Force 3

In 2009, Force 3 was bumping up against every government contractor that sold the same commoditized products to federal agencies. Force 3 wanted to differentiate itself from the heavy competition within the Beltway. To grow the business and enhance client value, Force 3 had to cultivate engagements that would stand the test of time and multiple administration changes. Company leadership asked ValueSelling Associates to help them standardize on one simple and scalable sales methodology—the ValueSelling Framework®.

Doing things differently

Eight years later, Force 3’s adoption of ValueSelling has resulted in company-wide alignment, reinforcement and common language.

• Alignment: Key sales processes and policies—forecasting, pipeline management, account planning, deal review, coaching—are aligned with ValueSelling.
• Reinforcement: Employees receive ongoing training on ValueSelling best practices and Force 3’s unique value proposition. Participants in Force 3’s Sales Academy use the ValueSelling Framework as they role play scenarios that are tailored to Civilian/Commercial, Department of Defense and the intelligence community of the government.
• Common language: Everyone speaks the same value-based language from one-on-one meetings to pipeline review. Conversations with clients and prospects are prepared, using ValuePrompters®, a six-step tool to keep discussions customer-focused and on-track.

You say you want an evolution

To make change happen, an idea or concept must become important at every level of the organization. Force 3’s executive leadership, starting with CEO Mike Greaney, was committed to achieving a common vision—becoming the network security firm to the federal government.

After consistently applying ValueSelling principles, Force 3 is a noticeably different company with significant top-down behavior changes that include:

• Big picture thinking: Instead of focusing on only one aspect of a customer situation, the team takes a big picture view, which results in multiple manufacturer, service-filled solutions that deliver more value to the customer.
• Long-term relationships: Rather than move on to the next deal, the team nurtures long-term relationships that have been key to increased renewals, more repeat customers and longer-term engagements.
• Business conversations: Instead of leading with technical specs, the team uncovers a client’s most important business issue and helping them overcome the problems that are barriers to achieving their mission.

True differentiation

While it is more common to wait until a technology is widely adopted and then chase after RFPs, Force 3 differentiates itself from competitors by investing in software, services, and delivery methodologies to ensure network security, 24/7, for its federal government sector customers. The company’s maintenance delivery and service desk is also customized specifically to serve federal sector customers.

Since implementing the ValueSelling Framework, Force 3 has gained a higher level of customer engagement and growth, resulting in:

• Services business tripled in growth. As CEO Mike Greaney said, “You don’t do that by accident. You do it by understanding a customer’s business issues.”
• Force 3-driven products and solutions represent more than 50% of total revenues while the industry average is 25%. This indicates that the company is less reactionary in responding to RFQs.
• All time high Customer Net Promoter Scores. The Customer Net Promoter Score measures how active customers are in advocating for Force 3 and maintaining long-lasting relationships.
• Tremendous growth in Force 3 security services.

Force 3 continues to be known as THE network security company in the federal space by securely implementing technology to help its federal agencies achieve their mission—to protect and serve the nation’s most critical customers, the American public. For Force 3, helping clients meet their mission is the true measure of success.