The Proven Method for Turning a Great Marketing Idea into Client Gold

Have you ever given management a great marketing idea or strategy and got turned down?  In our industry, it happens more often than you think.  It is something that goes with the territory.  It might have been the way you sold it. Available resources often come into play.  Your proposal could have been too far outside the box or outside of the comfort zone management prefers to live in. 

The bottom line is your idea is in the firm dumpster and you move on to other things.  However, something happens when you debrief the client after losing this major project. The competitor who was given the assignment happened to use the same idea or strategy that you had pitched management on and failed.

You could go back to management and tell them your idea won the project.  But telling management “I told you so” won’t do anything positive for your standing in the firm.  You have to drill down on the client’s decision to choose the competitor.  What was it about the strategy that your firm was lacking?

How did it improve their strength in that pursuit or minimize their weaknesses?  Did they apply more resources to the pursuit than your firm?  What did they bring to the presentation that your firm neglected? Asking the right questions in a debriefing leads to the honest answers you need to improve on your next pursuit.   Your idea or strategy was the steak you believed the firm needed to win this project and others.  The competitor brought the sizzle to their implementation while showing the client the steak.

Solomon told us in the Old Testament that “there is nothing new under the sun.”  Marketing services professionals can believe their ideas and strategies are unique, but industry competitors live in the same universe where ideas are the currency they use to keep food on the table.  When you have something with a new twist that might be unique, you need to transfer your passion to the management team.

We need to go back to management’s comfort zone and your living outside of the box.  Your passion is a good thing and probably the reason you are a trusted member of the team.  You must tread lightly when working to get management to expand their comfort zone.  Understanding the balance between risk and reward is critical.  They saw the steak you gave them with your idea but they needed to hear the sizzle in order to justify the risk. If the balance is not right, you will get burned by the sizzle.  Every marketing strategy has to be client-centric.  When management hears the sizzle they are visualizing how it will sway the client.  You believed your idea was the best way to help the client and win the next project.  Management didn’t see it that way.  In the end, the client did.

Here are four keys to winning management approval for your marketing ideas and strategies:

1.       Keep the client’s needs in the center

2.       Qualify your firm’s services with solutions to the client needs.

3.       Highlight the sizzle (client hot buttons) and marinate the steak (don’t slap yourself on the back).

4.     Create a bold assessment of resources needed, including pre-proposal actions, proposal documentation, and presentation talent and props.

Some trainers will talk about client pain points. Some will emphasize client personal wins. When you keep the client’s needs in the center you focus on the above as well as the needs of the current project you are pursuing.  In order to win the project, you have to connect all of these. To one degree or another, your idea/strategy probably did that.

The bullet points you could use in presenting your next idea to management could include:

·         Client is risk adverse and this approach reduces his risk

·         A successful project will result in a promotion for the client

·         The project has four highly sensitive issues (successful solutions to previous clients)

·         Our competition includes…

·         There is potential for $1 million profit and a long term client

You proceed to tell the management team this pursuit will use X services which reduces the client’s risk, creates a successful project and we have completed X projects with the same sensitive issues. History tells us our competitors will do…..

Up to this point we are talking about standard operating procedures for any marketing professional. The resources needed for the presentation now become the critical point in selling this idea. Do you need to build a model or create a video showing your approach?  Who needs to be on the presentation team?  Do you capture client statements on video as you document your approach navigating the sensitive design issues?

It is not the time to get bogged down into the details but to paint the big picture of how important this project is for the firm.  Your passion in filling in the big picture will ultimately expand management’s comfort zone before you tell them the dollars it will take to pursue this project.  If you have done the presentation right, that question might not even be asked.

 

Why Your Firm Needs to add SWAT to its Marketing Analysis

Professional services firms, including architects, engineers and contractors have been using the traditional SWOT analysis to create annual marketing plans that are effective in building business.  This article is about adding SWAT to your annual marketing plan. Today your firm needs special weapons and tactics.

What could be more straight forward than analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? The industry training I provide includes modules on strategic sales and creating strategic marketing plans.  Attendees peel back SWOT and learn to focus on opportunities.  It is easy to leverage strengths and minimize weaknesses but examining opportunities is a more complex process.  By the way, threats are both internal and external. 

Strengths can become threats.  For example, experts in the services you deliver are often placed into the strengths column along with clients who are advocates of your services.  What happens when the expert goes to work for a competitor?  What happens when your best client fires you?

Every annual marketing plan should include a “Contingency Planning” section.  This is the section where you need to be thinking about SWAT.  SWAT stands for special weapons and tactics. 

Here are the strengths listed in most industry marketing plans:

·         Completed projects
·         Client advocates
·         Experts
·         Depth of Staff
·         Financial strength
·         Geographic locations
·         Services
·         Project delivery

If a client fired you because of a project delivery issue or project team conflict, then they are no longer strengths.  You might think this client will not impact the project you are pursuing with another client.  This might have been true 20 years ago, but today with the internet and social media, your chances of pushing this under the rug are nonexistent.  You need special weapons and tactics.  You need to have a contingency plan. This doesn't invalidate the entire plan.  But it should raise a red flag for making modifications. Maybe it is time for SWAT.

You have seen television depictions of SWAT teams in action and find it hard to believe this would be needed to build business in your firm.  Think about what is happening when a SWAT team is called to a crime scene.  Each member of the team has specific responsibilities.  They don’t just jump into a van wearing special uniforms when the call goes out.  You might believe they bring calm to a chaotic situation.

They have spent a lot of time training.  SWAT never finishes training because the real world sometimes presents problems whose answers can’t be found in any textbook. Better said, SWAT’s job is to train today for scenarios and threats that they cannot predict tomorrow.  Your business operates in the same world where textbooks don't contain all the answers and no one can predict what tomorrow will bring.

The first special weapon your firm needs to use is your annual marketing plan with contingencies.  For most firms this isn’t a special weapon because they let it sit on the shelf after it is produced.  They don’t make monthly or quarterly adjustments. 

The next special weapon is market research.  This is where your firm needs to mimic the police SWAT team.  Individuals on your team need to be assigned specific tasks in the area of market research.  Do you provide services to multiple industries?  Then someone needs to be assigned to each one.  Someone should also be given the assignment of researching competitors.   As they gather research, they need to develop tactics that are related to the opportunities that become present.  Opportunities that were not included in the original marketing plan.

The contingency section should also include scenario planning. 

This is where you brainstorm what happens when team experts leave the firm or your best client fires you. As you go through your marketing plan you will discover other areas where scenario planning would be useful.
 Over the years, I have provided a lot of training in the parking industry.  I was at a roundtable discussion once when a real estate developer asked me what would I do when people no longer drove cars. He certainly was a forward thinker.  My reply was that I would not be alive when that day became a reality. As absurd as that question was at the time, it did get me thinking.  This is what the contingency section will do for your firm.  It might be next step in securing new business in a changing world.

 

 

Your firm can delve deeper into all the secret weapons and tactics needed in the 2016 marketplace by contacting me to discuss the in-house training in your next operating budget.

The Role of Ego and Perfection in Marketing Pursuits

We all strive for perfection in our marketing and business development initiatives.  Proposals, for example, can’t leave the office with typos or factual errors.  The boilerplate that has been customized for any client can’t include the name of the previous client who requested similar services.

I have always been a words guy and not really a design guy when it comes to marketing materials, including proposal submissions.  There is a lot to be said about the people who possess the ability to see the beauty in different design approaches.  I applaud them.  In fact, this is the reason a team is always preferred in client pursuits.

When the design gets in the way of the words, I have a problem.   How does design ever get in the way of the words?  Winning is the bottom line of any pursuit.  How a proposal looks goes a long way toward whether it will be read or read thoroughly.  Office managers, senior managers and other “approval-required” executives can get hung up on the look rather than the content.  When this happens design gets in the way of the words.  It slows down the creative process.

Perfection, therefore, can hurt your chance of success.  We all fight deadlines in developing marketing materials.  Proposals have a client deadline and our firms have internal deadlines based upon the client’s deadline. Starting with the “go-no-go” beginning until we finish by putting the required copies of the proposal into the Federal Express package, we are up against the clock. Sometimes there are delays caused by multiple  meetings to decide whether to pursue the project.  Although those meetings  should develop at least an outline of the content and design, it usually ends with simply a yes or no.  The process of business development and nurturing the client has given us our content.  It has revealed the between-the-lines intel that is critical for success. Marketing pulls this from the database and words start to flow on the pages of our proposal. Success is challenged when perfection meets management ego.  The “we have always done it this way” approach is not about perfection.  In fact, it might short circuit valuable client intelligence, RFP requirements and strategy.

The request for proposals is contrasted with what we know about the client.  Graphics, design and format become the focus.  While some RFPs include format and design requirements, it is not the rule. 

As content joins together with design and reviews take place, perfection becomes the goal.  When you confuse perfection with the real goal of winning the project, your chance of success declines.  You know what they say about “too many cooks in the kitchen.” 

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, is often misquoted with a statement about winning.  He never said, “Winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing.”  He said, “ Winning isn’t everything, preparing to win is the only thing.”

Preparation is the key to successful proposals.

How often do you send out a proposal to a client you know nothing about or a project that is not in your wheelhouse?  Although there are circumstances where this makes sense, it is not the rule for success.

Therefore, we have a process that includes perfection.  We commit to going after the project.  We are prepared to put together the winning proposal.  Our team is ready to wow the client during the presentation.  All the pieces must come together seamlessly. When do you say you have gathered enough client intelligence?  How many drafts of the proposal are enough?  Perfection in these two steps of the process is a requirement and something marketing teams will lose sleep over.  However, the weakest link in the process is the client presentation.

The principal-in-charge, senior officer or even the firm president might take over this step.  The marketing team has created a storyboard of what needs to be presented, how it should be presented and who should be speaking.  It is all based upon the RFP requirements and client intelligence. You slapped yourself on the back with the proposal and made the cut. The presentation is not the time to keep slapping yourself on the back.  Ego is not your friend when the team is preparing for the presentation.  On one side you have a marketing team with the perfect presentation and the other a principal with her own ideas.  She doesn’t like to rehearse because her style is to wing it.  She thinks it might be a good idea for the technical presenters to rehearse, but she has been over this bridge a thousand times.  She has hundreds of projects to back up her claim.

The idea of multiple rehearsals goes out the door and marketing is satisfied with one rehearsal that includes only part of the presentation team. 

The team is now in front of the client’s selection committee and the principal starts the presentation. She goes off script and mentions things other presenters are prepared to speak about.  It would not be a fatal error unless she says something that is the opposite of what the scheduled presenter was going to say.  That person happens to know this client better than the principal and knows her misinformation has to be corrected.  But, you can’t call a timeout during a client presentation.  

Getting everyone on the same page is only one reason why presentation rehearsals are needed.  Team chemistry is the most important.  The presentation shows the client the value and importance of each team member and how they will function together.  Team confusion sends the wrong message to the client. I have seen the enemy of perfection and the enemy is us. 

In marketing professional services winning is never the only thing because winning can’t happen without preparation.  We have to know when enough is enough.  While the majority of firms in the country have never experienced the scenario painted above, it can doom your ability to win projects.  Each step of the process is vulnerable.  Perfection therefore is not one big thing, but a series of small things done well.

Always strive for excellence and the by-product will be near-perfection.  Management will appreciate this because clients will award you more business.  In the end, your most difficult task will be getting some people to leave their egos at the door. 

The Art of Selling New Business: Turning Conversations into Information

Selling professional services  has been defined as a combination of art and science, with communications being the key element. How many times have you planned the perfect client meeting only to leave the meeting without the sale or client commitment to move forward?  Communication might be getting in your way. 

One of our biggest problems is not taking into account the communication “noise”.  You might not have the undivided attention of your client. I am not talking about telephone interruptions or knocks on the door.  I am talking about what is going on in the client’s mind while you are trying to have a conversation.  In my “Overcoming Communications Barriers” seminar, I have a slide showing a client at his desk with cartoon balloons above his head showing what is on his mind. He is thinking about dinner with his wife, his son’s soccer game, the MLB baseball results, his car needing an oil change, etc.  And, you thought you were the most important thing he would be thinking about today.

When I first got into this business a sales trainer told me the key to selling is getting the client more interested in buying than you are in selling.  This means make your conversation less about your company and more about the client.  Don’t confuse this with leaving out the key reasons why the client needs your services. Since there isn’t a magic phrase that will make a client want to buy from us, we need to look at how a conversation can take us to the place where the client must buy from us.  If you start with a problem he is dealing with at the beginning of the conversation, it is easy to get the client to set aside other things on his mind and focus on you.  This is the art of selling.

Understanding how to lead a conversation will put you on the path to gaining information that is critical for your success in selling the client your services.  Asking the right questions is the first step.  Everyone working in business development or marketing in the professional services industry and all other industries for that matter knows you need to ask open ended questions. Yes and no answers are not the way to build a conversation.  Here is an example (How to find a client problem):
“Did you know there are five critical areas of expertise needed to design (fill in the blank with the client’s project)?  Conversations are built on body language. Wait and see the client’s reaction to your question.  Use the client’s answer and non-verbal cues to build the case for your firm.  The conversation might continue with the client saying, “Your expertise is great, but my problem is (blank).  Now the client is helping you build the conversation. You just learned a pain point you didn’t know before the meeting. When you answer, you will have the client’s full attention.

Your answer is simply, “Have you ever visited X.  The client for this project had the same problem you just mentioned and was initially concerned about using our firm.  We were selected not only because our team had experience with the large design issues, but because we had innovators who took care of the small issues that can slow down a major project.  We built trust by assuring the client that when you have a problem that no one has ever dealt with, you want us on the team to create a solution. The project has received many awards since its completion”

Your statement will generate a number of questions.  It might reveal a competitor who is wired into the project.  It might reveal the client’s problem is not what he just stated, but something different.  The answer will allow you to continue the conversation.  You might follow up with, “I understand how the problem you mentioned could impact the project, but is the project a current priority? Has it been funded? When do you plan to start? Do you have other people on your team working on the problem now or will you leave the solution to the design team?”  All of these questions continue the conversation and allow you to gather more information.  Contact us if you would like an in-house presentation, “Overcoming Communications Barriers to Sell More Business.” Tryst@businessdevelopmentpros.org

Will You Inspire Your Clients in 2015?

Over one hundred articles have been written examining the approach industry firms take regarding sales, business development, marketing or the other phrases used to describe how new business is secured. In fact, books have been written on the topic and industry professionals keep seeking answers.

For example, how does a firm with an impeccable record of service and project delivery fail to obtain the key contracts? How does a firm with thought leaders across a broad spectrum of service groups fail to win against firms lacking these experts? It can’t all be assigned to luck—good or bad.

It does point to the intangibles in the procurement process. Everyone strives to work on an even playing field. We know the decision makers, personal and business wins, personalities, buying influences, client history, competition, and the client’s decision process. We also know our strengths and weaknesses.

And, whether we call the process marketing, business development or sales, we know how to put a winning proposal and client presentation together. Therefore, we should never lose. What happens when we don’t win?

Don’t go back to the drawing board or rewrite your strategic approach to client acquisition. Get ready to take differentiation to a new level. Inspiring clients is the new cost of doing business. In the 1980’s this change was a focus on quality. In the 1990’s it was about giving back to your community. The focus is now on inspiration.

Ask your team what they did to inspire the client. Winning business is often personal. When you peel away all of the bells and whistles, buying decisions are made by people for people. Most clients go into the selection process for an architect or engineer with fear. Their job and reputation might be on the line. The success of their company might be decided by the impact of this project. They are mainly afraid because they believe anyone of 10 firms could do the job but only one will remove the fear and make the experience wonderful. Only one will inspire them.

Art Linkletter hosted a program called, “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” He could have included industry clients on that program as well. He might have called it “Clients make the darndest decisions. “ A selection process for an engineer or architect is rarely an apples to apples comparison. It might start that way, but the ending is often quite different. Does your firm know how to navigate when the selection turns personal.

How can your team inspire a client? The end result is a client becoming an advocate. The journey to advocate is not a straight line. You might start with your thought leaders. How often do your thought leaders sit down with clients (outside of a particular project or something billable) and brainstorm issues impacting the client’s business or industry? Most firms shy away from this because it might backfire. However, what is the value of an inspired client? It is definitely worth the risk. Have your principals really gotten to know the people who hired them? Caring about the personal outcomes of a client can be extremely inspirational as a firm seeks to acquire new business.

Understanding the outside elements that impact the client’s business or industry create the framework for producing an inspirational presentation instead of a cookie cutter PowerPoint that spends too much time patting your firm on the back. The images of your presentation are the storyboard that propels your story to the finish line of winning business. When it inspires, you transform the mind of your client. It is not simply changing the mind of the client, but creating a mindset that needs your firm to be part of the team.

Some firms stumble upon this change by accident. Success over the long term requires your firm to go deeper into client relationships. Inspiring clients is now a cost of doing business. Is your firm prepared to pay the price?