Transforming B2B Media: How GovExec Built a Data-Powered Revenue Engine
In our first episode of Season 2 of The Revenue Room™ podcast, Constance Sayers, President and Chief Revenue Officer of GovExec, shared invaluable insights on transforming a traditional B2B media company into a sophisticated data and intelligence platform. As a member of Revenue Room™ Connect's Executive Advisory Board and featured speaker at the upcoming RevvedUP event in Sarasota this February, Sayers offered a masterclass in leveraging data to drive enterprise value and revenue growth.
Strategic Data Integration: The Foundation of Digital Transformation
Building a Unified Data Platform
One of the most compelling aspects of GovExec's transformation was its strategic approach to acquisitions and data integration. After completing 16 acquisitions in 2021, the company faced the challenge of unifying disparate data sources and technologies. Rather than maintaining multiple platforms, the GovExec team boldly decided to consolidate around GovTribe as its central platform, investing significantly in building a comprehensive data lake.
Creating Competitive Advantage Through Real-Time Analytics
This investment proved prescient. By combining GovTribe's contract data with real-time analytics from their news properties reaching 4.3 million government buyers, GovExec created a unique capability that set them apart from competitors.
"No one else is doing this," Sayers emphasized. "You can have contract data, but nobody has news sites that minute-by-minute are generating intent signals through searches and downloads."
AI Innovation and Revenue Generation
Developing AI-Powered Solutions
The robust data foundation enabled GovExec to rapidly develop AI-powered solutions when the technology emerged. Instead of rushing to implement AI without proper infrastructure, they were able to leverage their existing data lake to create valuable tools for government contractors. These include:
- AI-generated sales communications tailored with specific contract and relationship data
- Intelligent prospect recommendations based on historical performance and intent signals
- Marketing prompts that help teams quickly research and understand market positioning
- Comprehensive dossiers that combine contract data, competitive intelligence, and brand perception
Modernizing Sales and Marketing Approaches
The Placemat Strategy: Visualizing Customer Value
GovExec's evolution in sales presentation represents a significant departure from traditional B2B selling. Instead of overwhelming prospects with technical features or multiple product offerings, they developed an innovative "placemat" approach - an 11x17 printed visualization that transforms complex data capabilities into actionable insights for their top 50 clients.
The placemat consolidates multiple data points into a comprehensive view of the client's position, including:
- Brand positioning in the government market
- Competitive analysis and market standing
- Active and potential contract pursuits
- Key agency relationships and decision-makers
- Historical campaign performance metrics
- Agency perception analysis
"When clients look down at this single sheet, they immediately see their world reflected back to them," Sayers explained. "They can instantly identify where they're perceived poorly, where competitors are outperforming them, and which agencies offer the best opportunities."
Customer-Centric Solution Selling: A New Go-to-Market Approach
The transformation from product-centric to solution-centric selling has required a fundamental shift in how GovExec approaches the market. "Clients don't care about our 16 logos," Sayers emphasized. "They care about capabilities that solve their specific challenges."
This new approach has led to several key changes in their sales strategy:
Dual Persona Engagement
GovExec now actively targets two distinct buyer personas:
- Sales and Business Development teams seeking tools for contract pursuit and competitive intelligence
- Marketing teams focused on demand generation and brand positioning
These two buyer personas are interconnected from a pipeline outcome. Marketing teams are charged with driving inbound leads from campaigns and sales and business development teams are charged with filling pipeline and accelerating through the buying journey using inbound leads from marketing and outbound leads they generate themselves. Sales and business development teams require a significant amount of data about prospects including purchase intent, organizational environment, past select processes and RFPs and more.
GovExec can now successfully impact end-to-end pipeline and understands that these two buyer personas, while interconnected, are distinct and require different GTM motions.
Solution-Based Conversations
Rather than leading with product features, conversations now start with customer challenges:
- How to identify and qualify contract opportunities
- Understanding agency perceptions and preferences
- Developing targeted marketing strategies based on data insights
- Improving win rates through better competitive intelligence
Educational Components
The shift required significant investment in customer education:
- Helping clients understand the value of integrated data solutions
- Demonstrating how AI and analytics can enhance decision-making
- Showing the connection between market intelligence and revenue growth
Data-Driven Customization
Each client engagement is now powered by specific data insights:
- Custom analysis of their market position
- Tailored recommendations based on historical performance
- AI-generated insights specific to their target agencies
- Competitive intelligence relevant to their specific pursuits
This modernized approach has not only transformed how GovExec sells but has also changed how clients perceive and utilize their services. "We're no longer just a media company or a data provider," Sayers noted. "We've become a strategic partner in our clients' go-to-market success."
Revenue Operations Transformation
Diversifying Revenue Streams
The transformation has fundamentally changed how GovExec approaches revenue generation. They now operate across three primary revenue streams:
- Data and Insights: Including their GovTribe platform, AI-powered analytics, and research services that help government contractors identify opportunities and make strategic decisions
- Demand Generation and Content Services: Combining traditional lead generation with enhanced data intelligence to deliver more qualified, sales-ready leads and targeted content
- Community: Events, training programs, and educational initiatives that bring together government buyers and sellers
This diversification has created new challenges in revenue operations, requiring careful attention to both traditional and emerging revenue streams. As Sayers explains, "You're spinning different types of revenue plates...you've got to spin those plates all constantly and really reinvent."
Managing Complex Revenue Operations
The complexity of managing these diverse revenue streams is particularly evident in how they've adapted their sales approach. As we mentioned above, GovExec now works with two distinct buyer personas: sales and business development teams seeking tools for contract pursuit, and marketing teams focused on demand generation. This dual-persona approach requires careful orchestration of resources and messaging.
Bridging Traditional and Modern Revenue Streams
A key innovation in their revenue operations has been the development of GovProspect, a product that bridges their traditional lead generation business with their new data capabilities. The tool enriches leads with GovTribe data to help clients better qualify and pursue opportunities, demonstrating how GovExec is finding synergies between their revenue streams.
The shift in work patterns post-pandemic has also influenced their revenue strategy. With government employees working remotely more frequently, contractors have struggled to maintain their traditional in-person relationships. This has led to increased demand for both data services (to understand agency priorities and decision-makers) and events (which have become crucial networking opportunities). GovExec has responded by ensuring their revenue streams complement each other, using data insights to enhance event value and event relationships to inform data services.
Sayers emphasizes the importance of maintaining focus on core revenue while pursuing innovation: "You can't take your eye off your core business... you've got to make sure that the products aren't going stale because they can go stale quickly." This has led to a strategy of continuous reinvention, where insights from their data platforms are used to refresh and enhance traditional products while new offerings are developed in response to emerging customer needs.
Guidance for B2B Media Companies
Best Practices for Digital Transformation
For media companies looking to make a similar transformation, Sayers offered pragmatic advice based on GovExec's successful journey. Her key recommendations for B2B media companies include:
- Start with Your Core Audience: Don't stray from your foundational audience relationships. Instead, use your deep understanding of their needs as a compass for expansion. GovExec built their data services around their existing government contractor audience, enhancing rather than replacing their core value proposition.
- Focus on Problem-Solving Over Products: Listen carefully to customer challenges before building or buying solutions. GovExec's successful products, like their AI-powered contract analysis tools, emerged from specific client pain points rather than technology-first thinking.
- Invest in Data Infrastructure Early: Make foundational data investments before they become urgent. GovExec's $1 million data lake investment positioned them perfectly for the AI revolution, while competitors scrambled to catch up.
- Maintain Revenue While Innovating: "First, do no harm," as Sayers emphasizes. Watch year-over-year performance carefully during transformation and don't sacrifice stable revenue streams while pursuing new opportunities. GovExec maintained their traditional lead generation business while building new data-driven services.
"Understanding what your audience needs can help you provide a roadmap to other data-driven revenue streams," she explained. "Start solving problems and revenue will follow."
Looking Ahead
Constance will share more detailed insights on GovExec's transformation journey at RevvedUP in Sarasota February 25-27.
Her session, "Accelerating New Revenue Streams: How GovExec Turned Data into Dollars," will take place on Wednesday, February 26th, offering attendees a deeper look at how to evaluate data infrastructure investments and modernize sales organizations for new go-to-market motions.
The full conversation with Constance Sayers offers even more insights on navigating the intersection of media, data, and revenue.
Listen to the complete episode to hear her thoughts on women in revenue leadership, the changing dynamics of government contracting, and the unexpected benefits of their data transformation journey.
You can learn more about RevvedUP and register here.
