GovCon is at a turning point. While most contractors obsess over pipeline forecasts, their government customers watch colleagues pack up their desks, unsure if they’ll be next. The best companies see this as an opportunity to demonstrate human empathy. Instead of pressing for procurement updates, they ask: “How can we help?”

The difference? Trust.

And empathy (the basis for trust) is already determining who gets better intelligence, who gets called first on new work, and who gets sidelined when budgets tighten.

Which side is your team on?

The Human Side of Change

Sarah watched another colleague pack up their desk—the third this week. As a senior program manager, she had been through administration changes before, but nothing like this.

This wasn’t just a shift in policy. It was personal.

That morning, her inbox was full of contractor emails worried about upcoming procurements.

Not one asked how she was holding up. Not one acknowledged that she might not even be here to manage those programs.

This emotional disconnect is already separating winners and losers. While some contractors push harder for meetings about future opportunities, others take a different approach. They treat their government partners like they would want to be treated if they were navigating a similarly uncertain professional environment.

Reality Check: Two Different Worlds

For contractors, change is about business impact. For government employees, it’s personal.

Tom, a government PM, put it bluntly: “I’ve got contractors calling me with questions about upcoming programs, and all I care about now is the personal impact to my team of all these changes. Read the room!”

Even contractors are feeling it. A BD Executive shared, “Nobody wants to talk to me right now. Topics that used to generate hours of conversation won’t even get me a meeting anymore. Their attention is elsewhere, including personal exit strategies.”

And this is where most contractors go wrong. They make customer engagement about their own needs, not the customer’s.

They schedule meetings because they are on their contact plan. They push their agendas and solutions even when it’s clear the customer is overwhelmed. This leaves the customer feeling unheard and unsupported when they need their partners the most.

Beyond Business as Usual

Forward-thinking growth officers are transforming how their organizations support customers. Whether it’s sharing helpful resources, networking to help with career moves, or, most importantly, just listening. When government partners face uncertainty, the best companies step up – not to sell, but to support.

Measurable Impact of Trust-Based Engagement

“One of our industry partners helped us save a critical program,” says Tom, a government PM. “They weren’t even the incumbent. But guess who I trust now and who I’m calling first on new work?”

This trust gap is reshaping the competitive landscape. Companies that pivot from pursuing opportunities to caring about their customers are seeing interesting results:

• Increased access to customers
• Earlier insight into emerging opportunities
• Higher intelligence quality
• Improved probability of sole source awards
• Stronger competitive positioning

“These aren’t just feel-good metrics,” says the CGO of a mid-tier contractor. “When we started measuring relationship quality alongside traditional capture metrics, we saw a direct correlation with win rates.”

The Customer Engagement Disconnect

Most executives think their teams are good at customer engagement. But there’s often a massive difference between what executives think and what their government customers experience.

Even experienced team members can undermine customer trust without realizing it. They talk too much, don’t really listen, push solutions long before fully understanding the problem, and focus on their needs rather than the customers’. In the current environment, they chase procurement updates and ignore what the government counterpart might be dealing with.

Building a Trust-Based Growth Culture

Success requires a new approach, and everyone needs the skills to:

• Read emotional situations
• Have difficult conversations
• Demonstrate empathy
• Maintain professional boundaries yet care about their government partners.

Leading companies are moving beyond the ‘everyone is responsible for growth’ mantra to create structured approaches for building customer trust. Here’s how they’re doing it:

Training Evolution

Successful organizations are implementing training programs to address the following:

• Relationship skills: Start with your onsite personnel. Provide emotional intelligence training and let them practice using real-world role-play scenarios. Onsite personnel are closest to the customer and might confide in them about their professional frustrations and personal challenges.

Roll out to everyone who engages with customers, including the executives. You will know when you’re getting the inside scoop; if you don’t, you’re probably not.

• Observational Skills: Develop the skills to spot early warning signs of customer challenges like empty desks, reorganization rumors, and confusion. When these appear, pivot from operational and growth conversations to customer support.

This integrated approach delivers results.

“When we learned about possible program cuts, our whole team activated,” says Johnson, a growth executive. “Our team gathered impact data, contracts found savings, and leadership engaged at the right level. That only works with connected teams.”

Cultural Implementation and Measuring Progress

Some culture transformation initiatives:

• Weekly customer perspective sessions where onsite teams share customer challenges and brainstorm support approaches.
• Monthly review of customer stress indicators alongside traditional performance metrics.
• Reward systems that recognize exceptional customer support and growth opportunities.
• Cross-functional teams activated to support customers facing program threats and contract changes.

To track success, leading organizations monitor:

• Customer Relationship Quality score
• Frequency of informal strategy discussions (discriminators often surface here)
• Speed of customer response to communications
• Quality of customer intelligence (validated through win/loss analysis)

Market Position: Culture Shift vs. Cost Cutting

While market uncertainty drives some companies to freeze budgets and slash overhead, forward-thinking organizations take a different approach. These leaders see uncertainty as an opportunity to strengthen customer relationships. They’re investing in capabilities and training that help teams better understand and support their government partners, creating long-term competitive advantages.

Your Next Move: From Assessment to Action

Score your organization against these critical indicators:

1. Customer Engagement Quality

• Do your teams understand their government counterparts’ career concerns and pressures?
• When did your customer last share an ‘off-the-record’ concern?
• How often do your customers proactively reach out for advice?

2. Team Skills

• Can your onsite teams identify early warning signs of program challenges?
• Do they recognize new opportunities and share this information with your team?
• Does your team have the ‘relationship skills’ needed for success?
• Do they know how to navigate emotionally charged conversations?
• Have they received training in customer-focused engagement beyond your internal BD processes?

3. Leadership Alignment

• Do you have established customer relationship quality goals and measurements?
• Do you recognize individual performance that supports your growth initiatives?
• Are your investments in customer relationships increasing or decreasing?
• How quickly can you mobilize cross-functional support for a customer in crisis?

“The market will remain uncertain, “said a veteran GovCon executive. “The only certainty is that those who invest in customer relationships today will have a huge competitive advantage tomorrow.”

The question isn’t whether to act – it’s whether you’ll care enough about the customer to matter.