2011 Winners and Finalists, Lifetime Recipient Rob Guerra

The IES&BD Excellence in Sales & Business Development Awards, held on May 19, 2011 at the Marriott Fairview Park Hotel in Falls Church, VA, recognized teams and organizations who have demonstrated exemplary performance through leadership, risk taking, innovation, vision and customer development in Sales & Business Development. The Awards honored Greater Washington sales and business development teams for outstanding contributions to their organizations and customers and to the fields of Sales & Business Development.

DLT Solutions (Winner)

With multiple sales divisions managing a large quantity of orders, it was important for DLT to develop a program that provided efficiency and accuracy for customers as well as detailed reporting to partners. Keeping the sales, accounting, and marketing teams aligned was a critical focus point in sustaining a profitable business model. In order to ensure accurate and consistent reporting and pipeline management across all divisions, DLT designed and implemented a custom customer relationship management (CRM) solution (nicknamed SMaRT). The CRM was developed from scratch utilizing internal IT resources and is designed to house an extensive database of customer information including all historical communications, purchase orders and payment correspondence.

DLT also built an automated marketing and sales “factory” utilizing SMaRT, the custom enterprise reporting tool, and another custom-built Web-based marketing activity and workflow system. On the DLT “assembly line,” an integrated team structure with tools for forecasting, workflow management and reporting ensured a polished finished product utilizing unique tracking codes. The DLT sales and marketing “factory” – the combination of the systems and the behavioral discipline that goes alongside – has enabled the company to deliver unprecedented, proactive lead generation results for DLT’s partners and double-digit revenue growth for itself each year since 2006.

Cordia (Finalist)

Cordia is an independent, outsourced accounting, business advisory, recruiting and staffing firm headquartered in Fairfax County and is very proud of three distinct, innovative approaches to our business development strategy. First, we have developed a strategic series of industry specific, high-end wine-tasting events that we co-sponsor with other companies to initiate optimal networking and lead sharing between companies and sponsors. Second, Cordia has developed business relationships with the major Chambers of Commerce in the region by providing outsourced accounting support in exchange for event sponsorship, advertising and board seats. Finally, Cordia initiates interaction between our client’s service providers which helps ensure that our client is well served and that each of us is looking out for business opportunities. These approaches are strategic, cost effective and promote lasting business partnerships that have directly contributed to Cordia’s growth.

Sourcefire (Finalist)

Focused on its mission to be the leader in intelligent cyber security solutions, Sourcefire created numerous innovative sales strategies to fulfill its corporate growth strategy. Called Innovation, International and Indirect, the company doubled the size of its International sales organization in order to meet its goal of half of the firm’s revenue coming from international. Sourcefire also launched a global partner program that would enable Sourcefire to recruit, train and motivate a revenue-driving channel. It launched as Sourcefire’s Global Security Alliance and has more than tripled the channel to over 300 value added resellers and partners.

BroadPoint Technologies (Winner)

As BroadPoint entered 2010, we faced a turbulent and uncertain economic market. While the economy had started to turn for the better, the mindset of business leaders making important investment decisions in their businesses had not. To address this threat and take advantage of the corresponding opportunity, BroadPoint implemented a new sales process and approach that drives to business decisions, not IT decisions. We provided training, both instructor led as well as ongoing team based ‘enhancement and reinforcement training’ – focused on questioning skills and business acumen as well as mindset change to our sales and delivery teams. It allows us to focus on what technology enables in a business, not the technology itself. We introduced tools and templates and a repeatable process that increased our deal size, win ratios and ultimately customer satisfaction.

JK Moving (Finalist)

JK Moving Services has shown dedication to excellence in sales training via:

Certifications: Sales teams are expected to become Certified Moving Consultants via the American Moving & Storage Association, our industry’s premier trade association. In our Commercial division, our sales team has undergone extensive training with the International Office Moving Institute, the gold certification standard within commercial moving.
Ongoing training: JK provides advanced training to its sales teams, so they can be successful with lead generation, nurturing relationships, and understanding customers’ needs. For example, NeuroMarketing training provided education about how customers make decisions on a subconscious level.

Management: Our sales managers are equally invested in staying ahead in management techniques, via Jack Daly’s webinars, and attendance at the “Get Motivated” business seminars.
The results have been excellent: our business development is up 22% over last year, and the percentage of booked moves with pre-sold valuation is up by 45% from last year.

Microsoft Public Sector (Finalist)

Microsoft’s Public Sector Dynamics invests a tremendous amount of resources to ensure that our partners are equipped with the optimum sales skills necessary to grow their business. Companies that sell our Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions to Federal, State & Local Governments and Education organizations have many on-line and on-ground classes available to them. The Sales Management class, for example, offers curriculum on strategies to create sales management and coaching systems to build predictable revenues and best practices for identifying urgent business priorities, connecting the priorities to technology solutions, and creating a new understanding of solution provider value in the minds of customers.

Learning Tree International (Winner)

Learning Tree International is nominated for their unique approach to integrating business development with sales to maximize selling resources, increase organizational efficiency and drive customer-focused solution selling. By developing an internal customer approach to traditional business development functions, aligning goals across departmental boundaries and leveraging shared services, Learning Tree has created an environment that rewards teamwork as well as individual success.

Learning Tree, headquartered in Reston, VA, is a worldwide provider of Management and IT training. Since 1974, more than 2 million course participants from over 65,000 organizations have enhanced their skills through Learning Tree. Virtually every major company and government agency has relied on Learning Tree to provide its managers and employees with the skills they need to succeed in their job functions. For 16 of the past 17 years, Learning Tree has been #1 on GSA Schedule 70, SIN 132.50 (instructor-led IT training).

Carahsoft (Finalist)

Carahsoft provides government-specific sales, marketing and procurement expertise for a select group of information technology solutions providers, resellers, and consulting partners. Our innovative approaches have enabled us to grow from $0 to $840 million in bookings in just seven years. In 2011, we’ll be adding 100 new hires as we target $1 BILLION in sales.

We’ve achieved such fast growth because we do a lot of things right—for our partners, customers, and team members. We host thousands of events each year to educate our government customers and generate demand and awareness for partners’ products. We carefully select future partners whose solutions address the government’s evolving needs, and we make significant investments in training and infrastructure so our reps provide timely, knowledgeable service. Our strategy produces loyal and satisfied vendor partners and government customers who appreciate Carahsoft’s support to think through hard problems and develop appropriate, cost-effective solutions.

Rutherfoord (Finalist)

At Rutherfoord, our employees are our greatest asset. Maintaining an optimal work environment for our people translates into improved customer service and client satisfaction. We believe that one of the cornerstones to building a strong culture is encouraging communication and collaborative learning. Rutherfoord clients are each assigned a client service team. We take great care in building each team; balancing the need for management experience, industry expertise, and fresh talent. This balance creates mentorship opportunities for all employees and ensures that we deliver the most innovative solutions to our clients. Further, each team member is given responsibility for a certain set of deliverables – optimizing service standards and accountability. We believe that giving an employee ownership over their portfolio demonstrates trust and provides an opportunity for them to build rapport. Additionally, clear expectations make it easier for employees to determine the milestones necessary for meeting their professional objectives. By establishing a team-based environment we have improved customer service and enhanced the professional development of our employees.

Blackboard (Winner)

Blackboard is a leading provider of enterprise software applications and related services for learning and development. The Blackboard Learn™ platform is implemented by organizations looking for cost-effective ways to deliver training with real impact. This next generation online teaching and learning platform seamlessly embeds the concepts of informal learning, such as blogs, wikis, and other content-sharing space. Watson Pharmaceuticals found tremendous success by using the platform as a continuous learning environment during three new product launches. Watson’s training department created an online learning environment packed with sales courses, sample sale presentations and tutorials that became an around-the-clock virtual classroom. Not only did the department gain visibility throughout the organization with the implementation of Blackboard Learn, but there was a huge shift in employee behavior, not to mention a substantial cost and time savings and a boost in sales.

ADP (Finalist)

Since 1949, ADP has helped over 570,000 organizations by being the world’s most reliable and trusted workforce management business partner. ADP is committed to servicing the needs of employers — from recruitment to retirement — allowing them to focus on what they do best. Through our proven expertise, ADP enables organizations of all sizes, in every industry, to manage payroll, tax, HR, benefits administration, and time and attendance with solutions that help you to maintain regulatory compliance and control costs.

ADP Workforce Now™ is the most important and exciting new offering in our industry. It includes the integration of our software as a service HR, Benefits Administration, Payroll and Time and Labor Management solutions as well as new functionality in Talent Management and cross-application Reporting. But Workforce Now is more than just great technology, it is a game-changing total client experience including major breakthroughs in our Service, Implementation, Training and Pricing models.

Our in-depth analysis allows us to understand the critical business issues that our potential and existing clients face so that we can tailor our solution suite to meet those specifically defined needs. Additionally, the analysis gives us insight into the culture of the organization so that we can determine if the needs of our customers. In listening and discussing the client’s current processes and needs we are able to become a strategic business partner and not just a vendor.

Apptix (Finalist)

Apptix is the premier provider of hosted business communication services for businesses of all sizes, with particular expertise serving legal, financial, and health care firms. The extensive Apptix product portfolio includes integrated solutions (e.g. Unified Communications) and point solutions including Exchange, VoIP, SharePoint, Web Conferencing, and Secure IM with Presence. Services are delivered over a highly reliable network leveraging best-in-class technology, housed in SAS 70-compliant data centers, and backed by U.S.-based 24/7 support. Apptix has an extremely flexible and customizable partner program with more than 1,500 resellers and referral partners. Channel partners turn to Apptix for its industry-leading on-boarding and migration expertise, award-winning support, robust margins, white-label offerings, and digital marketing assets to leverage the brand.

Living Social (Finalist)

Quality merchants are the backbone of its business. Living Social believes they should expect nothing less from their marketing partners. To that end, Living Social has codified the Merchant Bill of Rights which includes: The Right to a Respectful, Face-to-Face Relationship. The Right to Protect Your Brand. The Right to Clear Terms with No Hidden Costs. The Right to Prompt Payment. The Right to Freedom When Promoting Your Business. The Right to Advance Notice of Your Promotion Date.