Company: Nextel Communications
Company Division/Group: Public Sector Sales Organization
Company Description: Nextel Communications, a FORTUNE 300 company based in Reston, Va., is a leading provider of fully integrated wireless communications services and has built the largest guaranteed all-digital wireless network in the country covering thousands of communities across the United States. Today 95 percent of FORTUNE 500 companies are Nextel customers.
Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Sales Team

Nomination Title: Public Sector Sales Team, Nextel Communications

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved in 2003 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

In 2003, Nextel’s Public Sector sales team experienced its best year ever,
demonstrating unprecedented success in identifying and meeting the needs of this
critical business segment. By doubling the number of state contracts owned and
managed by Nextel to include more than half of the United States, and by creating
specific programs for its customers, this sales team has made Public Sector into
Nextel’s fastest-growing industry segment, now accounting for nearly 20 percent of
the company’s overall business.

Nextel, best known for its experience in selling to the enterprise customer, has
grown to serve 95 percent of today’s Fortune 500—up from approximately five
percent in 1997.  Originally, government customers were targeted as a small part
of the company’s enterprise sales focus.  Under the guidance of Leon Frazier, VP
of Public Sector, however, this approach has changed. Now, government
customers are separated from the overall “enterprise” designation in order to
develop and sell wireless solutions that specifically meet the incomparable
communication needs of federal, state and local governments, public safety
officials, universities, primary educators and utility companies across the United
States. 

Understanding the needs of public sector customers is precisely what has made
Mr. Frazier and his team successful.  By creating targeted programs for public
safety officials, Nextel has become synonymous with critical communication and
emergency response.  Nextel’s Direct Connect® long-range digital walkie-talkie
service allows customers to reach one another instantly at the touch of a button, a
feature that is the preferred method for supplemental radio communications among
first responders such as police, fire and EMS workers. Direct Connect offers a
particular advantage because traditional private radio systems do not allow
different agencies to communicate with one another.

“The Public Sector team identified a clear gap in public safety communication in
the aftermath of 9/11, when hundreds of police and fire departments responded to
the same incident but could not communicate,” said Frazier.  “For Nextel, this was
not an opportunity to capitalize on a tragedy, but rather an opportunity to help
ensure that communication would be more reliable going forward.  For us, the
proof is in the sales, the numbers—tens of thousands of our public safety
customers come from agency workers who choose to buy Nextel on their own
because their need for safety dictates that they often can’t wait for the state to
make a decision.”
 
The need for cross-agency communication has also led Nextel’s Public Sector
sales team to create and conduct Interoperability Conferences—daylong seminars
designed to bring different agencies together in their communities to discuss the
communication challenges that plague them.  Oftentimes, these conferences offer
the first and only forum for honest, candid discussion between agencies in the
same city.  To date, more than 2,000 public safety workers have come together to
develop communication solutions that incorporate Direct Connect® and help save
lives in times of emergencies or disasters.

Additionally, Nextel’s Public Sector sales team operates an Emergency Response
Team (ERT)—a one-of-a-kind critical response unit that provides cellular phones
with Direct Connect® walkie-talkie service and satellite cellular coverage and can
be deployed to public sector agencies in need of critical communication support. 
Available for either planned exercises or true emergency response, ERT is a
testament to the fact that Nextel has grown to understand its public sector
customers and is willing to develop the tools they need to operate efficiently and
successfully in the business of saving lives and property.  

Nextel’s Public Sector sales team is deserving of a 2003 Stevie Award for more
than just stellar business metrics.  By maintaining a focus and dedication on
providing the best communication tools possible to their customers, this team
offers a range of products, services and attention that no other wireless
communication carrier can match.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: List each link on a separate line, begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.website.com]:

Wireless Week: Nextel Promotes Service as Public Safety Back-Up
http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA322425?stt=001&text=nextel

Telephony: Nextel Consensus Plan Generating Little Static from Public Safety
Officials
http://telephonyonline.com/ar/telecom_nextels_consensus_plan/index.htm

Washington Technology: Can We Learn to Share
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/18_7/cover-stories/21098-1.html

USA Today: Colleges Catch Cellphone Wave
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-10-29-campus-cells_x.htm

Federal Computer Week: First Reponders Racking Up Minutes
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0825/tec-cells2-08-25-03.asp

Mobile Enterprise Magazine: Wireless Trailblazers for Law Enforcement
http://www.destinationffa.com/APCM/templates/features_template.asp?Articleid=1013&Zoneid=2

Wireless Week: Nextel Closes Connecticut Contract
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=document&doc_id=130520&verticalid=34&vertical=
Business+and+Finance&industry=&text=nextel

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated team:

Mr. Frazier is the Vice President for Public Sector sales at Nextel, which currently
includes federal, state and local government, primary education, higher education,
utilities, healthcare and public safety.  This organization was carved out of the
Corporate Accounts Organization shortly after Mr. Frazier led the effort to have
Nextel sign a GSA contract in March of 1999. 

Prior to joining Nextel, Mr. Frazier led RCA, the largest interconnect company in
the U.S., through a growth period, the eventual sale to the General Electric
Company, a re-direction towards national accounts and ultimately the sale of the
RCA Business Telephone Systems to Mitel Corporation, where he was Vice
President of their North American Division, Mitel Telephone Systems, Inc.

Mr. Frazier holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Virginia
Commonwealth University.