Closing $2.3M Across a Defense Agency Portfolio in One Quarter

The Challenge

A defense agency had four separate directorates, each with independent IT budgets and procurement authority. Each directorate was at a different stage of evaluating authentication solutions, and they were not coordinating with each other. The risk was that each directorate would make an independent decision, potentially selecting different vendors and creating an integration nightmare.

The Approach

I mapped all four opportunities and the relationships between the directorates. I then requested a meeting with the agency's CTO, who had oversight across all directorates, and presented a unified vision: a single enterprise authentication platform deployed consistently across all four directorates with volume pricing that would be cheaper than four independent procurements.

The CTO loved the idea but could not mandate a unified purchase. So I took a different approach — I closed the most advanced directorate first ($600K), then used that deployment as an internal reference to accelerate the other three. Each subsequent directorate got a tailored presentation showing how their peers within the same agency had already deployed and the interoperability benefits of standardizing on one platform.

The Result

All four directorates signed within the same quarter: $600K, $550K, $480K, and $670K, totaling $2.3M. The unified deployment earned us a commendation from the agency CTO and positioned us as the standard authentication platform for future directorate additions. The agency has since expanded to six directorates on our platform.

Key Takeaway

In large organizations with decentralized purchasing, a portfolio approach can multiply deal size dramatically. The key is finding the connective tissue — a CTO, a shared compliance requirement, or an integration benefit — that makes standardization logical. Then use early wins as internal proof points to cascade through the organization.