Firms with owners who really understand how powerful this idea is don’t do things like all the other firms in our business.
It’s been said there is no reason for any business to exist without filling a want or need of a client or customer. AEC firms are no exception. They have to meet the wants or needs of their clients. Yet sometimes I think we forget how important to our success that really is.
Everyone says they are client-focused, but saying it and doing it are two different things. Firms with owners who really understand how powerful this idea is don’t do things like all the other firms in our business. Here are some ways they make it real:
- They organize themselves differently. I have been preaching about the benefits of organizing based on client type or market sector for nearly four decades now. This organization structure is contrasted with the geographical-based or discipline-based organization structures that are most typical in our industry. My experience is that the owners of most AEC firms organized by geography or discipline will resist this idea and give me a million reasons why it won’t for them. But client-focused firms get it. And they tend to perform better as a result.
- They hire people out of the client organizations they serve, or ones in the same industry. That means that the companies that serve state DOTs hire people who worked in the state DOTs that the firm serves. Or AEC firms that work for auto industry or retail clients hire people out of those or other automakers, or those who worked for similar retailers. I could go on with specific examples but you get the idea.
- They have outside board of director members who came from client organizations or regulators of the clients they serve. Most AEC firms don’t even have outside BOD members at all, and when they do, it’s either their accountant or attorney. But the client-focused ones get it. They want the insight and connections they can get by having the right outside BOD members who know and understand their client base to help them sell work.
- They continuously poll their clients and potential clients. It’s not just a “once every three years” market research project. It’s an ongoing effort. And they share what they are learning with everyone in their firm. They realize just how critical it is to understand their clients’ needs and what the problems are that they are dealing with. This practice helps the AEC firm to get more aligned with their clients and fine tune their processes and services.
- They don’t practice “one size fits all” marketing. Many AEC firm principals and marketing people have this notion that all marketing materials should be standardized. Sure, standardization can make responding to RFPs and RFQs easier, but who says that is the most likely way to actually sell work? Maybe everything needs to be completely different based on the client types the AEC firm is pursuing work with. These client types can vary widely. It (the client type) impacts everything from graphic design and colors to content and writing style. Just think about the retail industry and how different stores are clearly aiming at different customer types, and how different they are from each other. Is going into a Claire’s any different from going into an Ann Taylor? Of course it is! Each sounds, smells, and looks different, and each has completely different employee types. Why should our industry be any different?
- They do their business planning based around the clients they serve. Because they are organized around client types, have people from those client types working for them and serving on their BODs, and are constantly polling those clients and then marketing to them differently, it just makes sense to do business planning based on those client types as well. The AEC firm needs to understand their unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as it relates to each client type they serve, and then build their business plan around that.
- They are open-minded about the services they provide versus defining themselves as only providing a certain discipline (i.e., “we are structural engineers”). Client-focused AEC firms don’t put themselves in such a narrowly-defined box that limits how client-focused they can actually be.
Does all of this make sense to you? Can I motivate you to do more than pay lip-service to the notion that you really are client-focused? I hope so – for your sake!
Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.