Beth,
We received our GSA IT Schedule this afternoon! I submitted it on March 5th and we received the award today, one month and 2 days later.
He said that the reason the award went so quickly was because I was so responsive and because the package was well put together. Thought you would want to hear his comments.
Thanks to all for assisting me with the submission.
Barbara R. Schipper
Chief Operating Officer
www.siltekinc.com
Richard:
Hope you are doing well.
Back in December I attended Eileen's "Federal Sales 101" class in Chicago. I had been newly appointed as our division's Government Sales Manger and had only been on the job for about a month and a half. Although I had been with the same organization for almost thirteen years I had done my best to stay as far away from Federal Government sales as I could. I didn't understand it and it seemed like too much of a hassle. So when our government team at that time decided to leave the company all at once I reluctantly accepted the responsibility because I was literally starting from scratch.
I wanted to let you know that Eileen's class and your book, "Rolling The Dice In DC", have been extremely helpful to me. The straight talk about what works and what does not gave me confidence that I could not only handle the job but also grow our business. I do have an advantage over many just starting out in that we already have several government contracts in hand including a GSA schedule and a blanket DLA contract. But, prior to being introduced to Eileen I did not have a clue where to start. Also, I was under the assumption that no true selling occurred with the government, one needed only to dot the "i's", cross the "t's" and get the bid in on time. I now know better.
I have been on the job close to six months now and still have much to learn. But with the knowledge provided by you and Eileen I at least have an action plan and the confidence to be able to tackle a job that many in our organization still fear as I once did. We are reaching new customers that we have not conducted business with in the past and we are selling new products to existing customers who have been buying from us for years.
I ran into Eileen at the GSA Expo last week where we were able to chat a little and I just wanted to drop you both a note to give you my thanks.
Marcus James
Government Sales Manager
Doosan Infracore
Office: (704) 655-5310
E-Mail: Marc_James@dii.doosan.com
Web Site: www.doosanportablepower.com
Mr. White,
I just wanted to take a moment to comment on what a wonderful job Eileen did while coaching me through the LOGWORLD Schedule. She took me through the process step-by-step and we are now ready to submit the final product. Having the course in a great place like Chicago was also wonderful. There is so much to do and see. I hope to get out to more courses in the Windy City this spring so I can catch a Cubs or Sox game. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for putting together such a great team at Fedmarket. Eileen does an excellent job training students and definitely takes the mystery out of the GSA Schedule. I have begun to send my employees through the Sales 101 Classes and they are now talking to Government agencies like never before. Most of us are prior military officers, so we have some degree of how the game works. However, there is so much more out there--and Eileen really convinced us of that!
Respectfully,
Kevin Drew
Director of Government and Military Logistics
General Freight Services, Inc.
10151 Deerwood Park Boulevard
Building 400; Suite 210
Jacksonville, Florida 32256
Toll Free: (866) 490-8804
Cellular: (904) 316-2205
kdrew@gfreight.com
www.gfreight.com
Dick,
I have to admit, I was a little skeptical when I signed up for the January eLab that I could truly leave the lab with a completed GSA Schedule proposal in only 3 business days. Not only did I leave with a completed proposal, but I also left armed with the knowledge I needed to successfully complete negotiations with GSA. Your advice and that of your expert consultants was invaluable to me during the entire process. We were just awarded our GSA Schedule contract, and I have to thank you for taking the mystery away and making it such an easy process for us. I will certainly recommend the eLab to other small business owners.
Best,
Mary Beth Romani
Chief Executive Officer
Integrity Management Consulting, Inc.
www.consultwithintegrity.com
Tel: 703.283.4476
I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the holidays. Just a quick note to inform you that Omega Communications finally received the GSA award for IT-70 and we have gotten our contract number. Thank you all so much for all of your help and assistance and hand holding during this process. We couldn't have done it without you!
Take Care,
Alexis C. Milner
Executive Assistant
Omega Communications, Inc.
Fedmarket's Federal Sales Academy Director, Eileen Kent, has been a regular keynote speaker for SYNNEX Corporation for 5 national events since 2005 and she recently appeared as a Keynote General Session Speaker as well as a Breakout Session Speaker at their "Red, White and You" event at the Hotel Intercontinental in Chicago, IL March 2008. Here is what her customer had to say about Eileen's Contribution to their event:
"We had great response from your sessions and wanted to extend a sincere expression of our thanks to you for participating in this year’s "Red, White and You" conference. Your knowledge and expertise provided a lot of valuable information to our customers and we appreciate your willingness to help make this year a success."
Christina Hendricks
SYNNEX Corporation
christinahe@synnex.com
This is a service long over-due. And, well done. The personal attention to individual needs was fantastic. For sure this could have been done without FedMarket. But, instead of taking two and a half days it would have taken two and a half months. Fantastic return on investment. I look forward to working with you "guys" in the future.
Regards,
Mike Gorman
President
Whitemarsh Information Systems
Dear FedMarket Team,
I want to thank you all for the very professional training programs conducted last week in Bethesda. I walked away with great information on Winning Government Business, Writing and Managing Winning Proposals and GSA Schedules. The teamwork involved to produce these informative training programs was apparent.
Eileen Kent was a great trainer.She was very knowledgeable but more importantly she personalized the material toward each participant.
Behind the scenes I experienced great customer service from Matt, Beth and Suzie. Anything I asked for was followed up on immediately.
As a customer service and management trainer I tend to be very critical- you all did an outstanding job! I realize FedMarket has many competitors- I’m glad I chose you.
Jill A. Staples, CHA, MS
President
jill@north-star-hospitality.com
www.north-star-hospitality.com
Richard and Beth,
I just spoke with my GSA Contracting Officer earlier this morning regarding the proposal I submitted last month. I wanted to pass along to you some very flattering comments that she offered on your behalf. Since most of us plod along in our professional lives with minimal feedback on how we are doing, (unless it is negative) I thought I would take a moment to share with you my Contracting Officer's comments about you and your team of professionals at FedMarket.
As you know, the arena of government sales and GSA Schedules was virgin territory for me. I have to admit that I found the paperwork overwhelming and intimidating. I have spoken to other colleagues and business owners who had spent the good part of the year trying to get on a schedule. I was expecting the same. My Contracting Officer called me this morning. She had basically one clarification on my pricing. It was less than a five minute conversation. When she said that I should be expecting the paperwork for my signature via fax later today wrapping up this proposal, I was taken by complete surprise. Remembering my conversations with others who have attempted getting on a schedule, I was anticipating several rounds of letters and further documentation before being done, taking hours of additional time and months to execute. After confirming that this was the final phase, she said it had to do with the quality of the proposal that I submitted. I confessed to her that my proposal was the product of an Elab seminar that I took in January sponsored by FedMarket. I told her that the credit was really owed to the assistance of Dick White's staff Beth White and Eileen Kent who walked me through the mountain of forms and applications during this three day seminar. My Contracting Officer was quick to interject that FedMarket does an outstanding job with the proposals that you consult on.
So what I wanted pass on to you is that the staff at the GSA office that reviews and negotiates the proposals for the GSA schedules, holds you and the professionals at FedMarket in high regard. My Contracting Officer was very complimentary about your company and the quality of service that you provide to your customers. You clearly have an excellent reputation with them. From personal experience, I can vouch for the professionalism and expertise in making this as painless and efficient a process as possible. You offer an outstanding service to business owners such as mine. I can't thank you enough.
Truly,
Lisa Freda
Commonwealth Physician Recruiting
I tried on and off for a year to complete the GSA solicitation on my own. The experts at Fedmarket took the time to understand my business and walked through the process of completing the solicitation in under 3 days. There is absolutely no way I could have completed the process without the Fedmarket team.
Eric Dodson
President
onShore Development
Last week our GSA number was awarded and today we received the acceptance packet. We would not have been able to do this without your help and can't thank you enough. I'm sure we'll be taking advantage of additional seminars and materials and would be delighted to refer others to your firm."
Thanks again,
Mike Esterday
President, Integrity Services
Everything went just as you explained two weeks ago when I decided to invest in the Fedmarket GSA program. I actually finished in 2 days and am ready to submit our GSA proposal. Very impressive, this would not have been possible had we kept the project in-house."
Regards,
Barry Culbertson, President
www.powerproducts.com
I recently attended the “Writing and Managing Winning Proposals” course in San Diego (2007). It was an outstanding class. Eileen Kent, the instructor did a remarkable job. I definitely recommend this class for those individuals to obtain a better understanding of how the government reviews and processes RFPs.
Her insights to proposal-writing, sales and government contracting in general helped me understand what it takes to win government proposals. I left the course with confidence, practical tips, thought provoking articles and real life stories to take back and inspire our marketing and proposal team.
Her support after the class through phone and email was very responsive and gave me the information I needed to satisfy my requirements. As a technical training and development professional I tend to be very critical and ask many questions. Eileen’s performance was outstanding!
Eileen, I want to thank you again for such a great course and especially for the additional help and support.
Robert Akong
Training Program Administrator
Thank you and your team for facilitating the completion of our GSA Schedule proposal. I found the eLab very productive and I believe it has added a couple of years to my life! I will definitely recommend your services to others.
Best,
Cynthia Karnik
www.flightworks.com
I was in your October GSA eLab workshop, and thought I'd give you an update.
In about 6 weeks since working together in your GSA workshop I had a GSA IT Schedule in hand. Thanks for your help. I know we could not have done this without your help and the workshop approach was an efficient way of approaching it.
I was prepared for what transpired with GSA negotiations after I left your workshop. The price negotiation with GSA went exactly how we discussed in the workshop so there were no surprises..
I'm sure that getting a GSA schedule will be instrumental to our growth.
Thanks again.
David Alvey
TeamPQT
Eileen recently conducted a training session for our government sales team. Though many of us have years of experience in government sales, this session gave us new insight into the Federal market and provide new valuable sales techniques that we can put to use right away. Eileen's innovative approach to finding the right people, asking the right questions and finding new opportunities was exceptional. This is a must have course for anyone involved in government sales and well worth the investment.
Bowie Abercrombie
VP Government Sales
Allsteel
abercrombiew@allsteeloffice.com
(563) 299-7585
Thank you for your GSA workshop. I just got the GSA Award.
Eric Hollander
CEO
Chiral Software, Inc.
The "Winning Government Business" seminar was excellent. It was one of the only seminars I can think of that provided truly useful, experience-based information and guidance that I can genuinely use right now. I don't know where else we could have gotten this information -- at least not in my lifetime.
Mike Taylor
Director of Corporate Development
AMI Environmental
800.828.8487
I want to thank you and your entire staff for the services you provided to prepare and complete the GSA schedule. From the onset with the first conversation with Matt Hankes explaining why the E-Lab will be beneficial to my business and the best investment to Suzie White's follow up with the instuctions on preparation of the application then onto the actual course.
Your team of instructors were very capable, approachable and competent to provide the best support during this process. The capabilities of Fedmarket put me at ease and provided the specialized support I needed. You made an overwhelming task possible to the point of completion by the end of the 3 days. I also appreciate your attention to our basic needs providing a comfortable setting, meals, coffee/tea, chocolate anything to help us get through the application. I thank you for the support and will testify to any potential customers that your service was well worth the investment!
Most Sincerely,
Luby Ismail
President Connecting Cultures
Our company submitted a proposal for a GSA MOBIS contract two years ago but we were turned down. Richard White took 30 seconds to look at our Experience section and knew why. Over the course of the three-day eLab, Richard, Beth White, and other consultants reviewed every aspect our new strategy, helped me rewrite the problem areas, and gave invaluable advice on dealing with GSA contracting officials. I can’t say enough about how beneficial this eLab proved to be for Geo-Marine.
Elizabeth Taylor
Technical Writer
Business Development Department
Geo-Marine, Inc.
etaylor@geo-marine.com
972-543-4213
Eileen,
Your webinar was a tremendous value for us. You did a fine professional job dealing with a topic of such incredible breadth. We were all quite blown away by the presentation. Your completely unsolicited follow-up email is icing on the cake. You are wrong about just one thing; your email-attached document was beautiful indeed - to this bunch of guys looking for the way to contracting success along the Gulf.
Thank you for the time you carved out of your schedule to do this.
Don Trueblood
Project Manager
714-634-9050 x110 * 800-327-2112 x110
Cell 714-448-0226 * Fax 714-634-4169
tblood@metalclad.com
Mr. White,
I recently attended the seminar "Fed Sales 101: Winning Government Business", proctored by Eileen Kent. What a joy. Eileen has to be one of the brightest young ladies I've encountered. She was spunky, energetic, knowledgeable, and totally engaging. She had superb examples to support her points, actively involved the audience, and had a way of energizing the whole class into wanting to do a better job in marketing to the government.
Amazingly, even after she lost her voice, she continued to press on, stayed positive, and never tried to hurry the session. In fact, not only did she see that session through, but she also led a networking session later that evening, with almost no voice.
Mr. White, you hit a homerun getting Eileen on your team. She is serving you well. I just wanted you to know that. After 30 years in the military, and commanding multiple times, I am a pretty good judge of people and talent. I would hire Eileen to do anything, anytime, anywhere. If she didn't already know how to do it, she would soon figure it out. Well done, Eileen.
Sincerely,
Boots Miller
Michael J. "Boots" Miller
Colonel (ret), USAF
CasePro, Inc
Director, Government Services
w (210)496-8050
c (210)748-9551
I just wanted to let you know that the seminar was extremely informative and inspiring for me and my company to dive into the Federal market space. I am highly recommending your services to all of my colleagues that are interested in federal business opportunities. I hope to have a success story to share soon!
Pedro D. Tello
Account Manager
Xylex USA, Inc.
Office: (954) 517-0011 ext. 304
It truly was a pleasure to attend the eLAB work shop. We appreciate your help and completeness in putting the schedules together. Your approach established for this work shop was very affective. You, Richard, Beth, Suzie and other Fedmarket staff were awesome.
Paul Corwell
ATK
Paul.Corwell@ATK.com
Thank you for the information. I thoroughly enjoyed Eileen’s workshop. She was very informative and motivational. This week we’re going to develop a more focused strategic plan for the company for this and next couple of years based on this workshop.
Mahalo Eileen!
Richard Kim, Ph.D.
The Catalyst Group, LLC
770 Kapiolani Blvd., Suite 414
Honolulu, HI 96813
(808) 593 . 1998
www.tcgoc.com
Dear Fedmarket Team: I wanted to let you know that the GSA contact award finally came! It would have happened a bit sooner but we had a couple of rounds of pricing / discounting discussions which required written correspondence. What I found to be useful was developing a personal relationship with our GSA contact point – this was useful during the process and will be good moving forward.
Thanks for all of your guidance and recommendations.
Craig Willison
Chief Operating Officer
CompeteNet, Inc.
Hi Fedmarket,
I attended your GSA eLab last October. I just wanted to pass along to you that I submitted our schedule application in late December. We were awarded our contract under Schedule 75 on March 16.
I found the eLab quite helpful in navigating through a very confusing process. Thanks for your assistance.
Joe Tosolt
Marketing Manager
Innovative Office Products, Inc.
Dear Richard,
I just wanted to say thank you to you and your team for a successful trip to Bethesda, MD! I left the GSA eLab with a completed proposal in just two days! The first day was really intense and a bit overwhelming, but the next day I flowed through the solicitation with ease.....thanks to one-on-one help of you your team. Eileen was just a kick! She helped turn the eLab into a fun and educational environment.
I had been working on my solicitation for 6 months and reached a point where I had to get help. I am so glad I did! My boss was thrilled as well. We weren't sure if I should go because of the expense, but we realized how important it was. Besides, we will get that money back in future sales to the Government. Right?
I was able to spend my third day sight-seeing in downtown Washington, DC. What a powerful place to visit! I tried to have lunch with President Bush, but he was all booked up. ;)
I can't thank you enough for all your help.
Best Regards,
Laura Ramos
VP Sales & Marketing
Enterprise ArchiTechs, Inc.
www.earchitechs.com
Office: (805) 577-0509
I just returned to my office with the equivalent of a college degree crammed into two days. The seminar I attended, "Selling to the Federal Government" was organized, seasoned, interactive, relaxed yet formal in focus, and above all totally comprehensive. I learned 100 times my seminar cost and regret not going before applying for my GSA contract.
Michael J. Gibson
VP/Director of Marketing/GSA
Winston Industries, LLC
P: 502-495-5404
mjgibson@winstonind.com
We just won the construction management services contract for a major Federal Building and Courthouse! Thank you so much for all your encouragement and advice. It'll be a few years before this project is constructed, but the PM, CO, and COR are great, by the way. And, as you've often said, "they're just people, too."
Thanks again!
Garrett Terlaak
O'Connor Construction Management, Inc.
Your class was spot on in meeting our needs and when I used your technique to get a key contact in the government to open up, it worked! Furthermore, my government contact reinforced every point you made on how to work in the GSA schedule environment!
Well worth the investment in your training.
Mark Tomasevich
Alteon Training
A Boeing Company
Phone: 206-662-8103
mark.tomasevich@alteontraining.com
Dick,
We are a small technology company, who until recently never considered attempting to enter the government business sector. By chance, we had previously been awarded two government contracts through open-source. On both occasions, our efforts working with the GSA were very challenging experiences. We decided early this year to look into obtaining approved GSA Schedules; found out about your company through a search engine and I attended the eLab in March.
I remember walking into the Federal Sales Academy classroom and meeting one of your team. They introduced themselves, and asked me which schedules I was there to apply for... and I had no clue. Obviously we would have been hard-pressed to apply for the GSA contract on our own.
We submitted our IT-70 solicitation the day after I left your seminar in late March and our contract was awarded two days ago (less than three months after submission). Our Contracting Officer even complimented us on a well-prepared package!
Our thanks to you and your staff (Laura Kiff, Eileen Kent and Beth White) for the intense and extremely valuable three days spent in Bethesda.
Best regards,
Charlie Latham
Chief Operating Officer
Incodea Corporation
latham@incodea.com
www.BusinessPilot.com
As of June 1st 2005 our company will have it's GSA Schedule Contract Number. It was a bit of a task dealing with the actual submission of our proposal but it would not have been at all possible without your help, advice and direction. Thank you for all your support. It was a pleasure meeting you and knowing that your GSA eLab is a long needed necessity for companies like us.
Thanks Again,
Kenneth W. Lonas
Government and Educational Sales Department
Markertek Video Supply
http://www.markertek.com
Richard,
I can’t tell you how valuable these sessions have been the last two days, as well as your instructions imbedded in the documents. Again, thank you for all your help. You and the three ladies were wonderful and I know we couldn’t have gotten this done without you!
Todd R. Evans
Director, Environmental Products
Chemspec
800-638-7370>
Matt,
Albany Door Systems has just been awarded a Federal contract. I want to personally thank you and Fedmarket team for the very useful information provided in your seminars "GSA Schedules", as well as "Federal Sales". The information you provided in these seminars was both accurate and helpful in obtaining our industrial supply schedule 56 for our high performance door products. I also believe Fedmarket helped us expedite the process, we received our schedule in less than 5 months with few revisions because of your program. Thanks.
Best Regards,
Bryan R. Wallace
Strategic Project Manager
Albany Door Systems
bryan_wallace@albint.com
Dear Shelly,
Thank you so much for all the information you provided regarding the Fedmarket GSA e-Lab. I finished the lab last week and have almost all the information I need to submit to GSA for our proposal. I really appreciated your prompt response to all my questions prior to attending the lab. I also found the team conducting the lab to be outstanding. The upfront work they completed and had loaded on our personal computers before we attended the lab allowed us to complete all the necessary work needed for the proposal in less than three days. The team was very knowledgeable in all aspects of submitting a proposal to GSA and they also offered excellent information on what to expect after submitting our proposals. Please extend my sincere thanks to Richard, Beth, Laura, Eileen, Meg and the computer systems staff member.
Mary Sitton
President
Environmental Research, Inc.
I tried on and off for a year to complete the GSA solicitation on my own. The experts at Fedmarket took the time to understand my business and walked through the process of completing the solicitation in under 3 days. There is absolutely no way I could have completed the process without the Fedmarket team.
Eric Dodson
President
onShore Development
Hi Everyone,
I want to thank you for the support in preparing the GSA proposal. While I was still quite confused about the entire process yesterday, with your guidance everything seemed to come together today, and the proposal is finished. Had I not attended the eLab, there would have been no way this could have been completed in under 2 days. Thanks again for all of your help, advice, and wisdom. This was well worth the cost, even for a small 4 person business like mine.
Thanks!
Bob
RH Systems
This is a service long over-due. And, well done. The personal attention to individual needs was fantastic. For sure this could have been done without FedMarket. But, instead of taking two and a half days it would have taken two and a half months. Fantastic return on investment.
I look forward to working with you "guys" in the future.
Regards,
Mike Gorman
President
Whitemarsh Information Systems
Bowie, MD 20716
Happy New Year to all at the Federal Sales Academy!
After many months of worry about when we'd complete our GSA FSS bid you and your capable staff made it all happen. I submitted the three section bid package last week and I'm looking forward to being able to respond decisively to the question I've heard so many times before from government contractors: "we like your qualifications and work, but how am I going to contract you?"
It had been almost a year since I submitted my firm's Past Performance Evaluation, received very positive results from clients, but couldn't get past the seemingly onerous requirements of GSA's Environmental Services Solicitation. With your insights and the "Wizard" the process was simplified so that the work was done in two days- perhaps the two most productive days of business development I've had in the past several months. My concerns about how to present the financials and labor rates for my three-year old/two employees small business were transformed from complications to opportunities to provide cost effectiveness to the federal government.
Thank you for saving my business considerable time and money. Your firm helped stop the bleeding in more than one way! (Please thank Beth and Meg for the first aid.) I'm sending you a bagel slicer for future eLabs and seminars.
Scott Neese, PhD
3D EnviroLogics, LLC
Charlottesville, VA
434-975-0687
Dick, Beth, Laura, Judy and Meg,
I want to thank you all for the excellent eLab class that you presented. The class combined high quality and efficiency. You were not only very professional and knowledgeable but friendly and helpful as well. The class was a no non-sense/get the job done effort that was well worth the cost. I not only have a finished proposal but I also understand the subtle nuances of a GSA schedule.
The approach to the problem was perfect. I was able to prepare 200 page proposal in three days thanks to the use of templates and examples. The lecture portion was kept to a minimum but contained valuable nuggets of information and conveyed the important issues. The difficult parts were tackled early while the mind numbing mechanical sections came last.
Food and drinks were always available for a quick snack. An excellent but simple lunch was served every day. The facilities (room, computers, data files) were first class. Everything including email and internet access was available from day one.
Everything was geared towards efficiency. From short get to the point lectures to lunches delivered to the room. Templates and examples greatly reduced typing. Having four of you available to answer questions meant that nobody had to wait long for help. This sort of efficiency allowed for many of us to finish ahead of schedule.The team was excellent and performed very well together. Each of you brought valuable insights into the problem and everyone was very patient and helpful (despite the dumb questions). I always felt that I had the real experts on hand right beside me.
Dick Henggeler
President
Henggeler Computer Consultants, Inc.
301 317-8995
410 336-8273 cell
301 317-8996 fax
Hey Eileen!!
I took your seminar in Las Vegas in November of 2006. I just thought that I would drop a note and share with you a few of our successes that I believe you had an indirect part in thanks to your seminar and the vast knowledge I gained from attending. In the past few months, we have become extremely busy. We have been awarded three new construction projects with a total contractual value of $20M. One of the projects is to renovate one of the top 150 most recognized structures, the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park. In fact, it ranks #36 of the top 150 most important and recognized structures. We're performing Phase III of the Old Faithful Inn “Old House” Room Renovation.
A large part of our success came from what we learned in your seminar and how we have incorporated that newly gained knowledge in to our proposals.
Thank you.
Shawn Anderson
A4 Construction
sanderson@a4construction.com
Eileen:
I attended your seminar this past weekend, and just wanted to say that I was very impressed that you were able to make the seminar so enjoyable. It was certainly filled with valuable information, but you presented it in a manner that was actually enjoyable. Anyone can repeat facts, but you really did it in a way that I think makes the messages stick with the students. It was absolutely worth every penny for me!
Just thought I would share that with you…
Thanks, Gabe
Gabriel Cruz
Director of Business Development
Language Testing International, Inc.
Dear Mr. White:
I am delighted to share my appreciation of the excellence of Ms. Eileen Kent as an instructor and as a representative of your firm. My too brief time in the course "Teaching Your Inside Contract Employees to Sell" gave me plenty to stimulate, nourish, and reassure our onsite managers in their sales campaigns.
I look forward to the next opportunity of working with you.
Sincerely,
Tom Callahan
Vice President
Unified Industries Incorporated
Dear Eileen:
I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know how valuable your class on "Winning Government Business 101" was to me! Not only did you provide valuable resources, but reassured some of my thoughts about government contracting and marketing to the Federal Government!!
Stephanie Stone
Account Manager
Aggreko LLC
I can’t tell you how pleased I was with your training course and its value to me as a health care executive involved in government contracting. The material was perfect for either the beginner or expert in this industry. The “lessons learned” by you and Richard White are invaluable at any level. Again, really well done.
Laurie G. Hughes, MBA
Vice President, Healthcare Services
STG INTERNATIONAL, Inc.
703.578.6030 ext 211
www.stginternational.com
Your seminar on "Writing and Managing Winning Proposals" was very insightful and will prove productive to my organization's immediate and future proposal efforts . The companion CD and Workbook ,which came with the seminar, really helps the writer make the proposal more effective and focused for the targeted agency. Finally, the "Bid/No-Bid" assessment technique and webtool were worth the entire cost of the seminar alone. One additional benefit was meeting and interacting with other proposal writing professionals and sharing their insights. Thanks again for a great and productive experience.
Jack Selter
Center for Advanced Transportation Systems Simulation
Orlando,Florida
Phone:(407) 823-2272
Fax:(407) 823-3315
E-Mail: jselter@mail.ucf.edu
I took "Federal Sales: 100 Winning Government Business" and "Writing and Managing Wining Proposals" back-to-back and I felt the value of the courses was already met at about 10:15 a.m. on the first day. I took more away from your courses then I have from week-long seminars. Thank you for doing such an excellent job presenting the information. I have already debriefed my team, and have begun to "customize" your templates to our needs. Ultimately, I would estimate you just saved me about $125K/year in blind, and poorly self-absorbed proposal responses! Let me see...$500 for each course equals $1000 in course fees.....versus $125,000 in writing "losers"...the math says it all.
Thank you,
Britain Harvey
Vice President
(v) 505-462-3190
Dear Eileen:
I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed, and learned from "Audit Proof Tour GSA Contract." I took a lot of information home with me. I am now training an associate on how to prepare new GSA Mods. Please feel free to use my comments, I meant them and would have no problem having them read. You do a wonderful job, and I would love for others to know that as well.
Thanks again,
Michelle Blattenberger
Federal Government Analyst
VWR International
Phone: 1.800.947.4270 Ext 3182
Hey Richard and Eileen,
I would like to send you a little token of Hello Direct’s appreciation for providing excellent customer support to us. We are most appreciative of your ongoing support inside and outside of the training, and are more and more sure we made the right decision to make the investment of traveling to DC, attending the classes, and taking this information back to home base.
With great appreciation,
Colleen Giardina
Hello Direct, Inc.
75 Northeastern Blvd.
Nashua, NH 03062
Attendee of:
Federal Sales 101: Winning Government Business
Train the Sales Trainer
Last Thursday I attended both the "Teaching Your Inside Contract Employees How to Sell", and the "Teach Your Onsite Contract Employees to Write Winning Task Orders" on Thursday. Both classes were very good (and the instructor, Eileen Kent, is super energetic and knowledgeable).
The morning class, How to Sell, is basically a common sense thing...but every now and then we need to be re-trained, re-freshened and a change in gear from our "normal" every day thinking. The afternoon class was very benefitual to me.. specifically what should be in each chapter and how to respond to solititations and/or quotations.
I also appreciated meeting Mr. Richard White and the demo of his tool Proposal Architect. I was so enlightened with that great tool that I felt compelled to purchase his book Rolling the Dice in DC.
Great Job, Eileen. Very enlightening courses!!
Lyssie Guyer
Alexandria, VA
Dear Eileen,
As a recent attendee of your “Writing and Managing Winning Proposals 2007” training session, I just want to let you know how much of an “eye opener” your course has been for me. As the newest member of the marketing team I have been tasked with learning the fine details of sales intelligence while at the same time actually engaging potential business opportunities. The straight forward approach of identifying the basic elements of intelligence gathering were exactly what I needed. With what I learned, I believe I will be able to provide a much clearer picture to our capture team and proposal writers to enable them to increase the number of winning proposals.
Sharing your personal experiences on how to forge relationships with future clients was invaluable. Helping the course attendees to understand what works well, along with what doesn’t, allowed me to calibrate my approach to business development. As result, I left my very next meeting with a potential client actually knowing that we would speak again in the near future to discuss business opportunities.
Thanks for sharing the wealth of knowledge. This was an “Outstanding” course and I’m sure that I’ll see you in future training sessions.
Clifton Carter
IBA Business Development
Phone: (703)575-8359 ext.2370
www.ibacorp.us
Hi Richard,
Last Thursday and Friday, I attended Federal Sales 101 and Writing Winning Proposals in Atlanta taught by Eileen Kent. You probably hear this a lot, but I wanted to let you know that Eileen is a fantastic instructor!
I’m a federal sales rookie, and I have submitted my GSA proposal for the third time waiting now for the negotiation phase. (I wish I had known about your e-lab course six months ago instead of trying to reinvent the wheel myself) Anyway, Eileen did a great job getting to the heart of the matter regarding the theory vs. reality of selling to the federal government. Her past background as a national sales exec to the federal government was invaluable, as well as her current knowledge of GSA rules, who the decision makers are in federal agencies, and what they need to hear to get your foot in the door with them. On Friday I came to class at 7:30 am before the 9 am class, and she was already there ready to answer questions. Finally, her sense of humor and “offline” experiences in federal sales made the classes productive and fun as well.
I’ve been to training classes before where they were either a waste of time, or “rah-rah” meetings. Eileen’s classes were neither. I really learned a lot, and hope to take more in the future.
Sincerely,
Hiram A. Hodges
Director of Sales & Marketing
ALTA Language Services, Inc.
3355 Lenox Road, Suite 510 Atlanta, GA 30326
(404) 240-1803
www.altalang.com
Thank you for an OUTSTANDING Federal Sales 101 seminar on May 21. The seminar was well organized, thoughtful and productive.
John Callahan
Director, Marketing
Certicom Corp.
Office: 703 234 2357 x123
This [Security Clearances, Uncovered] was a great class that covered all the bases on the process of getting a facility security clearance and a personal security clearance. I definitely left the class with a better understanding of the processes that go on behind of scenes of both areas. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking to get clearances.
Julie Kolb
Manager of Administration & Facility Security Officer
Trinity Video Communications, Inc.
Eileen,
I wanted to take a few minutes of your time and thank you for the wonderful Federal Sales Academy seminar you put on in Vegas. The information and knowledge that I gained from your seminar in two days has been invaluable to our company. In fact, I have completely revamped the way I approach and market to the federal government. I can’t thank you enough. The only regret I have is that I wish I would have taken your course three years ago when I first began marketing to the federal government. Your seminar was fantastic. My goal is to try and take the course once a year. Thank you!
Shawn Anderson
A4 Construction Co., Inc.
Woman-Owned, HUBZone SBC
Director of Business Development
801.983.5224 - Direct
801.983.5226 - Fax
Dear Eileen,
I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your seminar and the information you provided in Chicago. I think it took a couple of days for everything to sink in! You made the presentation enjoyable with your light-hearted humor.
Thank you and I will be attending further Fedmarket.com Federal Sales Academy seminars in the near future.
Nancy Gerding
Dear Eileen:
I wanted to drop you a quick line this evening to let you know that your course, "Writing and Managing Winning Proposals," taught at the Federal Sales Academy in March 2007 was extremely informative and very well delivered. In addition, I completed a class today which was put on by another federal proposal writing organization this afternoon and I must say your course was hands down more informative.
Kind Regards,
Melayne A. C. Richards
Proposal Writer-Herndon, VA
Hi Eileen,
I attended Fedmarket's "Federal Sales 101: Winning Government Business" and "Writing and Managing Winning Proposals" in Las Vegas. Thank you very much for your time and knowledge. It was OUTSTANDING.
Respectfully,
Gary Kitchens
Freedom Enterprises
509-220-2998
Hello Richard,
I recently attended “Federal Sales 101: Winning Government Business” in Las Vegas. I wanted you to know that our presenter, Eileen, was outstanding. She was knowledgeable, informative and very entertaining.
I attended the class with two other colleagues and we all agreed that the class was worth every penny and that Eileen’s presentation was top notch. She complimented course material with relevant recounts of her personal experiences and was very effective in adapting techniques and examples to fit the attendee’s individual industries.
Teaching such a class in Las Vegas is a difficult task to take on with so many distractions around and she made it look easy. Overall, I would give her an A+.
Please let her know that her hard work is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
John Worden
Account Manager
Apollo Information Systems, Corp.
408.399.5110 +107 john@apollo-is.com
www.apollo-is.com
Eileen,
I am so thankful that I came to Bethesda, MD to take the courses, “Writing and Managing Winning Proposals” and “Selling Small…Winning Big.” Your enthusiasm and knowledge of doing business with the Government was inspirational and helped me get a better understanding of the best approach to winning business with the Government. Thank you!
Krista Jorgenson
Marketing Director
Bella Graphics & Display
www.belladisplay.com
Eileen,
What a dynamic individual you are and so well suited for teaching this subject! The class was very informative and we are very excited to move forward."
Tammy Leber
Commercial Market Specialist
Schaedler Yesco Distribution Inc.
800/998-1621
Federal Sales 101: Winning Government Business attendee August 2007
Dear Mr. White,
We have never met but I wanted to send you my comments concerning the program Winning Government Business that I attended last month (June) in Chicago conducted by Eileen Kent. Thank you for a very professional training program. Eileen Kent turned a boring subject into an energetic driven and informative day. I walked away with great information on Winning Government Business.
I have been a Time Management/Organization Skills coach for 18 years and have over 3000 (non-Federal) graduates located in 28 States. Because of the uniqueness of my program I needed marketing direction.
I became interested in pursuing government agency contracts over a year ago and was becoming overwhelmed with information made available on the internet and needed direction and tips on marketing to the government.
Eileen provided that direction. I now have a letter of agreement with the Indiana National Guard Joint Command to provide my Time Management/Organization skills training program to 14 senior officers. This was completed last week and I now have been asked to present the program in front of 130 senior officers in August.
My next target is the National Guard Bureau in Washington D.C. I am finding great interest in my program because of the present restructuring going on in the National Guard and I want to get on a GSA schedule.
Thanks
Respectfully,
Ken Lewis Owner/Coach
K.E. L. Management Facilitation, 10528 Lr. Huntington Rd. Roanoke IN 46783
kelewis@kelp.com
www.kelp.com
1-800-886-2174
Thanks again for a very informative and valuable "Winning Government Business" session in Los Angeles, CA on Monday, June 26, 2006. It is a rare seminar that provides such practical and useful information.
Regards,
Bill Sacks
hccs - Experts in Healthcare Learning
Eileen -
I enjoyed your presentation and left with a much clearer understanding of what our resellers are up against selling to government on GSA. It was funny and very educational at the same time. Nice job!
Thank you,
Todd Stephany
HP Video Surveillance
Matt,
Thank you very much for the Department of Homeland Security class on Friday. I found this to be an excellent source of information and it was very well presented. Thanks again
Regards,
Jared Carlson
U.S. COST
Software Sales
770.481.1620 (office)
