Zartico’s Guide to Building Trust in GovTech: How They Closed Deals in 3-6 Months Instead of 12

Most founders avoid GovTech, assuming endless bureaucracy and year-long sales cycles. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Zartico CEO Sarah Lehman revealed how her team closes government deals in a quarter of the usual time by understanding one crucial insight: government tourism officials aren’t typical bureaucrats.

Understanding the Real Customer

“I am blown away at the passion and the commitment of the leaders of destination marketing management organizations,” Sarah shares. “Tourism in many instances is an underappreciated economic engine of our world.” This insight – that they’re selling to passionate community builders, not bureaucrats – shapes Zartico’s entire sales approach.

Building a Different Kind of Sales Team

Rather than hiring traditional enterprise sales reps, Zartico built a team with deep industry relationships. “While you think that Govtech, while that must be a twelve month process, we amassed a sales organization that had relationships in this industry. And so our average turn of a deal is between three to six months,” Sarah explains.

Adding Soul to Enterprise Software

Traditional enterprise software often feels soulless, especially in government markets. Sarah recognized this gap immediately: “I’m like, wow, where is the soul? Where is the soul? People still want to do business with companies that they believe in.” This led Zartico to focus on building genuine connections with their market.

Creating Community Through Product

The team realized their product needed to do more than just process data. “We launched under the premise of bring us all your data and we’ll put it nicely into a business intelligence tool to realizing during COVID what entities really needed was situational awareness.” This pivot to solving immediate, pressing needs helped build trust quickly.

Meeting Customers Where They Are

When COVID hit, rather than retreat to Zoom calls, Zartico took an unconventional approach that demonstrated their commitment. “We’re going to rent an RV, and we’re going to drive it cross country, and we’re going to bring the trade show to the people,” Sarah recalls. This willingness to literally meet customers where they were helped overcome typical government purchasing barriers.

Building Trust Through Implementation

Fast sales cycles mean nothing if implementation drags on. Zartico focused intensely on streamlining this process, reducing implementation times from 120 days to as little as 24 hours for some customers. This rapid time-to-value builds trust and accelerates future sales.

The Long Game of Category Creation

While Zartico moves quickly on individual deals, they’re playing a longer game in category creation. “You can imagine a world where we work with these small businesses that also benefit from the visitor economy. You can imagine a world where we work with the sporting events and stadiums within that destination,” Sarah shares, outlining their vision for a true destination operating system.

For founders considering GovTech opportunities, Zartico’s experience offers several key lessons. First, look past stereotypes about government buyers to understand their real motivations and challenges. Second, build a team with existing relationships and deep market understanding. Finally, focus on building genuine trust and community rather than just pushing features.

The visitor economy represents 10% of global GDP, yet the government organizations managing these destinations were stuck using basic tools. By understanding these customers as passionate community builders rather than bureaucrats, Zartico found a way to accelerate typically slow government sales cycles while building a new category in GovTech.