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The Federal Government needs more solutions, not more software. That is the message we at Marion Square get every day from our agency contacts. They do not want lists of product features or emails about why one technology is better than another. They want to know how that technology will meet their very specific needs, how it will fit into their unique IT architecture and, most importantly, how it will help them solve their challenges.

As such, successfully selling to agencies today looks a lot different from what it did a few years ago. It is not about getting 50 meetings with 50 different agencies; that scattershot approach is a waste of time. Instead, it is about ensuring that the right meetings are held and that each one matters.

That is where Marion Square comes in. We help technology vendors align their products with mission impact and operational fit. Our advisory approach blends deep market intelligence with tailored go-to-market strategies that position technology not as a product, but as an answer to an agency’s most pressing needs.

Based on our conversations with agency contacts, here are the key trends shaping Federal buying behavior, and how we recommend vendors respond.

The Three Pricing Archetypes Driving Public Sector Purchasing

The Government is still under immense pressure to bring costs down and increase efficiencies. Over the past few months, we have heard from many clients whose customers have called for price reductions. We advise them on three ways to respond:

Leading with aggressive time-boxed discounts designed to disrupt incumbents.
Holding pricing steady but adding capabilities to consolidate functionality and edge out niche competitors.
The “default discount” simply lowers the price without a strategic hook.

Vendors must choose their approach carefully. A bold discount can open doors but risks setting unsustainable expectations. Value bundling requires clear articulation of how those added features meet specific mission needs. And while price cuts may help win deals in the short term, they should be anchored in a broader licensing or adoption strategy to avoid devaluation.

Partnering With Services Companies Is a Winning Strategy

Agencies need help navigating integration, implementation, training and sustainment. That is why partnering with services companies is essential. These firms bring institutional knowledge, procurement relationships and hands-on delivery capacity that agencies trust. When a vendor brings a product plus a credible partner to help stand it up, it reduces perceived risk and increases purchase confidence.

At Marion Square, we help clients align with the right service partners early in their go-to-market process. Doing so allows them to frame their offerings not as standalone tools, but as parts of larger, operationally relevant solutions.

Indeed, we have seen a lot of success when vendors position themselves alongside integrators or mission-focused contractors who already have traction within an agency. The collaboration strengthens the overall value proposition and gives agencies greater confidence that the solution can be deployed effectively and deliver measurable outcomes.

Agencies Look to Vendors For Education, Not Just Products

Many Federal stakeholders are overwhelmed by emerging technologies and new mandates. They value a partner who can help them unpack directives like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 23-02, for instance, or understand how artificial intelligence (AI) tools can improve workflows, cybersecurity initiatives and so forth. Vendors who show up with insight, rather than just information, become trusted advisors and separate themselves from the pack.

We also see a significant knowledge gap around the innovation programs already available to agencies. Beyond well-known pathways like Small Business Innovation Research Programs (SBIRs), many Government stakeholders are unaware of other funding mechanisms and pilot opportunities that could support emerging technologies. So, we work with clients to help them think of new ways to present their technology and receive funding for their solutions.

For example, we worked with a client focused on AI data processing who was using a traditional hardware approach. We identified an opportunity to reposition their architecture to align with a lesser-known innovation program, helped craft a targeted proposal and they secured funding. It is proof that vendors can add value by not only educating agencies on their capabilities but also guiding them toward untapped opportunities to fund and implement them.

Join Us This Fall

In October, we will be co-hosting a strategy session with our partner Carahsoft to discuss these and other issues. We will discuss current market trends and provide attendees with insights into crafting winning sales strategies that drive traction. We will cover what it takes to get agency attention, how to build messaging that resonates and how to position each solution as the one that helps Government teams deliver on their mission.

We hope you will join us!

Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator for our vendor partners, including Marion Square we deliver solutions for Geospatial, Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Artificial Intelligence, Customer Experience and Engagement, Open Source and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. Explore the Carahsoft Blog to learn more about the latest trends in Government technology markets and solutions, as well as Carahsoft’s ecosystem of partner thought-leaders.

Last week, international scientists made headlines by successfully cracking a 50-bit RSA encryption integer using D-Wave’s Advantage quantum computer. While it’s true that a 50-bit key is vastly smaller than the 2048-bit keys used in modern RSA encryption, the significance of this achievement lies in how it was done. Unlike traditional attacks based on Shor’s algorithm and quantum gate computers, the researchers utilized a quantum annealing system, designed for optimization rather than direct factoring. This shift in approach raises important questions about the timeline for when quantum computers could crack full-scale RSA encryption, potentially accelerating the threat to current cryptographic standards far sooner than expected.

Marion Square Quantum Computing and Cybersecurity Blog Embedded Image 2024

For years, the vulnerability of public key encryption has been understood primarily as a factoring problem, since the security of encryption algorithms like RSA relies on the difficulty of factoring large composite numbers. Shor’s algorithm, widely regarded as the most probable path to breaking public key encryption, is designed specifically to factor these numbers exponentially faster than classical methods, posing a significant future threat to encryption systems. However, in a surprising turn, the international researchers in this recent attack used a quantum annealing computer, which is designed for optimization tasks, not factoring. This innovative approach represents a completely different method of breaking RSA encryption, highlighting that the threat from quantum computing may emerge from unexpected directions, advancing the risk timeline beyond what many experts anticipated.

This breakthrough also underscores the growing versatility of quantum annealing in solving problems once thought exclusive to gate-based quantum computers. Traditionally, annealing systems have been seen as ideal for optimization problems in fields such as logistics, material science, and machine learning—not for cryptographic attacks. However, the international researchers effectively re-framed RSA decryption as an optimization challenge, unlocking new potential in quantum annealing. While quantum annealing computers like D-Wave’s systems were not originally designed for factorization tasks, this achievement raises important questions about their ability to scale to larger key sizes and tackle more complex encryption algorithms. If quantum annealing can be adapted for cryptography at higher levels, it could potentially shorten the timeline for when quantum computers might become a real-world threat to encryption standards. Though hurdles remain, this new approach widens the scope of quantum threats to cryptographic systems, showing that the race to quantum-safe encryption may need to accelerate.

In conclusion, this breakthrough in quantum annealing highlights the increasing urgency for federal agencies to prioritize their post-quantum encryption (PQE) transition. The rapid evolution of quantum computing, coupled with the potential for new cryptographic vulnerabilities, underscores the need to meet the milestones set by NSM 10 and OMB 23-02. Agencies that have not yet initiated or fully engaged in this process risk falling behind as quantum advancements accelerate. The time to act is now—establishing cryptographic leadership, conducting comprehensive inventories, and securing appropriate resources are critical first steps. Preparing today will ensure the resilience of federal systems in a quantum-enabled future.

To learn about the latest standards set forth by NIST and how Marion Square can support your Quantum Computing and compliance initiatives, view our webinar, “Mastering NIST PQE Standards: A Guide for Federal Compliance.”