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SUSTAINABILITY, from page 7

“The world of marketing has changed, and content mar- keting – or education-based marketing – is where it’s at,” Butcher says. “Creating a corporate culture that drives con- tent production is a primary strategic goal for our firm. Content builds brand and drives interest, which can gener- ate leads while also enhancing the personal brands of key staff members. I see 2016 as the year where our goals and reality in this area intersect.” STAYING COMPETITIVE THROUGH “RIDICULOCITY.” At Sanderson Stew- art (Billings, MT), a 65-person collaborative community development services firm, the focus is on the competition. Kari Andren, associate and director of marketing, says that, as a result of increased competition in both the service and employment areas, the firm understands that it needs to provide ridiculously high levels of customer service along with an enriching and fun corporate culture. “Our preparation for this began three years ago when we rolled out our vision of ‘Ridiculocity.’ Each year, we have fo- cused this vision on the specific challenges at hand, and, this year, we are focusing on our people,” Andren says. As 2016 rolls in, Sanderson Stewart is looking forward to the maturation and utilization of its CRM tools. The firm converted from Deltek FMS to Deltek Vision several years ago, but the conversion created many duplicate and outdat- ed client records. This “fuzzy” data made the database too cumbersome and confusing for the average employee to use. In 2015, the firm started cleaning out its database and roll- ing out some of the new features that are available to its project managers within Deltek’s new iAccess. It is looking forward to having a clean contact list and implementing training on the powerful tracking and planning tools that they now have at their disposal. “Happy people make happy clients, and grow happy compa- nies,” Andren says. “This is the year.” stead, tie reports to firm-wide and project-level budgets and goals while there is still time to correct any issues. Use these reports as an opportunity to point out the cost reduction ef- forts of that receptionist, the above-target chargeability of your second-year architect, and the new project manager who just beat her profitability target. The common thread linking all of the methods outlined is communication. Staff have to know that they matter to the company. They have to know what the company wants to do, and that it is in everyone’s best interest to work together to achieve these goals. They have to be reminded that the firm’s success is their success. Staff also have to understand if they are pulling their weight on the team, and how to improve. The leaders of entrepreneurial firms take the time to build up their employees, and will reap the rewards of their investment. JAMIE CLAIRE KISER is director of M&A services at Zweig Group. Contact her at jkiser@zweiggroup.com

❚ ❚ Achieving differentiation through Hubzone certification if it is determined that they meet the requirements. ❚ ❚ Continuing to focus on expanding their online presence Scott D. Butcher, vice president and CMO with JDB Engi- neering Inc. (York, PA), part of the NUTEC firm, shares that one of the company’s main challenges will lie in actu- ally doing the work. “The AEC industry is expanding right now, although some geographic regions and market sectors are stronger than others,” he says. “The talent war is here, and it’s difficult to find experienced professionals in several disciplines already – it’s only going to get worse in the short term.” EMBRACE PEAKS; PREPARE FOR VALLEYS. Like Birkes, Butcher is also hearing rumblings about a downturn in 2017, so he says that 2016 efforts must also entail paying attention to the leading indicators and ensuring that firms are ready should workload decline in a year. “We often talk about peaks and valleys in this industry – 2016 looks like one of those peaks, but we should all keep a wary eye toward 2017 being a valley,” he says. “With that in mind, how much should we expand staff? Are there further productivity gains to be had – which would allow us to meet client demands during the peak without over-staffing, thus putting us in perhaps a better place for any decline in work- load in the future?” CONTENT IS KING. As a small marketing team, Butcher says that it’s been important for them to migrate their websites – one is already on the Hubspot platform. “It’s an important step to take because the members of our small marketing team are not web designers or coders, so we needed a content management system that was already keeping up with the Google algorithm update,” he says. For 2016, Butcher envisions the website as becoming more of a sales tool – not just a marketing one – but this can only be accomplished via content.

JAMIE CLAIRE KISER, from page 9

as much as your star business developers. ❚ ❚ Create an incentive plan centered around financial ac- countability. A Christmas bonus is great for morale, but doesn’t inherently tell staff that every hour of their day that year built up to the amount that they’ll see on the check. A good incentive plan is one that gives each employee the abil- ity – and the mandate – to control their own destiny by per- forming their job functions in a way that is beneficial to the firm and responsible with client resources. ❚ ❚ Share financial information widely. If you are going to fol- low the advice above (creating an incentive plan), make sure that the staff knows how they are being measured. What are the firm’s financial goals for the year? The quarter? Does everyone know the basic tenets of the firm’s five-year plan? More important than sending out results after the end of a reporting period, information sharing needs to be proactive. Disseminating revenue reports and project profitability after the quarter has ended or the project is closed is reactive. In-

THE ZWEIG LETTER Januray 25, 2016, ISSUE 1136

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