BuiltEnvironment

Forms, Check; References, Check . . .

At this point, I assume we all know that a proposal's content is its most important attribute, and that the graphic component is also a critical consideration. And we've all heard about the different processes firms use to organize, make assignments and track progress.  But do we all know the vital importance of having CHECKLISTS?

Developing a checklist for the submittal as the next step after a positive Go/No Go decision can be the single most important thing you do in preparing your proposal. Take it from someone who left one required form out of an otherwise (we thought) winning proposal.

Checklists not only help you track required components and their status, but, even more importantly, they tell you which items have already been completed so you can STOP worrying about them.  And as you check off items on your checklist, the ones that are not yet done become all the more visible, which helps you to focus your attention on what remains to be done.

Remember that the first look at a proposal is generally not to read - it's to find reasons to disqualify submittals so the Selection Committee won't have to read as many documents.  I recently heard of a case where a firm that should have been a major contender for a project was disqualified in the first round - they included all the forms but forgot to sign one of them!

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not about the process being more important than the product.  But I do recognize an important tool after I've forgotten to use it!

Unfulfilled Expectations . . . in reverse

My last post resulted in an interesting pair of questions:  (1) how do you handle the client not bringing to the table what they promised during scoping? and (2) what do you do with a client who makes it clear his desires have changed but insists on retaining the original written scope of work?  (Thanks, Pam).

When I have a project where the client must provide specific information for the work to proceed, I generally develop my schedule based on an assumption of the client's timely delivery of such information.  Instead of specifying a completion date, I specify the number of work days anticipated after delivery of the requisite information.

When the promised information is late, and the end of the month arrives, I issue an invoice for the work completed to date, accompanied by two things:  a list of the information the client needs to deliver before I can proceed any further, and a very clear statement that the project is on hold until that information is delivered.

I have not yet had a situation where a client changed his desires but refused to change the written scope, so this is hypothetical.  I think I would put out a project addition (or expansion) form detailing the new scope as if it is a new task being added to the project.  At the bottom of the form I would include a statement that the originally-scoped deliverable was being delayed in order to complete this new, obviously higher priority item.

At some point (maybe more than once), I would ask the client if he still wanted the product originally scoped or if that was no longer needed.  If needed, I would develop a new schedule and hope the client would be responsive.  Again, the schedule would reference days required for completion after the client delivers the information.

If no longer needed, I would write a memo to the client conveying the sense of that conversation, with a signature line at the bottom.  I would send it to the client and ask him to sign and return the document.

By the way, the next time this client calls you looking for help, you might want to remember that not every client is a client you want.

Selling what you can't deliver

Duuuuuhhhhhhh!!!  Why would anyone do this?

That's what I thought.  But when I gave it some more thought, I realized that firms do it all the time.

If you want to work for a client over the long term, you have to be able to deliver what you promise.  If not, you may or may not get fired from job #1, but you certainly won't get job #2.  And these days, we all know that profitability is in the long-term relationship, not the individual project.  So you'd better be able to deliver what you promise over the long term.

If you can't deliver, the client stops trusting you.  And with no trust, there's no relationship.  Life emulating business?  Business emulating life?  Maybe you should ask your significant other!  I'm not sure, but I do know the value of client trust to the ongoing success of your firm.

And while we're at it, does anyone still think that your brand is just your logo?  By now, I hope we all know that your brand is your promise, and you have to deliver on it every time.  That promise creates expectations, and you'd better be able to fulfill all of them.  There's that trust thing again!

When I listen to people talk (i.e., complain) about their difficulties with clients, they mostly seem to come down to two sources:  not delivering what was sold, and unfulfilled expectations.  So be careful what you promise, and be very specific and complete about which services/deliverables are included and which are not.  It's a jungle out there!

Posting Schedule

Thanks to all the people who have read and commented on this blog, either here or directly to me.  I'm setting a posting schedule of late-nite Monday and Thursday, so you'll find new postings every Tuesday and Friday morning.  When I have more to say, you may find extra postings, but you can count on new postings each Tuesday and Friday.

Distance and Control

I keep finding instances where, in looking for technical services, people specify that the provider must be local.  When I see this, I ask myself - why does it have to be local?  We all have computers, Internet connections, websites, FTP capabilities and phones, often with digital camera and GPS capabilities.  And often, the best services in your price range are outside your local area.

I wonder - maybe it's not about getting the best technical services you can afford -it's really about the control/ego issue of making someone else come to YOUR office in order to get the job.

We all know that relationships require face-to-face contact. But they don't require that the FIRST contact be face-to-face; generally, in fact, it is over the phone or via email.  And they certainly don't require that the face-to-face be in YOUR office.  Why miss out on the best services just because the provider is not within comfortable driving distance of your office?

One quarter of my clients are more than 50 miles away from me.  I met the one who is 200 miles away when I used the delivery of a first draft of the document as an excuse to visit his city; he gave me a second assignment based on our electronic contact to date.  I met another (70 miles away) when I delivered his final artwork; he wrote me a check while I waited and then sent me a reference letter.

Many of my clients came to me on recommendations from other clients that had to do with quality and speed of my performance.  Based on that recommendation, they looked at my website and then emailed or phoned me, asked for a scope of work and a cost estimate; they weren't particularly worried about which one of us came to the other one's office.

Don't get me wrong.  I think face-to-face meetings are both wonderful and needed, wherever they happen.  At some point, you need to see your client's office to know what is really important to him - family, civic participation, sports, etc.

However, I'm convinced that we should never let distance or ego deprive our firms of the best services they can afford.

Who Gets the Credit?

Some time ago, I attended a professional association meeting that included a lot of young marketers - young both in age and in years in the profession.  One of the major concerns expressed during the session was, "how do I make sure that I get the credit for the things I do?"

Since that meeting, I have been very sensitive to this concern among professional services marketers, both younger and older.  My answer today is what it was then:

It is a very VERY rare project that is won by the efforts of a single person.  Often, one person finds the lead and passes it to the marketing department, who assigns a team to write the qualifications package.  When the SOQ is short-listed, a team with more technical people is assembled to write the proposal.

After the proposal is submitted, the team puts together a presentation.  This team probably has members who didn't work on the proposal, particularly graphic design folks and additional technical folks who will have speaking roles.

When the project is won, someone puts together the cost proposal; when the contract is signed, a project team is assigned.  The project team may not include anyone who worked on the formal marketing effort other than the Project Manager.  But the quality of this project team's work will position the firm for that client's next project.

Ultimately, the point is not to make sure you get the credit for your work, but to make sure you are always acting as - and always perceived to be - a "team player."  In a service activity within a service company, no other reputation helps you more.

Win Work . . . Do Work

A/E/C/Env. marketing and business development (BD) staff work very hard, often over long hours, to help their firms secure new work. This is our primary activity. Everything else that we do is really part of this effort or secondary to it.

We give our marketing/BD folks training (classes, seminars, webinars) to enable/assist them in doing their jobs. We give them hardware (computers, phones, wi-fi capabilities), software (graphics, publishing, database), services (internet access, intranets). But a lot of firms still seem to live in a world where knowledge is power and hoarded knowledge is the most powerful. So what we don't provide, very often, is basic information about how the firm actually DOES the work they help WIN.

When an A/E/C/Env. firm wins work, two things happen: (1) the technical staff begins working on the project and (2) the marketing/BD staff begins working on its next pursuit.  But try asking the typical marketing or BD staff member just what happens after the win and they only know about the second.

Design, construction and environmental firms do themselves a great disservice when they assume the marketing/BD folks don't need to know anything about operations or technical execution. In fact, we'd actually be better marketers if we knew as much about the DO work side as we know about the WIN work side.

First Time Out

Hello out there.  This is the first post for my new weblog.  Someone recently said to me,

How could you not have a blog, or be reading a lot of others; they're such a great marketing tool?

Well, someone I worked for in the early 1970's (yes, 1970's!) had a poster in his office that said, "Stronger than all the establishments of man is an idea whose time has come."

So here I am, on this journey of experimentation with a new tool to spread my ideas and market my firm's services.  I'll try to keep the ideas and the journey interesting.  If it turns into anything resembling your aunt's slides of her trip to Yellowstone, please let me know.