Case Study: public sector sales for small social enterprises
The new Procurement Act 2025 is supposed to make it easier for SMEs to work with and sell to government - but the reality of public sector sales still remains a complex, intimidating chaos for many small businesses. We shared top tips from 6 years of our own experience with Allia’s Open Innovation Challenge participants, all of whom are impact-first businesses looking to make a difference in the public sector.
“I found the whole session was very useful…plenty of opportunity for discussion as well as the spoken presentation.”
“Very informative, good contributions shared.”
The problem
Social enterprises, particularly small ones with a real focus on impact, often struggle to navigate the complex landscape of public sector sales. There are multiple forms, insurance and company policy requirements, payment thresholds, and different criteria across different public sector bodies - not to mention the difficulties of getting in touch with the person who holds the purse strings in the first place. This means that small businesses doing great work, who are really in touch with their communities and know that their solutions work at the local level, often miss out on the opportunity to provide those solutions at scale.
Our solution
We’ve been operating for nearly 6 years across areas including criminal justice, health, adult social care, young carers, homelessness, and at a local community level. In that time we’ve worked with over 30 organisations, of which 12 have been central government bodies, and around 10 have been local authorities or public sector bodies focusing on a particular local area. We’ve worked on projects ranging in size from £800 to £56,000 and have got business through both word-of-mouth and official tender processes. All of this has given us great insight into the public sector sales cycle and the specificities of working with public sector bodies - and we want to share this knowledge with other impact-driven businesses like ours.
Through Allia’s partnership with the GLA, businesses focusing on the skills + employment gap in London were supported through a phased accelerator programme. Target groups included people over 50, people with disabilities, women, young people with special needs, and refugees. As part of this support, we designed an interactive workshop all about public sector sales - the ins and outs and top tips. You can read more about our approach to public sector sales support here.
The businesses
In the workshop we were lucky enough to work with three awesome social enterprises.
Facework: a social enterprise that equips people, particularly refugee communities, to face the changing world of work through skills training and by developing affordable workspaces where communities can learn, share and work together.
Earlybird: an AI-enabled platform supporting organisations, local authorities, and service providers to plug unemployed, economically inactive people back into the system.
Tailored Futures: supporting people on probation and those with criminal records to reintegrate on their release from prison - through accommodation, employment, and social support.
Check them out to see the amazing work they’re continuing to do!
Outcomes
Delivering a session in-person at the Allia building in East London was a joy - and we were delighted to learn through our final survey that all of the business owners enjoyed the workshop and found it useful.
On average, the business owners rated their confidence in public sector sales as 3.75 out of 5.
The business owners rated their network, which could help them make meaningful change, as 4 out of 5.
The business owners rated their skillset to make meaningful change as 4.25 out of 5.
And when asked how empowered they felt to make change in their sector, the business owners gave an average score of 4.5 out of 5.
Albeit a drop in the ocean, if our workshop has supported even 1 of those businesses to secure a public sector sale, that’s a win.