. This is a long game, Fred. Prioritize building those relationships and really understanding these companies. Focus on the customer’s needs, earning their trust, rather than just going for the hard sale.

Fred Diamond: We’ve interviewed so many people who have been successful in the public sector market and they didn’t do it for two years. They’ve been doing it for their whole career. Maybe they came from the public sector or maybe they’ve had a family member and there was a deep personal commitment to the mission of the customer as well. But it is the marketplace that will grow. A lot of people who work in the customer side of public sector have devoted their whole career to that. Maybe they’ll move from department to department or maybe from agency to agency, but for the most part, they’re going to be working in public sector for their entire career. That’s a great bit of advice.

Jillian, why don’t you bring us home? Give us a specific action step people can do right now to take their sales career to the next level.

Jillian Swanson: I will talk to you about what my team is actively doing right now. We are looking at how sales tools are evolving with the advent of GenAI. You can differentiate yourselves from your peers by leveraging all these new tools to reduce repetitive time-consuming tasks and gain new insights into your customers. It’s going to free you up and help you bring more unique value to your customers. A couple of examples, my team will do things like they’re preparing for customer meetings and they want to go out and get a summary of what is critical to their partner. They can go out and use the tools that we have at Amazon to quickly produce a summary of key trends for their partner. If they’re having a discussion about a particular customer, like what’s happening in the army, what are key trends there? They can quickly produce summaries to better prepare for meetings. That’s just one example of how my team is digging in and using the tools to just move faster for our customers and partners.

Fred Diamond: Actually, the tools are constantly being developed and every week there’s new angles and new tools. I’ll give you an example. I had talked to a customer recently who said they were getting ready to go into a meeting with a public sector leader, and we mentioned continuing resolution before. They typed into one of the common AI tools, status of continuing resolution with the particular agency. They said within a minute or probably less than a minute, 10 pages of content came flying up, so they were more prepared to talk to the customer.

Transcribed by Mariana Badillo

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