More than four in five G-Cloud 9 suppliers yet to transact a single deal

CRN analysis finds that the overwhelming majority of suppliers on G-Cloud 9 hadn't made a sale as of 31 December

The vast majority of G-Cloud suppliers are still struggling to conduct any business through the framework, with 84 per cent of firms on G-Cloud 9 yet to bag a deal.

That's according to CRN analysis of the most recent G-Cloud spending data, which covers deals conducted up until 31 December 2017.

A total of 2,847 suppliers were awarded a place on G-Cloud 9 when it launched in May last year, but just 461 suppliers had made any sales on it as of 31 December 2018, accordingly to publicly available data CRN has analysed.

This is despite total G-Cloud spending skyrocketing in recent years to total nearly £2.9bn.

The figures serve as a reminder that securing a berth on G-Cloud is no guarantee of sales.

Alun Rogers, co-founder of Microsoft partner Risual, told CRN that selling through G-Cloud requires a different approach to traditional selling. He explained that taking time to build up a rapport with customers is not the key.

"Having normal salespeople responding to G-Cloud doesn't work," he said. "Those guys live in a world where they meet a customer, build the relationship, and write a proposal. That's not how G-Cloud works.

"You are selling to an invisible person, therefore the way you write the bid is completely different."

CCS recently back tracked on a decision to delay the latest version, with G-Cloud 10 now set to launch this year and be worth a potential £600m.

Paul Timms, managing director at MCSA, advised aspiring G-Cloud suppliers to focus on specific offerings, rather than generic services that the majority of firms will also be offering.

"Focus on something that is different and would help a particular area of public sector," he said.

"If you put Office 365 into G-Cloud you'll get nearly 1,000 entries. Someone from a public sector body trying to search for an Office 365 partner is not going to trawl through 1,000 partners.

"Through your description you can be very specific and capture requirements quite succinctly."

Richard Blanford, managing director Fordway, agreed that narrowing the focus to specific services is key, adding that the firm has an employee who spends the majority of their time making sure its catalogue of services is as precise as possible.

"The biggest thing we've found over the years is making sure what you've put in is well defined and accurate," he added. "It's a catalogue, and if there are 50 comparable items and yours doesn't look the best the customer isn't going to buy it."