We explore why many business development professionals in infrastructure industries choose Early Stage Intelligence in addition to other types of Public Infrastructure Intelligence.
Traditional business development tactics such as trade shows, travel, relationships, and project trackers are no longer enough to meet the demands of business development professionals in infrastructure industries. Industry professionals are now looking for new means of gaining the right insights to develop relationships and close deals.
Nothing could be more frustrating than hearing about opportunities too late in the RFP process. It forces teams to scramble to respond and tends to produce low win rates. Early stage intelligence provides increased visibility as well as lead time to build and strengthen relationships and ultimately secure the win.
Today we will cover:
- Benefits of Early Stage Intelligence
- How does Early Stage Intelligence Enhance Sales Practices?
- Shift from Reactive to Proactive Selling
- Longer Sales Cycle Management
- Enhanced Relationship Building and Thought Leadership
- Targeted Outreach with Higher Conversion Rates
- Improved Forecasting and Pipeline Management
- Shifting Focus from Transactional to Consultative Sales
- Greater Collaboration Between Sales and Marketing
- Pairing Early Stage Intelligence with Other Types of Public Infrastructure Intelligence
Benefits of Early Stage Intelligence
Business development teams who incorporate early stage intelligence into their sales process also benefit from:
- Sustained higher project win rates of 30-50% more than just using previous approaches
- A tailored approach aligned with specific business development goals and intelligence needs
- Deeper insights and understanding of specific customer pain points
- Improvements over time with iterations made to search criteria
- A consultative approach that allows for discussion around a bigger picture
Citylitics fills a crucial gap by offering foresight into projects well before they reach traditional platforms, giving businesses the chance to shape the narrative and gain a competitive advantage. When used in tandem with platforms like ConstructConnect, Dodge Data, and GovWin, Citylitics allows for a more comprehensive strategy that spans from early project identification to detailed RFP analysis and bidding.
How does Early Stage Intelligence Enhance Sales Practices?
Using Citylitics alongside other platforms will significantly alter sales practices by enabling a more proactive, strategic approach to business development. Here’s how integrating Citylitics with the other platforms can reshape sales efforts:
1. Shift from Reactive to Proactive Selling
Current Approach: Many sales teams rely heavily on platforms like ConstructConnect, GovWin, and GovSpend, which provide information once RFPs are already issued. At this stage, competition is fierce, and the window to influence the project’s scope is limited.
With Citylitics: Sales teams can identify future projects 1 to 5 years in advance. This early insight allows them to start building relationships, educating potential clients, and influencing project requirements long before competitors even see the opportunity. By the time the RFP is issued, the sales team already has a presence and strong influence over the decision-makers, reducing the need to compete on price alone.
New Tactic: Shift the focus from responding to RFPs to engaging early with stakeholders, influencing project specifications, and positioning the company as a thought leader in the space.
2. Longer Sales Cycle Management
Current Approach: Platforms like Dodge Data and ConstructConnect focus on active projects with immediate needs, leading to shorter sales cycles but often more intense competition for the same opportunities.
With Citylitics: Sales teams will need to adopt a longer-term perspective, nurturing leads over several years as the projects evolve from early-stage concepts to formal RFPs. This extended relationship-building phase means staying in touch with prospects over a longer period, offering ongoing education and support to help shape the project in favor of their solutions.
New Tactic: Implement long-term nurturing strategies, such as continuous touchpoints, educational content, and relationship management, ensuring the company stays top of mind throughout the project lifecycle.
3. Enhanced Relationship Building and Thought Leadership
Current Approach: Typically, sales efforts focus on responding to RFPs and competing with other vendors based on price and features. Relationship-building often happens in the latter stages, when the client’s needs are already well-defined.
With Citylitics: Early access to project intelligence enables sales teams to establish relationships with key stakeholders, municipal leaders, and decision-makers before they even issue an RFP. Companies can offer valuable insights and thought leadership during this critical stage, positioning themselves as trusted advisors rather than just another vendor.
New Tactic: Sales teams can use the early intelligence from Citylitics to offer tailored recommendations and position themselves as experts in solving the specific needs of future projects. This builds trust and improves the chances of being selected once the project reaches the RFP stage.
4. Targeted Outreach with Higher Conversion Rates
Current Approach: Sales teams may rely on platforms like ZoomInfo to find contact information, but they often reach out to prospects after an RFP is issued, making it difficult to differentiate from competitors.
With Citylitics: By identifying projects in their infancy, sales teams can engage stakeholders long before competitors are aware of the opportunity. Pairing Citylitics with platforms like ZoomInfo allows sales teams to contact decision-makers with highly relevant, future-focused information, leading to more meaningful conversations and higher conversion rates.
New Tactic: Use early project insights from Citylitics to craft highly personalized outreach campaigns that demonstrate an understanding of the client’s long-term needs and offer solutions well before the formal RFP process begins.
5. Improved Forecasting and Pipeline Management
Current Approach: Forecasting and pipeline management often revolve around short-term opportunities identified through RFP-focused platforms like GovSpend and ConstructConnect. This can lead to fluctuating sales pipelines based on the immediate availability of opportunities.
With Citylitics: Sales teams can build a stronger, more predictable pipeline by identifying projects years ahead of time. This allows for better forecasting, resource allocation, and a more balanced pipeline that spans both near-term and long-term opportunities.
New Tactic: Combine Citylitics’ long-term insights with the short-term opportunities from other platforms to maintain a consistent and robust sales pipeline. Use data from Citylitics to predict future market trends and align resources accordingly.
6. Shifting Focus from Transactional to Consultative Sales
Current Approach: Sales often focus on transactional efforts—competing on price, features, and immediate project specifications—when responding to RFPs.
With Citylitics: Sales tactics will shift to a more consultative approach, focusing on educating and advising clients long before they even write an RFP. By becoming involved in the early planning stages, sales teams can help shape the project requirements to align with their solutions, which reduces the likelihood of direct competition based purely on price.
Pairing Early Stage Intelligence with Other Types of Public Infrastructure Intelligence
Citylitics can serve as a highly complementary platform to the others listed due to its focus on early-stage project intelligence, giving users a competitive edge by accessing opportunities 1 to 5 years ahead of an RFP being issued. Here’s how Citylitics complements each platform:
ConstructConnect
- How Citylitics Adds Value: While ConstructConnect focuses on providing detailed project documents and RFPs for immediate opportunities for both public and private sectors. Citylitics identifies future public projects long before they reach the RFP stage. This allows companies to build relationships and influence decision-makers early on, helping them be better positioned when the RFPs become available through ConstructConnect.
- Synergy: Citylitics can serve as a “lead generation primer” to get ahead of upcoming projects that will later be detailed in ConstructConnect’s database.
Dodge Data & Analytics
- How Citylitics Adds Value: Dodge Data is highly valuable for accessing current and historical project databases, but Citylitics can identify projects in their earliest planning stages before they even reach Dodge’s radar. This early insight allows companies to prepare and engage with stakeholders in advance, increasing their chances of winning the future RFPs tracked by Dodge.
- Synergy: Citylitics can help users target and influence projects well before they appear in Dodge’s large database.
GovWin
- How Citylitics Adds Value: GovWin focuses on federal contracts, incumbent information, and RFPs. Citylitics identifies future projects at their conception, providing early-stage intelligence on municipal infrastructure projects long before the RFP. By using Citylitics, companies can begin building relationships with stakeholders earlier, positioning themselves for success once these projects enter GovWin’s pipeline.
- Synergy: Citylitics’ early-stage intelligence is a strong precursor to the municipal RFP info provided by GovWin, offering users a more strategic approach to winning contracts.
Curate Solutions
- How Citylitics Adds Value: Curate provides access to municipal meeting data to identify projects, and tends to focus on real-time discussions. Citylitics forecasts projects years in advance, allowing businesses to see patterns and long-term infrastructure needs.
- Synergy: Citylitics can help users monitor long-term municipal planning trends that align with Curate’s real-time meeting data, allowing companies to follow up on long-term initiatives identified through Citylitics.
ontopical
- How Citylitics Adds Value: Like Curate, ontopical specializes in municipal meeting minutes for identifying active opportunities. Citylitics provides insight into projects that may not yet be discussed in meetings but are in the planning stages, offering companies the ability to influence the conversation early.
- Synergy: Citylitics can enhance the meeting data insights of ontopical by flagging upcoming projects that will eventually be discussed, allowing users to track the lifecycle from early planning to public discussions.
ZoomInfo
- How Citylitics Adds Value: ZoomInfo provides a vast database of contact information, but it doesn’t provide insight into upcoming project opportunities. Citylitics can complement ZoomInfo by identifying future projects and enabling users to find and engage with the right contacts (via ZoomInfo) early in the planning phase.
- Synergy: Citylitics can help identify projects, and ZoomInfo can assist in finding the key decision-makers to engage, allowing for early and proactive outreach.
GovSpend
- How Citylitics Adds Value: GovSpend provides detailed RFP information and government procurement data, but by the time the RFP is posted, most decisions have already been influenced. Citylitics helps companies engage early, before the RFP is even drafted, allowing businesses to shape specifications and requirements before they reach GovSpend’s database.
- Synergy: Citylitics sets the stage for GovSpend by offering intelligence on projects years ahead, allowing businesses to be more effective in their later-stage RFP efforts tracked by GovSpend.
Citylitics specializes in delivering long-term foresight, giving companies a distinct advantage by providing intelligence that allows for strategic positioning. When combined with other platforms that offer more immediate RFP and procurement data, Citylitics enables a full-spectrum approach from early engagement to closing deals.
Using Citylitics alongside traditional platforms will transform sales tactics from reactive, price-driven approaches to proactive, consultative strategies focused on long-term relationship-building and early engagement. Sales teams will become more strategic, targeting future opportunities with tailored messaging and positioning themselves as partners in shaping projects, rather than just bidders. This shift will not only increase win rates but also improve long-term business sustainability.