Client Testimonial
“We don’t sell: we solve. We don’t target clients / customers; we support and enable solutions.
“This approach resonated well with our team, and gave them the confidence to significantly expand their everyday engagement with our clients.”
~ Audie Cooper, CEO, JCTM
Situation Analysis
JCTM had some powerful socioeconomic certifications, including SDVOSB and 8(a), GSA vehicles and MAS SINs, and even their first ISO 9000 certification. But it wasn’t working: they were not able to identify small business set-aside opportunities and win them.
“We were chasing various opportunities as they popped up, reacting to almost every opportunity that came our way. We needed to learn how to focus in the GovCon space.”
Audie wanted to engage his full team, including HR, Security, IT, Contracts, Finance, BD, Capture, Proposal, Operations, alongside him in the business development effort.
Problems Solved
“On day one, you tackled the fears and misconceptions associated with sales. You gave our team confidence in understanding that we are ‘solving’ not ‘selling.’
“Doing so really drove home two major points: 1) everyone in our company has a role in supporting company growth, and 2) these roles are closely integrated, more than anyone realized.
“We learned the implications of the government’s move toward category management and the strategic importance of targeting IDIQ’s and GWAC best-in-class vehicles that have small business pools and schedules aligned with the professional services our company provides.
“You taught us to identify clients and associated contract vehicles that buy what JCTM is selling. The resulting focus, in both clients and requirements, led us to appreciate the value of SBA’s Mentor-Protégé Program (MPP) to our goals.”
Work Completed
JCTM completed Summit Insight’s Federal Business Intensive Program to fully engage their team in growing the business.
“The ‘players and layers’ approach — engaging multiple client personnel associated with an opportunity at various levels—was a major ‘aha’ moment for our team.
“We started to task organize who and how each client player/layer would be engaged. In some cases, we found that our IT Dept Head would be better suited to engage with certain clients instead of our BD lead.
“With this client-focused whole of team integrated approach, we realized that more time was needed to engage each client player at each layer—not just the KO, but also the COR, the TPOC/PM, the Funding Decision Maker, or Senior Leadership. Using this approach, we began to see positive results in winning new clients and expanding our current client growth.
“This concept also heavily influenced our approach to Contact Relationship Management and capture as we shifted to a human-centric, rather than purely business development, approach. You taught us that most human decisions are made with emotion first and then supported by logic: helping them solve a problem so that they and their organization can be successful.”
“By teaching us how to leverage important contract data, business intelligence, and client contact information, coupled with focusing on the emotional decision before the logical one, you gave us an edge over our competitors.
“Relationship development is a skill that needs to be mastered when talking with clients in any capacity. The role-playing and relationship development discussions your program provided on how to engage clients have paid dividends for our entire team and taught us how to focus on the clients’ needs instead of our own.
Results
“We developed a Mentor-Protege agreement with one of our long-standing large prime contractors as well as a related joint venture (JV). That JV just won a major Department of Veterans Affairs IDIQ award. We were one of only 15 small businesses who were awarded a piece of a $60 billion 10-year IDIQ contract.
“Your program drove home the importance of our entire team participating and having a role in growing new business for our company. The whole team is engaged in opportunity assessment and business development, from RFI through RFP. Everybody has a role to play in the capture effort.
This relationship-based approach helped us win two sole source contracts, driving wins worth over $7 million.
JCTM is no longer chasing one-offs but developing relationships related to multiple individual projects each worth between $2 million and $10 million.