Cold-Calling My Way Into a $400K FedRAMP Opportunity

The Challenge

Federal civilian agencies are some of the hardest prospects to reach by phone. Switchboards route to voicemail, and most decision-makers have layers of staff shielding them. I had identified a mid-size agency that was undergoing a FedRAMP modernization initiative but had no existing relationship or warm introduction.

The Approach

I researched the agency's published IT modernization plan on their .gov site and found the name of the Deputy CIO leading the zero trust initiative. Over three weeks I called 47 times, leaving eight voicemails that each referenced a specific section of their published zero trust strategy and how passwordless MFA mapped to their stated goals.

On the ninth voicemail I mentioned a peer agency that had just deployed our solution and offered to facilitate a reference call. That was the message that earned a callback. The Deputy CIO was intrigued that another agency in their peer group had already solved the authentication piece of their zero trust roadmap.

The Result

The callback turned into a 45-minute discovery call, which led to a technical evaluation. Within 90 days we had a $400K purchase order for FIDO2 hardware keys across 3,000 endpoints. The deal also opened up conversations with two sister agencies that the Deputy CIO introduced us to.

Key Takeaway

Persistence paired with relevance wins in federal sales. Forty-seven calls sounds excessive, but each voicemail added new value by referencing their own published strategy. The breakthrough came from offering a peer reference, which is the most trusted currency in government IT procurement.