305 Church Street

Huntsville, Alabama 35801

(256) 551-4700
www.bbt.com

In Business Since:  1872

Pinnacle Solutions, Inc. was selected as the WBCNA "2010 Start-up of the Year" at the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce Small Business Awards Celebration on August 31, 2010.  It is the fifth year the WBCNA has offered this award, which was created as a way to recognize small business owners who implement best practices when starting their new business such as developing a business plan and a marketing plan, seeking advice from professionals, etc. 

Mike Durant founded Pinnacle Solutions, a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business, in 2008 with the mission to, "Solve our customers' toughest aviation training challenges." Pinnacle Solutions develops, upgrades, modifies and supports aircrew training devices. Their services include training system requirements analysis, hardware and software design and development, systems integration, test plan development and execution, and training system implementation. Pinnacle also provides simulator operations support and qualified simulator instructor/operators.

When the proposal process gets you down, keep in mind the proposal process is not the problem.  This session will provide you with a powerful twist to isolate the source of common problems encountered in the proposal process. What participants will find is that the effective proposal process is dependent on strategies employed to identify and pursue business opportunities.

This session will take you to the roots of the foundational elements that must be effectively addressed to ensure optimization of your proposal process. What participants will find may surprise them---the problem isn't in the response process, it's in the steps getting there. Participants will leave with a refreshed view, renewed energy, and obtain the fundamentals of the tools needed to begin applying effective business development processes making the proposal process easy and effective.

BID Designs was founded in 2006 with a focus on helping federal contractors realize their full potential by providing them with reliable, timely and custom business development solutions via consulting, process development, solution development and business development IT solutions. They realize that while the needs may be the same for small, medium and large companies, the delivery and execution methods vary considerably, as they should. Small- and medium-sized businesses want the process maturity of large businesses, but usually have fewer resources and most importantly want solutions that are right for them.

BID Designs ensures small- and medium-sized businesses are provided accurate, custom and cost-effective solutions that are delivered within small and medium business size constraints. Likewise, they understand how large businesses operate and are able to provide the exact level of services required to either streamline processes or augment resources in critical capture and proposal efforts. BID Designs is a partnership founded, owned and managed by managing partners Christopher Luchtefeld and Brent Paris, with offices in Huntsville, AL, and the Washington, DC, metro area.

The Lunch & Learn will be held at the Chamber of Commerce at 225 Church Street in downtown Huntsville. A map with directions can be found on the website.


Registration/Cancellation Policy: Lunch registrations and/or cancellations must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday before the Lunch and Learn.  If you are unable to attend and do not cancel by the deadline, you will be billed. 
 

 

Source: Women Impacting Public Policy www.wipp.org

 

Source: National Association of Women Business Owners

 

e-News for Small Businesses is a free electronic mail service designed to provide tax information for small business owners and self-employed individuals. It is distributed every other Wednesday.

You will receive information about:

 

Source: The Gulas Group

 

Problem:  During his debrief with Sally, Bill shared his frustration in his efforts to reach the decision makers when he was prospecting. 
Bill was working on two fronts:  actual drop in visits and phone calls. Each time Bill reached out, he felt he was blocked by the gatekeepers and information gatherers.  It often seemed like there was a conspiracy to keep him from speaking to the top-level people. He had tried various techniques, but nothing was working.  To top things off, once he did make contact with the decision makers, he was summarily and quickly dismissed.

 

Diagnosis: Gatekeepers typically feel that an important part of their job is to insulate their boss from unwanted intrusions.  Only important people are permitted to have access and salespeople are not considered important. 

 

As for the information gatherers, they feel they've been assigned an important job.  It has two parts.  First, they need to get as much information as possible from various vendors so the company can evaluate their options.  Second, they're supposed to keep those pesky salespeople away.  These "Seemore's," according to Anthony Parenello in his book, Selling To Vitto, feel they've been entrusted with an important job. The Seemore's want to protect their turf, so some ego is involved here as well.  Sally went on to add that all three roles Bill is trying to meet is suffering from what Jill Konrath calls in her recent book SNAP "Frazzled Customer Syndrome" Sally explained. "You do not get to carry on conversations with people to move the selling process forward until you are perceived to be bringing value and can resolve an urgent issue for the person and organization you have targeted," Sally reminded Bill. "That was what creating a compelling reason tactic was about from the Gulas Group's DNA Sales Development process we attended." Sally went on to discuss how your primary intent had better not be to sell somebody something. What a paradox! You get measured by your sales success, but you have to internalize the mindset of not wanting to sell anything.

 

You have to position yourself as offering value, and that means knowing enough about your target so you can talk in their language of current business drivers. Sometimes you can create urgency; other times urgency is internally driven.  Without urgency and value, this is not going anywhere but wasting your time

 
Prescription:  Obviously a different approach is needed.   Here's one that works.  Ask a question they can't answer.  That's right.  Throw them a curve ball so they have to go elsewhere to get information.  For example, ask the techie, the Seemore, a non-technical question, such as "what type of return on investment would the company need to justify this purchase?"  Or ask an administrative gatekeeper person a technical question like "can you help me understand exactly how this software will interface with your existing system?"

The questions must be real and you need to have several that the person can't answer so that he/she says, "well, I'm not sure; the Top Dawg has that information." You could then say, "well, without this information, I'm afraid that I can't be as responsive as I'd like to your requests.  I'm concerned that I might give you information that might be inaccurate, and that would make you look bad. Does it make any sense for you to introduce me to the Top Dawg so that I can get this information first hand?  Then I can be sure that I get the right information to you."

Don't forget to come up with similar questions when you do get to the Top Dawg. Here are a few that we use at the Gulas Group to ask especially to suspects that say everything is great:

If you follow these suggestions, you'll have a much better chance of getting in the door to start a dialog with the people you're trying to reach!

 

Borrego Springs Bank offers 48 hour turnaround for initial credit screening.  Find out how they can help your small business with your working capital by visiting their website or calling:

 

http://www.borregospringsbank.com/loan.asp 

 

1-866-644-0042 Toll Free

 

Community Express Loan Program
POTENTIAL BORROWERS: 
Loans up to $25,000 include all SBA eligible businesses and/or borrowers nationwide and for loans over $25,000 all SBA eligible businesses and/or borrowers nationwide located in Low to Moderate Income Areas (LMI), Hud Zones and other SBA designated areas.  
 
Patriot Express Loan Program 
POTENTIAL BORROWERS: 
Veterans (other than dishonorably discharged), Service Disabled Veterans, Active Duty Military service members participating in the military's Transition Assistance Program (TAP), which is applicable to potential retirees within 24 months of separation and to discharging Active Duty members within 12 months of discharge and Reservists and National Guard members.
 
Current spouses of any of the above Veterans or qualifying service members.

 

Loan Program Features:

Eligibility Requirements:

• All SBA eligible industries considered
• Start-up businesses allowed
• Loan proceeds for business acquisition not allowed
• Working capital loans to businesses after acquisition has been fully completed is permitted
• Franchise must be on the SBA approved Franchise Registry (www.franchiseregistry.com) 
• Liquid Assets of individual owner cannot exceed $100,000 - does not include IRA, 401k or other restricted accounts
• Utilized Fair Isaac Small Business Credit Score System for pre-approval of credit, which evaluates credit history of applicant and industry data including type of business, length of operations, etc. 
• Personal credit issues like past due accounts, collections, accounts settled for less than the full balance owing, etc. have very negative effect on the applicants business score and loan decision.

 

Do you have experience starting and growing a non-profit organization?
 

The WBCNA and our clients need your expertise.  It has been a challenge to meet with all our non-profit clients. You can help by volunteering as little as 1-2 hours per month as a Business Coach.

 

For every two hours of volunteer time, we will provide a $25 gift certificate to use toward WBCNA workshops (one per workshop; excludes Lunch and Learn & FastTrac).

Call Stephanie at (256) 535-2038 if you are interested and want to know more about how YOU can make a difference!

 

Every Tuesday on Your Morning Drive

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
 
WTKI (1450 AM) Huntsville and WEKI (1490 AM) Decatur have returned to the air with a business-slanted format they call "Talk Radio for Real Life."   
 
"Talk Radio for Entrepreneurs" is a weekly hour-long program focusing on a topic of interest to small businesses.  Subject matter experts and entrepreneurs will be invited as guests to provide useful information and share their stories with listeners.  Our guests will take calls to answer any questions on the topic. 
 
A WBCNA client or small business owner will also be invited to the studio each week to inform listeners about their products or services.  If you would like to come on the air, please contact the WBCNA at 256-535-2038.  There is a small fee for participation.

 

The WBCNA is currently overwhelmed with demand for our services (which is a good thing). We welcome your time and support as a WBCNA volunteer.   Here's just a few ways to get involved:

 For every two hours of volunteer time, we will provide a $25 gift certificate to use toward WBCNA workshops (one per workshop; excludes Lunch and Learn & FastTrac).

Call Stephanie at (256) 535-2038 if you are interested and want to know more about how YOU can make a difference!