Essentialtalk on the Tour de Force Briefing

"Our Unaware was dirty, and she got rid of our Unaware."

It all starts with a 3-hour awareness session, an investment in your strategic direction.

A session with Judy Bradt is a great investment for planning your approach to the US government. If you're trying to pursue US government business, Judy can help you. Hire her to understand US government markets better. She'll help you formulate the needs analysis, and execute the project.

We wanted to understand what we are dealing with in doing business with US government. It seemed like we were going after a US$70 billion market. We have every intention of doing business with the US government, but we need to put together a 3 year game plan. We asked Judy to help us understand the obstacles and challenges, and raise our awareness. Judy's value is her insight and her experience.

Her presentation made us respect the challenge that this market represents. We didn't get scared by the challenge, but it become obvious that we weren't ready for that just yet.

Judy outlined an approach and challenged us to identify our most profitable lines of business. We realized that there are tactical opportunities we haven't exploited in our own backyard, in Calgary with 200 corporate head offices. We confirmed that the US government continues to be a strategic goal that we need to start taking steps today to capitalize on three years from now.

Without Judy's guidance, we could have dropped $200,000 and blown our budget, and that's what we didn't want to do.

Our Unaware was dirty, and she got rid of our Unaware. Knowing what we do now, we can plan how to best invest over the next 3 years to achieve our sales objectives. The time we spent with Judy clearly made us comfortable with what is involved to do business with the US government. We're not prepared to do that today, but soon we might be. We are searching for the long run opportunities, and Judy helped position our approach.

That's very important because we're trying to leverage opportunities and are very cautious about where we put our dollar. It was the right time to have the discussion. It was obvious that we hadn't exhausted our private sector opportunities.

Judy shoots from the hip and says it like it is, with no sugar coating. That's exactly what we needed. Her observations were knowledgeable and insightful. It's also important to know when to say, "That's not my speciality". We could see what she was strong at: she radiated her experience in the federal marketplace, and when she didn't know the answer, she knew how to get it.

Judy knows the system and the process. Only experience can get you that; we couldn't have hired an employee and expected that person to research those things as effectively.

Lorand Szojka
co-Founder & CIO, Essentialtalk
and
President, Just-In-Time Training Solutions
Calgary AB