a-e marketing journal october 2014 volume 10 issue 10

8/10/2019 A-E Marketing Journal October 2014 Volume 10 Issue 10

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PUSH ING THE L IM ITSA/E/C INDUSTRY SUMMIT

DECEMBER 4-5, 2014ORLANDO /FLORIDA

PSMJ Resources is bringing together the A/E/C industrys top leaders and most

successful rms to give you a glimpse into the future of our industry.

2 OCTOBER / 2 0 1 4 V O L / 1 0 I S S U E/ 1 0

MARK E T I N G

J O U R N A LAE

Often it is better to choose one or

two key projects you have done

that align with the clients vision

and present detailed vignettes on

them rather than trying to wow the

client with sheer numbers. Once

again, know the client and the

project well;

Stress the importance of electroniccommunications and work products.

Most clients in Atlanta do not care

that you have an ofce in Boston.

On the other hand, if you are lucky

enough to be physically located

close to the client and his project,

certainly use that to your advantage

(knowledge of permit requirements,

local geology, etc.).

So the secret to defusing the Goliaths

in your life is to play to your strengths.

Dont slam Goliath up front. Instead, justshow the client how his life will be easier

dealing with David instead. l

Eric Snider, P.E., is a Principalwith SynTerra Corporation. Ericfrequently writes and speakson marketing and businessdevelopment and facilitatesseveral PSMJ bootcamps andworkshops. He can be reached [email protected].

Eight Ways to Discover New WorkIf your project team is failing to regularly seek add-on contract opportunities, you

could be short-circuiting your level of success. The development of new projects from

your existing workload should be a foundation of your rms marketing program.

Youll discover these opportunities as your team learns about the clients goals during

the course of a current project. Try these eight steps to make this discovery process a

routinenot randomact:

1. Set aside time for a clients needs assessment to examine whats new,

changing, or troublesome in the clients current operations.

Conduct this assessment at quarterly points during the projects duration, or

add it as an agenda item during weekly internal project team updates.

2. Track the nature and frequency of issues that crop up over the course

of the project.

Is a trend surfacing? Is one area of the clients operations in greater need of

proactive help?

3. Compare needs that are surfacing in each of the rms projects.

Look for similarities, differences, trends.

4. Brainstorm with the project team, and across project teams, to identifystrategies for working with recurring issues or ideas.

Consider how to educate both project team members and the client concerning

the issue or idea.

5. Compare ideas and strategies across project teams.

Determine any general movement in client services on which you should act.

Think about assembling a special technical team to work on the emerging issue.

6. Set the best ideas in motion.

Fully include your client in developing the ideas and action plans.

7. Compare results across project teams.Determine which strategies appealed to clients and what rollout plan worked

best. Integrate the ideas into your service and product lines.

8. Continue the needs assessment process cycle.

Remember: From a marketing standpoint, your current clients are your best clients. l

Write for PSMJDo you have some new, innovative tips toshare with others about running an A/E frm?Do you have interesting stories about:

Making prots;

Ownership transition;

Human resources; or

The future of A/E?

PSMJ is looking for great writers and stories

for Professional Services ManagementJournal!

Writing for PSMJ is a remarkable opportunityto enhance your authority, add to yourprofessional resume, bring name recognitionto your company, and see your name andcontact info in print in a prestigious and highlyregarded journal.

If youre interested in writing for us or have astory idea for an upcoming issue, please writeto Lauren Terry, PSMJs Managing Editor, [email protected].

Compete with the Big Boys...(continued from page 1)
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Writing a winning proposal in response

to a federal RFP is grueling. The proposal

manager has to juggle dozens of issues

and keep a constant eye to how the

proposal can be further improved.

Under the pressure of tight deadlines,

even experienced proposal managers can

forget to be vigilant in guarding against

downside risks, and can allow strategic

or tactical mistakes to occur. In our

experience, making any of the following

ve errors will guarantee the failure of

your proposal.

1. Criticize the RFP.

Early in my career, I worked for a largeand successful consulting rm. My boss

assigned me to proofread a soon-to-be

submitted proposal. The rst paragraph

sported a footnote. This struck me as odd,

because my instinct was that footnotes are

for term papers, not proposals.

The RFP is organized incorrectly, the

footnote asserted, and our proposal

would present material in a different,

and better, order. To underscore our

obviously superior knowledge of how to

structure a proposal, the footnote includeda helpful matrix. Clearly the panel would

see that our bold, new approach reected

creativity on our partout of the box

thinking.

Out of the box, indeed. After reading the

footnote, each member of the evaluation

panel probably wrote us off as either

arrogant or nave. After we lost, my boss

was humbled.I blew it,he conceded.

We shouldnt have started the proposal

by kicking them.

How many times have we all seen an

RFP that was poorly organizedwith

duplicative, overlapping, or even

contradictory instructions? To be

successful, we have to nd a way to

respond to the RFPs instructions without

complaints and in a way that does not

translate on paper into the equivalent of a

patronizing sigh.

2. Assume the RFP is fresh

and on target.

Many proposal writing teams fatally

assume that the RFP is fresh, up-to-date,

and will reect the client organizations

current priorities and needs. Heres why

it generally wont:

1. A federal RFP usually is

drafted long before it is issued to

accommodate the governments long

internal approval process.

2. An RFP typically is written

piecemeal by many separate agency

staff members, and is stitched

together at the last minute. Cohesion

suffers accordingly.

3. Persons assigned to write an RFP

often take shortcuts for example, by

cutting and pasting material from an

old RFP.

Do not rely on the RFP for an accurate,

up-to-date depiction of the problems

to be solved. A savvy rm does its

homework, gains a strong sense of

the client organizations current,

most pressing issues, and reects that

understanding throughout the proposal.

3. Assume your client references

will be stellar.

Proposal managers can be tempted to

skip the vetting of client references

due to time pressures. He or she may

list an Old Faithful group of client

references. Then the nightmare occurs:

it turns out that some of these references

are no longer enamored with the rm.

We tell our clients to vet their

referenceseach time, for eachproposal. If necessary, well do the

checking for them. Here are some of the

responses weve received. (Well refer

to this client as Acme.):

I would never do business with

Acme again. Their current project

with me has gone south.

Yeah, Acme does a workmanlike job.

Frankly, we typically pick Acme for our

less complex jobs, because we know

that they will give us a really low price

But we cant vouch for their abilities on

a large, complex project.

Acme was great in the old days. But

their recent work has been subpar, and

we just red the guy at our company

who was our liaison with them. He

wasnt being candid about how bad

things were getting.

4. Bragand use clichs while

youre at it.

Nobody likes a braggart. Dont waste

the evaluation panels time by makingvacuous statements such as:

Our rm is world-class.

We have a unique combination of

skills that cannot be matched by any

other competitor.

Our proposed lead technical person is

the best in her eld.

If your proposal employs such clichs,

evaluation panel members will invariablyroll their eyes. Even worse, some

members of the panel might prefer to

do the work in-house. They may view

the RFP as necessary only because the

agency is understaffed, not because their

colleagues lack the required expertise.

Any bragging can be taken as a subtle dig

at the agencys own personnel.

So accentuate the positive, but do so

with cold, hard facts that document

your rms capabilities, strengths, and

experience. Include examples of tangibleresults you have achieved for clients. If

there is any cheerleading to be done, let

it be displayed in excerpts from client

testimonials. But dont brag on your own

account.

5. Lie.Do not doom your proposal by

How to Write a Terrible Federal Proposal:Five Steps to Ensure Disaster by Dave Alexander

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Book Review: Resonate: Present Visual Stories ThatWill Transform Audiences by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM

I enjoy watching TED Talks online.

Some can be inspirational. Others

can be informative. And still others

can give me new ideas or skills that I

can use to become a better presenter.

A single presentation rarely does all

three. However, when I rst saw Nancy

Duartes Ted Talk, The Secret Structureof Great Talks, originally given at

TEDxEast, I was blown away. Its not

that she is a brilliant speakeralthough

shes quite competent; rather, it was the

content that she presented, the ideas

shared, that made it one of the most

memorable TED Talks that Ive ever

watched.

Fortunately, she has a book about her

topic. So while The Secret Structure

of Great Talks is the CliffsNotes,

Resonate: Present Visual Stories

that Will Transform Audiences is the

authoritative manual. Duarte is the CEO

of Duarte Design, and author of the

immensely popular presentation design

book Slide:ology: The Art and Science of

Creating Great Presentations.

You can purchase this book in several

formats, but to see a revolution in

publishing, I recommend the Multi-

Touch iBook

version. Reading it

in this format on an

iPad allows you to

access interactive

features, photos,

videos, and behind-

the-scenes facts and

storiescontent that

is not part of the

printed version.

The concept behind

the title is simply a

comment that people

often say after

hearing an excellentpresentation: Wow,

what she said really

resonated with

me. But what

does that mean?

Her denition,

pulled from physics, is: When an object

responds to an external stimulus that has

the same frequency as its own, thats

resonance. Thus, If you tune yourself

to the frequency of your audience, your

ideas will resonate deeply, and your

audience will demonstrate self-organizingbehavior.

Duarte sets up her book with several

premises. First, presentations have

become so common a business language

that they are now quite boringoften

with the bland leading the bland. Second,

it is the people that are interesting, not

the facts. So it is the stories that really

convey the meaning. And nally, the

presenter should not be the hero of the

storythe audience should be.

Just apply that to your most recent client

presentation or project interview. Was

your rm the heroor your prospective

client? In her world, it is the audience

that is Luke Skywalker, and the presenter

who is Yoda.

The author then goes on to outline what

makes a great story, also known as the

heros journey, using everything from

lm to the mythology writings of

Joseph Campbell. We also learn about

Sparklines, or visual depictions of

presentations.

This book shines when it provides

case studies, including videos of

great presentations to demonstrate the

points. Some of historys best known

presentations are featured, including

Dr. Martin Luther Kings I Have a

Dream speech, President Ronald

Reagans Space Shuttle Challenger

catastrophe address, and Apple CEO

Steve Jobs iPhone unveiling. Business

presentations are included too, along

with a ton of great insight. So if you arenot King or Reagan or Jobs, thats okay.

This book is still for you.

I often hear or read about clients

lamenting that A/E/C rms come to

project interviews with such similar

presentations that its difcult to really

tell one apart from the other. Read this

book, and your presentations will be

forever-changedthus differentiating

your rm from the competition.

And you dont have to take my wordfor it. Check out Nancy Duartes TED

Talk to get a feel for the content that

youll nd in the book: http://www.ted.

com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_

structure_of_great_talks. Incidentally,

if you download the Multi-Touch

version of the book, a copy of the

presentation is included. You can also

download a sample under the Books

section of her company website,

www.duarte.com. l

Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS,CPSM is vice president of JDBEngineering, Inc. (www.jdbe.com)

and president-elect of the SMPSFoundation. He has more thantwo decades of A/E/C marketing

experience and is a Fellow of theSociety for Marketing ProfessionaServices.
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COMMUNICATIONS CORNER6 OCTOBER / 2 0 1 4 V O L / 1 0 I S S U E/1 0

MARK E T I N G

J O U R N A LAE

Authors note: In this (semi) regularfeature, we will focus on effectivecommunication. PSMJ has developed abootcamp on technical and professional

writing in proposals and interviewpresentations. Te program is availablefor delivery to your in-house audiencewhere and when you would like. CallKim Pazera at 617-965-0055 to discussscheduling this one-of-a-kind programin your firm. Te presentation can becustomized to meet your specific interestsand needs.

Most issues of AEMJ include a cornerpiece that focuses on a single topicword use, sentence construction,punctuation, etc.

Id like to deviate in this issue and askyou to help me solve a dilemma. Heresthe story. I was asked this past week todesign a four-hour seminar session ontechnical writing. More accurately Iwas asked to take a two-day programthat I have developed (and which formsthe basis for most of these monthlycolumns) and compress it to four hours.Te audience is a group of project

managers who will be brought togetherfor a broader project managementtraining bootcamp.

Here is the dilemma. o cover thesubject in four hours, you can onlymanage so many topics. What shouldthey be, and what parts of the technicalwriting spectrum do you omit? Heresthe topical outline for the two-dayprogram:

e basicswords, sentences, good and

bad terms, tone Ways to organize your writing

Outlining

Graphicsare worth a thousand words

Writing tips that good writers use(read it aloud, like a newscaster, etc.)

Special engineering documents (letters,memos, new media, reports, proposals,presentations, specifications)

Barriers to good writing (wordiness,

choppy style, awkward sentences,passive voice)

Tools to check your writing (Gunning,Flesch-Kincaid, Microsoft)

Writing exercise

Help me out here, folks. In my worldall these topics integrate to producethe wonder known as good technicalwriting.

What among these topics would

you consider to be most important?Which least important? What othertopics would you include?

Seriously, Id like to hear from AEMJreaders. Let me know how you wouldhandle this topic in a four-hoursession. You can contact me with yourideas at [email protected]. I hope tohear from you!

Stay tuned for next months issue wherewe will address other Communications

Corner issues. If you have acommunications issue in proposals orpresentations you would like us to addressin this column, contact Lauren Terry [email protected] be happy toanswer your inquiries. l

What Is The Most Important Stuff?by Eric Snider, P.E.

65%the amount of people who arevisual learners, according toWebDAM, meaning that yourmarketing initiatives should

employ signifcant visual content.

3 Hoursthe half-life of a piece of contentshared on Facebook and Twitter,meaning that it is the amountof time it takes content to reach50% of the clicks itll ever receive,according to Bit.ly.

What is the biggest

challenge you facein your day-to-dayoperations?

Time ManagementBuilding BacklogMotivating EmployeesFinding Talent

Participate in our monthlyA/E Pulse Poll, and you willautomatically be entered towin a Buy One, Get Oneregistration to our2014

A/E/C Industry Summit!The poll closes on September25th, and the winner will beselected on the 26th.

A/EPULSE POLL

OF THEMONTH

Eric Snider, P.E., is a Principalwith SynTerra Corporation. Ericfrequently writes and speakson marketing and businessdevelopment and facilitatesseveral PSMJ bootcamps andworkshops. He can be reached [email protected].
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How To Win Work Nowby Eric Snider, P.E.In this era of mega-rms (and mega-mergers), is it speaking about the emperors

clothes to ask why so much work goes to small- and mid-sized rms? I submit that

smaller rms are more agile, more responsive to client needs, more ready to listen to

the client, and, truth be known, just more accessible. And this assessment comes from

someone who has worked at rms of 5 to 15,000.

We have several new young engineers and scientists join my 45-person rm annually

After they have settled in for several years and get their technical wings, we start

them in client relationship nurturing and development. Soon they almost invariably

ask, How do we compete and win against the big rms? The answer I give them is

also invariably, a lesson in Marketing 101 slanted toward mega-rm competitors.

Here are the essentials:

People hire people. Seldom do rms or organizations hire rms. This truism holds

not only for the A/E/C community but for business in general. Now people populate

both big and small rms (duh!). So what can a small rm do? It can equip its people

with the technology, resources, training, mentoring, and clear expectation that the

people in the rm will really get to know the clients and prospects. Case in point: I

have a client who was visiting a city where I had spent some work time several years

ago. The client phoned me just before the dinner hour to ask for my recommendation

for a good restaurant. First of all, I had known the client well enough to open up and

discuss where I had been working, and how I enjoy a good meal. Second, the client

remembered! Third, the client was comfortable calling me after normal business

hours to ask. That is the level of person-to-person relationship you want to have with

your clients. Many times in the big rms the personal touch gets lost

dont let that happen to you!

Let your people be themselves. I have one of the best plant science staffers

anywhere, and he routinely shows up for work in ratty jeans and a three-day stubble

of beard. (And he does not look like Tom Cruise with a three-day old beard!) When

we have clients in the ofce or need to take his specialty to a client meeting, wetake Mel, warts and all. In fact, our clients notice if Mel ever shows up in anything

outside his normal attire. By contrast, the normal mega-rm mentality is that you

carry the corporate torch, so you all dress according to spec. We could devote an

entire article to the various specs for client meetings but that will be for another

time.

Never slam the competition, at least directly.Sometimes a client or prospect

will mention Company A and ask what you think of them, or they will relate an

unfortunate and unpleasant past experience with them. My advice to young folks is

to never slam the competition, even if the client does. Even the big boys. My advice?

Shake your head with a rueful smile and state that you are sorry that they had a bad

experience, because it can reect badly on all consultants/contractors. Now along

with this if you work in a few advantages of dealing with your small- or mid-sizedrm, all the better!

If you know for sure that your competition includes mega-rms, take along a

veteran of one of those rms. We all have people in our rms who have come to

the refuge of a small or mid-sized rm from one of the Goliaths. Everyone has a

horror story to tell, and they are all different. That person can subtly work in to the

conversation reasons he or she left the Goliath world for Smallville.

Four points, but each can help you in your defense against the Goliaths of the world.

And besides, they are pretty good tips for a Marketing 101 session. l

A/E industry jobs are often mentally

demanding and require many hours at

the grindstone. We are living in a 24/7business environment. Spreading yourself

too thin leads to burnout and deprives you

of producing your best work. Consider

these strategies for developing a healthy

work-life balance and promoting personal

happiness.

Personal care: There are a few key

priorities to set when it comes to work-

life balance. Most importantly, sleep.

Countless studies prove that sleep

deprivation leads to lower productivity,

so set good sleep boundaries and stick tothem. Exercise will do your body good and

provide you stress relief that you crave.

Last but not least, make good hygiene a

priority. Taking care of oneself will boost

condence and garner self respect.

Email management: One culprit that

disrupts a healthy work-life balance is

email. The miracle of smart phones has

made it possible for your coworkers

to reach you effectively at 2am.

Implementing controls to manage your

email is critical to maintaining yoursanity. Some A/E professionals designate

a specic time each day to review emails,

or give themselves a break during the

day, away from technology. You might

also switch your phone to airplane mode,

disable work emails, or place your phone

somewhere out of reach when you leave

the ofce.

Conserve your energy: Despite what

you may think, you dont have to do it

all so dont let guilt weigh you down. Do

the best you can with what you have and

remind yourself that its good enough.

Take time to appreciate what you have and

recognize your accomplishments. Dont

forget to celebrate! Finally, avoid energy

zappers like negative people that drain you

or environments that deplete your energy.

Schedule downtime: Do you designate

time to yourself? Do you resent that your

Urban Legends:Work Life Balancein the A/E industryby Mariel Attento and Talin Astourian

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MARK E T I N G

J O U R N A LAE

What A/E/C Buyers Want, WhatSellers Think They Want, and Howto Leverage the Differenceby Sylvia Montgomery

To compete with the giants, grasping how prospects think and act can make all

the difference. However, our recent research suggests that there might be someperception gaps between what your buyers want and what you think theyre

looking for. Understanding these gaps and working to close them can help your

rm land more sales and beat out the competition.

In a survey of 522 A/E/C buyers and sellers, we asked what buyers are looking

for, what theyre trying to avoid, and what tips the scale in favor of a particular

rm during their selection process. After asking sellers the same questions, we

uncovered some startling inconsistencies.

How Buyers Approach the Selection Process

Having a clear understanding of how and why buyers are selecting your rm can

help you know where to focus your priorities. Here are the selection criteria that

buyers are using, as perceived by both buyers and sellers:

While both buyers and sellers agree on the importance of reputation, sellers

grossly overestimate how much weight buyers put on cost in the selectionprocess. 58% of sellers ranked cost as a top selection criterion, in comparison

with just 33% of buyers.

The second most popular selection criterion, according to buyers, is a good t

with a rm that shares their values. Sellers barely registered this response, with

only 5% of rms identifying it as important.

And when it comes to what buyers want to avoid, their top response is broken

promises. However, when sellers were asked the same question, the majority of

respondents focused on poor work quality as buyers biggest concern. In fact,

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time and attention is solely focused on work?

Consider scheduling an appointment for yourself

in your Outlook calendar. Better yet, set up a

biweekly recurrence. Beware of skipping lunch

as this can be an indicator that things are getting

out of balance. Put a book, crossword puzzle, or

personal project in your car and make it a point t

get out of the ofce and away from your desk.

Pool resources: To maximize your time, car

pool, ask your coworker to watch your email

while youre on vacation, and consolidate

meetings that can be blended. Also, be effective

with your time. You can use drive time to return

calls, use ight time to catch up on a project that

requires your full attention, and when you have

a meeting, bring a list of discussion items so you

can use that time to address more than one projec

or issue.

Time Management:Where does your time go?

Take an honest assessment. Before agreeing tosomething, ask yourself, On a scale of 1 through

10, how badly do I want to do this? The closer i

is to one, the less likely you should do it. Set clea

boundaries and say no to things you dont wan

to do. Next, cut out wasteful activities. Do you

spend an hour a day shopping online or browsing

gossip websites? A clear cut way to analyze

your time can be done by making a chart. Look

at where your time is spent on a daily/weekly/

monthly basis. Ask yourself what matters the

most to you. Is it spending time with children or

a spouse? Manage your schedule to include thes

activities.

When youre mindful about where your time is

going, you can improve the quality of your life. l

Talin Astourian is a graduate of the Art Center College ofDesign where she studied Advertising Design. Currentlyserving as Vice President of Strategic Growth for Twining,Inc., she specializes in revenue driven marketing, strategicgrowth facilitation and customized marketing and brandinplan authorship and execution. She collaborates withbusiness owners to develop industry-specic brandingmessages that holistically address the customers buyingexperience and seamlessly connect the customer to acompanys vision and voice.

Mariel Attento is a Business Development Manager forTwining, Inc. She earned a B.S. degree in Psychology fromGolden Gate University and went on to complete somegraduate coursework in Civil Engineering. After workingin Sales and Marketing for many years, Mariel ultimatelyfound her passion within the environmental engineeringindustry when she began working in the eld in 2007.She is specialized in the areas of business development,marketing and client service delivery for A/E/C rms andcurrently responsible for Twinings growth in the NorthernCalifornia marketplace. In addition to her work, Marielis active in many sports, spends time with family, is anenthusiastic San Francisco Giants fan, and resides in theregion with her dog Mini.

Urban Legends... (continued from page 7)


9/12WWW.PSMJ.COM

9OCTOBER / 2 0 1 4 VO L / 1 0 I S S U E/ 1 0

buyers top three concerns about A/E/C rmsbroken promises, being just like

everyone else, and having a conict of interest, respectivelywere barely recognized

by sellers.

But when it comes down to the nal selection of an A/E/C rm, what tips thescale for buyers?

Thirty-two percent of buyers listed a good reputation as the top quality that tipped the

scale in favor of a particular rm, with a better value proposition coming in second.

However, sellers put signicantly more stock in their customer service as a top

deciding factor and past performance.

What Your Firm Can Learn from the GapsThe gaps revealed in our research highlight opportunities for improvement. Here are

three tips for putting what the gaps tell us into action:

1. Your buyers want to know you.Reputation and a good t ranked highly among

buyers selection criteria, so dont be afraid to let buyers get to know your rm.

Produce content that solidies your brand and expresses your values.

2. Dont make promises you cant keep.Buyers dont want to be misled. Set realistic

expectations, do what you say youre going to do, and dont make promises you cant

deliver on.

3. Cultivate advocates. While you never want to sacrice customer service, it might

not have as strong of an inuence as you once thought. Instead, work to cultivate

advocates who are willing to provide referrals and recommendations for your rm.

What buyers are looking for shouldnt be a mystery. Know what to prioritize and

leverage these insights to make your A/E/C rm more competitive and better position

yourself to win the business. l

Sylvia Montgomery is a Senior Partner at Hinge Marketing in Reston, VA, and the head of HingesA/E/C pratice. She can be reached at [email protected] .

What A/E/C Buyers Want...(continued from page 8)

DID YOU KNOW?

Which typeface (a.k.a. font) does your

rm use in its proposals?A recent study

compared eight popular typefaces to

discover which one was the easiest to

read. What the study showed that point

size is as important as font selection,

and that bigger doesnt necessarily mean

better. As far as what people subjectively

preferred reading, Veranda, at point size10, and Arial, at point size 12, were the

clear winners.

But the study also researched speed

of reading and legibility. Times New

Roman and Arial were read the fastest.

But Tahoma, at point size 10, and

Courier, at point size 12, were found to

be the most legible typefaces.

How your proposals look is as important

as what they say. There is a science,

literally, to typeface selection and

graphic design. Make sure youve

considered these things when creating

proposals and presentations.l

What trait do you look for in your

future rm leaders? Competence?

Charisma? Level-headedness? At

Google, where employees review their

managers twice a year through an

upward feedback survey, pile of datashows that the most important character

trait of a leader is predictability.

When leaders are predictable and have

consistent behavior, their employees

know what to expect. And according to

Google, when employees can predict

their supervisors behavior, it gives

the employees a type of autonomy

making them feel freethat improves

their decision making, their ideas, and

their productivity. l


10/12

10 O C T O B E R /2 0 1 4 V OL / 1 0 I S S U E/ 1 0

MARK E T I N G

J O U R N A LAE

Lets imagine for a moment that you

are the proprietor of a third-generation

family-owned hardware store. Your

grandparents, then your parents, and now

you have worked long hours and you

have put your souls into that place. Forover 60 years, your little store has been

THE place to go for any kind of hardware

you can imagine. Neither you nor your

customers can imagine it being any other

way, until

One day, you pick up the morning

paper and read that Wal-Mart is coming

to town. Then, Home Depot, and then,

Lowes. What would you do? Quit? Sell

your store to them? You dont want to do

either of those things, of course. Youll

sweat and worry for a while, but then youremember not all mom and pop hardware

stores are closing. Some are thriving.

Youll ask yourself, what is their secret?

So, youll knuckle down, work hard, and

sure enough, you will gure out the path

to continued success, too. Above all else,

you cant just take for granted that your

customers will keep walking in the door.

You are going to have to go out and ght

for your business.

Perhaps those of you who own or work

for a small, or even not-so-small, A/E/Crm could identify with that story. While

the huge A/E/C rms you are beginning

to have to compete with today dont sell

junk products and servicesthey are

often very goodmany of the techniques

youd use to keep your hardware store

open can be used in leading your smaller

A/E/C rm to continued success.

Consider these six ideas:

1. Take a risk. Be something. Stand for

something.

Like the hardware store owner, the one

thing you cant do is to compete on the

big guys terms. Youll be toast if you try

to offer more products and services than

them at a lower price. Try carving out a

niche. Develop some particular kinds of

expertise, some things you are better at

than anyone else. Make yourself known

for that. Become the place clients can

come to for expert advice.

The Mom and Pop Hardware Store By Ken TichacekCOO, and CEO of Intel, how he could

get more business with the giant

chipmaker, Grove famously replied Go

out and learn how to make chips. Then

come back and show us how to make

ours better. Focus on giving clientswhat they want from youExpertise,

empathy and understanding, authenticity,

and passion.

5. Dont sell. Listen instead, then tell a

story.

Most people in the professional

services industry think they have to be

salespeople to get work. Let the others

do that, while you simply go and listen

to your clients. Learn all you can about

what they are trying to achieve and the

obstacles they face. Then, and only then,is it your turn to talk. Tell them a story

the story of how you are going to solve

their problems so they can live happily

ever after.

6. Work harder and smarter than the

big guys do.

You knew this already, of course, but it

remains an eternal truth. People in the

A/E/C industry generally know all about

working harderFocus on the smarter

part. For example, in super competitive

environments, clients tend to go withthe people they know the best, so get

off your sitter-downer and go visit those

clients.

So, the next time you nd yourself

shopping in that little mom and pop

store across the street from Wal-Mart,

ask yourself why youre there. Your

answer to that question will tell you how

your little rm can thrive in the land of

the giants. l

2. Think more strategically.

You know, of course, that you dont have

any inherent strategic advantage against

the big rms. The thing is, though, neither

do they against you. So, you can keep

yourself in a strong position if you think

strategically all the time. Keep doing

things to stay one step ahead of everyone

else. Here is another analogy for you to

consider: You probably recall the story

of the American Revolution, how the

British, with the worlds largest and best

trained army, would march into open

battleelds wearing bright red coats.

The American patriots stood no chance

against such an overwhelming foe, yet

we all know they won in the end. They

did it by picking their battles. They chose

where and when to ght. They madeevery game a home game for them. You

can do the same thing.

3. Pick the right clients and hug them.

When the big, full-service rms come

to town, some clients will naturally lean

toward them and all the advantages they

offer. Other clients will be indifferent,

and some will naturally lean toward you

and the advantages a small rm like yours

offers. Identify and cater to those clients

who match up with your rm the best.

That concept is elegantly described bySimon Sinek in his book Start With Why:

How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to

Take Action(You can also go to YouTube

to watch Sinek give a TedTalk on the

same topic.) Just like I wouldnt be

caught dead going into a Home Depot,

you have clients who want to remain

loyal to your rm. You just have to

reward that loyalty. Focus on those clients

like your life depends on it. (Because it

does.)

4. Know your clients better than you

know your own kids.

Thats a bit of an exaggeration, of course,

but not much of one. Focusing on your

best clients means you are constantly

trying to put yourself in their shoes.

Think like them, understand their vision

and their challenges. When a consultant

asked Andy Grove, the former Chairman,

Ken Tichacek, Assoc. AIA, is asenior consultant and seminarleader for PSMJ Resources, Inc.He is also the founding principalof Think Like Your Clients LLC andis known as The Proposal Doctorfor the results he gets in helpingrms win new work. Reach Kenat [email protected].
mailto:ktichacek%40psmj.com?subject=AEMJ%20Newsletter%20Inquiryhttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/ken-tichacek/7/a4b/a72mailto:ktichacek%40psmj.com?subject=AEMJ%20Newsletter%20Inquiry


11/12WWW.PSMJ.COM

11OCTOBER / 2 0 1 4 V O L / 1 0 I S S U E/ 1 0

Our A/E/C clients tell us that better

communication would greatly help

every part of their practice: marketing,

business development, operations,nance, IT, and HR. Most of our

clients ask us to cover best practices

for written and verbal communications

during our training programs because

technical professionals are not always

taught these skills in school. During the

training, we present and discuss where

and when to use high-tech/low-touch or

low-tech/high-touch communication.

Technology winsbut managing

high-tech, low-touch is the key.Social

media is a mainstream strategy in A/E/Cmarketing that deserves its own column.

Aside from social media, the next most

used and possibly abused is email

communication. How do you manage

email in your organization? Is there a

policy for it?

Do you have a style guide for it? Some

rms do. It has become so abused that

some consultants make a living on

teaching the right way to use email. Our

delete buttons are almost worn out.

One marketing director of a major rm

told us she gets 400 emails a day. Her

worry is that one of those deletes was

important but she did not see that in the

ve-second decision she made.

Management rms report that on

average, each employee spends about

one hour a day on emails. If you

extrapolate that, that is ve hours week

or 13 % of their timeenough to wipe

out the prot of most rms!

Most people understand the cardinal

rules, but lets review them. Do not

jump to emails to communicate

everything (maybe there is a better

communication vehicle); do not copy

everyone when you really just need the

communication with one person (people

will begin to delete your emails without

opening them); keep it short and sweet

two or three linesyou have a better

Are You Using the Right CommunicationVehicle for Your Message?

chance of having the email read; and

most of all do not use email to confront

someone you do not want to talk with in

person. Eventually you will still have toface that person and the associated issue.

Old school still wins, too. Before

emails, boomers will remember the high-

volume of phone calls each dayour

voice mail boxes were frequently maxed

out while we put our phones on not

available so we could get work done.

Email has replaced phone calls overall,

but we still do take calls from known

callers selectivelyfor example, the

same marketing director cited above said

she only gets about 10 calls a day and

most of them she answers.

Most studies agree that the use of

electronic communication will continue

to rise, especially as the y and z

generations become the majority of the

work force.

Our tips for using low-tech, high-touch:

use the phone to call boomers who

appreciate this mediumthey still make

up the majority of rms top management

who control the nancial decisions.

A bonus for a making a personal call?

You might nd out other important

information over and above the reason

you made the call.

There is a place for low-tech, high

touch snail mail, too.You probably dont

get as much business mail as you did 10

years ago, unless its a credit card offer

you dont want. However, snail mail has

become one of the best communication

sources out there for getting opened andread simply because is it more scarce.

Through good customized copy and

supportive graphics you can make a solid

brand impression and capitalize on the

pull side of your marketing program,

which makes your push or selling side

of your program less costly and more

productive.

Consider when to use low-tech, high-

touch and snail mail. Traditional mail

is especially effective, for example, whenannouncing a special event or a signicant

achievement, announcing new executive

hires, and save-the-date information

for an event. Also, remember to use

hand-written thank you notes, still the

number- one activity everyone in your

rm can and should be doing. Think of

the last time you received a handwritten

thank-you note. Didnt you appreciate

the thoughtfulness behind it? In addition

to being a nice gesture, it just might be a

differentiator for your rm.

The takeaway is this. Think about which

type of communication is best for the

message you are delivering. While

emails are quick and easy, they may not

be opened and read. A brief discussion

with a colleague, client, or prospect might

be an important element in relationship-

building. Traditional mail is an option

that can make a statement that reinforces

social media and other forms of electronic

communication. Differentiate yourself

from others through your communication,

regardless of the medium you use, and see

what happens. l

Tink about which type ofcommunication is best for themessage you are delivering.While emails are quickand easy, they may not beopened and read. A briefdiscussion with a colleague,client, or prospect might bean important element inrelationship-building.


12/12

COMING NEXT MONTH:Client Feedback

The Power of PartnershipsStrategic partners provide leverage for new work and act in a predictable manner. by Wally Hise

Theres a lot of buzz these days about

being a partner, whether with your

clients, another rm, or even with a

different division within your owncompany. Sometimes when terms

become so common in our vernacular,

like Win-Win, they lose their meaning.

Below I will try to put meaning back into

the phrase strategic partnership, in the

context of working with another rm.

A strategic partnership differs from a

teaming arrangement in a few key ways.

First, strategic partners are rms that you

work with over time, so you know what

to expect on projects and how problems

will be resolved. Second, both rms arein it for the long haul because they see a

mutual benet in the relationship.

What do these partners provide?

Generally their services will complement

yours, they will have a similar client

base, and they will have strengths where

your rm may be weak or looking to

grow. In addition, they will:

Fill niche service areasWhen you

analyze requirements for a project and

see gaps in your capabilities, it pointsto the need to bring in a teammate.

Look to your partners to ll these gaps

when proposing on a new project or

contract. They offer not only the required

capability, but also the advantage of

having experience working with your

rm, adding credibility to the team and

removing doubt in the reviewers eye that

you will work well together.

Provide client insightsSometimes

you can turn to your strategic partners

as you begin to position for new work

with clients that dont know your rm

well. Our rms has one instance where

our partner has a long track record and

existing relationships with an agency;

we bring specialized capabilities. They

are willing to share information and

sponsor us for introductions to discuss

upcoming work.

Bring opportunities to your company

Have you ever received a frantic callor email from someone asking you to

join their team for an upcoming project?

Typically these requests are last minute,

after the RFP has been released and

everyone is scrambling to nalize their

team. Now, remember the last time a

partner asked you to join their team?

Likely the call came well in advance of

the RFP, and your rm is at or near the

top of their list for a joint pursuit.

The real power of a strategic partnership

is that it makes your rm more than youcan be when acting alone. In short, the

partnership provides leverage.

What is the expectation of a partner in

terms of how they act and interact with

your company? You know you have a

strategic partnership when both rms

are seless, exhibiting the characteristics

listed below.

Take the relationship seriously

Strategic partners put their best people

on the job because the relationship is

important. You may have occasional

partnering meetings with a cross

section of staff, and identify areas of

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION:ONE YEAR (12 ISSUES) - $377

For group or rm-wide subscription pricing, single copies, or address changes, pleasecall 800-537-PSMJ. Copyright2014 by PSMJ Resources, Inc. All rights reserved. Partialquotation with attribution is encouraged. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Wally Hise is vice presidentof federal marketing for HDREngineering, Inc. (Omaha, NE).Contact him [email protected].

A

mutual interest for future collaboration.

There also tends to be management

engagement, commitment, and follow

through.

Make introductions to others in their

rmIndividuals with a vested interest

in making the relationship work for both

rms will readily share information and

contacts beyond their area of expertise

whether that is a division, geography,

or service. Another partner of ours has

interests beyond my Federal purview, so

I facilitated introduction to our freight

railroad staff, and made connections

to our ofces in the Northwest. In the

end, people dont benet from theserelationships, the rms do.

Dont keep scoreThrow out the

old I helped you, now you help me

attitude and get with the program. You

wont be keeping score in any long-

term relationship built on mutual trust

and benet. But while the relationship

is not built on a one-for-one mentality,

reciprocity is key to making it work for

the long term.

We recently thought we had a strong

small business partner. Many meetings

between management, joint pursuits

and wins, and positive signals gave us

great optimism. Then one day we got

a phone call. It seems that there were

other large businesses courting the

rm. This brings me to my nal point.

Partners communicateearly, often, and

honestly. While many of the attributes

are present, in this case we have a

teammate, not a strategic partner. l

12 OCTOBER / 2 0 1 4 V O L / 1 0 I S S U E/ 1 0

Te real power of a strategicpartnership is that it makesyour firm more than you

can be when acting alone.In short, the partnership

provides leverage.
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a-e marketing journal october 2014 volume 10 issue 10

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