Clients
Scot Incorporated designs, develops, tests and manufactures high reliability pyrotechnic, electro-mechanical and pneumatic systems and components at its Downers Grove, Illinois facility. Scot is a major supplier of pyrotechnic and pneumatic devices and systems for aircraft, missiles and space programs, serving both the commercial and government market sectors.
In 2006, Scot initiated a comprehensive strategic business development initiative to strengthen their market position in the government sector. The company identified a need to be engaged with key customers earlier in the sales cycle, and was looking for ways to improve their competitive proposal development capabilities.
Strike Team LLC first conducted a capabilities assessment to pinpoint areas for improvement. Next, we delivered Miller Heiman’s Strategic Selling® and Conceptual Selling® programs to the business development team, and assisted Scot with the management controls and reinforcement processes required to implement the methodologies. To address proposal development, Strike Team LLC helped Scot identify people within the organization to form a core proposal team; developed and delivered a series of “just-in-time” proposal workshops; and provided coaching for the proposal teams on two large competitive procurements. Scot won both programs and continues to realize significant benefits in their business development and proposal efforts.
CPS Human Resource Services (CPS) is a governmental agency committed to improving human resources in the public sector. As a self-supporting public agency offering a full range of human resource products and services, their highly qualified, professional staff provides practical solutions for all levels of government, school districts, colleges and universities, and nonprofit organizations throughout the United States and Canada.
CPS identified a need to better align their sales and marketing activities during a company wide organizational development activity. They wanted better alignment of their sales and operational staff, and a better balance between organic growth activities and longer term strategic growth initiatives.
Strike Team LLC began the engagement by developing a current state model of the marketing and sales functions. Key stakeholder interviews identified several areas where process improvements, team based selling activities and enhanced collaboration could improve performance. Next, we used Miller Heiman’s Sales Best Practices Study research to help build an operating construct that would enhance communications; strategically position the sales function within the organization, and differentiates sales activities/processes used with current customers from the actions required for new business acquisition.
MTSI is an industry leader in advancing the state-of-the-art in aircraft survivability, air defense, missile defense, flight test engineering, and modeling and simulation. Formed in 1993, MTSI provides objective independent and scientific assessments to support aerospace weapons systems design, development, integration, test, and deployment. The company is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia and has operating locations across the country.
MTSI has enjoyed several years of double-digit growth in revenue and profits, primarily from organic growth within its core customer base. The MTSI leadership team recognized that sustaining this high level of growth would require the company to develop strategic business development capabilities as it moved into highly competitive adjacent and new market areas.
Strike Team LLC began by assessing and validating the company’s strategic growth objectives. From this, a series of process improvement goals and strategies were developed, including:
- Using Strategic Analysis to provide deeper insight into
potential market segments
- Improving the opportunity identification process
- Improving the ability to forecast and make resource decisions
- Aligning Independent Research & Development (IR&D) activities
with strategic growth objectives
- Improving the proposal development process
- Creating a collaborative, team-based selling environment
Strike Team LLC developed a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) that integrated strategic and tactical business development; designed the MTSI opportunity pipeline and associated management review process; delivered business development process training to the technical and operational staff; and, implemented the entire process in MTSI’s SharePoint application to enhance visibility and collaboration. To address proposal development, Strike Team LLC is working with MTSI to implement a series of best practices through proposal development workshops, hands-on support to key proposal development projects, and the implementation of Strike Team LLC’s Proposal Toolkit, a series of templates and management tools that ensures proposals are both compliant and compelling.
Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Engility Corporation is a systems acquisition solutions and services provider. The company provides the U.S. Air Force C4ISR and IT acquisition support to ensure information dominance. Engility also provides system engineering and technical support of ground based navigation and landing systems, landing lighting systems and satellite based navigation systems to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In support of corporate growth initiatives, Engility identified a need to better understand the market potential in adjacent and new customer market segments; to improve its ability to forecast future revenues; and to increase the number of qualified business opportunities in its business development pipeline.
Strike Team LLC assisted Engility in these efforts by conducting a series of Strategic Analysis workshops. Leaders in key Engility market and service delivery areas used Strike Team LLC’s Market Segmentation and Situation Analysis tools to identify and document the size of each market segment; trends impacting the segment; competitor strengths and weaknesses; and, specific business opportunities that were a strategic fit with Engility’s core competencies and strategic market objectives. The results were compiled into an updated opportunity pipeline that the leadership team used to validate the Strategic Plan and to focus long-range business development resources.