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O P I N I O N
Grow your firm in 2019
L ooking to grow the firm? Or maybe you have tried it before with no luck? Over the years, I have had the privilege of working alongside and helping many successful owners of AEC firms. Raise your fees to reflect value, prioritize lead generation, and delegate everything that is outside your zone of genius.
What I have seen winning owners do to win projects in these scenarios is to increase their fees. You heard right. They dive deep into the client’s problems, see how they can enhance their basic ser- vice offering to bring more value to the client, and then communicate it with a laser sharp message to their ideal project client. When the client is intrigued by the value added, the price becomes a non-issue. It’s the “Well, that price makes sense” ef- fect. As price-driven firms race to the bottom, the value- “To grow your firm you must learn to enhance your service offerings and position them in a way that your targeted ‘perfect’ client sees the value add. Then raise the price!”
It always amazes me to see how two people can receive the same input of information and return two totally different outcomes. Sometimes it’s less about the tactics and more about the person. Here is what I’ve observed about winning firm owners and what they do differently when running their firms and scaling them: ❚ ❚ Pricing. AEC services have been commoditized. Surprise! Well, probably not. And that begs the ques- tion: How hard is it to grow a firm when your clients expect you to compete on price? Even more tragic is that the other firms – your com- petition – are playing along and lowering their prices to beat you out on new projects. It’s a mess. So, how can you deal with it and come out on top? It comes down to how you position yourself and your services. The word you are going to want to remember here is value. It’s not the same as more. It’s more services. It’s more of you.
Ivan Lares GUEST SPEAKER
See IVAN LARES, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER December 31, 2018, ISSUE 1277
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