In Washington . . and Ottawa

I'm in Washington D.C. now (Actually Alexandria, Virginia) for tonight's Design and Construction Network Happy Hour. These in-person events connect the dots between online "social networking" and real, human interactions.It's worthwhile for me to buy a plane ticket, pay a night's hotel bill, and come to Washington for a two hour event because here we can put faces to names, make connections and share insights.The new social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter are not a replacement for the more traditional forms of networking. They simply accelerate and facilitate the process. As always, if you think of networking events as hard rock...

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Media publicity: When, how and why

Butch Jones, East Coast Fire Protection, Kevin Neno, Sigal Construction, Gerard Mullen, Truland Service, Tony Esteve, Truland Service, Pat Dolan, Truland Service, Andy Huang, Sigal Construction at the Truland Service Golf Tournament in support of Luke's Wings in Washington, D.C.One of your most cost-effective marketing strategies is obtaining positive publicity for your business in the news media. When it comes right down to what we have to "sell", it is just that -- a resource to enable you to obtain business-building publicity without spending thousands of dollars of scarce resources.Like most business endeavours, there are rules of the game...

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A reminder about Google Local

This Contractortalk.com thread and Seth Holdren are reminding contractors to waste no time in clarifying their free listings on Google Local.When something is free, takes just a few minutes, and can profoundly affect your search results and in-bound business over the next few years, you should not hesitate to take immediate acti...

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A tale of two markets

Dinner at the annual Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association boat cruise. Events like this allow trade contractors and builders to "connect" and develop relationships, which ultimately lead to business opportunities.On Thursday, I had conversations with two sub contractors, one in Ottawa and the other in suburban Washington D.C. Their stories are like night and day.(I can't name the contractors here because the successful contractor doesn't wish publicity, and I have a policy not to identify anyone in this blog in a less-than-positive manner.)The Washington-area contractor is struggling. His daughter-in-law phoned me to ask my advice; she...

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Launch day

As I write this posting, our offshore service is rushing to meet an 8 a.m. deadline to set up the Design and Construction Report website at http://www.dcnreport.com. We've done some late edits on the actual publication, with the help of some volunteer proof readers.This is our first primarily on-line publication. (You will be able to request printed copies for a fee, or you can download the pdf files which will be available at the website to a colour printer if you wish.) It is also our first application of video technologies, and the first time we have published on a national (or for that matter, international) level.You can view the publication...

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Opportunity in crisis: Throwing the rule book away

This morning, we're beginning to absorb the consequences of one of the most surprising (and rapid) business turnarounds I can recall.Last Friday, I feared we faced a significant operating loss this month. Realizing this loss would be unsustainable, I extended deadlines by a week and then allowed, in fact encouraged, employees to sell without regard for some of our usual constraints. (The constraints are operational, not ethical.)These constraints are part of business systems developed over the years to increase efficiency and productivity, and avoid time-wasted effort on futile projects. They kept things simple, and prevented us from having...

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Design and Construction Report published (Beta version)

The first issue of the online Design and Construction Report magazine.Here's a sneak preview of the Design and Construction Report, published in conjunction with the Design and Construction Network.It is our first online publication, arising from a group that is less than a year old, and formed through a linkedin.com community that sprouted from Washington, D.C. roots but is achieving international traction.The magazine, while "published", is still a work in progress. I had hoped for more video images and components to create a multi-media publication, but we didn't have all the set-up materials as the launch deadline approached.This of course...

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Metrics and Networking

The Society for Marketing Professional Service (SMPS) provides many really effective networking opportunities. In the online community, you can also consider the Design and Construction Network.Mel Lester's latest E-Quip Blog provides some basic, but important, reminders about why and how to network effectively in business. Among other points, he reminds us that service and relationships rather than "selling" are at the core of successful networking.Serve those in your network. Helping others is a great way to build relationships and, of course, to build service businesses like yours. Networking often fails to yield satisfying results when...

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Discovering the proven methods of construction marketing success

Does participation in community activities like Habitat for Humanity (this image is from a "build" under-way in Ottawa) help your marketing and brand? I think so, and would go so far as to say it is a proven way to succeed, but can I prove it to the contractor in Charleston? If only things could be that simple . . .At contractortalk.com, a custom home builder in Charleston, SC, posted this rather direct message:I am looking for PROVEN examples of marketing materials (post cards, door hangers, newspaper ads, etc...) that actually work and will help us generate work. Which is the best method and how often do you need to run the ads, etc...? ...

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More on Branding, eh

I borrowed graphic from Marty Neumeier from Patrick Colling's Brand Architect blog. You can view Neumeier's PDF ebook which includes this formula here.Marty Neumeier has a simple equation for successful brandingT = r + dTrust equals reliability plus delightThis formula is the essence of successful brand building.Great branding is not about logos, advertising campaigns, your website, or anything like that, except to a truly tiny degree. (These things are important when you have a really big business, but the time and energy you spend on the "reliability" and "delight" with your current and previous clients should be an order of magnitude greater...

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Branding, eh

Most people in this industry associate "branding" with big name companies like Coca-Cola, Google and Apple. The concept is confusing and sometimes debated. Why worry about branding when you are just trying to get by?In a posting on the Design and Construction Network's LinkedIn discussion board, University of Malaysia associate professor Chris Preece directs readers to his blog, where he writes:David Meerman Scott asserts that "branding is only for cattle"! His argument is that marketers who "obsess about brand usually focus on aesthetics over buyers. They are more interested in the colour scheme of the Web site than in meeting their buyers'...

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More on measuring in the AEC Community

As I concluded work on the SMPS Marketer article, some people in my network added some interesting insights to the story. One person, in an off-the-record email, described how his company's principals believe their marketing success correlates to certain economic indicators, but their "gut" feelings -- which seem to make sense logically -- fail to actually correlate with measurable results. Yet, in the same email, he questioned the validity of many assumptions within the industry because they are often set within a narrow or specific frame of reference.(I will post the full article when it is published within the next couple of months.)Scott...

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How important is it to measure your progress?

While researching the topic of metrics for The SMPS Marketer article due today, I asked the director of marketing and communications for a highly successful architectural practice in Toronto how her large, international practice, measures its success.She said:“We don't keep close stats, it (the hit rate) is very high; we get on every short list we submit.” “If we measure our success it is in how the business is doing with new projects walking through door, and if we are doing what we want to be doing and love doing.”I'm not identifying her or her practice publicly because she hasn't yet granted permission, but I believe much of the AEC industry...

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An example of Open Book Management at work

This article from the Great Game of Business, Doing More with Less: Seven Lessons From A Recession, describes how Anthony Wilder Design/Build, Inc. in suburban Washington, D.C., has coped with the recession -- including what many might see as painful salary cuts for its employees.In reading this story, I'm saddened to realize how in the past year I failed in many ways to live by the principals here.When times were good (I thought) late last year, I allowed myself "extras" without fully appreciating their cost to the business and their implications for cash flow.When times turned tough, I refused to cut my own salary and fought over cuts in...

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Measuring?

In the midst of a rather overwhelming collection of responsibilities and tasks, I have a story due on Friday for the SMPS Marketer on the challenges of metrics within AEC marketing. The time researching this story (and preparing the bi-weekly newsletter) resulted in my failure, for the first time in more than a year, to post an updating blog entry yesterday.Nevertheless, the metrics story is proving interesting, because the indications are that virtually no marketing in the field is calculating even the simplest metric -- the "hit rate", that is, the number of successes you achieve in RFP/tender bids, or for that matter. Sally Handley (right)...

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Why does construction marketing (seem) to need to be difficult?

In several postings, I've observed the frustrating reality about construction industry marketing.If you feel you have to market to find new business, you find it hard to do (and often frustratingly expensive).Conversely, when you seem not to need to market, simply because your order book is full from repeat, referral and inbound inquiries, you are on the top of the world.The problem is in part that no form of marketing success is easier to achieve than the natural success of your reputation bringing in inbound and repeat business. In fact, it gets even better if you are in this position, and so overwhelmed with business that you need to turn...

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Completing the picture

Marketing is a puzzle of paradoxes.If you achieve perfection, you don't have to look for clients; in fact, you turn away people you don't want to work with. High volume and margin sales are "converted" with a few emails, a phone call, perhaps, and maybe a handshake. You smile all the way to the bank on the repeat and referral business, or you hit a publicity jackpot, where a major publication or website writes wonderful things about your business, and people simply want to do business with you.Much of the time, however, we feel trapped at the other end of the picture: Making cold calls to people who want nothing to do with us, spending thousands...

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Construction Marketing Publicity

Here's a video where I outline the options and choices for obtaining media publicity for your business. Publicity is probably the most cost-effective marketing approach -- behind enhancing and encouraging referral and repeat business, of course -- but is much more challenging to plan and co-ordinate than conventional advertising and sales approach...

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Instant friends (really?)

We publish regional construction publications. Instead of promoting the self-serving interests of construction marketing organizations here, I might as well promote my own product. But this passes the blog's "smell test" as few readers here are likely to be advertisers in our publications, but there' s lots of free news within the publications (which you can access from our website without sharing your identity or email address, unlike the two examples below.)Within the last day, I've received a couple of seemingly simple gifts. In one case, an organization published a comment on my blog. Unlike auto-generated "spam comments' this observation...

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Remodeling Magazine's website has a useful website with a section dedicated to sales and marketing. Worthy of your bookmark (and possibly a permalink her...

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The bell curve: Incompetence and genius

Our company needs a new bookkeeper/accounting support person. This work, of course, involves specialized skills and experience, and much precision and attention to detail. The latter two qualities are not my strongest points.Of course, we could go to a headhunter, or temp agency, or even our own general accountant and pay for someone to do the job. But I prefer to have a close and immediate working relationship with the person handling our books. So we advertised, using the Canadian government's free Job Bank service. (In Canada, the employment service is provided on a national, rather than the state level in the U.S.)Within days, we had...

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Fast and slow

Sometimes things move fast. Sometimes they happen slowly. But if you don't consider both patience and nimbleness in your marketing you will either obtain distorted results or fail to achieve your potential.And some initiatives are fast and slow, both. These examples are from my business, but I'm sure you can find your own stories and experiences to relate similar perspectives.The BookIn the fall, I set a goal to write and complete my first full-scale book by Christmas. I then planned to have it edited and distributed by March. I achieved the first part of the objective on time, getting up early each day for a solid block of writing.My wife...

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Reader's Question: High-end residential construction: How to even out the troughs and increase potential deal flow

Although David Markham, president of C.A. Peletz Co. in San Fransisco, said his company focuses on high-end residential work, the contractor also handles commercial projects such as the conversion of an old automotive garage into the Sierra Club headquarters. This information led me to one of my suggestions below.Readers questions are invited. You can email me at buckshon@cnrgp.com.Hi Mark, I am enjoying the blog as a new reader. I own a construction company that focuses on the very high end residential market in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. We are an older company founded in the 50’s when the principal built schools and bridges....

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Relations: Why change is risky

Our visions, attitudes and reality are shaped by experiences, background, and existing relationships.Most of us, most of the time, seek to live our lives within the safe zone of existing habits, values, and perceptions. Stretches outside these bounds are rare -- perhaps a crisis forces a change, or (more rarely) we feel comfortable enough where we are to reach out and try something new.In part, this explains why businesses started during recessions usually do better long term than ones started during good times. Forced to create something out of nothing, in a tough market where innovation and selling abilities are essential, we somehow survive...

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"Your best marketing investment is time"

Why are golf tournaments, like this annual event from the Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association, so successful? They provide members the opportunity to connect and be together in a relaxing, social context -- where relationships develop and business opportunities are nurtured."Double-A" on contractortalk.com writes:The best investment I've found you can make in new business development is time. Advertising is great, but people don't like to do business with a flyer, a yellow page ad, or even a coupon. They'd trade all of that for a personal relationship or associating with the owner or an employee.In other words, a person on the "inside".Church,...

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An effective (Canadian) canvassing strategy

Canvasser Keith Cressy at our homeAs I pulled into the driveway Friday afternoon, Keith Cressy, a canvasser with SpringMasters Canada approached me to offer driveway sealing.After my initial gut "go away" response, I thought, why not use the opportunity to ask some questions. The difference between this encounter and the last time I directly faced a canvasser (in the winter, after returning from my canvassing research trip to Columbus, Ohio), is that it is spring! A beautiful June day, and anyways, I am not behind the door of my house in private space not wishing to be disturbed, but outside, in public space, and so much more receptive to communication.Cressy...

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