Why is networking so difficult for many architects and engineers? First, your parents taught you not to talk to strangers as a kid. Networking is uncomfortable because of this. Second, there are social etiquette issues and not wanting to be seen as pushy. Third, public speaking is our greatest fear next to the fear of death, plus what do we have to say? Find out how being brave enough to extend a hand can bring unforeseen opportunities for creating new business for your firm.
Who is sitting near you right now? Look around. Do you really ever know exactly who you are attracting? A fun exercise: Consider the folks who surround you at any moment , and think about the role they could play helping you uncover leads for new projects.
We're out and about in our everyday lives all the time, but not until we slightly tweak those simple interactions toward a project-related conversation do we realize the wealth of contacts waiting on our doorstep. I believe that what we are seeking is seeking us - we just have to demonstrate the courage to get out of our comfort zones, extend a hand and meet the people around us.
Brave little moments like this can reveal incredible relationships and opportunities virtually at our fingertips. I encourage people to become a COW: a Citizen of the World, finding creative ways to engage people in conversations that artfully turn toward your firm's value proposition.Here are a few points that can help you get outside your own comfort zone:
1. Realize that networking is weird for most people. You're not the only one afraid to stick out that hand or start a conversation. Fear of rejection shapes most of our lives ... but it's the brave ones who go beyond that False Evidence Appearing Real that make others comfortable in relating back. We all converge in the streets as brothers and sisters during an earthquake - why not generate that same relatedness all the time?
2. Find natural opportunities to connect.With a little practice, you can learn how to start up a conversation anywhere: in the line at the coffee shop, checking out at the grocery store or in the elevator at the office. When you want to buy a new car, you see them all over the place. When you want to find ways to connect with people, you'll be overwhelmed by all the opportunities to do so surrounding you every day. You just have to start looking!
3. Add a simple question to your brief conversations: "What do you do?"It's a simple ice-breaking question that most people don't think to include in their short, passing conversations, yet it turns that everyday conversation into one that can help you. If you ask someone "What do you do?" they will most often ask the same question of you. This easy question gives you a project-related conversation that can shower you with information and connections that you would have simply walked by.
4. Develop your 30-second "Elevator Speech."In the Fusion Seminar we spend time helping people position their value proposition in their "Elevator Speech" which is your response when someone asks you the question, "What do you do". Everyone involved in the design and construction industry needs to have a response that says more than, "I am an engineer or architect." Your response can open doors and lead to more questions, or be followed up by a response like, "My neighbor is an engineer." You can't become a networking star overnight, but you can take baby steps and try these techniques the next time you are at a meeting, reception or event. The results will surprise you.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Small Design Firms Benefit from Sending a Monthly Client Newsletter
Small business in general, but small engineering and architectural firms specifically are behind the eight ball when competing agaist larger firms with more resources and larger marketing departments. How can they even the playing field? Last week I posted a blog about using social media to compete. That is the first step. Small firms need to drive clients and prospects to their websites. Websites have to be interactive and offer visitors something worth the visit. Review my previous blog for details.
However, sometimes it is not about resources, but past experience.
I once served as the Marketing and Business Development Director for a 50-person engineering firm and struggled with ownership over website design and external marketing communication. The owners couldn't agree on what should be listed on their website, ignoring my advice and the advice of a web designer. For more than five years, they had been trying to find agreement and perfection in a new website. I checked the site the other day and it is still the same. An idea to create an external client newsletter had the same result. Therefore, sometimes it is not the lack of resources that prevents small firms from communicating with clients, but a mindset that shouts "what we have always done is not worth changing." Some small firms look at marketing as risk they are not willing to accept. However, I digress from the topic...... Client Newsletters.
Small firms should be using another tool to connect with their project universe. They need to create a monthly client newsletter. The newsletter should be electronic, one page and offer news, trends and articles that would be of interest. Lessons Learned could be the topic of an on-going newsletter column. Articles that add to your firm's "expert" status will also help to drive readers to your website or to the telephone to call you direct. Another valuable column would be anything to do with your involvement in community activities. A client interview would provide your messge with third party credibility.
However, when a small business is up to its neck in alligators, it is hard to remember the mission was to drain the swamp, or in this case, to build additional business. In addition, many small firms don't have the internal resources to produce a professional quality newsletter each month and can't afford to outsource the project to a marketing firm that might charge several thousand dollars per month. Maybe they did outsource marketing in the past and the results did not meet their expectations. These firms are not interested in throwing good money after bad.
Would they use this business building tool, if the cost was about $500 per month? That is the question I am asking 100 small architectural and engineering firms this week. What would they receive for their investment? They would receive a list of everyone who opened the email, as well as the names of people who clicked the links that were included in the newsletter. They would be obligated to provide the list of people they want to send the newsletter to and reivew and approve the content in a timely fashion.
This is simply an idea to help small architectural and engineering firms level the playing field with some of their larger competitors. Do you know any firms that could benefit from such an investment? Email trystanderson@businessdevelopmentpros.org
http://www.businessdevelopmentpros.org/
However, sometimes it is not about resources, but past experience.
I once served as the Marketing and Business Development Director for a 50-person engineering firm and struggled with ownership over website design and external marketing communication. The owners couldn't agree on what should be listed on their website, ignoring my advice and the advice of a web designer. For more than five years, they had been trying to find agreement and perfection in a new website. I checked the site the other day and it is still the same. An idea to create an external client newsletter had the same result. Therefore, sometimes it is not the lack of resources that prevents small firms from communicating with clients, but a mindset that shouts "what we have always done is not worth changing." Some small firms look at marketing as risk they are not willing to accept. However, I digress from the topic...... Client Newsletters.
Small firms should be using another tool to connect with their project universe. They need to create a monthly client newsletter. The newsletter should be electronic, one page and offer news, trends and articles that would be of interest. Lessons Learned could be the topic of an on-going newsletter column. Articles that add to your firm's "expert" status will also help to drive readers to your website or to the telephone to call you direct. Another valuable column would be anything to do with your involvement in community activities. A client interview would provide your messge with third party credibility.
However, when a small business is up to its neck in alligators, it is hard to remember the mission was to drain the swamp, or in this case, to build additional business. In addition, many small firms don't have the internal resources to produce a professional quality newsletter each month and can't afford to outsource the project to a marketing firm that might charge several thousand dollars per month. Maybe they did outsource marketing in the past and the results did not meet their expectations. These firms are not interested in throwing good money after bad.
Would they use this business building tool, if the cost was about $500 per month? That is the question I am asking 100 small architectural and engineering firms this week. What would they receive for their investment? They would receive a list of everyone who opened the email, as well as the names of people who clicked the links that were included in the newsletter. They would be obligated to provide the list of people they want to send the newsletter to and reivew and approve the content in a timely fashion.
This is simply an idea to help small architectural and engineering firms level the playing field with some of their larger competitors. Do you know any firms that could benefit from such an investment? Email trystanderson@businessdevelopmentpros.org
http://www.businessdevelopmentpros.org/
Friday, October 9, 2009
Social Media: Design Firms Most Pressing Challenge
What is the most pressing challenge facing design firms today? Some would say it is the economy or lack of stimulus funds for infrastructure projects. But the reality is the changing nature of branding and how the industry is adapting. Marketing has become conversations that are initiated in the client universe and your challenge is to become part of the conversation.
Remember the classic McGraw Hill advertisement with a man sitting on a chair in an otherwise empty room, with this text, “I don’t know your company, your name or your product. Now what were you trying to sell me.” This represented traditional marketing through the channel of print advertising. Design firms have traditionally used print advertising, direct mail, and cold calling to build business.
Traditional branding is a top down approach with companies defining their brand. Today brands are being defined by conversations. Brands are defined by what people say about the firm. Is this how your firm is engaging clients?
If the brand for any architecture or engineering firm consists of a set of promises, isn’t it the company that decides the promises? Yes, core values of a firm are created internally, but the branding of the promise happens outside. In an environment where every firm offers “quality services, on time and under budget,” it is difficult to differentiate. Difficult unless you have built trust and relationships in the market place. Look at it this way: Traditional marketing was like taking a sledge hammer and hitting your prospects and clients over the head with it. It was almost like, “Believe me, or else.”
Branding today is like a magnet that draws clients to the company. This is the real value and purpose of social media in a business context.
Your firm might be filled with Gen Y employees who Twitter, blog and post on Facebook. This is not a fad, or something that young people do when they aren’t playing video games. Social media is the place where you cultivate your brand in the new economy.
In the traditional sales funnel you have the project universe at the top and as the funnel shrinks prospects are turned into clients. Today’s funnel has website visitors at the top who develop into leads and eventually clients. Before we go any further, it is important to point out that social media is not replacing the need for business development people or departments. Leads in the funnel don’t magically become clients because they heard about your blog or follow you on Twitter. But social media does act as trust agents. Unlike the businessman in the McGraw Hill advertisement, they trust what you are about to sell to them. Therefore the new tools of social media add power to traditional marketing.
Social media is where the conversation begins. When people are drawn to your firm, you are in a unique position to listen to their needs. This process enables your firm to build trust and create relationships before business development takes over the sales process.
For example, Linkedin is an excellent site to build your reputation as an industry expert. Expert status is a powerful way to differentiate a firm from the competition.
Differentiation isn’t easy because there isn’t a silver bullet in branding. Your competitors might also have expert status. Therefore, civil engineers must be intentional in embracing social media. The important part of cultivating the brand conversation is the transparency of your company. The end game of social networks is to drive people to your website. Therefore, your website has to be interactive instead of a yellow page ad. This means you need to have interesting content like a blog, videos, and articles. Marketing departments must be actively linking this information to their social networks. If you don’t have a blog, it is easy to start. Your marketing department is probably filled with ideas. For starters, why not interview clients for your blog? Another idea is to share lessons that you have learned. How about shooting videos at events? If you have a community outreach commitment, a video shot at an event could go viral after linking it to your social networks. Helping others in the new economy is good for business. It goes back to the concept of trust.
Finally, the most important thing about your transparency is the requirement to allow every staff person to participate. It makes sense based on pure numbers and possible connections, but it also makes sense in building trust and growing relationships. When more people in the client universe understand your brand (your promises), there is greater potential for additional work. This is a reality that is not shaped by economic conditions, but by your flexibility and desire to embrace change.
About the authorTryst M. Anderson is president of T. Marlowe & Associates, a training and personal development organization specializing in marketing and business development training for engineers and architects. He has 20 years experience marketing professional services and has written more than 100 articles for trade and industry magazines. He can be reached at trystanderson@businessdevelopmentpros.org or http://www.businessdevelopmentpros.org/
Remember the classic McGraw Hill advertisement with a man sitting on a chair in an otherwise empty room, with this text, “I don’t know your company, your name or your product. Now what were you trying to sell me.” This represented traditional marketing through the channel of print advertising. Design firms have traditionally used print advertising, direct mail, and cold calling to build business.
Traditional branding is a top down approach with companies defining their brand. Today brands are being defined by conversations. Brands are defined by what people say about the firm. Is this how your firm is engaging clients?
If the brand for any architecture or engineering firm consists of a set of promises, isn’t it the company that decides the promises? Yes, core values of a firm are created internally, but the branding of the promise happens outside. In an environment where every firm offers “quality services, on time and under budget,” it is difficult to differentiate. Difficult unless you have built trust and relationships in the market place. Look at it this way: Traditional marketing was like taking a sledge hammer and hitting your prospects and clients over the head with it. It was almost like, “Believe me, or else.”
Branding today is like a magnet that draws clients to the company. This is the real value and purpose of social media in a business context.
Your firm might be filled with Gen Y employees who Twitter, blog and post on Facebook. This is not a fad, or something that young people do when they aren’t playing video games. Social media is the place where you cultivate your brand in the new economy.
In the traditional sales funnel you have the project universe at the top and as the funnel shrinks prospects are turned into clients. Today’s funnel has website visitors at the top who develop into leads and eventually clients. Before we go any further, it is important to point out that social media is not replacing the need for business development people or departments. Leads in the funnel don’t magically become clients because they heard about your blog or follow you on Twitter. But social media does act as trust agents. Unlike the businessman in the McGraw Hill advertisement, they trust what you are about to sell to them. Therefore the new tools of social media add power to traditional marketing.
Social media is where the conversation begins. When people are drawn to your firm, you are in a unique position to listen to their needs. This process enables your firm to build trust and create relationships before business development takes over the sales process.
For example, Linkedin is an excellent site to build your reputation as an industry expert. Expert status is a powerful way to differentiate a firm from the competition.
Differentiation isn’t easy because there isn’t a silver bullet in branding. Your competitors might also have expert status. Therefore, civil engineers must be intentional in embracing social media. The important part of cultivating the brand conversation is the transparency of your company. The end game of social networks is to drive people to your website. Therefore, your website has to be interactive instead of a yellow page ad. This means you need to have interesting content like a blog, videos, and articles. Marketing departments must be actively linking this information to their social networks. If you don’t have a blog, it is easy to start. Your marketing department is probably filled with ideas. For starters, why not interview clients for your blog? Another idea is to share lessons that you have learned. How about shooting videos at events? If you have a community outreach commitment, a video shot at an event could go viral after linking it to your social networks. Helping others in the new economy is good for business. It goes back to the concept of trust.
Finally, the most important thing about your transparency is the requirement to allow every staff person to participate. It makes sense based on pure numbers and possible connections, but it also makes sense in building trust and growing relationships. When more people in the client universe understand your brand (your promises), there is greater potential for additional work. This is a reality that is not shaped by economic conditions, but by your flexibility and desire to embrace change.
About the authorTryst M. Anderson is president of T. Marlowe & Associates, a training and personal development organization specializing in marketing and business development training for engineers and architects. He has 20 years experience marketing professional services and has written more than 100 articles for trade and industry magazines. He can be reached at trystanderson@businessdevelopmentpros.org or http://www.businessdevelopmentpros.org/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)