The world is rapidly changing, particularly in terms of technology, and it has brought upon significant changes in business and marketing. That's why adapting in leadership is a must today, and you must be up on your feet to deal with digital advancements and innovations in working with a team. Dr. Tracey Jones talks to speaker and author Mark Amtower, dubbed as the Godfather of Government Marketing. Mark believes that every leader must continuously adapt to handling relationships with other leaders and know how or when to repurpose their strategies according to the internet's current rules. Otherwise, they will be left behind and completely fail to inspire others.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Mark Amtower – Leaders On Leadership
Our guest is Mark Amtower. Mark is a consultant, a speaker, an author, a radio show host and one of the top recognized experts on LinkedIn and in the Federal Government contracting space. You're going to love this interview as we talk with Mark Amtower about what it took for him to pay the price of leadership.
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I am tremendously excited because our guest is the one and the only Mark Amtower. Mark is a consultant, a speaker, author of many books, and he is a radio show host. He's one of the most recognized professionals in the government market and people call him the godfather of marketing to the Federal Government. As somebody who worked in that realm, I can't wait to hear what he talks about with growing his business.
Mark started Amtower & Company in 1985 as a marketing consultancy that was focused on federal contracting and he has advised thousands of companies. He is an author of seven books, a columnist for eleven years, and a radio show host of fifteen years called the Federal News Network. He's also a speaker at over 350 events nationwide and is among the best-known consultants in his market. He is an expert. They call him a true LinkedIn expert and he has been schooling people in the subject matter expert on so many things. Mark, we're tremendously excited to have you here. Thank you for being on my show.
Dr. Tremendous Tracey, I’m honored to be here. My first radio show was in Annapolis and your dad was on. That was many years ago. Time flies.
That must have been quite a show to have you guys together.
All I do is throw up raw meat and let Charlie go.
Do you still have a recording of that?
I wish I did. I do not. If I did, you would have it.
Mark and my father go way back. Mark has stayed in touch with me since I came back to pick up my mantle of leadership and it's been a tremendous encouragement to me, as well as so many others. Mark, we're talking about the price of leadership and this is pulling back the curtain of leadership. Leadership is a beautiful and wonderful thing. It's also a tough and daunting thing sometimes. My father said that anybody that wants to be a leader has to be willing to pay the price of leadership. One of the prices that he said that a leader has to pay is loneliness. We've all heard that phrase, “It's lonely at the top.” As somebody that's been in this space for decades and built your business, can you share with me your leadership journey, and what loneliness as a leader means to you, and how you deal with it?
Loneliness as a leader, I'm a solo consultant so my business is what you see here. Except when my cat comes in.
I have several feline assistants too.
Loneliness is a strange quantity. I'm home-based and have been for more than 35 years so there's the physical loneliness attribute but that's not a leadership thing. When you’re lonely as a leader, it’s preparing a vision, trying to convince people to understand what you're saying. Oftentimes that takes a tremendous amount of time. You have to have a strong belief in what you are doing and the direction you are going. If the market comes with you, great. If the market doesn't come with you, did you err? I have been wrong before. Mercifully, it doesn't happen on a regular basis. We all have that.
Adapting In Leadership: When you're lonely as a leader, spend time preparing and convincing people to understand what you're saying.
I love that you said that because I'm a solopreneur too. I have my co-leader, but always small teams. I'm so glad you're talking to that because there are times where it's not me physically feeling lonely. I love working from home and doing my own thing but when you don't get the market and the market doesn't latch onto you. Sometimes people will come alongside you. I've looked at your website and the packages that you sell and do so you have broken the code on getting people to come alongside. I'm sure in the beginning as you were trying to feel your way through it, it was like, “Who do you yell at?” Your cat?
Fortunately, I wasn't married when I started my business so there was no spousal verbal abuse going on or a spouse hearing you screaming and yelling in your tiny basement office somewhere. It takes a while to find a specific direction. I backed into the government market. My degrees are in American Literature and I tried teaching for a while. I can only get part-time teaching at a local community college and the pay was terrible but in graduate school, I worked at a telemarketing firm. It was a firm that had a lot of integrity and spent a lot of time training their people before they put them on the phone. I learned a lot of things there. I learned to take rejection there, which is a biggie. Charlie used to talk about that all the time, “How many times have you heard no, Mark?” Charlie asked me that once. I’m like, “Charlie, I was a telemarketer. I heard it a million times.”
There are several items and I do a lot of speaking in the market and there's a couple of conferences where I've been a regular speaker for a number of years. One of those is a business marketing conference not focused on government but the principal who put this on asked me to do the lunch speech after I had been speaking there for about ten years. He said, “I don't want you talking about the government because everybody knows that's what you do and everybody knows or has heard you talk about that before, at least everybody who needs to hear you talk about that.” For the lunch speech, I wrote something called Amtower’s Laws of Survival and Success.
There are ten laws. Number ten is, and Charlie would have loved this, he did love it because he had the book, it's the law of tithing. Regardless of what you do and where you do it if you're not contributing to the overall wellbeing of the market, you're not a member or a contributor. There's no reason for you to stand out. The tithing doesn't have to be public. It can be behind the scenes, but it has to be regular and constant. It has to add value to that market niche that you're in and it happens both in business and in your personal life. You’ve got tithe for your family and your church. If you're not fully participating in your family, and a lot of fathers don't. They're busy making money and women too. You have to make a living, but you can ignore that other side of your life.
Fidelity is something that ultimately follows on to the tithing because if you're participating in the community, the fidelity aspect becomes even more important so people can rely on you. They know that you're going to do what you say you're going to do. If you're a family person, you have that family focus. You don't get distracted by other people or other activities. Family is front and center. It’s the same thing with your business. If you have employees, having fidelity to those employees is absolutely critical. Sometimes, with all of the activities that some others can participate in, that can cause loneliness for you too but the price for that loneliness is you know you're right.
I love that word fidelity. That's one of those old-term words like providence and virtue. Dad would say that too. It’s like what you were saying, we may not have somebody physically with us, but we have our passion, we have our family, and we have our faith. When we give back, even though we may be a solo act, we go into the greater collective of humanity. I find that the people that are the loneliest have almost cordoned themselves off and are pursuing a means to an end and not tying their mission or their vision to impacting the lives of others because then you can’t feel.
It's the age of immediate gratification. People, particularly younger people, but it's not exclusive to them, this has always been with us. People who think they deserve certain things but have not earned those things. You see somebody doing something, you immediately say, “That should be me there.” What dues did you pay to make that statement? What is the day pay to get there? I've had people come up to me before, and say, “I can do what you do.” I'm going, “Go for it. If you think you can, do it.” A guy came up to me at one of my book signings and said, “I can write a book on the government market.” I said, “Jimmy, do it. Don't tell me. Do it,” and he did and it's great. It's there, Jimmy Baker’s book.
That's an excellent one. I’m glad you encouraged him to do that. That's awesome.
He was challenging me so I reversed the challenge. “You’ve got the brains, go for it.”
You’ve got to put the work before. Sometimes I can remember when I finished school. It was lonely sitting by my computer every night doing homework while everybody was out having fun and barbequing. I'm sure that guy, to do that book, had to carve out time and be alone because there are certain things in life that we can only do on our own like finding our vision and praying. There are certain things that we do have to do alone so you’ve got to get that nice balance of doing your thing, but then going back to the collective of humanity because that's why we're put on Earth.
I'm on LinkedIn for an extraordinary amount of time but when I'm teaching companies and individuals how to use it, I say, “You've got to be active here. It's an active platform. It can be a passive platform, but there are no dividends. When you're active, you add value.” Self-promotion? No, people get tired of that. When you're saying happy birthday to somebody ask them how they are and mean it.
You can't be lonely because you're building your tribe. You’re a connector. Mark on to the next one. That was loneliness and I do appreciate that because a lot of our readers are entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, or have a small group. That's great input for them. The next price my dad talked about was weariness. I'm sure you and he talked many times about this and he would always say to me, “Tracey, if you're going to be doing anything in life worthwhile, you're going to have some people that do way more than what's expected but a lot that do weigh less.” How do you shoulder the weariness and keep going on? How do you have the stamina? We’re not springing chickens anymore.
Adapting In Leadership: Regardless of what you do and where you do it, if you're not contributing to the overall well-being of the market, you're not a member or a contributor. There's no reason for you to stand out.
Number one, you have to keep the goal in mind. The goal has to be definable and attainable. Map out the past so you have a relatively clear idea of when you're going to get there. It's not one of those, “Where are we going? Here. When are we leaving? Real soon.” The Chinese proverb, “Journey begins with the first step.” If you do not take the first step, you're not going to get there if you want to have goals, want to attain something, or want to write a book. I've had people have problems writing articles. The average article now runs 600 to 700 words because that's the time span that people will allot. If you have an idea, that's going to add value to a particular audience, outline it, find the voice recognition tool and talk about it then you have an editable copy. It's a shortcut, but it's a valid shortcut. It still needs editing and a set of eyeballs that are not yours before it goes out.
Sometimes we don't take advantage of it. I did my PhD. Those interviews, editing, and everybody's like, “I'm going to sit there and type it all out.” I'm like, “No.” There's only so much time in a day. I love that you looked at weariness as getting the experts in to help you because a lot of times, we’re like, “I'm going to do it all on my own.” You don't have to do it on your own. There are programs out there now and every time I use one, I find a better one that's a third of the cost. Even in publishing, I’m like, “I used to do it all. I read it and do that.” No, there are great people out there and now I'm able to handle the workload a lot better because I'm making use of great contractors in my life to help me get to that finish line.
The weariness factor. The myth of the self-made person is nothing more than a myth. Man or woman, we've all had to help along the way. Number one, acknowledge, appreciate, and leverage the help. If you're not doing that, all of those goals are going to turn vague and they're going to dissipate, “I was going to do something today. I'll take a nap.” Follow my cat.
I love that you said, “Recognize it.” I'm a big believer in advocates because I'm laid on the board. When I came back to run the business, my dad and I were from completely different worlds. I'm like, “That was him. That was that schmoozy networking salesy thing. I'm an engineer and operation person so I can do it my way.” For the first five years, I didn't reach out to people because I'm like, “I can do it this way.” That was the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life. I was so weary and it's like, “No, ask for help. Reach out. It's not a sign of failure. It's a sign of ego.” It's there. We have our faith and all these different things. I liked that you hit on the aspect of weariness and recognizing all the wonderful people out there.
You're on LinkedIn, the whole purpose of that, as they tell with speakers, “Stay away from the Ps profanity, proselytizing, promoting, politics,” and I forget what the other one is. We can't be pussycats because everybody wants to hear about everybody's cat. It was one of those things where LinkedIn if you get on there, you connect with me, and the next thing you're trying to pitch me, It’s like, “No.” People do that all the time. Please if you’re reading, don’t do that. I try not to do that. If I do it, call me on it but LinkedIn is the big network to link and collectively help one another.
I figure, if they want to know what I do, my profile on LinkedIn tells you more about who I am and what I do than my website does. It's pretty blatant. I don't need to try to sell you something if we're going to connect. Hopefully, you'll buy something but only if you need it.
Can I say something because I love this and because you're in the coaching and consulting business or sharing information? I love that you put on there, and I get this in the publishing thing too, “I'd love to help you for free but we all have to make a living.” We often make a living and I love that. I'm not stupid. I do expect to pay for expert advice. Somebody once said, “When you pick somebody's brain, you're picking their pocket.” Because if somebody is an expert, you should want to pay them. Yes, we're all altruistic but we're all in here in this world to make a living so we can tithe, give back, pay our bills, take care of our kids, our felines and all that good stuff.
It's funny. I was quoted in the Financial Times of London. I used to get Peter Harrow’s thing Help a Reporter Out, HARO. Peter had this one thing in there and says, “How do you get rid of those people who want to buy you lunch and pick your brain?” Number one, I don't do lunch anymore, but what I did was I put on my website my hourly rate and my minimum. Four hours and it's $600 an hour and $2,400 for half a day. Somebody calls and says, “I want to take you to lunch.” I’m going, “$2,400.” They're going, “What?” I said, “You don't want to take me to lunch. You want to pick my brain.” That's got me into the Financial Times of London. I don't have to tell people why I got quoted there. I can say, “I've been in the Financial Times.”
It's the same thing too as a speaker. People say, “Can't you speak for free?” I had a speaker tell me, “Tracey when people pay more, they pay more attention.” I’m like, “Okay.” I love that because one of the things weariness comes from is when you're getting pulled so many different ways and you're giving so much advice, but you're not working on your business or growing your business. One of the greatest things about this whole pandemic was that we got the chance to clear off so much of that stuff and be like, “This is what we're doing. If it's not directly revenue-generating, yes, I have my ministry and my giving, but that's separate.” I call Time Sucks. You get drawn into this stuff and in the end, it’s not contributing to your success.
That's true but if somebody has a short question, I'll take the time to answer it so they can email me. I have a Calendly app. You can book fifteen minutes of my time. I don't mind doing that. Charlie referred to it as another way of casting bread on the water. It may not come back and it doesn't matter if it does. What it does for you, particularly if all of that activity is in one market niche, your reputation expands exponentially as a result. You mentioned advocates earlier.
In my first book, Government Marketing Best Practices, I did that prospect pyramid thing that we've all seen in business situations but instead of the top being an advocate, I put the top as apostles. There is a historical precedent that if you have several apostles, maybe twelve, you can do extraordinary things. If you're building and adding value to any market niche, you're building that layer above advocate. This isn't an instant gratification gig. This takes time. I've heard of conversations in other people's businesses where they're talking about bringing in a consultant for this or that. My name comes up and somebody says, “No.” Two or three people in the room will go, “What are you talking about? He's the best that does this.” That's what apostles do.
Next one on here. He talks about the third price of leadership is abandonment. You've alluded to this with vision and getting clear on your focus. My father used to say, “We need to abandon what we like to think about and what we want to think about in favor of what we ought and need to think about.” As an entrepreneur, we can tend to be quite looking at a lot of different things and we can typically juggle more balls than most people. How do you stay focused and abandoned? What does the word abandonment in leadership mean to you, Mark?
Adapting In Leadership: The myth of the self-made person is nothing more than a myth.
Over the years, I've been advising companies on marketing for more than 35 years. Back in the ‘80s, a lot of that was direct mail, large physical events, traditional advertising, and public relations. All of that has morphed so I have to abandon certain skills to pursue new skills. I was fortunate, one of my friends bugged me back in 2003 and in early 2004, to join this thing called LinkedIn. I'm going, “Alright.” I finally joined on February 11th, 2004. I am one of the first 250,000 members of LinkedIn. It is older than Facebook. Most people don't know that. I sat there for three years waiting for something to happen. I go, “Nothing's going on here.”
In early 2007, I read two books. Jason Alba wrote a book called I'm on LinkedIn Now What?. It talked about the mechanics of what LinkedIn could do. David Meerman Scott's first edition of The New Rules of Marketing and PR came out about the same time in March or April 2007. I read that. David didn't mention LinkedIn once but what he talked about was how all of these Web 2.0 tools, webinars, podcasts, blogs, and all of these things were changing how we, as individuals, could impact our market niche. We could publish ourselves and abandon traditional methods. The entire ability to share information was shifting and giving you truly exponential reach. I took what David was talking about and applied it to the lessons that Jason Alba taught me in the LinkedIn book.
In 2007 is when I started. In 2009, my LinkedIn profile was number three in a contest called Rock the World with Your Online Presence. At that time, there were 45 million or so people on LinkedIn. Mike O’Neil and Lori Ruff picked seven people as the top profiles. It was in part voting from everybody who was participating and part of this selection committee. Number three, not bad. I also started teaching LinkedIn that year. I've been teaching people about LinkedIn. I'm in my twelfth year in 2020 talking about it. I'm still learning about it. It changes regularly.
It does and you even talk about publishing. That's how my dad and authors produce books, sold books, and bought books. It's a different world, but it's cool. One of my favorite book titles, and it's a great book too, it's called Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers. It may work then but tomorrow is another day. I love that you were able to abandon what worked for you in the past because the future is going to look different and you need to be open to looking for different ways to market, grow, speak, consult, teach, and all that stuff.
Like you, you do a lot of public speaking. I do a lot of public speaking in my market. I rarely get out of DC to speak, but that's okay. Over the pandemic, I haven't had a public speaking gig. What's happened is I've more than tripled the amount of virtual speaking gigs that I've gotten. I don't have to get in my car and I don't have to wear long pants.
I’ve got shorts on too.
We put on a nice top and there we are. Moore’s Law, Gordon Moore was the CEO of a company that made semiconductor stock. His law was for every eighteen months, the speed of these machines would change, and this law came out in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s. That’s shrunk tremendously. Things speed up every twelve minutes now but all of these tools are changing. Do you still know people who use overheads?
Remember that. You get ink and wipe them off.
I used to carry my overhead machine with me to speaking events so I wouldn't have to pay $500 to rent one and that thing weighed a ton.
That is why you have that one arm real strong.
The Popeye arm.
I love your definition of abandonment.
I'm on LinkedIn--Now What (Fourth Edition): A Guide to Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn
Adapt.
I did my PhD in crisis leadership. Number one trade. It's not the crisis. It's your adaptive capacity. It's your resilience. If you robust that, you can turn on a dime and live to fight another day.
If you're not open to that change, you're going to be so far in the past quickly.
The last price that he talked about, and you've hit on this word a couple of times throughout, is vision. His definition of vision, my dad was a prolific, inspirational, and discerning guy. He was also incredibly humble, grassroots, pragmatic, and down to earth.
He gave great hugs.
He wouldn't have liked the last three months when we had to hug. I'm glad he's up in heaven so they could hug freely. That would have not been good. One of the things he said is vision. It’s seeing what needs to be done and doing it. Can you give me your idea of vision and how you gain wisdom, clarity, and discernment? How do you craft your vision?
It goes back in part to that adaptability. When market conditions change, subject matter experts, have to understand why it's changing, what the options are, and among those options, what are the most likely winners. I am one of those. If it's technology, I'm behind a bit. I am one of the least technical people that you'll ever meet. What do I do? I go brain pick from my techie friends who are that high up in the food chain there. I say, “This is what's going on. What are the tools available? Which way do you think things are going to go?” When I see a consensus start to form there, I then bother to learn all of the things that I'm going to be able to understand about that and most importantly, where it's going to play in the marketing side of things, which is my realm.
All of these things are going to impact all aspects of the business, but I am most concerned with how it's going to impact the marketing world. The COVID thing is a classic example. The spring and summer of the fiscal year ends on September 30th. This is a heavy time for business development and salespeople to be in front of customers. There are lots of events going on. Wrong, not now. How did we adapt? We're here. We're on Zoom. Zoom is one of the approved platforms for federal employees. There's only a couple. There's a lot of platforms out there, but not all of them pass the security test. It’s your adaptability there.
Are you any good at these things? There's a hierarchy here. I find Cisco’s WebEx to be cumbersome. It's difficult to run without a Cisco degree. GoToMeeting is quite good. Zoom is the easiest thing to play with in the world. The sound quality's good. You look great. I look like I look. I don't have any choice anymore. It's fundamentally simple and the results, if you had purchased Zoom stock in December 2019 you would have a fourfold return at this point. I don't think too many things in the stock market have done that over several months. It’s your ability to adapt to a situation, employ new tools, and jettison some things that are your traditional bread and butter and find other ways to do this. The resilience of some companies and some associations that our market has been tremendous when it comes to this. Early flops have turned into regular increases in knowledge and success.
I love that you talked about vision because sometimes we'll say, “Vision, that's my thing. I have to cast it out to everybody else so they catch it.” I love that whatever you do is going to be definable and attainable and you tied marketplace changes too. You know what you want to do, but you go out and you seek out the experts. That's valuable because I know what I should do and yes, maybe I've had the anointed call but getting sound input is always a good thing. Not to talk you out of it or not to be lazy because my dad's like, “Sometimes if you're getting advice, it's to delay doing any work.” I'm not talking about that but I love the fact that you talked about it even if you get a vision, it is good to go to those that know more than you. The litmus test, contingency plan, worst-case scenario, unintended consequences, or whatever and put it out there. You want to be prepared as much as possible.
You're known by the company you keep. I keep the company in my business world with people that I know, like, trust, and who are good at what they do. I may be the Godfather of Government Marketing, but that does not stop me from making regular calls to people who are on the front lines. There are companies all the time that say, “Will you take a look at this article for me? I'm getting ready to put it out and I'd like your feedback before I go to press because I don't want any awards.”
That's a great aspect of vision. You may be cooking it up there, but letting other people check the ingredients and the process is always a good thing.
It all comes back to one thing though, your relationships. What do people know about you? Do people like you? Do people trust you? That trust factor, visibility, and credibility are keys to your growth in any situation. It gets back to the myth of the self-made person. Hundreds of people have helped me throughout my career. My first real mentor in the government market, Lynn Bateman was an entrepreneur and a columnist in a publication that I worked for briefly back in the early ‘80s.
Adapting In Leadership: It's your ability to adapt to a situation, employ new tools, and jettison things that are your traditional bread and butter.
She took me under her wing and taught me about the procurement cycles where she was the expert but she also gave me a piece of advice that stuck with me. She said, “Trust your instincts and don't hold back. Don't pull any punches. Say what you think regardless of where you are.” It's one of the reasons I can't work for other people because regardless of the situation, I'm going to say what I think. It's also earned me a reputation of being one of the most candid people in the market.
What's the quote? Is it, “Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the troublemaking individual?” Did you ever hear that?
No, but I like it.
I heard that about years ago and I'm like, “I wish I heard that years ago. That would have explained a lot of this stuff that I’m going through.”
I would have thought that Charlie would come up with that one.
I don’t know. I would have to backtrack it. Maybe so. That critical thinking is good. I read my one devotional and it said, “Confrontational kindness.” Sometimes we have to tell people what they need to hear and out what they want to hear. Especially in today's society, that's not always that doesn't always go over so well.
If you do it in a private setting, not a public setting, you aren't doing irreparable harm to your relationship. You're being honest with someone. I appreciate it when somebody does that with me because I have crossed the line more than once in my career. The Kool-Aid was there and I reached for it. I try not to do that anymore. I'm pretty successful in that. It leads me to a wrap-up thought for you. It was years ago when Harvard did a study that said if people wrote down their goals and read them every day or every week, they were more likely to attain them. They did this study with a graduate class in the business school and indeed, it was true. If you flip that coin, instead of simply the goals put the ethical bounds in which you would work within to attain those goals. Would you be a happier person in the end? What's important to me is what I think of myself, my wife and children think of me, at the end of every day. Anything else is gravy.
When you get to pay the price of leadership, that's wonderful. Know where your foundation is. Eventually, even if you feel alone, you will get the people if you do the right thing that comes alongside you and forms that trust tribe that you need to have together to take your business to the next level. Mark, how do people get ahold of you if they want to know more about what you do or connect with you on LinkedIn because you're the expert or get one of your tremendous books? Please share with us how they can reach out to you.
All of the books, I believe, are at Amazon. A couple of you may have to buy used. My first book, Government Marketing - Best Practices is out of print. I'm not going to put it back in print. There are pretty good used copies. It’s the same thing with Why Epiphanies Never Occurred to Couch Potatoes. That's available but probably used. Find me on LinkedIn. That's the easiest place to find me. I am approachable.
Mark, thank you for everything you shared. You gave me much food for thought as you always do. I thank you for taking the time to share with me some wonderful leadership truths. I know our readers are going to be inspired by all you shared with them too.
Congrats on the PhD, Tremendous Tracey.
To our tremendous readers out there, we hope you've enjoyed this episode. Reach out to Mark. Drop us a note, like, and give us a rating. Reach out to us. Mark and I are both approachable. We'd love to hear from you with any questions or thoughts. Thank you so much and have a tremendous day.
Important Links:
LinkedIn - Mark Amtower
Email - Mark Amtower
Calendly - Mark Amtower
Mike O’Neil - LinkedIn
Lori Ruff - LinkedIn
Lynn Bateman - LinkedIn
About Mark Armtower
According to Guy Timberlake, CEO of The American Small Business Coalition, Mark Amtower is the “Godfather of government marketing.” Government marketing veteran Bob Gosselin called Amtower “the best of the best of government marketing gurus.” One client referred to Mark as “the mentor to a generation of B2G marketers. Another said, “He is the only consultant I have used that is not afraid to say ‘I don’t know, but I know who does.’”
Author, consultant, speaker, LinkedIn coach and radio host Mark Amtower has focused on one market – Global One – doing business with government – for more than thirty years. Known in Washington, DC for his all-black attire and extreme candor, Amtower is by far the most influential and candid voice in business-to-government marketing, quoted in over 250 publications, doing interviews on business-talk radio around the country, speaking at 20-30 conferences and seminars each year.
Each year Amtower consults with senior management in selected companies on government marketing programs. He is the author of Amazon best seller Selling to the Government(2011) and Government Marketing Best Practices (2005). His e-newsletter, The Amtower Report, is widely read by the Federal contracting community.
His radio show, Amtower Off-Center, is heard on Federal News Radio, WFED 1500 AM in Washington DC. The hour-long talk show airs Monday at noon, and is simulcast and archived onwww.FederalNewsRadio.com. Running since February, 2007, it was the first talk show anywhere to deal with doing business with the government.
He is the founding partner of Amtower & Company. He is widely recognized as a leading authority on Federal marketing and consults with senior management in several companies on government marketing programs.
Amtower has advised over 2,500 companies since founding Amtower & Company in 1985. His consulting services have led to well over $30 billion in sales, helping many companies become category leaders in the government market.
Amtower has been quoted in over 250 publications since 1994, including the Washington Post, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Investors Business Daily, BtoB magazine, Washington Technology, Federal Computer Week, Financial Times of London, Maryland Business Daily, Washington Business Journal, Federal Times, Corridor magazine, VAR Business, Government VAR, Reseller Management, Marketing Computers, Network World, International Office Product News, DM News, Catalog Success, Direct, Target Marketing, Government Computer News, MultiChannel Merchant, Management Consulting News, Chief Marketer, BusinessWeek.com and many others.
He is a frequent contributor to national business publications, having written over 200 articles for Washington Technology, Catalog Age, Catalog Success, DM News, Federal Computer Week, Government Executive, Government Technology Reseller, MC (Marketing Computers), Reseller Management, Target Marketing and others.
Amtower is a popular speaker at various industry events, including the AFCEA Homeland Security Conference, Annual Catalog Conference, APMP, Axciom/Direct Media Business Coop, Business Mailer’s Group, Coalition for Government Procurement Annual conference, Direct Marketing to Business (DMB), Federal Channels, FOSE, Grant Thornton’s CEO Government Roundtable, HighTech Direct, MacWorld Summit, MeritDirect B-to-B Coop, Northern Virginia Tech Council (NVTC), SEWP Conference, TechExpo, and others.
The premier Amtower & Company seminar, Government Marketing Best Practices, launched in March 2002, has been attended by more than 1,000 companies, and over 2,500 professionals. Government Marketing Best Practices has been presented in 15 U.S. cities. It is now part of the Government Market Master Continuing Professional education program.
The Government Market Master program offers workshops twice each month in Columbia, Maryland.
More than 10,000 professionals have attended his presentations since his first public session in 1991.
Mark Amtower is widely known for his candor in his articles and presentations.
Amtower & Company was founded in 1985.