WT launches professional training initiative

Washington Technology is launching a professional development initiative and our first effort focuses on stakeholder engagement.

The May 3 session will be WT’s first Power Training event and we are partnering with Mastering Business Development International to produce the day-long session. MBDi founder Bill Scheessele has been a regular columnist for Washington Technology for many years focusing on various aspects of business development. 

In addition to the May 3 session, we also are offering the course on June 7, and July 14.

Power Training: Mastering Stakeholder Engagement will present the tools and training that program and project managers need to effectively engage, influence and secure buy-in from key stakeholders. 

This professional development course is specifically designed to help program and project managers understand the roles, skills and activities they need to master so they can succeed in today’s market. Without effective engagement, programs, project deliverables, budgets and growth are quickly undermined.

James Allen, a former executive with several companies such as TASC and SAIC, will be the lead instructor. He’s worked with the intelligence community, Defense Department and civilian agencies during his career. He brings significant experience applying a disciplined business development approach to new and expanded opportunities.

Over the last 10 years, he managed a $4 billion pipeline, led $2 billion in pursuits and captured $800 million in new business.

Some of the key skills to be presented during the training include:

• Shaping and tracking relationships and opportunities
• Understanding your client’s pain
• How to uncover your client’s core issues
• How to use a client engagement process to get beyond a personality driven client engagement.

The training begins at 8:30 a.m. May 3 at the Tower Club in Tysons, Virginia, and will end at about 4:30 p.m. Lunch, snacks and beverages will be provided.

This course also earns Professional Development Units (PDUs) certified by the Program Management Institute.

Those are the facts about the training opportunity. On a more personal note, I’m excited that we’ve gotten the training program off the ground. And I’m very grateful to MBDi for partnering on this with us.

This live training further expands what we’ve been doing with our online training where we’ve worked with Lohfeld Consulting on a series of capture and proposal courses. Look for more training opportunities in the future.

A big challenge companies face is differentiating themselves from competitors and WT's growing stable of training opportunities is our effort to help you better serve your customers and be more successful in the GovCon market.