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Field notesApril 12, 20262 min readBlogPosting

How to write the first outreach email to a government decision-maker

In this article
3 key takeaways

Governments will not respond to your outreach email if you come across trying to sell them something before making the effort to understand them and their situation.

And that doesn't mean masking your approach with a shallow statement like "what part of this feels most relevant to you?". It's not scheduling a dedicated "lead qualification" call, and it's not dumping your entire product spec into an email expecting them to vet themselves.

Reach out, say what you do in one sentence, and express interest in learning about how they operate and what pain-points they see. Make it clear that your goal is to understand whether what you've built is actually useful in their system, or what version of it would need to exist to become so.

At the end of the day, you're there to be helpful and provide value, not to force a quick sale. These are people who have spent years wading through vendors like you and me, and they can smell your authenticity. The tone of your message should reflect genuine curiosity, a willingness to put in the work to understand their environment, and a recognition that they're not just another action item in your HubSpot, but someone whose success you're actually invested in. Be willing to say you aren't a good fit, make it about them, and don't waste their time.

If you'd like to see my current outreach template, reach out — happy to share.

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