Government contracting specialists from all corners of Iowa gathered in Des Moines on May 6, 2015 to receive instruction from The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech.
Iowa State University’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) invited Georgia Tech to conduct a workshop entitled “Counseling Businesses for Government Contracting Success” for members of their Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP).
The workshop was developed based on research conducted by The Academy that revealed that government contracting counselors perform at the peak of effectiveness when they:
- Take the time to listen to their client’s needs and objectives.
- Accurately address client needs.
- Deliver a “reality check” diplomatically.
- Communicate essential information.
- Counsel clients not only effectively, but in a time-efficient manner.
- Organize themselves to teach complex things in a simple way.
- Anticipate the need to have to deal with difficult situations and people.
Thus, the workshop was centered on seven principles every PTAP counselor should adopt, and provided practical ideas for implementing each one of them.
Workshop participants worked in small teams to address a series of real-life case studies in order to learn how to implement better counseling skills.
