You created your business model back when your company was formed or when you took over as CEO. You have been implementing since and will continue to do so. Not so fast! In the ever-changing marketplaces full of newbies and innovation, you must revisit your business model on a regular basis. Why?

Click for Free Commodity-Value Tool

Your business model is focused on how you provide value to a defined client, such as hospitals, beverage producers or transportation agencies. If your clients’ business has evolved over the years, do you think that might alter the effectiveness of your model? Most definitely. Revisiting and updating your business model keeps you sharp, away from commodity services and seen as valuable to those clients.

I witnessed a firm transform their contamination assessment services into services that also included marketability analysis. This analysis helped developers to know to whom they could market the property and to prioritize the environmental clean-up costs for that market.

Clients then saw the firm as more valuable. Thus, the engineering firm moved this service away from commodity to become high value. They did this by having a complete understanding of the client’s business and being open and thorough to ideas on how to align to that market’s business drivers.

To create an effective model, some difficult questions to deeply explore include:

1. How well do you understand the drivers of your clients’ business?
2. How can your business deliver services leveraging that understanding?
3. How might your core skills be evolved or complimented to directly support your clients’ business goals?
4. How will you get the word out to find those who will value your services?

If done well, a strong business model guides your firm to differentiate yourself, create niches and deliver top-notch services.

Where are your services on the commodity-value curve?  Click for free Commodity-Value Tool and place an X on the curve where you think each of your services lie. Which service requires action?

Share with me your first assessment and I will respond with additional guidance of next steps.

P.S.  Are you following my blog? There are over 40 insights on managing your business. By following the blog you will be notified when new content is posted.  Its free and it is On-Demand.

Doug

The post Why you’re not meeting your clients’ needs appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

There is a right and wrong way to implement CRM. Very smart people have fallen victim to the wrong way. I am going to share with you the right way. You will be successful if you follow my process exactly.  No shortcuts.

At an ACEC National Conference in Colorado Springs, as a member of a CRM Implementation Panel, I delivered this solution.

Cart Before the Horse

The most prolific reason that CRM fails is because it is implemented when there is not a single established and working sales process. It is critical to recognize that CRM is wrapped around your sales process. It is a software tool that supports people to implement a sales process.

Take a look at the Classic Sales Funnel graphic (right). Note that sales is a  multiple stage process. CRM’s are built to manage all of them. Are you thinking and managing sales with these or similar stages?

Note the Selling Conversion Rate chart below. Are you tracking sales effectiveness this way? Hardly any professional services firms do, but they should. If you do, your sales will be more efficient and more predictable.

The Funnel and Conversion Rate charts clearly show that proposal win rates are an incomplete view of sales. Each of the stages shown has its own Go/No-Go and required skill set to execute. A sale starts from a Lead that is identified out of the Universe of client entities. It then progresses to the Relationship stage, then uncovering Opportunities and finally to closing the sale.  Learn these first, then implement a CRM.

If you do not have a single in-force sales process in your firm, you are not ready for CRM. The CRM is not justified to just have a central place to store contacts. It is not just a central place to log opportunities either. That is a “make work” approach that will surely fail. Either use it to manage sales, or don’t use it at all.

Don’t despair if you don’t have a single sales process in which all revenue responsible staff have been trained and are making part of their daily behavior. If this is you, then first apply the process I  describe to establishing a single sales process.

This approach works because my method applies to every strategy idea. So, just fill-in the words “Sales Process” into this article where it says “CRM” and get to work on your Sales Process.

You Must Have Sincere Buy-in From the Start

In a nutshell, you need to show others what they’ll personally gain from the CRM system.
All of your communications, such as your company goals, need to be expressed in terms of personal, not corporate benefits. Syncing with personal goals paves the way, whereas conflicting with them is cause-of-death for new programs.

Be aware that in a public forum, it is easy to think you have buy-in. People around the conference table know what they SHOULD say. You need to know what they really think.

Securing sincere buy-in is the single most important element of success of any corporate initiative. So spend the right amount of time to identify and overcome resistance before a single dollar is spent on the software.

This is the first step in the People element of your firm. And there are four elements which must be addressed in sequence.

Organizational Element Change Sequence Crucial to CRM Implementation Success

The four elements described below are fundamental business law when it comes to implementing strategy. People, Process, Structure and Tools must be addressed in the order they appear below.

PEOPLE:  People will refuse to use the CRM—unless they’re PERSONALLY interested to see it succeed. Frequently a problem occurs when there’s intense attention on being billable. If you force the sales process and CRM upon them, they’ll find a way to work around them. The unintended consequences of this are diminished client relationships and sales.

However, if the priority is sales AND people are influenced to be truly excited about sales, then they will seek out training, processes, and tools to achieve more sales. Because their core career purpose is to work on projects (which means be billable), they will seek to save time and simplify the process. A clear sales process and CRM will do this for them.

PROCESS:  People will likely think CRM is a time waster that conflicts with their priorities if the CRM doesn’t seem to support their individual processes. It’s also going to be a big mess if everybody does their own thing, their own way. Especially when they start recording CRM activities into a system made for a standardized sales process.

Therefore, it’s crucial to develop a uniform and systematic sales process so that everybody is on the same page and speaks the same sales language.

STRUCTURE:  CRM can easily become another low quality, chaotic stockpile of customer notes. Therefore, it’s vital to decide how information will be recorded and reported, and who’s going to be responsible for managing the CRM and provide QA/QC oversight.   

CRMs come with data entry forms and reports out of the box. Resist the idea of tailoring it too much. Is your tweak deviating from your sales process? Who is responsible for what, who does the training and who must be consulted before changes are made? Who is managing the sales process? Is it distributed?  

TOOLS:  Don’t just run out and buy any CRM. Make sure you choose the system that best suits your organizational needs. Will this only be used to track sales? Do you want a fully integrated system that includes individual emails, email campaigns, people and “internet of things” research data and mobile device applications?

Look beyond what your competitors are doing. Much of the digital marketing and sales world has advanced far beyond professional services firms’ practices. Seek out and analyze firms that lead in the marketing and sales world.

Should you be a leader and adopt those processes and tools as well?

If you have any questions or if you’re having sales, CRM or strategy implementation challenges now, shoot me a quick email at dreed@fostergrowth.biz. Provide a description of your challenge and I’ll help you overcome it. There is no charge for our first consultation.  It may also be a good topic for a blog post, so just send it over.

The post Use these steps to avoid CRM implementation failure appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

Then, client relationship management must be a top priority. This does not mean you “roll over” when pushed by a client. 

Of course, these are two obvious statements.  What is not obvious are the answers you need from your client to know how to accomplish this.  Obtaining accurate answers is part art and part science.  You don’t want just to know their overt needs, you want the one’s burning in their gut. The real and covert needs. 

I am going to share with you three critical questions that will reveal the answers you desire. These are not the only questions, but the most important.  And, you likely are not always asking these. But first, allow me to share a related story. 

“We Shred A & E Firms”

I had developed a policy for pursuing business. When I identified that a prospective client had a history of conflict with consulting firms I made an automatic No-Go. 

One day I received an RFP from a former client. I had worked with them earlier in my career as a project engineer while I was with a different firm. I had accompanied the Project Manager to Board of Public Works meetings and saw the board shred him over ridiculous issues. With that vivid memory, I made the requisite No-Go decision. 

I contacted the Superintendent and told him that we did not have time to prepare a good proposal, thus we would not be submitting. He and I got along exceptionally well and we remained friendly over the years. The next day, he called me back and said, “What if I get you more time? I really want to work with you again?”

My white lie did not work. My emotions got the better of me and I submitted. We were selected.

At the kickoff meeting the town manager said, “Doug, we have shredded many engineering and architectural firms. What can you do to avoid the typical outcome?” I said, “I will work with your board and manage expectations.”

At the kick-off meeting one of the board members said, “This design and construction project must not have change orders.” I said, “Change orders will occur to deliver a good product since they’re part of the design and construction process. Some changes are improvements and some are to fix the designer’s mistakes.”

There, I put mistakes on the table.  Earlier in my career I sat next to my Project Principal and listened to him agree with several clients to “no change orders” and he paid for design errors as if the firm was guilty of low quality.  I saw this not only hurt project financials, it hurt the reputation of the firm and the individuals who worked on the project. It was wrong. 

I vowed never to chicken out and to discuss the role of change orders and “standard duty of care” with each client as part of the Project Kick-off Meeting.  I learned that by having the discussion early, clients came to understand that some change orders are going to occur and are even necessary to produce a better project. 

After a tough discussion, the board, while still challenging, understood that errors and omissions were normal and not poor design. The firm did not “eat” a single change order. The project was completed reasonably within budget and the client continued to give us business.

The client really just wanted to feel they got a quality design for a reasonable cost. I knew that and spent the time helping them to accurately understand what that meant. I changed their criteria of what it meant to secure a quality project instead of caving in. 

Its All About Knowing, Then Delivering To It

Even clients who are difficult will appreciate your resolve. They just want to know they are getting a fair deal. I had dozens of similar discussions with clients and twenty years later I am still professional friends with many.

To be profitable and have a good reputation does not mean “roll over.” Provide all of your project managers with these tools and they can repeat this kind of conversation. And, be wildly successful.

The Three Questions

Start with the following simple yet not always obvious questions.  

1. What are the performance metrics upon which we will be judged?

2. What is the outcome you desire for yourself and what will that do for you?

3. What are your and your organization’s “warts”?

These questions set the tone for all of your future dealings. And, although bumps in the road are unavoidable, a strong start helps you deal with them with less stress.  

I invite you to share your personal experiences with me as I use this information to help others to whom I am advising. As a former A/E/Environmental engineer, manager and principal, I now partner with professional services firms to ensure their success.

Doug Reed, P.E., Business Consultant at FosterGrowth. dreed@fostergrowth.biz

The post Three questions for successful client relationships appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

Treading water by doing the same ole’ thing will turn you into shark bait

If you tread water, living off what you learned earlier in your career,  there are sharks who will eat you whole and minnows that will nibble you to death. So, this is about staying alive.

This piece from Hinge Marketing, A 10 Step Brand Development Strategy for Your Professional Services Firm, breaks down marketing planning. The blogger, Lee Frederiksen, writes: “A professional services brand is best understood as your firm’s reputation and it’s visibility in the marketplace. The strength of your brand can be measured as Reputation times Visibility.”

These steps only work if you know where you are going.

When working with CEOs, I encourage them to understand the following before they embark on strategic changes:

• the market demand for the firm’s services
• how the market demand fits with the mission of the firm
• the capacity of staff to learn and adapt
• how the staff and firm are perceived in the marketplace

If you succeed once without strategic planning, you’re lucky. Congrats. For sustainable growth– the kind that ensures longevity and is lucrative for you, your board and staff, anticipate and prepare for what lies ahead. The rewards will be worth it.

Doug Reed, P.E., FosterGrowth.biz, dreed@fostergrowth.biz

The post Meet market demand by accident and you are sure to fail appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

Lucky for me I had a senior manager who tested me on sales not long after I joined the engineering/architecture industry. Allow me to share with you my story of gratitude to the executive who trusted me. Because of him I had one experience that accelerated my career.

Selling was the Furthest Thing From My Mind

A principal in the A/E firm where I worked decided to break into the drinking water business. I was a 26 years old budding civil engineer and he knew I had “vast” experience in drinking water from my prior firm (3 years and a few projects).  And, there was no one else with experience in that area so he didn’t have any choice.

He started off by taking me to meet with a couple of clients. Next, an RFP landed on my desk. With a lot of coaching, I drafted my first proposal. With a lot of editing, the proposal was submitted.

Keep in mind, my goal was to be a technical engineer with a reputation for being the best designer. I had no interest in project management or sales. But, I did what I was told.

We got invited to an interview and I was nervous. I had taken a public speaking class in college. But, my most advanced talk was how to make a tie-dyed t-shirt.

Since the scope of the project included modeling a water system, I took a stack of printouts to the selection committee interview. I demonstrated how I could enter numbers, and get answers on how to improve their water system (I know I am dating myself. This was a new concept back then).

I can’t imagine the competition did anything different. However, one of the old timers on the board sat examining my resume in the proposal. He had one question for me.

“Did you really graduate from University of Vermont school of engineering?” Why, he did too!

So, we became buddies. And, we won the job. So much for extensive qualifications and experience.

This story repeated several times. We won a water treatment design, we won a water system master plan, and more.  All of a sudden I found myself as one of the people in the firm driving sales. It gave me satisfaction, respect and control over the kind of projects I had.

Everyone Can Race the NASCAR

The reality is that not all people want to drive sales. A broad approach to encourage and provide support, such as training, to every employee who interacts with clients, is a highly effective maneuver.  Every work environment where I experienced this attitude was an environment of enthusiasm and revenue growth. Every work environment where junior staff were constantly hit over the head about being fully billable, was a stagnant environment.

To identify the people to drive sales, first ask. Then, provide training and support. Monitor and make utilization adjustments, even of senior staff. Maintain the firm’s overall utilization balance while unleashing everyone who wants to “drive” revenue growth.

What are your experiences with motivating people to drive sales? Share  them with me by commenting on this blog or shooting me an email so we can collectively learn.

The post Your firm is missing revenue if junior staff isn’t billable appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

What do each of you have in common? Each of your livelihoods are impacted by your contribution to generating revenue. You are either billable or you have a role in bringing the dollars in the door.

Particularly for the junior roles, I suggest you can have a larger impact than you might think.

Life Without Fear

Allow me to share a story of my early engineering career.

I learned how to convert “knowing to doing” starting in my 20s as a project engineer with an A/E firm. One big reason I succeeded is at 25, like many of us, I had no fear! And I had no fear because there were no expectations that I generate revenue for the firm.

With a 98% billability goal, I knew I was not going to be able to woo new clients. I was on the client’s site often, being billable while working on projects.

So, I decided to have conversations with each of my clients while in or near their office. Getting a meeting was easy because they knew I was out and about working on their projects.

I found that I had an advantage by being young. Since my clients were often twice my age, they seemed to enjoy teaching me about their business.

I asked them about their goals, their infrastructure programs and their process for implementing them. They went out of their way to tell me. It felt like a father-son tour when they showed me their facilities to make their points.

I also discovered that my superiors encouraged me to have such conversations. They even sent me to some training about sales. It helped greatly to start off with some of the “knowing.”

When the conversation got going on a particular pursuit, I, of course, brought in a principal of the firm. Pretty soon, work was being booked that I had identified. Suddenly, I also got a lot more respect from the firm’s principals.

People Love Youth

As a business consultant, my clients frequently ask if they should allow junior staff to meet with a new client. They are worried that the junior staff won’t get respect. They suggest that instead they accompany the junior engineer, architect or scientist.

My answer is always, “Yes.” Encourage them to have conversations.  Don’t worry too much about mistakes they may make because their youth will receive more forgiveness.

Make sure you prepare the staffer, provide training, and do a debrief. Junior staff are in the field where they encounter the client far more often than most project managers and principals. So, take advantage of the opportunity for largely billable out-of-office client visits.

If you are a junior staffer, change the way you look at your impact. Explore how you can engage your clients and give it a try. The results may surprise you and you just might like it too.

Doug Reed

The post Who Says Only Senior Managers Can Generate Sales? appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

You probably just thought, “Way too much– I would never get home!” Or, “That’s impossible because technical people don’t like selling.”

I hear these perspectives all the time and it reminds me of an event early in my engineering career.

Selling Services was the Farthest Thing From My Mind

I was with a 50 person A/E firm managed by a business educated CEO. He was not an engineer, so he knew he needed us engineers to sell. He knew clients did not want business people who knew nothing about infrastructure talking about projects with them. He was determined to pursue client relationships using technical staff.

The CEO’s approach was to bring in an outside instructor to lead a hands-on workshop. Just about everyone in the company participated in workshop including me. Lots of technical people attended who, like me, just wanted to work on cool projects without a focus on selling.

We learned about the power of conversation. We were shown how to recognize our fears about business conversations and learned to have confidence in our own abilities. We also learned about a process (engineers love process) to follow to win our clients’ respect and confidence.

This wasn’t selling. It was about how to be popular with clients with the goal to improve client relationships. Never ever having won a popularity contest, this seemed like a time for me to try.

I immediately took my new skill to one of my clients. At age 28 I also had the chance to meet with prospective clients about their RFPs. Improving client relationships wasn’t so bad.

At first, it was awkward. It wasn’t quite the same as it was in the workshop. But, I stuck to it.

I began to see that prospective clients would return my follow up calls after a first meeting. And, my active clients seemed to enjoy talking with me, even about their personal life. I enjoyed it.

A year later I had the process down pat. And, having experienced it with many personalities, I had adapted the process out of necessity. As a manager I then taught my direct reports which lead to requests to teach other groups and offices.

After 35 years in the A/E/Environmental business, I learned that just about everyone can enjoy their job more. Cementing great client relationships is a key, even for a technical career.  If the result is that the client wants to keep giving us more interesting and enjoyable business, is that selling?

The secret is– it doesn’t feel like selling. Technical staff love it, marketing staff are giddy, and accountants can finally relax. Not to mention, shareholders are tickled to see their stock value rocket.

My oldest, tried and true workshop has been completely redesigned and renamed to Listening Builds Relationships. It was rolled out for a client to rave reviews. This one workshop has had more impact than any single sales or client management class I have ever seen.

Re-design means the 3-1/2 hour workshop applies the latest participative learning methods for a fast-paced program. The skill is retained, applied, and it benefits every employee of the firm. It is why I was made a shareholder-twice.

Share this with others in your organization and your friends with other organizations. She/he will thank you. Email me at dreed@fostergrowth.biz for more information.

P.S. If your firm has under 100 Massachusetts located employees, the State will pay for half the program cost.

The post How to Improve Client Relationships Just by Listening appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

When working with clients, I look for or I ask “What are the new and growing needs of your clients that can leverage some of your core skills?” Then, “How might you modify or augment those skills to be seen by clients as high value?” The question isn’t whether or not you want to take advantage of such opportunities but more likely, are you prepared to react when opportunity strikes– many times, at a moment’s notice. This requires pro-active strategic planning that includes a service/product life cycle analysis and an in-depth understanding of clients’ business drivers.

As Erik Sherman who writes for Forbes highlights in his article, 9 industries most likely to profit from California’s drought, “There will be businesses, new and old, who find that water shortages will produce profits.” Wouldn’t it be a shame to be one of the nine and not be able to meet the needs of the marketplace as quickly as your competitors? The profits are yours to lose. Not all Strategic Planning is the same. Contact Doug to discuss how you can stay positioned in high-margin, high-demand services.

The post How to turn on a dime, seize market opportunities and maximize profits appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

In How Human-Centered Leaders Follow Principles that Matter, Jon Mertz shares 3 reasons that leading with principles (verb) will make a difference to your organization. He describes the process of keeping the firm’s principles front and center in handbook form or displayed on a wall for all to see, and used daily in the evaluation of decisions. They’re used “in every important decision made.”

When principle is placed first, our leadership changes dramatically. Leading on principle first solves many problems and produces clarity in how to build organizational cultures.

–Jon Mertz

Having power as the leader shouldn’t come at the cost of not doing the right thing. Leading with your– and the firm’s– principles means engaging people in a respectful, thoughtful way. Isn’t that the kind of environment staff wants to work in and the type of people clients want to do business with?

For example, here is the tale of two firms in which I was employed for more than ten years, and was an elected shareholder. Firm A leaders communicated with the middle managers and staff with a “need to know” attitude. Decisions were made at secretive board meetings and closed door executive meetings. A decade into this, several quality, MBA level engineering managers came, then left the firm. Succession was difficult as the un-engaged mid-level of the company were disinterested in buying company stock. Without successors, the senior managers, near retirement age, sold to a much larger firm. Over the next two years, the buying firm’s #1 challenge was filling the leadership void while the churn continued. Revenue growth was flat and profits were marginal.

Firm B led with an open policy. All shareholders could attend board meetings and if they chose not to, the agendas and minutes were on a protected drive for viewing. Strategic planning involved every employee and middle managers contributed to goals that were implemented. Stock transfer was easy as the engaged staff all wanted to buy stock. Comparing the same decade, Firm B was consistently profitable and grew 20% a year to a top ENR ranked firm.

The lesson? Leading with not just principles, but with good principles, makes profitable growth much easier. As a leader, spend a good amount of your time thinking about leadership strategies and then deploying them. It works.

The post If you’re not leading with these, your company is jeopardizing success appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

Mark Buckshon of Construction Marketing Ideas had this to say about the podcast: “Business Consultant Douglas F Reed, P.E. has outlined a simple approach to encouraging/growing business development initiatives among AEC practitioners that combines simplicity and effectiveness in one package….Professional service providers already have the tools at hand to track time activities, and can — over time — measure the effectiveness of encouraging/fostering a business-development mind-set throughout the organization.”

I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I enjoyed sharing my ideas for growth and success.

The post Must use simple tool to develop and grow your business! appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.