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When Should You Up Your Business Development Game?

Up Your Business Development Game
By Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM

You’ve probably heard the one about the company that got so busy working on projects that they stopped doing business development. And why not? Their phone just kept ringing with new opportunities. But then the phone stopped ringing – that was okay, it seemed, because there was still work to be done (aka, backlog!). Soon, however, workload began to diminish. Staff members who had decreasing amounts of billable time were told to “go get work.” Beyond the firm’s existing clients, however, they had few relationships. Opportunities continued to diminish, and more staff found themselves without project work. Office stress levels went up, and layoffs followed.

Sound familiar?

This has played out tens of thousands of times in the architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) industry. So how can a firm keep this scenario from becoming reality? By focusing on proactive business development. Right now, before it’s too late!

Research commissioned by SMPS/SMPS Foundation found myriad approaches to staffing business development. Mid-size and large firms are more likely to have dedicated business developers on staff than smaller firms. Firms of all sizes rely on technical professionals (seller-doers) to dedicate a portion of their time to business development. Some firms use seller-doers exclusively, while others incorporate a mix of dedicated business developers and seller-doers. Others use professional business developers exclusively.

No matter the size of your firm, however, you most likely have key staff members involved with business development: principals, project managers, construction executives, lead architects or engineers, and more. Industry surveys have revealed that A/E/C firms typically generate 80% of their work from existing clients, making this the most fertile ground for seller-doers to conduct business development – expanding services and locations with existing clients. Conversely, firms with dedicated business developers typically have them focus on generating opportunities with new clients.

But how, exactly, are technical professionals learning to sell? Sadly, only about one-third of firms provide any sort of business development training to staff members. Would you make a recent high school graduate a lead engineer? Would you let a newbie in the construction industry serve as a site superintendent?

Of course not!

So why expect your technical professionals to conduct business development when they have no appreciable training? Fortunately, the SMPS/SMPS Foundation research, which entailed a quantitative survey of more than 1300 industry professionals, as well as a series of qualitative interviews, determined how firms are conducting business development training; that is, for the one-third of firms that actually provide training! Techniques used by firms include:

  • Utilize dedicated business development and marketing staff to conduct training (50% of firms that offer training)
  • Attend webinars (40%)
  • Employ internal communications tools like email (37%)
  • Conduct annual workshops/meetings (37%)

For those firms currently offering training, here are the most common topics:

  • Delivering presentations / public speaking (62%)
  • Networking best practices (55%)
  • Developing presentations (52%)
  • Writing proposals (47%)
  • Starting conversations (41%)

The research also queried all participants about what training they would like to have, whether or not their firms currently offered any type of business development training. The top responses were:

  • Getting the most from client organizations (39%)
  • Developing client capture plans (34%)
  • Time management (33%)
  • Market research (27%)
  • Networking best practices (25%)

For many design and construction firms, times are good right now. Work is plentiful. Conversations around boardroom tables are more focused on finding staff to deliver projects than conducting proactive business development, much less offering business development training. And that’s a critical mistake. Whether the next industry downturn occurs in one year or three years, it will happen. Firms should never take their eye off the business development ball! One of the best ways to do that is to provide training to your principals, project managers, construction managers, and other key staff.

If you have dedicated business developers or a marketing department, you should empower them to develop a training program for your team. Reference the findings above for potential training topics.

To download a complementary copy of the 32-page research report from SMPS/SMPS Foundation, Sell. Do. Win Business. How A/E/C Firms are Using Staff to Win More Work, surf here: https://www.smps.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Sell-Do-Win-Business-Web-Res-Report.pdf. Note: I led the research and authored the report. 

Interested in providing training for your staff? Check out my two new programs below, Building Better Seller-Doers and Content Marketing for A/E/C Firms!

Seller-Doer Training from jdbIQity

Content Marketing Training from jdbIQity

Reach me at 717-434.1543 or email me at sbutcher@jdbe.com if I can help in any way.

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Productivity: Getting Sh*t Done

 

ProductivityBy Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM

If you’re like most people, your To-Do List is a mile long. You have no problem adding to it, but it can take forever to remove something from it!

Sound like anyone you know? Perhaps someone you’ve seen in the mirror?

What does that mean for your personal productivity – or that of your colleagues?

Among the many items that decorate (or is “clutter” the proper term?) my office are a simple mug and book that share the same text:

“Get Sh*t Done”

The mug was a gift from a colleague who served with me on the SMPS Foundation Board of Trustees, given at the conclusion of my term as president. As she said when she presented it: “This was sort of your mantra this year.”

I had never thought of it that way, but it became my favorite saying!

The book was not something I went in search of, but is rather something that found me. While walking around a book festival on a hot summer day, I found the title staring me in the face. It is a collection of quotes from people – famous and not – about getting sh*t done. I purchased two copies: one for me, one for the JDB Engineering president.

The back cover of the book, published by STARTUPVITAMINS, has a quote that defines the contents of the book:

You cannot achieve by only talking about what you are going to do one day. You must get sh*t done. And you must surround yourself with other people who get sh*t done. – Aaron Levie, Box

But how good are you really when it comes to getting things done?

“Perfect is the enemy of good” is a quote often attributed to Voltaire, and it has been altered a number of ways over the years, including “Perfect is the enemy of done.”

But why is this? Part of the problem is that we often must rely on other people to contribute to getting things done. “I can’t finish this proposal until I get the narrative from Bob.” “I’d love to update the website, but I still don’t have the project description from Steve.” “I know the study is due tomorrow, but I still don’t have Joe’s section – and I can’t complete mine without it.”

These are all valid reasons for not getting stuff completed. We often must rely on others – to the extent that our To-Do List is at their mercy.

But that certainly doesn’t apply to everything we’re trying to accomplish. A friend of mine once shared with me his philosophy on why technical staff (seller-doers) are often unsuccessful at business development: “They won’t launch until they reach perfection, and perfection is something they know will never be achieved.”

In other words, “I can’t make that call until I finish my research.” “I can’t send that sales email until I get the wording just right.” “I’m just not comfortable with the content of the brochure yet.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

The same colleague offered that it’s not their fault: if they are from a technical background, they are trained to at least attempt to reach perfection. If a structural engineer stops their work at 80% and sends it out for construction, someone may die in a building collapse. If a mechanical contractor walks away 90% into a construction project, the HVAC system won’t work.

But in sales and marketing – as well as many other aspects of business – sometimes 80% complete is enough. Or 70%. Or even 60%. (I don’t recommend applying this philosophy to things like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll – it probably won’t go over too well!)

We can’t let perfection – that is, 100% finished – be the enemy of getting sh*t done!

The agile methodology has been permeating the business world in recent years. It began as agile software development and later rolled into other aspects of business. (Just do a Google search on “agile marketing.”) Essentially, agile is a collaborative, iterative, evolutionary process that entails getting sh*t done, and then improving upon it after initial release to account for change, disruption, feedback, etc. as new information (data) becomes available. Think of all the iterations of a software program, each one improving upon the next.

Agile professionals use silly words like Scrum and Kanban, but the frameworks themselves are not silly (nor very complicated).

Should you send out a proposal that’s only 75% complete? Of course not – that’s not the spirit of agile. The spirit is releasing a quality product that meets your goals and the needs of the recipients or clients. But understand that it can be improved upon, and will be so the next time around – in this case, the next proposal. And the one after that can and should evolve as well.

Think about the importance of – to paraphrase one of the most popular slogans of all time – Just Doing It. Or Larry the Cable Guy advising to “Git R Done!”

It’s easy to write, rewrite, and then rewrite the rewrite, whether for a letter, report, proposal, blog, article, or something else. But at what point is it good enough? How many “great” things have you written, only to spend more time wordsmithing and agonizing over every last detail?

JK Rowling is rumored to have rewritten the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book 15 times! Her ending is a very happy one (fame, fortune, best-selling book and movie series), but rewriting something 15 times is not getting sh*t done in a business context!

I remember agonizing over the little things – words, graphics, etc. – earlier in my career, but then being frustrated to learn that my time-consuming tweaks had no added value … they went unnoticed, but “cost” me more time and prevented me from doing other things.

Presenters can spend dozens of hours – even hundreds of hours – perfecting presentations. I’ve been guilty of that! Unfortunately, science tells us that most of the audience will forget 50% of what was said within the first hour after the presentation, 70% within the first 24 hours, and 90% within the first week. Oh, and a presenter’s words and voice are only 40-50% of the impact of any presentation, anyway: the rest is nonverbal.

Of course, Maya Angelou so eloquently stated that “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

What if you could pull together a presentation that provided the same level of impact in half the time you had originally planned? Guess what? You probably can – particularly if you focus on how to make your audience feel, and not so much on perfecting every minute detail or trying to cram way too much content into it!

People’s lives don’t hang in the balance for most of us. No one will die if I don’t spend 40 hours working on the next presentation, proposal, or article. In fact, most people won’t even notice if I only spend 20 hours. The rest of time is an opportunity cost; that is, the cost of not doing something else.

There are those things under your control and those things out of your control. When something is under your control, do it and do it well. But don’t do it to the point of perfect, because it will never come off your To-Do List. Stop wasting your limited time trying to reach something that is unattainable, anyway.

Likewise, don’t be that bottleneck that is preventing someone else from getting things done. Don’t sit on those documents you need to review (particularly if you are trying to elevate them to “perfection”)! Don’t procrastinate in providing required information. Don’t preside over the desk where things go to die! I’ve literally been waiting ten months for someone to provide information to me – for a project that was to help them do their job better. But hey, if it is not important to them, why should it be important to me?

At the end of the day, it is really about expending the right amount of effort to do the job, and do it well. No more, no less.

You’ve heard the expression that “everything else is just icing on the cake.” Guess what? Some cakes don’t need icing! And it’s easy to put way too much icing on a cake, making it inedible!

So do the necessary diligence.

Put forth the required effort to get it right, whatever it is.

Then trust in your abilities.

And finally, get sh*t done!

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Contact Scott at 717.434.1543 or sbutcher@jdbe.com. Or connect with him to continue the conversation online:

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Seller-Doer Tools: Social Media & Social Selling

 

Social Sellingby Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM

Should seller-doers be engaged on social media, or is it a waste of time – a series of distractions about cat videos and what your friends had for dinner last night?

Social media has changed greatly since the early days, and today most A/E/C firms have some level of presence on social media, with the most popular channels being LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. If there were any doubt about the influence of social media, the United States election of 2016 put that to rest.

But is it really a “tool” for seller-doers? One of the definitions of tool from Webster’s dictionary is, “Anything used as a means of accomplishing a task or purpose.” And if the purpose of business development is generating new opportunities and building relationships with clients and potential clients, then social media is most definitely a tool.

However, all social media channels are not created equal.

Social Selling

If you are active in only one social media network, make it LinkedIn. Once described as “Facebook for business,” LinkedIn is a vital tool for developing your network and maintaining business relationships. In fact, LinkedIn is Ground Zero for a newer approach to business development known as Social Selling.

Scott Butcher AEC Social SellingDownload Social Selling in the A/E/C Industry

Social Selling essentially entails building and leveraging your online network by providing useful information, which can come in many forms including writing blogs, sharing content – blogs, articles and videos, asking and answering questions, participating in groups, and ultimately making many new connections that may eventually lead to new project opportunities.

The idea of social selling is to position yourself as a provider of valuable content to your network, thus becoming a resource. Some of the people you help along the way may become clients. Many will not, but they may potentially refer you to someone in need of your services. This is the “new” type of referral in the 21st century: someone who knows of you, but has never worked with you, referring you and your company to a third party looking for A/E/C services.

But before you are ready to engage in social selling, you first must position yourself as someone that others would want to connect with. Hopefully you already have a presence on LinkedIn, but if you don’t, your focus should be on populating your biography. And if you’re already on LinkedIn, what does your profile actually look like? Do you have a recent photo – not one of you partying with other people cropped out?

A few years ago JDB Engineering was awarded a project in Baltimore. We had interviewed with members of the client’s board of directors, the contractor, and the architect – only one of whom had any prior knowledge of our existence. We were successful landing the project, and prior to the start-up meeting an executive with the client, who had not attended the project interview, called up our president. While on the phone she said something to the effect of, “Well you look like a trustworthy person – and your eyes are really blue!” It turned out the client was looking at our president’s LinkedIn profile as they were speaking!

Your profiles need a headline, too, and it shouldn’t just be your title. If you are an architect working in the health care environment, your headline could be “Problem-solving architect serving the health care industry.” Or “Intelligent architectural solutions for health care environments.” Make your headline a value statement – or at least give others a reason to connect with you. Of course, if you also work in the educational sector, and your headline is limited to “health care,” why would someone from the educational or commercial sectors want to connect with you? Know your audience.

If you are on LinkedIn, there are myriad fields you can populate – work history, publications, awards, licenses and certifications, education, and more. Take the time to fill these out because people will be looking to learn about you after you reach out to connect, and this will help you show up in searches as well.

Over the past few years there’s been a number of studies that confirm clients, or perspective clients, are checking out LinkedIn profiles of people trying to meet with them – or professionals wanting to work with them. The lack of a comprehensive profile can be viewed as a negative, particularly as generations change and digital natives increasingly move into leadership roles at their companies and institutions.

With Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube there’s not nearly as much front-end information to fill out, and they all have their own audiences. Facebook is generally more for personal use than business use; however, A/E/C firms often use Facebook to demonstrate company culture. Almost half of my Facebook friends are from the A/E/C industry, and I’m already connected with them on LinkedIn. Yet when we connect via Facebook, and view one-another’s posts, we develop a deeper relationship and get to know one-another on a personal basis. But don’t feel that you need to open your personal network to your business network.

Twitter was traditionally limited to 140 character posts, so everything was short and sweet. Today the maximum number of characters has increased to 280, which is still not a lot. Twitter is great for sharing information, particularly links to other sites with news or content. Most social media channels provide a way to directly message your followers or connections, and I first began to understand the power of Twitter when I was trying to develop a relationship with a county commissioner. His county had a forthcoming project, and I wanted to position my firm for the opportunity. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past his gatekeeper, who intercepted all telephone calls and emails. And then one day I began following the commissioner on Twitter and he followed me back, which is common Twitter etiquette. So I direct messaged him about getting together for lunch – and he responded in the affirmative that same day, no gatekeeper involved!

YouTube is all about video, which is making massive leaps in popularity. Social media consumers love videos – particularly the first 60 seconds. Engagement drops off significantly in minute two, which is why you see a lot of companies making 45-60 second videos. I was recently speaking with the morning anchor of a popular local TV station, and she explained to me that they continually test audiences on content, and 60 seconds seems to be the maximum for obtaining full viewer attention. If you’ve been watching TV news for the past few decades, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of reports have gotten shorter over the years. This is driven by audience research.

Instagram is a more recent social media channel, and it has become extremely popular. All social media channels are more effective when posts include visuals, but with Instagram, an image is necessary, although it could be text on a background. Project photos, renderings, staff in action, and other graphics are perfect content for Instagram because of their visual nature.

Do This

That’s a quick overview of social media, but how can you use it for business development? Here’s a few suggestions:

  • Connect with clients and prospective clients
  • Post at least 3-5 times a week, if not more
  • Provide information of value to your clients and prospects, which can include:
    o Links to blogs you’ve written
    o Links to your company blog
    o Links to other blogs with useful information (non-competitors)
    o Links to industry news
    o Links to industry research and metrics or KPIs
    o Links to interesting posts made by people in your network
    o Your comments about something in the news (known as “newsjacking”)
    o Your interpretation of recently-released research
  • Join groups of interest to your clients and potential clients
  • Participate in group conversations
  • Join online groups of client or professional organizations to which you belong
  • Monitor the discussions taking place
  • Follow your clients’ pages and groups
  • Research prospective clients by following their news feeds
  • Follow links of value and share the information with your coworkers
  • Share posts about your projects

Don’t think of social media as “just one more thing I don’t have time for!” Make the time. Take ten minutes when you get to the office in the morning or over lunch. Pull up your social media feeds in the evening on your laptop or tablet.

I’ve actually found evenings are great for catching up on social media. I’ll often sit in my recliner, TV on in the background, and review the feeds. When I see articles, blogs, or news of interest – shared by someone in my network – I’ll often create a PDF of it, email myself a link to investigate further, or share immediately with colleagues.

Evenings are more for research and monitoring, while mornings are for engaging. Many professionals check their social media channels when they get to the office, and I’m usually in my office a bit after 7am, so it’s a great (and quiet) time to comment or share posts from my network or reach out to connect with people or correspond over direct messaging.

Keep the Twitter story I shared top of mind. I have connections – people I know – that ignore emails I send. If and when that happens, I’ll reach out over social media (usually LinkedIn) and try to get in touch that way. And yes, I try the phone too, but we’ve all mastered the art of not picking up the phone, so if I’ve left one or two unreturned voicemails, I’ll jump to social media. This can be effective, as everyone has differing preferences of how they prefer to be contacted. Don’t limit yourself to just phone or just email. One of the biggest values of social media is the ability to use its framework for starting a conversation.

Questions about how to get started with social selling? Check out jdbIQity and contact Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM at 717-434-1543 or email him.

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May 2018 A/E/C Environmental Scan

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM

What’s happening in the architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) industry right now? Firms should always be paying attention to the industry indicators, whether those metrics are leading or lagging. Below you’ll find a current snapshot of some of the best-known metrics in our industry.

American Institute of Architects

May AIA ABI
The most recent data from the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index (ABI) shows that in general, the outlook continues to be positive. The AIA uses a diffusion index, meaning any score above 50.0 signifies an increase over the prior period (in this case, the prior month), while any score under 50.0 demonstrates a decrease.

The March data, released a few weeks ago, reveals an overall ABI of 51.0, signifying an increase in architectural billings. The ABI is a leading indicator for the construction industry, providing a glimpse into the work environment for contractors nine to twelve months into the future. However, last month the index scored a 52.0, meaning that this month’s increase was not as much as last month’s. Architectural billings have increased six consecutive months, a positive indicator of the health of the design industry.

The AIA also maintains a Project Inquiries Index, which is an indicator of project opportunities, and thus a predictor of future design workload – as well as construction workload further into the future. In March, the index scored a 58.1, demonstrating a continued high level of interest in design services – which will hopefully convert to design contracts and architectural billings.

Finally, the AIA has a Design Contracts Index, which captures new contracts at architectural firms. The most recent score was 51.5, indicating that design firms are reporting an overall increase in contracts over last month. However, last month’s score was 54.5, so the March increase was not as significant as February’s.

May 2018 AIA ABI Geographic

The Architectural Billings Index is further broken into four geographic regions, and each receive scores on a diffusion index as well.

Three of the four regions within the ABI demonstrated growth in March, with the West and South seeing the largest increases. The Northeast, however, saw a decline in architectural billings. Last month, the Northeast scored 47.5, so this month’s decline was not as large, but a decline over the prior month nonetheless.

May 2018 AIA ABI Sector

The AIA also breaks out architectural billings by four market sectors: multi-family residential, institutional, commercial/industrial, and mixed practice.

Architectural firms specializing in the institutional market sector experienced a slight decline in billings in March. Otherwise, firms practicing in all other sectors experienced an increase in billings.

Dodge Momentum Index

May 2018 DMI
Another indicator of activity in the design and construction industry is the Dodge Momentum Index, which incorporates nonresidential project information. When a project is first reported and captured in the Dodge database, it is tracked via the index. As such, it can be a leading indicator for both design and construction, although some projects never come to fruition and others do so over a period of years.

The Dodge Momentum Index uses 2000 as a base year, with a score of 100. The score for April 2018 was 163.0, an increase of 6.1% over the March figure. The index is further broken down into two categories. The latest data reveals increases of 6.3% for the Commercial Building Index and 5.8% for the Institutional Building Index, indicating positive growth in planned projects in both sectors.

Construction Employment

Although construction employment is a lagging indicator for architecture and engineering firms, it is a gage of health within the construction industry. Information is provided monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For April 2018, the BLS reported an increase of 17,000 net new jobs in the construction industry, including 9,000 for nonresidential construction – most of that from specialty trade contractors.

Related to that is the unemployment rate. Nationally, the rate stands at 3.9%, although within the construction industry it is currently 6.5%, lagging behind the national economy.

ABC Construction Confidence Index

May 2018 ABC CCI

Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) provides several indices to track the health of the construction industry. The ABC Construction Confidence Index (CCI) has three components: CCI for Sales Expectations, CCI for Profit Margin, and CCI for Staffing Levels. These metrics are published twice a year, and the most recent data was released in April 2018.

According to this survey, contractors are bullish on 2018. Like the ABI, the CCI is tracked using a diffusion index, with 50.0 representing no change, scores above 50.0 representing increases in confidence over the previous period, and scores below 50.0 representing decreases in confidence over the previous period.

The April data shows a CCI for Sales Expectations score of 67.1, up from 66.4 in the prior period. The CCI for Profit Margin was also very strong, scoring a 60.7; however, the confidence increase was not as robust as the prior period, which saw a score of 62.4. The CCI for Staffing Levels score was also very strong, coming in at 65.1 – but not as high as the 66.1 score from the prior period.

ABC further breaks responses into Up Big, Up Small, No Change, Down Small, and Down Big, which can be viewed here.

ABC Construction Backlog Indicator

May 2018 ABC CBIAnother useful indicator published by Associated Builders and Contractors is the Construction Backlog Indicator, a quarterly metric.

The most recent information was released on March 19, and indicates growth in construction backlog for the final quarter of 2017. Overall, the CBI came in at 9.67 months, which is the highest level since ABC has been publishing this metric.

ABC also segments the data by geographic region and a handful of market sectors. Based upon the most current report, contractors in the South and Northeast have the largest backlogs – both regions have a CBI of more than 10 months. Here’s the geographic breakout:

  • Northeast = 10.36 months, an increase of 1.5% over the prior quarter
  • South = 10.99 months, a decrease of 2.9% over the prior quarter
  • Middle States = 8.33 months, a jump of 9.5% over the prior quarter
  • West = 6.97 months, an increase of 5.4% over the prior quarter

Three market sectors are tracked within the CBI, including Commercial/Institutional, Heavy Industrial, and Infrastructure. Within these segments, Commercial/Industrial saw growth, Heavy Industrial experienced decline, and Infrastructure remained essentially unchanged:

  • Commercial/Institutional = 10.07 months, an increase of 8.2% over the prior quarter
  • Heavy Industrial = 5.17 months, a decline of 5.2% over the prior quarter
  • Infrastructure = 12.55 months, a very modest increase of 0.1% over the prior quarter

Construction Spending

May 2018 Census PIP

One final metric in this environmental scan is Construction Put in Place, an indicator published by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is a lagging indicator that represents completed construction projects, but does provide a window into the health of the construction industry. It also tracks 16 nonresidential market sectors, providing a deeper dive than the other indices.

The most recent data is from March 2018, and has a seasonally-adjusted figure of $1,284.7 billion of construction put in place, a decline of 1.7% over the prior month. However, the nonresidential component of the data saw a smaller decline, down only 0.3% from the prior month.

The graphic above is specific to private, nonresidential construction. Public construction put-in-place was unchanged from the prior month.

So there’s a quick overview of the health of the architectural, engineering, and construction industry. When conducting an environmental scan and looking at the data, it’s important to remember that a single data point – whether a snapshot of a month or a quarter – is only a small piece of a big picture. For instance, with the Dodge Momentum Index, a single megaproject can greatly impact the score the month it hits – and can lead to a decline in score the following month unless there’s another megaproject announced in its place. It’s more important to follow the trends from period-to-period to get an accurate gauge of industry activity and health.

What are some of the metrics you follow for your environmental scans? What are other important A/E/C metrics not covered here?

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