Pratical Tips for Focusing Sales Efforts and Cutting Costs Using VisibleThread and Clarity Grader

Fairfield Technologies Inc.
“Customer-Focused, Results-Driven.” SM
CMMI Level 3 ● HUBZone
Practical Tips for
Focusing Sales Efforts and Cutting Costs
Using VisibleThread and Clarity Grader
VisibleThread Users Conference
November 17, 2016
November 17, 2016
2016 VisibleThread Users Conference
Copyright 2016, Fairfield Technologies Inc.
www.fairfieldtech.com

Agenda
• Session Objective and Agenda
• Background (Fairfield Technologies, in one slide)
• 1) Improving Your Market Intelligence and Sales Focus
– What do your customers really care about?
– Do your proposals and collateral match up? Why (or why not)?
• 2) Increasing Proposal Delivery Speed, Effectiveness
– Increased recruiting efficiency (focus)
– Increased proposal response efficiency (compliance)
• Conclusions
• Q&A
November 17, 2016
2

The Key Question
• Results matter, regardless of organization size
• Small companies must deliver equal/better
performance as large, “name brand” competitors
• How do you do this with far fewer resources?
November 17, 2016
3

The Answer…
• Work smarter (also harder), using trained people and
the right tools (say, VisibleThread and Clarity Grader)
• This session presents case studies and practical tips
to improve your market intelligence and focus,
increase your proposal delivery speed and overall
compliance
• Presented from a small company, Federal contractor
perspective, but applies equally to any organization
without an unlimited budget
November 17, 2016
4

Fairfield in One Slide
Our
Mission
“Customer-Focused, Results-Driven.” SM
We Build, Modernize, Secure, and Support Federal IT Systems
Our
Company
Fairfield Technologies Inc. (FTI), an award-winning Federal contractor with 26
years’ experience delivering lifecycle information technology & mission support.
CMMI Level 3 ● HUBZone ● 2015 DHS Small Business Achievement Award
2016 HUBZone Corporate Citizen of the Year - HUBZone National Council
Customer
Focus
•National Security – Defense, Intelligence, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement
•The Sciences – Space, Weather, Environment, Healthcare
Fact - FTI is prime contractor on 75% of our projects
Major
Clients
DHS/USSS, DoD (Army, Navy, Air Force, Natl. Guard, DIA, NGA), FBI, DOJ,
NASA, Commerce (NOAA, NWS, USPTO), USDA/FS, DOI/FWS, HHS/NIH
Focus
Service
Areas
1) Agile SW Development; 2) Enterprise IT Services - Infrastructure moderniza-tion,
integration, virtualization, cloud migration, virtualization, cost reduction; 3)
Cybersecurity; 4) Mission Support - Program management, BPR, QA/testing,
surge, acquisition/business/mission support, data mining/visualization, geospatial
Why
Fairfield?
(Differen-
tiators)
1) We know our customers (mission & technology); 2) Best practices (CMMI,
Agile, ISO, ITIL, 6σ, EVM, PMBOK, CISSP, technical certifications) = better
results, delivered faster & cheaper; 3) Awesome people (94% retention rate); 4)
Highly-selective recruiting, intensive training = ongoing client satisfaction
November 17, 2016
5

1) Improve Market Intelligence
• What do your customers care about?
November 17, 2016
6

How Do We Match Up?
• Not bad, but could be better…
November 17, 2016
7

Quick Look at the Website?
• Top levels: Pretty good…
• …let’s dig into the details…
November 17, 2016
8
Excellent! Excellent! Pretty Good Needs Work..

Practical Improvements?
• Detailed pages need to be more readable? Yes…
• What’s the problem? Ask Clarity Grader…
November 17, 2016
9

And the Problem is…
• Press releases written by PhDs, not Marketing!
November 17, 2016
10

To Be Fair, Some Topics
Are Just More Complex…
November 17, 2016
11

2) Increasing Proposal
Delivery Speed, Effectiveness
• VisibleThread helps in recruiting qualified staff:
November 17, 2016
12
Identify Key Terms
In Job Description Identify Key Themes
To Look for in
Candidate Resumes

VisibleThread:
A Critical Proposal Compliance Tool
November 17, 2016
13
Step 1: Identify Key Terms
That Signify Proposal “Must Haves”

Proposal Compliance
(contd.)
• Compliance matrix exported to MS Excel and
ready for response detail
November 17, 2016
14
Step 2: Respond
To Terms
In Context

Proposal Compliance
(contd.)
• Critical for effective, fully-compliant proposal
response
• Very time-consuming when done manually
• Challenging to be done well (or even at all) if
your proposal team is just you and your
critical staff, working nights and weekends
• VisibleThread is key to our ability to respond
quickly and well to our customers’ needs
November 17, 2016
15

Conclusion
• Regardless of organization size or focus,
results always matter!
• There is no “silver bullet” for getting results
• However, investing in trained people, “best
practices”, and excellent tools can help across
the entire organization
November 17, 2016
16

Questions?
November 17, 2016
17

Contact Information
Contact
Mr. Kenneth Fried, PMP
CEO/President
Phone (703) 968-7800, x101
Email kfried@fairfieldtech.com
Address
520 William Street, Suite D,
Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401-5775
Website http://www.fairfieldtech.com
http://www.linkedin.com/company/fairfield-technologies
@FairfieldTech
November 17, 2016
18

Pratical Tips for Focusing Sales Efforts and Cutting Costs Using VisibleThread and Clarity Grader

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