Client Testimonial
“I realized that over 90% of our wins came from relationships…so at the beginning of 2020, I invested to focus our team on growing through relationships.” ~ Heather Lacroix, President
“We made our capture more effective through greater engagement with both new and current customers as well as incumbent primes and partners. We shifted our focus to finding the solution the customer wanted, even if we weren’t the prime.” ~ Meghan Hilbruner, Business Development Manager
Situation Analysis
Since 2011, Chenega Technical Innovations (CTI) had provided Integration, Information Technology (IT), Communications & Electronics (C&E) Maintenance, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Training & eLearning, Systems Engineering, and Cloud Computing. Following an unexpectedly early graduation from the 8(a) program, and facing subsequent sunset of the benefits of the 8(a) STARSIII Heather needed to boost her team’s ability to capture business and strongly cross the threshold from small into the mid-tier.
Problems Solved
Heather wanted to fully engage 8 team members across diverse technical roles and capture experience to collaboratively leverage the company’s track record, in order to cost-effectively:
Enter into new markets targeting new customers
Develop effective messaging around core competencies; and
Increase presence in current customers by expanding services offered to them currently.
Work Completed
Chenega Technical Innovations completed Summit Insight’s Federal Business Intensive Program. CTI engaged Summit Insight to improve the team’s skills and tools in sales and marketing, strengthen service delivery, and improve CTI’s client experience.
“Between 2014 and 2016 CTI was rated the worst in the Chenega company family. Today, we are #2 for culture and climate. We have tangible evidence of the drastic change, and others are asking how to follow our lead. Everyone wants to be like us. Everything we’ve done has increased revenue, profit and satisfaction.”
Within a matter of weeks of completing the program, the Chenega Technical Innovations team had implemented fully-supported, consistent, client connection across their Sales, Delivery, and Support functions.
“You helped us understand how what we each do supports one another, and the importance of communicating the intelligence we gathered in the account. Greater engagement with our team and the players at all the layers meant we stayed competitive and could pivot fast in the face of rapidly evolving needs, language, and requirements, and position to win.”
~ Meghan Hilbruner, Business Development Manager
The payoff: Broader & deeper client outreach in the account; greater engagement with incumbent primes; subject-matter experts were identifying opportunities. The entire team was contributing to business growth.
Within 8 weeks of finishing the program, Heather and team were lined up for $25 million in wins — a combination of competitive and direct awards.
Relationship-based capture is now the essential approach in Chenega Technical Innovations’ long-term growth plan.
Download the whole presentation “High Growth Strategies: Integrated Transformation In Sales, Delivery, & Client Experience” by Judy Bradt and Meghan Hilbruner at the 2022 GAIN Conference.