Author Archive
Are you making others feel like they are on the outside, looking in?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Strategies and Toolkit for the Sales-Engineering Interface
Connect With Babette On Linkedin 
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
There’s an art to building and maintaining client relationships. It’s more important than ever before. Clients are becoming more difficult to “win” and their loyalty is more elusive. And the definition of “client” encompasses those individuals within the workplace, your subcontractors and the companies who have contracted your products, services and capabilities.
There’s no room for elitism in client relationships. Your clients, subcontractors, co-workers and boss may admire your skill set and communication acumen. However, they did not hire you so they can worship you. They hired you for What’s In It For Me (WIFM): what you bring to the table and how you build their revenue stream.
Your “wow” solution or creative design allows people to appreciate you for understanding their needs. They assess your ability at communicating and asking good questions. They are delighted in your facility in translating these needs to the various technical disciplines involved in the project. And they will laud you and your company for producing output that not only solves their initial problem, but perhaps moves their company further along competitively as well.
So don’t ruin the momentum you, and your company, have created by “wearing” an attitude that communicates you are “too cool” for your clients. Or worse, that your clients are “too ignorant” for you to truly impart the sum total of your amazing skill set. Or that the language and principles of engineering and architecture are too far beyond the capacity of your clients (mere mortals) to understand. Oh, please. This is not the differentiator you want to establish no matter how good you are, how educated you are or how wonderful your solutions are. There’s someone to replace you right around the corner.
That’s not to say, alternatively, you should be your clients’ best friend, either. There is a fine line to maintaining professionalism while being accessible to the full range of your clients’ needs. Developing the extra set (or two) of professional “antenna” which allow you to assess the context of business decision making is crucial to building and maintaining client relationships. And while professionalism may extend into playing golf, providing tickets to events, and invitations to company social events, you still need to remember that you are hired by your clients (and your company, for that matter) to provide solutions, not companionship.
When it comes down to it, your client base doesn’t owe you anything after they pay their last invoice to your company. No matter how much they fawned over you during the course of the project. Regardless of whether or not they made you feel invincible and infallible during the course of the project. Repeat business isn’t guaranteed. And the context of the next project with this same client may not afford you anywhere near the same degree of familiarity as you encountered during the previous project.
Think about it.
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Are you drinking your own Kool-Aid®?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Strategies and Toolkit for the Sales-Engineering Interface
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
The next time you make a presentation to clients, or are speaking with them via conference call, or however you communicate with them…. listen to yourself. Is your message fresh, engaging, interesting and relevant? Are you talking WITH them or AT them? Have you become a “talking head”, providing broadcasts rather than dialogue?
I understand that we are all good, very very good at what we “do.” We’ve spent a lot of money on our education, and we’ve gotten the degrees and the professional credentials that show the world just how good we are. So when did we get to the point where we became too “good” to listen to ourselves and learn from others, including our clients?
Or perhaps we have become too protective of everything we’ve “earned.” We perceive new voices in our profession as competition rather than opportunities to expand the dialogue. We circle the wagons and find reasons to exclude in our circle of associates because the new folks are “not”.
Not an engineer, not an architect, not a graduate of the same institution, not on management track, not the top business development person, not in the business as long as we have been, not old enough, not young enough, not an entrenched member of our business community, not established. You fill in the blank: not _____.
Please put down your glass of Kool-Aid. And perhaps your fears of being less relevant to your clients. Or exposing areas in which you aren’t as knowledgeable as you could be. Or that folks will think you are “not worthy.” Or worrying that you are losing your “edge” – whatever that means.
The point is: how can we become better at what we “do” by learning more from our dialogues with others? And we can’t learn more if we are only listening to ourselves. You know, always waiting for our turn to speak.
Has our idea of “dialogue” turned into an “auto-pilot” prompt to wake up and “perform” when we are addressing others on all-to-familiar topics: “our” topics, our areas of expertise?
If you find yourself sitting in meetings waiting for the verbal cues that signal it’s your time to join the conversation as the “expert talking head”, you may not be getting the full value out of attending that meeting. Why sift through the conversation to determine how much of it is relevant to you? Rather, the entire conversation is relevant to them… perhaps you are only a small part of the whole.
You might learn something by shifting your dynamnics. So might “they.”
It just depends on what you are thirsty for. Your Kool-Aid or theirs……
Getting Your Clients To Fall In Love With You
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Strategies and Toolkit for the Sales-Engineering Interface
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
Nope. This is not going to be another blog post about client service and the importance of putting the customer first. You know all about that, don’t you? I mean, you DO know what your company’s client service policy is. This has been articulated to you, hasn’t it? And you can see it put into play in the workplace every day, right?
I know you can all point to your company’s mission statement and read something articulate and tangible about their client service ethic that you, personally, can hang your hat on. Correct?
Most of us operate freestyle when it comes to client service. Of course, the company will tell us we need to put the customer first and serve client needs first and foremost. But what does all that yada-yada really mean in the grand cosmic scheme of things?
Whether you are an owner, principal, sole proprietor or employee, it should be second nature to treat others as we want ourselves to be treated. But it’s hard to put theory into practice if we, as our company’s internal clients, aren’t treated very well in the first place.
If we are sole proprietors – or even a company of less than five individuals – our attitudes and ability to translate our skill sets into excellence in client service go up and down upon the waves of our ability and energy to win business. We are torn in two directions: win new business and then drop everything and deliver on the won business – ignoring the need to win more business. We find ourselves on a virtual economic and emotional roller coaster.
If we are a contractor, we morph in and out of whatever is required of us in our new surroundings. Perhaps we never quite fit into those short term positions. Perhaps we don’t the time to figure out what is required to win a permanent position over the long run. But we have customer contact all the time, even if it’s with our internal clients.
Each of us needs to determine what our individual attitude is towards client service and deliver against it, consistently. Regardless of the environment in which we find ourselves working. In spite of the clients for which we find ourselves working. Your attitude towards client service is like your personal beacon on your personal horizon. It basically boils down to defining your core values and integrating them into your personal and professional actions, day in and day out.
Your core values are what you use to get your bearings, whether you are an owner, sole proprietor or employee. And your core values are what your employers and clients can expect, no matter what. And with that type of consistency, you will respect yourself and, yes, here it comes: love yourself. And that’s the best way to achieve having your clients fall in love with you. They may not like you because they can’t jerk your chains or push you around. But they will respect you and, many times, return to you for repeat business. Your self-knowledge and consistency represents real value to your clients, and yourself.
Having your clients fall in love with you should be effortless. It’s not about wooing them and winning them over with glitzy dog-and-pony show presentations and meals. It’s not about always being the lowest price on projects. At the end of the day it’s about whether your clients feel comfortable doing business with you and whether or not they trust you. Because client relations can become a real messy affair.
You need to think about basing your client relationships on consistent core values. Mine are ethics, honesty, integrity and respect. And my clients know this from the git-go. Because I tell them.
Think about how your client relations – and retention rate – would benefit from your clients knowing your core values. Would they fall in love with you?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
The Contracted Workforce As The New Paradigm?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Strategies and Toolkit for the Sales-Engineering Interface
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
Understanding the value of your employees (aka, “human assets”) and recognizing where there are gaps is essential to fulfilling your business goals and strategic objectives. The workplace is changing, that’s for sure. The economic downturn of 2008 resulted in downsized companies and a burgeoning pool of individuals available to keeping companies functioning – and profitable.
Evaluating the WHO of your business by aligning personnel with the WHAT you are trying to achieve is becoming a bit of an art form.
The architectural and engineering community has a long tradition of ramping their workforce up and down to meet project demands. Nothing new here. The accordion-like nature of the employment paradigm within this community has long been juxtaposed against a business model and employee expectations of establishing a lifelong career with a company.
Now there are a lot more folks available to be deployed on a contractual basis on behalf of your company. These are the folks who, perhaps, never were going to be lifelong company men or women for one reason or another. Yet they haven’t gone quietly into the night. Rather, they are very available and can become valuable, albeit transient, assets against a timeline or a project deadline.
I am quite certain that when these individuals entered their career path, they never considered the changing face of the workforce of 2010 and forward. And then there’s the consideration that the newbies entering the workforce in 2008 were well aware of the difficulty it might take to land, and retain, employment. While some are still waiting to become company men and women, others have joined the rank and file of the contract work force.
The fact is, the status quo has changed. The workforce paradigm is shifting. There is an entire career path consisting of project-oriented deployment. There is an entire workforce of experienced, deployable individuals – and newbies – who have come to understand that even if they are employed for the duration of the project, their success does not ensure a permanent position as reward for a project well done. The economic realities of their company may never permit permanent employment.
The paradigm of the mature, contracted workforce can play to their strong suit: some of these individuals will never be around long enough to be disruptive, which may have been their undoing in a former place of employment. Having a resume of contracted projects may prove to make a stronger statement about their capabilities than a resume that is perceived as a track record of failure: no more than three to five year tenures with multiple companies. While this type of individual is not unique to this time in history, the numbers of such individuals may be.
The problem is that the business model paradigms and the cultural paradigms into which the contracted workforce is placed remains based on outmoded mindset and structure. I mean, how can you go from contracted job to contracted job without benefits? How can you describe these transient assignments to your advantage as a means of showing the value you provide to an organization?
For the time being, things are tremendously out of sync, aren’t they? Even when permanent employment is offered, no one is quite sure how long it’s going to last. The cultural / societal infrastructure hasn’t quite caught up (or even begun to deal) with the reality of the contracted workforce. And yes, we could and probably should discuss and debate this inequity for a long time. Not exactly the employment model, or career goal, that many individuals in the current workforce were brought up – or taught – to target.
If you have gaps in your ranks, give great consideration not only in how you will fill them but with whom. These folks are hardly “stop gap” personalities, some having substantial careers under their belts. And if you are considering a career focused on filling gaps in the employment ranks, on an ongoing basis, don’t think of yourself as “less than,” but rather, an individual who is perhaps – in most instances – “more of” what is called for in the changing paradigm of the workforce of the future.
Something to think about, isn’t it?
Is Entrepreneurship for you? An interview with Amy Cell, Ann Arbor SPARK Business Incubator.
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
Amy Cell joined Ann Arbor SPARK in 2006 and is currently Vice President, Talent Enhancement & Entrepreneurial Education, where she assists organizations with their talent needs, provides oversight for a variety of entrepreneurial education programs and manages the SPARK East incubator. Helping support economic and workforce growth in the region is her dream job, since she was born and raised in Michigan and earned a BBA and MBA from U-Michigan. In addition to working as a CPA for Plante & Moran, and launching an Office of Student Life for the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, she has spent 10 years in a variety of human resources roles at Ford Motor Company, the Stanford Research Institute, Applied Biosystems and co-founded the consulting partnership HR Drivers. Current and past board memberships include the Center for Entrepreneurship at the U-M College of Engineering, Women’s Council for Washtenaw Community College, Huron Musical Association, Women’s Exchange of Washtenaw, Ross School of Business SE Michigan Alumni Club, Kingcare, King PTO and the Junior League of Ann Arbor.
In an economy where many civil engineering firms are downsizing and laying people off, many civil engineers have no other option but to go into business for themselves…and many have been extremely successful as a result. Also, after many years of success working for a civil engineering firm many civil engineers voluntarily branch out to form their own corporations. So whether your goal is to be a one man band or to grow your business into an international civil engineering powerhouse, we felt this interview would be worth your while:
BTH: Amy, what does your position involve?
AC: I connect talent and opportunity for entrepreneurs in the Greater Ann Arbor area and throughout Michigan. Ann Arbor SPARK works with innovative businesses and start-ups to launch and grow. I provide the talent components as each venture identifies gaps or needs.
BTH: Just what exactly is “talent?”
AC: Talent is a very unique component to any entrepreneurial endeavor. We rarely recognize how important talent is at each phase of business development. For start-ups, I align entrepreneurs with consultants with expertise in various fields such as accounting, marketing, financial / business planning, lean / Six Sigma, sales, prototyping, etc. so that entrepreneurs can move forward from idea to implementation.
SPARK has a suite of everything an entrepreneur needs. We have physical space so that the inventors / entrepreneurs can come to a place to work that is separate from their existing workplace or home environment, for example. We provide educational space as well and have weekly seminars on how to start your own business, as well as other topics such as marketing roundtables, biotech roundtables, etc.
SPARK also is a business accelerator and is a funding resource for entrepreneurs. We have competitions for innovation and conduct a Business Boot Camp twice a year for entrepreneurs who are selected to participate. Really, when you think about it, we offer a complete toolkit for the entrepreneur and a venue in which to network and connect with the business community.
BTH: Many communities have some form of business incubator / accelerator. How does Ann Arbor SPARK compare / contrast, not only locally but with models used in other states?
AC: Every community does economic development in a different way. We focus on the three major areas (business attraction, business retention and entrepreneurship) rather than in one or two areas. One of my responsibilities involves working with startups, local companies, and companies from out of state who want to relocate or open a division elsewhere in the US. I promote the advantages of what Michigan brings to the table. We approach business development with a broad brush stroke.
BTH: What are the greatest obstacles to entrepreneurship facing engineers, IT professionals and other technical individuals?
AC: I work with about 500 entrepreneurial companies each year who are looking for talent to assist them in moving to the next level. Oftentimes, I am working with the technical founder who is looking for talented consultants and mentors with business skills. You can have a brilliant technical team that has a patent or patents. I put them together with an equally talented business team.
One person can’t grow a company themselves. If someone is the technical founder, they usually have difficulties communicating and selling their idea, product or service to investors. The Executive Team should be able to sell. If the Founder / Inventor / CEO can’t sell, that’s an issue. Often the inventor doesn’t have solid business acumen. If there is no business development side then they will have trouble developing sales. That’s why what happens at SPARK is so important in moving the technology out from the drawing board into the daylight.
Sometimes I do see serial entrepreneurs who are inventors. They have the complete toolkit. But that’s rare.
BTH: What are the major reasons start-up companies thrive or get stuck and fail?
AC: Investors won’t take a chance on an unproven idea. Investors will invest in a “B” idea with an “A” team vs. and “A” idea with a “B” team. If you want to get funding you need to do what will attract investors. If the inventor/CEO is unwilling to relinquish the reins or work with a team, things can derail.
Successful start-ups have an understanding of the market and their customers. They clearly understand pain points and develop a solution. They develop a painkiller instead of a vitamin. Some people think they are going to get a lot of money for an idea or have a great idea but have no customers. They haven’t done their homework. However, they feel people will intuitively understand their idea, embrace it, fund it and move it into the marketplace for them. That’s not how entrepreneurship works. Lots of inventors don’t get out to the customer. If you don’t know who your customer is, investors will perceive risk in your idea and potential failure.
BTH: If you had one piece of advice for any engineering, IT or other technical professional thinking of leaving their current place of employment and starting their own business, what would it be?
AC: Creating a compelling a business case for a product or service – growing your own business – requires persuasion and communication skills. I’ve seen many PhD’s who call themselves “former” introverts who have learned how to get out in a crowd and sell things. This can be learned if you really want to.
SPARK Boot Camp gives entrepreneurs the environment in which to practice how they communicate their business to others. Our mentors and consultants provide feedback on how to give a presentation as well as a pitch.
There are organizations such as Toastmasters International and various business organizations these entrepreneurs can join which will give them additional experience getting up in front of others and talking about who they are and what their company is all about. Consider this process improvement to changing one’s aversion to business communication. Practice. That’s really what’s at hand here.
BTH: Do technical professionals make good business people?
AC: Technical people really are business people. They understand the technical aspect of their product or service. Being an entrepreneur, or head of your own company, requires leadership skills. Leadership, requires a different set of skills and attributes from being an engineer or a sales person in someone else’s company.
Some of the best leaders I know are technical people. They have greater credibility with investors and the marketplace because they understand the technical side of their business. They understand their product. They know how to work in teams and how to select the teams. And their teams respect them.
BTH: What should entrepreneurs be doing to gain experience with the business community?
AC: There are a lot of resources out there within which to develop a network of support for your ideas. In Ann Arbor, we have the New Enterprise Forum which meets monthly. Entrepreneurs give business pitches to potential investors. There is an entrepreneurial panel which presents on a specific topic. There is networking and a warm, inviting community.
BTH: Thank you Amy for your insights. In wrapping up, I mentor at Ann Arbor SPARK judging business competitions and meeting with entrepreneurs on a volunteer basis each month. It’s a privilege working with Amy and the talented folks within this organization.
I find that many times, entrepreneurs have great ideas but don’t understand what’s involved in business development. They don’t understand what it takes to get customers. The toolkit Ann Arbor SPARK provides is invaluable in connecting these dots. As an entrepreneur, you need to talk to potential customers early in the idea or product development process to make sure you have a viable concept. And not just your family or friends or one or two customers. Sometimes entrepreneurs get shot down by this type of interaction and become discouraged . You need to reach out into the entrepreneurial community for support. You need to go out into your marketplace and get feedback. It’s those experiences which grow your passion and leadership for your innovation.
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Would your clients vote for the new guy/gal or for you, the incumbent?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
How many of us view the business development process as trying to unseat the incumbent? It’s like trying to break up a great marriage and being viewed as disruptive instead of desirable.
For that matter, how many of your competitors are trying to unseat you / your company?
Retaining existing client relationships involves a slightly different toolkit than does prospecting for entirely new clients. However, there is one common denominator: clients like to avoid what they perceive as disruption. Disruptive solutions and personalities mean risk. And the majority of clients are risk-averse.
Your existing client base may be comfortable with you, and perhaps complacent. So you need to ask yourself whether your company has been pigeon-holed as the provider of only certain types of solutions. If this is the case, as it is with many retained client bases, expanding business to your current clients means letting them know about your full scope of services. It means encouraging them to, yep, take a risk and let their incumbent vendor serve their needs in a different segment or solution. Because those are the projects that your competitors are jockeying for. And it’s not a slam-dunk that you will be top of mind to get the project just because you are a known entity.
You are never more than a partial incumbent for your existing client base. It’s important to stay in touch with them even when there is no project to bid on. Because a smart competitor will be differentiating themselves in this manner. And that’s when current clients start to compare one with the other. It can become a matter of “I only hear from you when I have a project” vs. “these other guys/gals send me interesting information about trends in my marketplace and expand my business intelligence.”
Pigeon-holing of existing or incumbent vendors/suppliers is the equivalent of being take for granted. You’ve become commoditized. Your clients forget the thrill of why they initially selected you. And you assume that at least a certain portion of their business is yours. Look, I know we are all smart enough to never make assumptions. But let’s face it, it gets exhausting to be constantly on one’s toes defending one’s turf as we try to identify new sources of business from new clients.
It’s not so much a matter of “what have you done for me lately” as it is a matter of “what are you doing for me when I don’t need you.” Because that, perhaps, is the time your current clients can really learn from you and realize your value to their company. Which becomes the premise of future need for your products and services.
Unseating the incumbent involves playing off the ball, positioning yourself advantageously to be the logical choice for a future project. And we all know that smart play like this insures that you will be the go-to guy or gal as well. So you protect your current position where you are the incumbent.
Providing timely business intelligence that aligns with the priorities of your existing client base may come from a new playbook than the one you are currently using. But it’s an important way of letting your current client base know of your expertise in areas where they don’t realize you have expertise.
I suggest shifting gears and taking a look at different ways of reinforcing your value as the incumbent vendor of choice. You just may learn a lot more about yourself and your capabilities. And so may your current clients.
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Are you using your professional language like a secret handshake?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
We all take pride in our credentials and our education. After all, they’ve earned us a place within our profession. In addition, some of us have become thought leaders within our profession: blogging, publishing, speaking, teaching. We’ve earned our stripes through diligence and hard work. We’ve spent our time in the trenches.
Do you consciously walk around with streaming video or a neon sign declaring to the world that you are your LinkedIn resume, your latest publication or educational degree? How about wearing a sandwich board sign that proclaims: “I am a thought leader!” (hint: our business cards with lots of acronyms following our name and title is a great mini-sandwich board).
Yet so many of us come across as “flashing our credentials” when we speak with our clients, friends and family members. We unconsciously – or perhaps consciously – use professional-speak lingo-slinging within our conversations as though we are entitled to use these terms. We come across being perceived by our clients as though they are the uninitiated and we are members of an exclusive club. Which can create real barriers to communication.
Using high doses of professional terminology when communicating with non-technical folks (who may also be our customers, students, friends and family) can be like creating our own secret handshake And I’m not insisting that we dumb down our conversations. However, not everyone is a technical peer. And if these are the only conversations you are comfortable having, then ask yourself why you are limiting yourself to professional-speak lingo-slinging.
That’s not to say that technical terminology should be eliminated from business development discussions. However, using the technical term accompanied by a definition that is succinct and simple is an excellent means of educating and getting everyone on the same page. It’s like having a technical discussion with an individual from a different country. Afford your communication with non-technical types the same respect that you would give to a conversation with a peer from another country.
Because a lot of those non-technical types just may be Owners. And communicating business development solutions that address issues and educate the Owner may be more distinguishing than having a PhD or being a Fellow of five professional societies. These Owners care about what you can do for them and how your solution positively impacts their bottom line. They don’t care about your secret handshake and, quite frankly, may not be interested in ever learning it. And that’s about as succinct and non-technical as I can get.
Perhaps the most sobering thought is that when Owners hire you or your firm to work on a project, they want to come out of that project better off than they were going in. The entire experience of working with you should be rewarding. There are going to be lots and lots of discussions along the road to the solution. There are lots of opportunities to distinguish yourself and your firm for clarity of communication: as expressed verbally as well as architecturally and structurally.
I was in Barcelona recently and experienced many Gaudi buildings, including La Sagrada Familia. And what struck me the most was the simplicity and intimacy of the experience in spite of the mind-boggling complexity of the undertaking. And you know how many conversations Gaudi had with Owners over the years. And these Owners were not necessarily technical peers.
The ability to make ourselves and our ideas accessible through communication will become a hallmark for successful business development in the architectural and civil engineering community. ‘Listen” to yourself throughout your daily conversations this week. Are you a professional-speak lingo-slinger or an accessible communicator?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Is your engineering firm too specialized to need a website?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
Does your engineering firm use any of the following excuses to rationalize why your website looks the way it does?
- Our clients and prospects need to call us so we can discuss their project. Project outcomes depend on client specifications. We don’t know what clients need until we start to work with them.
- We don’t have services you can just order on the internet. We deal with complex solutions.
- Once our clients and prospects see all the projects we have completed, they will understand we can do whatever it is they want us to do.
Oh give me a break. These excuses are nothing more than elitism which is being used to compensate for the fact that YOUR ENGINEERING FIRM CANNOT DESCRIBE, IN SIMPLE AND SUCCINCT TERMS, THE VALUE THEY BRING TO THEIR CLIENTS’ TABLES.
Yep, you just read it.
Considering we live in a world of elongated sales cycles and risky funding, your business development folks can’t get to everyone individually. So just where do you think new business is going to come from? Try your company footprint on the Internet, which starts with your website.
Let’s examine each one of these rationales and translate just what they mean.
1. Our clients and prospects need to call us so we can discuss their project. Project outcomes depend on client specifications. We don’t know what they need until we start to work with them.
What if a client or prospect doesn’t want to call you to have a long, elegant conversation about a project they may not be interested in inviting you to bid on, anyway? Considering most individuals within corporations have about 1 hour of face time per week to give to business development folks (and you know how many people are competing for this time) your website serves as your first “conversation” with them. If your website offers little content to justify their even considering sending you an email, let alone calling you, why would they want to work with you? Your website’s not making it easy for them to do business with you. You are forcing an extremely busy prospective client to do things your way. Which means your firm isn’t interested in working with them – their way.
2. We don’t have services you can just order on the internet. We deal with complex solutions. No kidding. You can’t just “dial an engineer.” However, as that extremely busy client or prospect, I want simple (not dumbed-down, but easily understood) solutions based on expertise and capabilities. I want to work with an engineering firm that makes my corporate life and decision making process a little bit easier. After all, it’s all about the client. Not about the engineering firm. As a prospective client, your website has 2-5 seconds to pique my interest and grab my attention with what you can deliver. If I feel I am reading a philosophical treatise that is simply talking in circles, well, I’ll hit the “back” button and go elsewhere, thank you.
3. Once our clients and prospects see all the projects we have completed, they will understand we can do whatever it is they want us to do. OK. We’ve ALL seen websites like this one. A big flashy home page (and flash can be a real no-no in terms of search engine optimization), and then the “Project List” or “Portfolio” or “Clients” tab. You are not dealing with children, so does your website look like a story-book? Also you are assuming that prospective clients know what they are looking at… which they may not. Your internal folks may have uploaded photos from your most complex designs as a means of “wowing” prospective clients.
All prospective clients see is a bunch of complex, flashy solutions which may or may not have any relation to their needs. The more complex the solution, the less simple it appears to work with your company. Oh, also, if you are wondering why your client base is a bunch of demanding divas eating up profitability, go back to your website and see what types of project photos you have uploaded. You may be marketing to just whom you are getting as clients.
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and create a website which is sensitive to their time constraints, decision making algorithm and their need to determine capabilities and not outcomes. You may just shorten your sales cycles and learn a lot more about your capabilities in the process.
Think about it.
Is Your Website Your Business Development Partner?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
Let’s face it. Most company websites are an embarrassment. Something you hope your current and prospective customers either will ignore or overlook. And still call you for an amazingly in-depth, insightful discussion that results in a request for proposal. Now that’s wishful thinking. Ever heard of the saying “one picture’s worth a thousand words?”
Others of you have a website that’s flashy. It’s got streaming this and that. It’s crammed full of announcements about product innovations. It’s your online portfolio that you hope will WOW a prospective customer. In fact, it’s so overwhelmingly full of pictorial and streaming verbiage that the visitor doesn’t know where to look first. Ever heard of the saying “one picture’s worth a thousand words?”
Most of you have ho-hum websites whose major function is to be “informational.” And that information is buried throughout the entire website, sort of like a scavenger hunt. And of course, an internal employee created the website because, well, engineers can do all things. (And they can, but why would they be assigned to such a task and take away from billable time to prove this point?). Or your website was created by some vendor who was nothing more than an order-taker. So the website was designed by committee, or by ego, and tells you what you already know. But it doesn’t tell your prospective customer anything relevant.
Who has time to hunt through your website content for what they are searching for in the first place? When’s the last time you read a website cover-to-cover, even if it had intuitive navigation?
Your website is your online persona. After a successful business development call – either in person or via phone or virtually – your customers and prospects are going to “check you out” …. online. And the feedback they receive from their efforts can make or break you – no matter how successful a presentation and relationship building strategy you may have.
1. They will Google your company name. What are they going to find? How well is your company managing its online persona? How well are you managing your online persona, for that matter?
A mediocre, out-of-date, information-flash-overload, or non-intuitive website can successfully demonstrate, in 2 to 5 seconds, that you are not who you seem to be and you are not in touch with your customers. How anticipatory is your website to the types of questions and issues that a current and/or prospective customer might have? Does your website provide answers to these questions in the same place, or all over the place? Does your website have links to links to links to pdfs?
Hey, would you want to use your website? One of my clients, whose building materials company caters to architects and civil engineers, realized some of his internal personnel were spending an average of 2 hours a day – each – guiding folks through their old website to the information they needed to find. And those were the customers/prospects who actually called in. Think about how many folks simply gave up and went elsewhere for business.
Do you have any idea how much 2 hours of these employee’s billable time cost that company? Until they achieved their new website which tripled their website traffic and contacts? Talk about the cost of doing business let alone the impact a poor website has on business development!
2. Oh, and what else will prospective clients find when they Google your company name? Will they find out about liens against your company, lawsuits, hazmat citations and other non-glorious information? Will they find kudos, honors and awards your company has received?
Will these prospective customers wonder how your company can win design awards yet have a mediocre, non-customer-centric website? Will customers compare what they read when they Google your company with the content and format of your website and find it similar or different to their customer experience?
3. They will Google you by name as well. What are they going to find? Because you need to manage your personal brand in conjunction with your professional brand as well. If you are on the roster of your religious institution, or have made donations to civic causes, participated in a mini marathon, well, that tells your prospective customers a little bit more about you. I don’t need to tell you that having a complete LinkedIn profile, including references, is essential. Your professional brand is linked to and complements the company for whom you work. Is your personal brand better than your company’s brand? Now that’s an interesting question.
You need to be able to tell your prospective customers and current clients to “check out my website” and “check out my LinkedIn profile.” Because they are going to do this anyway. Make this aspect part of your business development etiquette. And make sure your LinkedIn profile is updated and dynamic – even if your corporate website is not.
So how’s your company using the rules of engagement of today’s Internet to assist your business development efforts? Having a company website that walks your talk is mandatory.
How are you providing value to your clients and your employer?
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No matter where you sit around the table, you can provide value to your employer and your clients by staying current with their (not your) area of expertise.
Understanding current industry-specific issues, including financial, sourcing, materials and materials management and legal factors, can provide you with a well-rounded perspective from which to make design and engineering recommendations. Staying current with your clients’ world view is your entire organization’s responsibility, not just the guys/gals at the top.
Because the buck stops everywhere these days.
Triggering events can provide the fulcrum for differentiating your company to current and prospective customers. Triggering events are events that tip the scales and force change within an industry. Like changes in the construction code or ratings for doors used in specific buildings. Like the use of nanotechnology in building materials. Like green initiatives in various states.
Waiting around for “someone else” in your organization to disperse this information to you is not an option. You are the “someone” who must prioritize information gathering to round out your project perspective. And where you get this information is just as important as the information itself.
Because customers who perceive vendors as commodities will always base their decisions on price. Let’s face it, in the absence of any other defining factor, what else is there?
So your ability to use triggering events to enhance the insights you provide for your customers becomes an all-or-nothing exercise in impacting their perception of the value you bring to their table.
And I’m not talking about bombarding your clients with constant tidbits from news feeds or industry magazines. I’m talking about your taking the time to review information from a variety of resources and PERCOLATE that information so it impacts how you synthesize your role to your customers.
You may change your perspective in terms of how you express yourself to your customers, your co-workers and your employer. Which in turn impacts how you view your role as a client resource and solutions provider.
Not all customers call you because they have a problem that needs to be solved. They simply may want to run an idea by you that may have nothing to do with your area of design expertise. They may want you to act as a sounding board on a business decision they need to make. In other words, they consider you a trusted resource. So how do you get there from where you currently are?
Do you have the type of information in your professional toolkit to serve your customers in this manner? And I am addressing everyone up and down the corporate food chain. It’s that important.
At this point you may be asking: “OK, so I am now going to enhance my business acumen and perspective with all this great information. Just where do you suggest I find it?” Good question. And I think you probably know some really good answers.
Here are some non-traditional clue cards. And I welcome your suggestions for additional sources of information.
- LinkedIn discussion groups are a tremendous way of keeping your ear to the rail. Engineering discussion groups are the pulse of industry. There are so many technical, regulatory, financial and philosophical discussions going on within these groups that – at the very least – reading the discussion threads is an education in itself. So if you are not already a member of various LinkedIn groups, join them. If you are already a member, check out the sub groups and new engineering groups that are constantly forming.
- And while you are participating in LinkedIn discussion threads, remember that your name and your company name are included in your signature with each thread post. Participating in LinkedIn discussions is a tremendous way of demonstrating expertise without “advertising” your company. Folks want to build their networks, especially with savvy people like you who provide great input to discussion threads. Don’t you think they will notice which company you work for, as well? And it works both ways. No matter where you sit around the table, you can provide your business development folks with the names of companies you feel may be prospective clients. I think they may find your input valuable.
- Signing up for RSS newsfeeds on various topics allows you to receive industry-specific or topic-specific articles on your desktop. Discuss your findings at work or post your own discussion on LinkedIn. You may be surprised at who responds and what you learn from the interchange.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics is an additional resource that allows you to provide context to the financial environment of each state. This information is particularly relevant if you work for a company with out of state projects. This information also allows you to understand the issues that may be impacting subcontractors you may use for these out of state projects.
And don’t tell me you have no time to engage in these activities. The nature of what we call “work” and the context of where we gather and exchange information are in flux. The entire business development paradigm is changing.
Do you want to be on the outside looking in or an active participant in growing your value to your customers and your company?
Think about it.
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