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O P I N I O N
AEC firms struggle with it, but if a firm is to thrive in the good times and the bad, a quantifiable plan of attack is essential. Marketing and business development
M arketing, business development, and sales aren’t usually the top priorities for an AEC firm. Most firms simply don’t have the expertise or know where to start. Many principals don’t even think they need to market themselves, because clients and prospects will just call for their exceptional design, right? These scenarios, as you might have guessed, are few and far between. Think about how many firms are out there to choose from – if you aren’t reaching out to prospects in multiple ways, someone else is!
Lindsay Young GUEST SPEAKER
With the current market conditions, it’s difficult for people to understand why they need to invest in marketing and business development right now. They are so busy that they don’t think they need it. I often hear, “I’m so swamped right now, I can’t keep my head above water.” I understand their pain. But as a principal, you must have the foresight to realize the fire hydrant is going to close – probably sooner than you think. By investing in marketing and business development now, it allows you to select the clients you want to work with and the ones that align with your company’s core values. It gives you the ability to work with the clients you want, request higher fees, and design projects your team wants to work on. By the time the market does slow down,
you have already set up your pipeline and your company for success. Principals are also challenged with knowing what works and what doesn’t work as it pertains to marketing and business development. As a result, they do nothing. Putting together a marketing and business development plan helps firms see where and what is getting them results. By implementing a plan, they can see where their time and money is being spent. Once it’s determined where your investments are seeing results, then you can invest more in those things and eliminate the things that aren’t producing results.
See LINDSAY YOUNG, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER January 21, 2019, ISSUE 1280
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