Marketing and Selling Professional Services in Architecture and Construction

List of Illustrations xv

List of Tables xvi

About the author xvii

Foreword xix

Introduction xxi

Stage 1: Selecting the clients you want to work for 1

1.1 Your client portfolio 2

Examine current portfolio 2

Saying goodbye to clients 6

Number of clients 7

Sector exposure 8

Who are your competitors and who do they work for? 8

1.2 A strategy 11

Prioritise your effort 12

Selecting your targets 16

The need to comply with the Data Protection Act 17

Sector penetration 17

1.3 Effort versus reward 19

Public sector 19

Private sector 23

1.4 Lifetime value of clients 25

1.5 Picking your moment 29

1.6 Creating a pipeline 33

Using an enquiry pipeline 35

Using a leads pipeline 39

Managing effort for pipeline development 42

Stage 2: Identifying the needs of the target client 47

2.1 Why do you need to know the client’s needs? 48

Good client service 48

2.2 Appropriate person to contact 49

No names policy 53

The first communication with the target contact 53

The first written communication 54

That first phone call 56

2.3 The first Meeting 60

Preparation 60

Arriving 61

First impressions 62

Improving your chances of a good meeting 63

2.4 Look for visual and auditory clues 64

Building rapport 64

Use of language 65

Is your potential client telling the truth? 68

2.5 Establishing the client’s needs 68

Specific needs 69

Leading into the questioning 70

Use your questions to demonstrate your capability 70

Have questions prepared 71

Harvesting information through questioning techniques 72

2.6 Listening skills 76

Poor response 79

2.7 Establish the stakeholders and decision makers 80

2.8 Expanding the range of contacts 81

2.9 Establish selection criteria 82

2.10 The next step 82

Stage 3: Shaping your service to suit the needs of the target clients 85

3.1 Review your clients’ needs 86

3.2 Putting a mirror up to your client 88

Don’t rush this stage 88

An analysis of the situation 89

Has the client missed something? 91

3.3 Enhancing customer value 91

Customer groupings 92

3.4 Features and benefits 93

3.5 Building trust 94

Capability 96

Credibility 97

Reliability 97

Compatibility 98

Rational and non-rational selection criteria 98

3.6 Differentiating 99

Differentiate through customer service 102

Show you care 103

3.7 Consider your strategy 104

Understanding why clients might not want your services 104

Stage 4: Communicating your availability and capability to the target clients 107

4.1 Communicating to target clients 108

4.2 Target clients in buying mode 109

Identify decision makers and influencers 109

Meeting the decision makers 110

Meeting the influencers 112

When access is denied 112

4.3 Target clients not in buying mode 113

4.4 Raising your profile 118

Networking 118

Where to network 118

Prepare for the event 119

Working the room 119

Introductions 120

The follow-up to a networking event 121

Make yourself a useful contact 122

Creating networking opportunities 122

Develop your network 122

4.5 Entertaining 123

4.6 Seminars 124

Attend seminars at conferences 124

Deliver a seminar at a conference 125

Attending other people’s seminars 125

Running your own seminar 125

4.7 Writing articles 126

4.8 Public speaking 130

4.9 Memberships of organisations 130

4.10 Advertising 130

4.11 Exhibitions 133

Stage 5: Proposals, tenders and pitching 137

5.1 Proposals 138

Create opportunities to build relationships during the proposal stage 138

Keep the prospective client involved 139

The proposal content 139

Approach to fees 141

5.2 Selling yourself and your proposal 141

5.3 Pitching for work 143

Purpose of the pitch 143

Plan of action 143

The brief 144

Timetable leading up to the pitch 144

The participants 145

The audience 148

The content of the pitch 149

Format of delivery and use of technology 150

The ‘ring master’ 152

Questions you don’t want to be asked 153

Handling objections 154

The venue 155

Rehearsals 155

Using persuasive language 156

Feedback 158

5.4 The selection process–direct with the client 158

Negotiation 158

Pitching for the project or through formal interview 159

Qualification-based selection 159

Selection based on quality and price 160

Selection based on fee (without design) 160

Selection based on a design proposal (with or without fee bid) 160

5.5 Selection process–through and with a contractor 161

Two-stage tendering 161

5.6 The trend for competitive proposals 162

5.7 Expressions of interest 162

5.8 Pre-qualifications 163

5.9 Tendering 165

Understanding how clients evaluate proposals and tenders 166

5.10 Using CVs 168

CV maintenance 169

Editing 169

5.11 Monitoring progress of the tender or proposal 170

5.12 Post-tender interview 170

5.13 Negotiation 171

Establish your position 172

Negotiating approach 172

Bargaining skills 173

Summarise the situation during negotiation 174

Don’t get stuck over positions 175

Move to closing the deal 176

Negotiating traps 177

If you fail to win, start positioning for the next opportunity 178

Stage 6: Delivering added value and obtaining repeat business 181

6.1 Obtaining repeat business 182

6.2 Strategies for repeat business 184

6.3 Preparing a project client plan 184

6.4 Total continuous office participation in selling 188

Quality of employees and working methods 188

6.5 Managing the service ‘touches’ 190

6.6 Client account management 191

Managing the process 193

Being selective with time expenditure 193

6.7 Client account teams 195

Creating new relationships 197

Cross-selling 197

Cross-team activity 198

6.8 Establishing level of client satisfaction 198

Ask the right questions 199

Ask the right people 199

Survey methods 200

Need to introduce the survey 201

Questionnaire design 202

Introducing weighting factors 202

Satisfaction levels are relative 203

The value of client satisfaction measurement 205

6.9 Third-party survey 206

6.10 Direct questionnaire 209

6.11 Client review meeting 209

After obtaining feedback 211

6.12 Lessons-learnt workshop 211

6.13 A client expectation charter 212

Service delivery review meetings 213

6.14 Building multi-level contacts 214

Introduce someone else at every opportunity 216

Show them around your office 217

Ask to be introduced to your client’s colleagues 217

Hold pre- and post-project social gatherings 217

Hold value engineering workshops 218

Market the project with the client 218

Becoming more integrated 218

Winning additional work from clients 220

Succession planning 221

6.15 Client loyalty 223

Increase client loyalty 224

Setting goals and objectives 224

6.16 Obtaining referrals from clients 226

Stage 7: Building credibility 229

7.1 Credibility through sector knowledge 230

Information for sector-specific selling 230

7.2 Response to requests for information 232

7.3 CVs 233

7.4 Keep records of your experience 234

7.5 Project sheets and case studies 235

Use your project sheets as door openers 237

7.6 Using e-mails 237

7.7 Your website 240

7.8 Intranet and extranet 242

7.9 Press releases 242

7.10 Newsletters 244

7.11 Research 245

Further reading 247

Index 249