Industry Speaks: Effective Business Development

Showing posts with label Effective Business Development. Show all posts

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice, 15th Ed., November 2013 – Compton Contributes Networking and Business Development Chapter

Industry Speaks™ Founder and A3K Consulting Principal Karen Compton, CPSM, contributed a chapter to the just-released 15th Edition of Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice. Compton covers the topic of “Networking and Business Development.”

Authored by The AIA with industry leaders as contributors, this comprehensive guide is the profession's standard on practice issues. The content has been significantly revised to reflect the changing nature of the business of architecture related to the impact of integrated practice.

Available for pre-order November 14, 2013; shipping begins the week of November 18. The book is also available in electronic pdf format. See the AIA webpage for details and order information.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

It’s Not Enough to Just Show Up

Many of us develop a schedule defining what conferences our firm will attend. The question is, “Do you have a conference strategy?” This is a plan, with tactics that you chose to employ, to advance your business development efforts. Plan ahead, to avoid these mistakes:

Choosing conferences that focus on peer group attendance
Many of attend conferences for continuing education, networking, advertising and/or political pressure. Conferences attended for the purposes of advancing your business development efforts should be focused on groups of clients—not peers or competitors. “Fish where the fish are.” It does you no good to look for clients in a room full of peers.
Showing up without a game plan
Before you ever set your foot on the convention floor, determine your purpose. Is it to make introductions, to follow up on previous conversations, or to guard your clients? Each of these are good reasons for attending a conference, but you need to understand your goal going in. If it is to meet a client, identify who they are, if possible send an email or phone call beforehand to ask if they are attending and set up a time to meet. If it is a follow up, clarify what you’d like to follow up on (i.e., the introduction of a Thought Leader or the timing of a new opportunity). If you are attending to guard your clients, arrange coffee, lunch or other activities with them to keep them with you and away from your competition. Don’t just show up looking for people and depending on spontaneous interactions.
Getting a booth
Booths can be expensive. In addition to the cost of the booth, there is the cost to produce the booth and the marketing materials within the space, including “giveaways and brochures.” Staffing is another expense: you can’t have an empty booth. Determine if a booth is necessary to achieve your objective. A booth’s purpose is to increase visibility, but if your main objective is to meet a key client or clients, a booth is a poor strategic investment.
Failing to understand the cost vs. the ROI Conferences can be expensive, especially if they are outside your regional area. You must account for travel, subsistence and other expenses/engagements while there. Don’t ignore the conference cost. Calculate it, and then analyze the cost of that investment relative to the achievement of your objective(s).

A few weeks ago, a new client of mine said he had been attending conferences for years with nothing to show for it. When I asked for the strategy, he replied, “I’ve just showed up and tried to run into people.” Conference attendance is much like the Belmont Stakes or the Preakness. It’s not enough to just show up.

Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Alternative Delivery: The Small Firm Challenge

Man! What a tough crowd. I had 50 minutes to impart "wisdom of the ages" (that's a lot of years) on the subject of business development best practices. While the feedback was largely positive, one person wrote in saying I didn’t spend enough time addressing business development and alternative project delivery. Ok!

Alternative Delivery, let me count the ways:

Group One

Design-Build
Design-Build-Operate
Design-Build-Operate and Maintain
Lease-Leaseback

Group Two

LEAN Construction
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)

Each one of these methods requires a slightly different business development strategy. For simplicity, we're going to put them into two groups, as shown above. Now, let's talk strategy.

In traditional design-bid-build pursuits, architects pursue client and try to develop design teams to fulfill client facility needs. The game changes, to say the least, when the delivery method changes. Clients who seek to deliver projects through any of the methods in Group One shift the architects’ pursuit from the client to the contractor who is likely to lead the pursuit. As a result, architects need to develop strategic relationships with general contractors adept at delivering various building types from student services buildings to parking structures. Further, it becomes incumbent upon the architect to demonstrate (to the contractor) some previous design-build experience or some previous experience with the contractor in order to be able to have a seat at the table. No small order.

This is made even more complicated by end-user clients who seek to deliver buildings via LEAN or IPD. LEAN and IPD delivery require not only early involvement of the entire team, but collective versus individual responsibility for the design and construction of the project. Moreover, they use technology and tools such as BIM or Rivet to model the input and generate everything from schedules, to materials schedules, to costs (over-simplified, but you get the point). Talk about a BD game changer!

Under the latter scenario, architects must be able to accept the collective risk (and reward) and demonstrate their ability to utilize BIM or Rivet. For a mid-sized to large firm this is easy. For a small practice, it's an unacceptable risk.

So what do you do? Andy Warhol said, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

First, define the type(s) of clients that you want to work with and understand their preference in delivery methods.
Second, adapt your business development strategy to who will be leading the effort. You may find that you now have to market to GCs as much as you do to your end user client.
Third, know your value proposition. If you've never done a design-build project and don’t have a "story to tell" with a contractor, adjust your expectations and your messaging to focus on your strengths.

Finally, if IPD or LEAN are in your future, learn the technologies and manage your collective risk accordingly. This is no longer about just your firm, it is about the delivery team.

Got more questions? Send them along to me at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com. And for more information, see the AIA PMKC webinar Wisdom of the Ages: Best Practices in Business Development Part 2. This popular series and other resources are available on A3K Consulting's "Inform" webpage.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Up in Arms Over Design Build

I love responding to questions. It is a great way to check the pulse of the industry, and diagnose where "pain points" are developing. No month offered more evidence of this than April (following the webinar!) Design-build questions seemed to be left, right and center. Here are some of the toughest questions, and some of my simplest answers.

Your assumed definition of design-build is too narrow and short changes the potential opportunities that it can bring to design firms. Have you never seen design-build done in a way that actually serves the design community's interest?

I didn't have enough time to cover all design-build methods (in our webinar) so I started with the most basic definition, which is narrow. Perhaps DB-BD could be a topic for a future course, but let me answer your question. I have seen design-build serve the community interest, when the client and the contractor are on the same page. In design-build, the driver isn't (typically) the architect, it is largely the GC. This is where I believe IPD or LEAN make it more interesting, because the interests of the project not the individuals are put forth from the beginning--sacrificing nothing.

Notwithstanding design-build, what can you tell us about the integrated project delivery as a market?

I am a curmudgeon! Integrated project delivery isn't a market, it's a vehicle by which projects are delivered. There are client types that prefer IPD--healthcare, higher education for example. But, it isn't a market sector per say. That said, if that is your interest, you are likely in pursuit of a more sophisticated, collaborative client with resources and the desire to utilize technology as a means of delivering their facility. These transcend a market type.

Got more questions? Send them along to me at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com. And for more information, see the AIA PMKC webinar Wisdom of the Ages: Best Practices in Business Development Part 2. This popular series and other resources are available on A3K Consulting's "Inform" webpage.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Thursday, May 9, 2013

What's Your Problem? - Part 3

We all have problems. By sharing them, we can all learn. Here are more challenges and questions from the AEC community!

How does a firm address the one "bad project" with clients?

Let's face it. If your doors have been open any period of time, you’ve had one bad client. What is most important is to not ignore it. Address it with your future clients directly. I work with a design firm whose client sought legal recourse for owner-directed changes that they could no longer afford to pay. A mediator agreed that money was owed, but they were unable to reach a settlement. Rather than go to court, and have it tried in the court of public opinion, the firm decided it was no longer in their interest (time and money) to pursue a course of action. I think we can agree this ended badly.

What made the situation palatable was the fact that they developed a proactive communication plan to reach their client base and discuss the situation. Denial is what hurts. Admit what the issues were, and tell clients how you are prepared to resolve them now.

Is it better to define markets by project type or client type?

This is a great question! The answer is by client type and the reason is this: Clients have behaviors, project types don’t.

Look at it this way: if I asked Nike® what their target demographic is for $125 tennis shoes, they would tell me something like "youth 18-32 years of age, whose parents have a disposable income of $X and play or watch sports," let’s say. From that information, they define the marketing approach. They don’t look at who is buying low top tennis shoes and then go after them. You must first know your client, their business and their values. Their taste in tennis shoes (and project types) is likely to change.

How do you measure - or DO YOU or SHOULD YOU measure - business development metrics against project metrics in terms of whether or not the project was a success based on mismanagement or reluctance to bill for add services or over design and use all your fee thus the project looked really bad financially....I guess how to define success of a project against the metrics associated with getting the project and WHAT can you learn from that for the future?

If you were here, I’d squeeze you! You MUST always assess project performance for two reasons:

To determine if this is a project type that you can do (given the team and client relationship).
To determine if it works within the process in which you design.

Failure to examine either factor will result in good business development dollars wasted in pursuit of projects that will eventually lose money for the firm or tarnish its reputation. This is a perfect example of where to use the BD ROI equation. If your fees are low and your BD dollars are high, you need to re-evaluate.

If your firm has a tendency to over design and can’t bill for it, then in such markets as K-12 what is your end game—philanthropy or business? This is why it is important to include your BD professional in discussions about project types that are both strengths and weaknesses of the firm.

Got more questions? Send them along to me at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com. And for more information, see the AIA PMKC webinar Wisdom of the Ages: Best Practices in Business Development Part 2. This popular series and other resources are available on A3K Consulting's "Inform" webpage.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Posted: Question and Answer Log, AIA PMKC Effective Business Development Webinar

AIA Practice Management Knowledge Communities has posted the question and answer log which followed Part 2 of the Effective Business Development webinar series.

Scroll down within this link to view the pdf of followup questions and answers on business development ranging from commoditization to integrated project delivery.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

What's Your Problem? - Part 2

We all have problems. By sharing them, we can all learn. Here are more challenges and questions from the AEC community:

Any advice for Business Development in a firm as it looks towards a transition in ownership?

Do a business plan. Transition is a tough time and it is not quick. We have two clients in various stages of transition (three years out and five years out). We completed business plans for each in order to help them define the “new firm,” its brand and management. We also identified the leadership development that will need to take place during that time horizon.

Transition is often a time to change or expand markets. For your firm, then, there must be a business development or sales plan that attempts to bridge the experience and history of the "old" firm with its new market focus and client commitments going forward. New and emerging leaders must be part of the strategy and the client meetings.

Finally, it is important to develop a marketing and public relations plan that articulates the "new brand" and firm direction so that clients aren't afraid of the transition and what it means to them.

The completed plans will take time to implement; you will also need time buy out shares and develop and transition leaders. Because of the time and effort involved in transition, don’t be averse to having a consultant help you.

How can firms leverage other staff to develop business for their firm? How can a firm mentor employees to also be business developers as they work on projects and in their communities?

Business development is not an action. It is a culture. The organization must build the framework of a BD culture which includes making BD a part of everyone’s role and responsibility—and make sure to include the administrative assistants. I think the easiest thing to do is to develop small and achievable goals for low- and emerging-level staff such as networking with peer-to-peer groups to find out what others are doing. But, there has to be a top down program in order for it to work, otherwise everyone is doing their own, uncoordinated thing.

Does branding have an increasingly important role?

IF what you mean by branding is the PROMISE that comes along with the work of your firm—excellence, service delivery, collaboration, cost effective—YES. If you mean logos and slogan—NO. Unfortunately, about five years ago the word “branding” started mean everything from the logo to the graphics on your web page. A real BRAND is the promise that comes along with the name. If the firm’s brand (its PROMISE) is weak, then your sales strategy will struggle unless or until it is resolved.

Got more questions? Send them along to me at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com. And for more information, see the AIA PMKC webinar Wisdom of the Ages: Best Practices in Business Development Part 2. This popular series and other resources are available on A3K Consulting's "Inform" webpage.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

What's Your Problem?

On this blog, I've been sharing lessons learned from clients’ mistakes, in the hope that they won’t become your mistakes. We can learn a lot from others’ mistakes, and we can learn just as much from others' questions. So, I've chosen to share my answers to some of the more frequent questions asked of me in the last few months. Enjoy!

Do you have suggestions for business development plans for small (1-5 person) firms?

Keep it simple. Know your value, know your competition and know your client. Public clients manage their risk by limiting their “small firms” selections. Sad, but true. You must make a compelling case.

Next, establish a budget. It’s easy to “throw good money after bad” in the pursuit of work. But, just like with your household budget, you need to set boundaries.

Finally, develop business where you have relationships. It is hard to go head to head against a larger firm(s) when you have no relationship with the client. Put your collective heads together and make a short-list of end-users, peers and partners with whom you could develop work.

For a smaller firm (15+/-), given a choice between pursuing governmental or institutional clients who open RPFs to everyone with no filter verses pursuing private clients who invite respondents, which would you choose to pursue?

Okay. You’re trying to bait me! The answer depends on your experience and portfolio. What I think you want to ask me is: “Who has less competition?” The private sector does, generally. But, an educated institutional or public client could use a QBS to reduce competition just as easily. It's important to look at your experience and determine if you have a value proposition to compete no matter what market you choose.

For more information, see the AIA PMKC webinar Wisdom of the Ages: Best Practices in Business Development Part 2. This popular series and other resources are available on A3K Consulting's "Inform" webpage.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

AIA PMKC Webinar Video - Part 2: Best Practices in Business Development

Now available online: Karen Compton of A3K Consulting presents Part 2 of the popular AIA series Best Practices in Business Development. AIA PMKC asked firms to submit business development questions in an advance survey; Compton covered top questions in this March 28, 2013 webinar.

Also available online: Part 1, Best Practices in Business Development, October 18, 2012.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Mistake: Not Having Metrics

In a recent survey of national architectural practices, firms were asked “Why does your firm not have metrics by which to measure its business development efforts?" Forty one percent of all respondents indicated that they don’t know the variables. Forty seven percent of all respondents indicated that they don’t know the calculations.

Just like any other aspect of business, business development has metrics, and first you have to isolate the variables. For lay people, that means separate your costs: cost of labor; cost of technical staff; cost of marketing/business development staff.

Whatever you do, don’t lump it all in the administration column. Additionally, track reproduction and binding costs, mailing, public relations, potential fee and conference costs. Once your costs are aggregated, you’re able to perform a variety of calculations and analysis that can measure the financial return on your business development efforts.

For more information on how to calculate and analyze business development metrics, check out the link to the presentation slides on this AIA KnowledgeNet webpage.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

AIA Webinar on Business Development Gets Overwhelming Response

Topic: Business Development Planning
Enrollees: Almost 900 from AIA’s Practice Management Knowledge Community
Follow-up questions: A record-breaking 10 pages worth
Presenter: Karen Compton, Principal, A3K Consulting; Founder, Industry Speaks™
Takeaways: Simple formulas, metrics and variables, plus expert advice!

The response to October's AIA webinar shows firms are urgently seeking quality information to plan for the future.

Missed learning about the metrics, how to use data to analyze and plan, and the top impediments to effective business development? Check out the PDF of Best Practices in Business Development Planning, and a log sheet of questions and answers, on the AIA KnowledgeNet webpage.

Presenter Karen Compton will post extended answers to selected questions after the New Year, for subscribers to Industry Speaks™. Check back soon!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

700+ Registered to Date for FREE Business Development Webinar October 18

From the AIA Knowledge Net resource page: "The fiscal year is almost over and as firms begin to set their sights on the New Year, we must ask ourselves, “What is our business development (sales) plan?” With time being short and money being shorter, the new fiscal year brings with it both challenges and opportunities. The economy continues to pose challenges for many firms, but new emerging markets, new funding mechanisms and changes in policies also represent new opportunities!

Join 734 (as of Monday) registrants to get key insights into business development planning. Get more information and register here.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

AIA Practice Management Free Webinar October 18: Business Development Planning

Earn 1.25 CEH through the next FREE webinar offered by AIA Practice Management Knowledge Community October 18, focusing on sales. Industry Speaks™ founder and president Karen Compton, A3K Consulting, is the presenter. Learning objectives:

understand the value of business development planning
how your business development plan supports your firm's business objectives
articulate the ROI in developing a sales culture
learn what other participants are doing (or not doing) and the BD challenges they face.

Get more information and register here.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The Road Well-Traveled (Is One With a Map)

My husband likes to take car trips. I hate them. I get sick. During our 20 years of marriage, I’ve had to learn how to take a road trip and not get sick. I’ve figured out that I need to know how long we’ll drive, when we will stop, when we’ll eat, and when I’ll get to sleep. If I don’t get to stretch, eat, or sleep, my husband can look forward to me being sick the entire time.

My reaction to a car trip without a schedule is a great analogy of what it’s like to run a practice without a Strategic Plan. The employees are the ones who end up sick (and tired), the partners are the ones who want to stop, and the owner is the one who gets no sleep. Why should your firm have a Strategic Plan? You wouldn’t get in a car and take a road trip without a map, so why run a practice without a plan?

A Strategic Plan is a valuable tool that maps your practice’s journey from present to future. It defines new opportunities and new markets, and it honestly addresses challenges and opportunities in management, operations, service delivery, sales and leadership. Without a Strategic Plan, you end up wherever the wind may take you.

Here are three important rules for developing an effective Strategic Plan:

• Be honest. Strategic Planning, done well, examines all of your practice’s functional areas and develops plans, tactics, and strategies to achieve long and short-term business goals. It will fail if the participants are less than honest with themselves and others about the firm’s opportunities and challenges. Ask for honest comments and observations, and receive them without judgment or criticism. While all points of view can’t be reflected in a focused strategic plan, all must be heard in order to have buy-in to the final plan.

• Focus on the journey, not the destination. The value in Strategic Planning is not in the document that you produce. It is in the dialogue, discourse, and consensus that builds toward the direction you are headed. Don’t spend nine months trying to write the perfect document. Instead, spend two days mapping out the best journey based upon a clear destination (i.e., buy, sell, develop leadership, add markets, add services, eliminate services, etc.).

• Define accountability. The best plan means nothing unless there is accountability. Don’t leave the table without defining accountability and actions for various components of the plan. This is often difficult, but without it, passengers along for the trip are likely to get sick—sick of promises not kept and goals not achieved.

Today’s competitive firms are strategic, thoughtful, and deliberate. Gone are the days where “winging it” could get you on the right road to your destination. Today, winging it is likely to send you coasting down an uneven side road, while others who have planned their trip enjoy a road well-traveled.

Karen Compton, CPSM. Published in the November 2012 issue of Professional Services Management Journal. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Equation for Failure

While there is much disagreement about what the equation for success looks like, I am of the opinion that the equation for failure looks much like this:

Failure = (U + D) - (C1 + C2)

where
U = Understanding the client’s most important problems
D = Determining the best solution to those problems
C1 = Communicating the solution
C2 = Compelling and convincing the client that the proposed solution will really solve their problem

An equation for success can be extrapolated from our September 18 post - Business Development: Black Art or True Science?

Do you have an equation for failure or success? Please share it with us!

Karen Compton, CPSM. Published in the September 2012 issue of Project Management. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Two Years Too Late…

Last week, I was working with a group of executives to develop their business development (sales) plan. In preparation for this retreat, I had met with the President, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer , the Chief of Technical Operations (CoTO)and the Director of Marketing to understand what roles they each played in business development. Through my one-on-one meetings, I found that this team played a little bit better than the “Bad News Bears”—each playing not only their own position, but also someone else’s position. How ironic, given that one of them actually coaches Pop Warner Football.

During our retreat, I gave each officer 3x5 cards with various business development tasks on each card and asked them to assign the lead role and responsibility to one of the five leaders. They had 20 minutes to complete the assignment. To their amazement, they argued intensely over roles and responsibilities of several key functions including client development at multiple levels within a client group. And, to much of their concern they realized they were each playing duplicate roles which not only created ineffective business development, it also appeared uncoordinated from the client’s point of view.

In the ensuing 45 minutes, we re-examined each function and assigned them to their correct leader. Upon the completion of the exercise, my associate asked the team what they thought of the exercise. The President smiled, put his head down and said, “it came about two years too late.” The COO went on to say, “if we had just known our positions we could have been playing a better defensive game.” “The good thing,” I told them, “is that it is never too late to learn the game we all call BD.”

Here's what you should think about: Do your leaders understand their roles in the BD?

It’s never too late to improve your game.

Karen Compton

Industry Speaks