BuiltEnvironment

The value of a lead service

For many years, using a variety of online and print platforms, I have stated my belief that IMS (Integrated Marketing Systems) is the best lead service for the A/E industry for public sector opportunities. I have used other lead services and just didn't feel that I got the benefits I got from IMS.

That is, of course, just my opinion; others may prefer to recommend other lead services. And that's OK.

My main reasons for preferring IMS are:

1. I can't look at every city, county, state, federal and regional transit agency and airport all by myself. IMS covers the parts of the United States in which I, my current and prospective clients are most interested.
2. I find IMS to be the most comprehensive service for the states they cover;
3. I find that they provide the longest advance notice of potential opportunities; and
4. They update their notifications as new information comes to them.

These last two reasons are the most important for me.

Over the last decade and longer, there has been a lot of talk about the belief that it is pointless to pursue a project for a client who is a stranger, and expect a successful outcome. So that third reason is definitely a game changer for me.

The long advance time provided by IMS—which sometimes amounts to more than 6 months—can give a firm the chance to begin developing a relationship with a potential client long before the RFQ or RFP is issued. So your firm won't be a stranger to that client when your proposal is submitted.

In addition to alerting its subscribers to the future opportunity long in advance, the IMS system continues to research opportunities, and publishes updates when new information about the project is learned.

These updates allow me to revisit my Go/No Go evaluation to see if the project is still worth tracking. This also helps me decide whether or not to continue spending my time and money building and strengthening that client relationship. If the new information turns the project into a "No Go" for my firm, we might want to scale back the frequency of visits and the expenditures related to those visits until another, seemingly more productive, opportunity arises.

I have found that one of the biggest wastes of hours and dollars in the A/E industry involves the pursuit of the wrong projects, for the wrong reasons. The final questions have to be:

1. Do we want to work with/for this client?
2. Can we win this project, or is there a strategic reason to pursue if we can't win?
3. Can we make a profit at the anticipated fee level?
4. Can the project be built within the client's budget?
5. Are there public relations benefits to the project?
6. Are there financial or other potential liabilities if our firm is selected?

In the end, a big factor in a firm's overall profitability involves having a collection of systems and resources that enable the firm to make better decisions about how to spend the firm's limited resources—both human and financial resources—in the most effective manner. Any tool that gives a firm more time to make better decisions should be a "must have" item.

For me, IMS gives firms the luxury of time—IMS is the best of the available options.

Client loyalty — does it still happen?

Client loyalty is a funny thing.

In today's A/E industry, where we spend a lot of time worrying about and/or trying to prevent commoditization, we are often told that loyalty no longer exists—that clients are no longer loyal to consultants and vice versa.

Apparently, clients want the consultant that can be bought for the lowest cost and consultants want the clients who can provide the greatest profitability, regardless of how long-standing or successful their relationship has been.

Although it flies in the face of contemporary "wisdom," I still believe in loyalty. I believe it still exists between clients and consultants, in both directions, when the circumstances are right.

First of all, I believe that, no matter what, a consultant must practice a degree of humility, and can't go about always blowing his/her own horn. The client must never be made to feel that the consultant is the star of the piece. In fact, there are many instances where the consultant does the "heavy lifting" and the client gets star billing.

So a certain amount of risk-taking might be necessary and appropriate, but a certain degree of circumspection is also necessary and appropriate.

As David Weber has one of his characters say in "Like a Mighty Destiny,"

". . . while audacity was the handmaiden of success, overconfidence was the handmaiden of disaster."

Second, and equally important, is that promises must be kept. In a number of forums, I have heard clients say that the most important thing they expect from a consultant is:

"Do what you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it."

I take this thought hand-in-hand with the prescription "under-promise and over-deliver." The hybrid situation is one where you do more than you promised and deliver it a day early.

On the "win work" side of things, I always try to deliver proposal drafts to my clients the day before the schedule says, and the final files in time to print and deliver the proposal a day before it's due. This gives the client the luxury of additional review and revision time, which is always appreciated.

On the "do work" side, I encourage my clients to schedule their projects so that deliverables can be given to the client before the scheduled time. Whether the client takes the luxury of additional review time or moves the project forward faster is totally up to the client, but the extra time is always appreciated.

In the long run, when a consultant or client delivers what was promised ahead of schedule, it makes the client or owner aware that they might not be able to count on the same behavior from others. Since time is the one commodity that is not replaceable, the benefits of unexpected additional time are rarely underrated.

So the consultant delivering extra time to the client, or the client delivering extra time to the owner, often finds him/herself valued properly, and their services sought after in more cases than not.

After all, we all want to get more than we paid for, and extra time can be the most valuable commodity of all.