Blake's Skills & Education

1) Performance-Driven: Blake is an exceptionally driven individual. He has been accused of being persistent by more than a few, and this behavior pays off. He has a track record of driving revenues and exceeding goals, solving complex problems & finding new opportunities.

2) Adherence to a Systematic Business Process: After his early years as a business developer, Blake was exposed to a formal sales process. His professional training began in 2000 with the Sandler Institute, as a President's Club member. This formal, systematic approach to business became a major differentiator in the way Blake became a much more efficient and effective revenue generator.

3) Classically Trained & Educated: Once Blake started to utilize the Sandler process, his techniques changed and so did his productivity. He became much more efficient, compressed the sales and delivery cycle, and stopped wasting time and money. The combination of the Sandler process and a well-defined business cycle modeled by a CRM system makes for an excellent repertoire of business management skills.

From an educational standpoint, Blake has received a multidisciplinary yet technical level of education in active and passive remote sensing, geographic information systems, and how these tools are used to solve real world problems. More recently, Blake returned to school for his MBA. Proud to complete the program with a 4.0 GPA, he now possesses the capability to quickly evaluate and solve business problems at any business level. Much of his education has been put to the test while leading and growing his startup.

4) Mastery of Tools of the Trade: Blake is proficient with the MS Office suite, particularly PowerPoint and Excel. Another very important aspect of his toolbox is the CRM, such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce.com and ZohoCRM coupled with popular Marcom tools like HubSpot. Blake has been customizing and implementing CRMs for over 20 years and he believes this is critical to an optimized and efficient business development process. He also uses GoToMeeting, Skype, Teams and Zoom for virtual meetings and product demonstrations, and Wordpress and Joomla platforms for open-source web development, website maintenance, and social networking.

5) Corporate Strategist. One of Blake's major influences during his MBA program was Igor Ansoff, the Russian-America known for his achievements in mathematics and business management. Ansoff is known as the father of strategic management and his popular product-growth matrix is fundamental to many of Blake's strategic decisions. The successful use of Ansoff's strategy matrix has been conjoined by two important events in Blake's life: leading a startup company, and obtaining his MBA education. Blake possesses the ability to identify problems and properly orchestrate and implement the correct corporate or business-level strategy to achieve success.

6) Leadership & General Management: Yet another tremendous benefit of running a company, and applying his MBA education, is that Blake has better leadership, and general management skills than 10 years prior. He agrees that some things are better learned while on the job but many things require proper education and training so companies and teams can be lead through a history of knowledge founded on best practices. This has resulted in effective leadership and management that can be applied with low risk, including his experience with revenue recognition, tracking closure plans and bookings.

7) Business Partner Development: Whereas the specific terms are slightly different for each key account and channel partner, there are a few guidelines that remain in place. For example, Blake is a firm believer that successful partnerships require a win-win and commitments must be from top-down. The 'win' typically means added revenues, but the win doesn't have to be the same level of revenue for both companies. Also, both players must regard the partnership as a priority and this must be communicated through the ranks. A handshake between CEO's will not be enough to create a successful partnership. Finally, a partnership may appear to be a business development effort in the beginning, it becomes more of a project management exercise over the life of the agreement. This requires a different set of skills as the partnership evolves; something even more systematic, controlled and schedule-based. It is important to note that Blake has theses skills, both in business development and project management.

8) SaaS + Mobile IT Expertise. Arguably the most influential technology today includes some aspect of web-based solutions, whether cloud-based, SaaS or mobile applications. This has been Blake's world for the last decade and he has mastered the product design and development, and sales and marketing of sourcing-based SaaS solutions. This has not only helped create a successful Sourcing IT company, but it has also helped direct an innovative Healthcare IT startup. Couple this experience with his education and experience with active and passive remote sensing technologies including digital aerial cameras, LiDAR and earth resource satellites, and the leading geospatial softwares, creates a well-rounded yet diverse professional.

9) Evolutionary Professional: Blake's continued ability to approach each project with fresh eyes and remain open to learning new ways has fueled his evolution from a young sales representative into a successful business leader. This adaptive skill has allowed Blake to create a company from scratch and be the key contributor to driving revenues, solving complex problems, finding new opportunities, and making changes to meet constantly changing market demands.

Education

MBA 
Palm Beach Atlantic University 4.0 GPA. 
Business Administration & Management 2008. Coursework included: Corporate Strategies | Leadership in Management | Corporate Finance | Quantitative Methods | Marketing Research Methods | Advanced Managerial Accounting | Global Business Environments | Integrated Marketing Communications | International Business | Marketing Management | 

Masters
San Diego State University Master’s in Geography, specializing in Remote Sensing & Image Processing, Blake was part of multi-year US DOE program evaluating gas and oil exploration on the North Slope of Alaska. Emphasis on space borne, aerial and hand-held passive multispectral remote sensing, and image processing.

Bachelors
Old Dominion University Undergraduate degree in Geography, emphasizing Environmental Planning & Remote Sensing, with in-depth experience using space borne multispectral remote sensing for land use and land cover studies.

Certifications:

Harris Leadership Development

Sandler Sales President's Club
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Salesforce.com CRM
4DX Growth Strategy - Manager Cert.
ZohoCRM

Blake's Skills

Blake's years of experience, education and training have helped to establish a wide range of skills instrumental to his business success: