Drawing Younger, Less Experienced Staff into Marketing & Business Development

December 21, 2022 by Jim Rogers

One of the 44 executives I interviewed for the book, Laura Wernick, AIA of HMFH Architects in Boston, discussed how to support younger, less experienced staff in developing their networks and becoming involved in marketing and business development. This post is an excerpt from my interview with Laura.

Laura Wernick: It’s important for me to bring in opportunities or connect younger people in the office to help them build their networks. I’m often doing that initial introduction within the firm as a way of helping and then providing those leads to other people in the office.

They can then develop their networks and become marketers and business development people on their own. So that’s another end of the spectrum — making sure that others in the office have the opportunity to build networks and develop their prospects.

Jim Rogers: How do you know when people are ready to be more involved in business development?

Laura Wernick: I think some people are naturally inclined towards business development. They feel comfortable being introduced to people. They feel comfortable carrying on conversations and pursuing potential clients. So sometimes, it’s obvious.

There are other times when you’re trying to develop a person who may not see this as their forte, but you want to help them grow. So that’s probably the more challenging thing. That’s a little bit more of a push-and-pull situation. And I think it’s a gradual process.

The first layer is just getting them out to meet people in professional organization environments or community events and seeing how they respond, while providing feedback and encouragement. Hopefully, you’re able to push them into other situations and see how they respond at each level. Most architects are not inclined to do business development. They’d much prefer to sit at their desks and solve problems — solve the specific problem that’s handed to them.

So I think it’s about encouraging those with that natural inclination and giving them opportunities. And when do you know? I think that when you’re working with younger people on projects, on actually doing the design and following through with a project, and you see how they’re relating to the clients that they’re working with on a day-to-day basis — you begin to see those who can easily interact with their clients, lead their clients, and gain the confidence of their clients. So you know that those people are going to do well in the larger marketing environment. It just takes some encouragement, support, and opportunities for them to do well.

For other people, I think you just have to keep nurturing and nudging and building them up over time. And ultimately, not everyone will be able to do it easily. So you want to just help people to rise to their greatest potential.

Everybody has to be doing some level of marketing and business development; some people will do well at it, and others will just participate.

Building Recognition for Your Authority

December 12, 2022 by Jim Rogers

Picture of woman with speaking to an audience at a conference.

Building your authority through speaking at professional and industry conferences.

In Becoming a Seller-Doer, I introduce the RLOCK model that reflects the five stages of the client lifecycle: Recognition, Lead, Opportunity, Close, and Keep. The R is about building recognition for your professional expertise and your firm’s brand and capabilities.

Building recognition can be done in many ways: blogging, writing articles for professional or trade periodicals, speaking at conferences, or conducting webinars or lunch-and-learns.

One of the 44 executives I interviewed for the book, Laura Wernick, AIA of HMFH Architects in Boston, spent the most time talking about how “authority marketing,” as some call it, helped her generate scads of business over the decades. This post is an excerpt from my interview with Laura.

Jim: Tell me about yourself.

Laura Wernick: I’m a graduate of Cornell University. I got my Bachelor of Architecture there and then came to Boston, and I’ve been in the Boston Cambridge area ever since. I’ve been with HMFH Architects for over 25 years. I focus on educational design and how to create the best facilities for teaching and learning, primarily for students in K-12 environments.

Educational design really captured my imagination. We were working with young kids a lot, so everything we did was to stimulate their curiosity and excite them. To be able to design in a very playful and imaginative way – We had some very wondrous and special environments, which were engaging, and I fell in love with that. I also got intrigued by how schools are a piece of the community. They really are community centers.

I got very engaged in the history of school design and if schools have always been that way. There is a fascinating story to school design and how you can use it thematically to look at history, to look at lighting, to look at mechanical systems, and to look at how education has evolved over the years. And that’s my fascination with schools as a building type. It was my entry point into starting to do marketing, even before I knew that’s what I was doing. I turned my interest in school design into research and the research into, early on, some talks at small conferences. And I think for the first conference, I actually paid for my transportation and registration fee because I didn’t even know that that was important to a firm’s marketing.

I think the first place I spoke was at a conference for what, at the time, was called the Council for Education Facility Planners International, CEFPI. It’s since become the Association for Learning Environments, A4LE, but in both manifestations, it focuses on creating great environments for students.

Jim Rogers: Often, people with technical expertise who want to put it out in the world to help others like to go to their professional association to do that. Well, that’s where your competitors, peers, and colleagues are, and if you’re not taking it to where your prospective clients are, then you’re limiting your impact. Is there a talk that stood out for you that paid off or surprised you with the result you got?

Laura Wernick: Well, that first one was quite the learning experience, and I had people asking me questions that I didn’t know the answers to, so I had to learn to sharpen my game. In terms of payoff, I think it helped allow us to spread more nationally. Over time, as I attended these conferences regularly and ultimately became part of the organization’s leadership, I got invited to other places in the country to interview and participate in pursuing schools. So that was one outcome, but I can’t tie it to a single presentation. It was building that over time.

The other thing, as you said, is that there are different architects or competitors at those conferences. The advantage was we could get invited to other places in the country where these teaming partners needed our expertise. I found over time that those peers sometimes became resources for us when we were looking for consultants in a different part of the country.

Tips for Growing Your Professional Network in Person and Using LinkedIn

June 23, 2022 by Jim Rogers

Diverse people at the office party

For many professionals, networking conjures the image of a glad-handing politician, working the room with a two-hand handshake and a plastic smile. Or “eating a lot of rubber chicken,” with reference to banquet fare at your typical business luncheon. For many, networking evokes feelings of dread.

Yet, networking is an important part of the success of any business relationship.

You can develop productive relationships at business association meetings while “working the room.” You can also build relationships by being active on LinkedIn, by asking a client or neighbor for an introduction to someone who could help you, or by calling someone spontaneously to ask for business advice.

Networking often results in leads, making it a soft form of prospecting. Remember that you are networking to grow your network, but that may yield interactions with prospective clients.

When in your career to begin networking . . .

It’s best to start right away, says Judy Nitsch, PE’s retired founder of Nitsch Engineering in Boston, because it can take up to 15 years to build a useful network. She encourages you to begin building your network when you’re in your 20s, “because when you hit 35, you’re going to be a project manager and so will your cohort—they could be an owner, or they could work for a state agency, or they could be a potential teaming partner. You’ll be expected to bring in work, and if potential clients are people in your network, that will be easier.”

Nitsch points out that many of the professional societies and industry organizations, such as ULI, NAIOP, and CREW Network, have young professionals’ groups—a helpful and non-threatening way to start networking. “One year, one of our engineers who was six years out of college was chair of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Younger Member Committee,” she says.

This young engineer was not only developing her network early, but she also was becoming known to the more senior members who were owners and at public agencies. A byproduct of attending networking events is that you can build skills that support you in other ways. It lets you practice your interpersonal skills, including your effective listening skills. If you’re just starting out, lean into your discomfort and attend at least two events a year; if you’re ready to take the next step, double that number.

You know by now that volunteering is an essential theme of this book. Joe Viscuso, SVP of Pennoni, points out that some firms will offer the opportunity for young professionals to attend events, like a business cocktail social, and no one takes them up on it. At the last minute, a partner may say, “We’ve got two extra seats at our banquet table. Who wants to go?” No one raised their hand. Joe advises, “Cancel your other plans for the evening and raise your hand for that opportunity.”

The Elevator Speech

When networking or being active in the community, it’s important to introduce yourself in an interesting way. Practicing an “elevator speech”—a familiar term describing a time-condensed introduction—is an effective way to hone your skill in introducing yourself. In networking, you’ll need three flavors of this speech: one for the non-professional (e.g., someone at church or a Chamber of Commerce meeting), one for the A/E/C professional (say, at an ASCE conference), and one for LinkedIn.

The Elevator Speech You Use When Talking to a Layperson

Andy Bounds, a communications consultant in the United Kingdom, offers some spot-on advice for composing your quick self-introduction, as paraphrased below:

First impressions drive everything. And how you introduce yourself will be other people’s first impression of you. Do you give enough thought to what this first impression will be?

In response to “what do you do?” what do you say? Most people say their job title: “I’m an accountant.” Now accountants are lovely things—I used to be one. “I’m an accountant” is not a good conversation starter.

Focus on your afters—why people are better off after you’ve done your work. Example: my intro is “I help companies sell more than they thought they could.” It’s intriguing (people are interested) and incomplete (because I haven’t said how I do it).

This means their next question is, “How do you do that?” And then the conversation flows. Much better than the alternative “I’m a consultant.” Which leads people to reply, “Between jobs, are you?”

Identify why people are better off after you’ve done your thing. Incorporate this into a one-sentence summary of your job. This will help people (and you!) see how valuable you are.

The Elevator Speech for A/E/C Professionals

Granted, if you’re in a room full of your peers at an ASCE, ASHE, or AIA event, it would be awkward to introduce yourself using Bounds’ intriguing and incomplete method. Instead, use your standard “I’m a bridge engineer for such and such a firm,” or “I’m an interior designer for an architecture firm that only does P-12 and higher ed design.” You could then add on, “What I’m working on now is getting 300 bridges inspected statewide in a mere 18 months,” or “What I’m working on now is learning to use new ceiling materials to improve classroom acoustics so kids can hear and understand their teachers.”

The third flavor of elevator speech is a written one for your LinkedIn profile summary.

LinkedIn Profile Summary (Your Written Elevator Speech)

LinkedIn continues to grow in importance to your networking efforts, so you’ll need a complete profile replete with an interesting description of yourself. To write a good LinkedIn Profile “About” section to serve as your written elevator speech, complete the following statements:

My clients are [name the industries or types of clients you serve.]
After working with me, they will achieve [name some of your “afters,” e.g., save money.]
I do this by [describe your knowledge and skill disciplines.]
I love what I do because [explain what gets you jazzed to come to work each day.]

Here is an example of a LinkedIn “About” section:

Municipal engineers count on me to help them to deliver a variety of infrastructure construction projects: underground utilities, development, commercial, and transportation. During the planning stage, I helped them obtain grant funding for their projects. There’s almost always money somewhere out there for their projects, and I can help them find it. They can then serve their citizens better by stretching their local tax dollars to the max. I learned how to find grant dollars during my 25 years working for the DOT. It’s a great feeling to take an LPA all the way through the project and get to share in their success.

There are dozens of books on the subject of networking, but here is a good one: How to Work a Room, 25th Anniversary Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Making Lasting Connections–In Person and Online by Susan RoAne.

Want to See Better Business Development Success in 30 Days? Then Become a Better Listener

February 2, 2021 by Jim Rogers

Business development is about building relationships. Listening builds relationships.

If you’re trying to develop new clients, then listening well is your surest way to build rapport. In mere minutes, it can generate lasting positive feelings that accelerate the relationship-building process. In fact, you will earn their trust quicker, which typically takes a while with new relationships.

When it comes to existing clients, listening more effectively will not only position you better for immediate and long-term opportunities, but it can also lead to the sort of bond that only trusted advisors have with their clients. And those clients can end up sticking with you not just for years, but for decades.

So, ask yourself: Are you a good listener? A good listener:

is in the here and now, avoiding distraction
avoids rushing to judgment
is curious and asks the right questions
does not interrupt, and
makes others feel heard.

Developing a Listening Mindset: Empathy is the Key

Your first key to listening is to set aside your own needs for a few minutes and genuinely seek to understand what the other is trying to convey. This is about mindset. If you go into the conversation thinking about “selling,” then you’re more likely to be waiting for your turn to jump in and be interesting, solve a problem, or prove how smart you are. The “selling” mindset is the saboteur of listening. Business development is built on relationships and listening builds relationships. So listen first, sell second.

If you want to be a better listener, you need to know how good listeners do it. Effective listening is a skill that has three parts: attentive listening, active listening, and most importantly, empathic listening.

First, attentive listening.

Attentiveness is physically showing that you’re listening and are paying attention. We show attentiveness with non-verbal cues such as steady eye contact, head nodding, the occasional uh-huh or hmm, or even through a knowing smile. At a networking event, you aren’t looking over their shoulder to see who else might be in the room. And you’re not looking at your phone for tapas recipes on Pinterest.

Second, active listening.

Active listening makes people feel heard. It means being involved in the conversation by paraphrasing what the speaker has said and asking effective follow up questions. Rather than mimicking or parroting what they said almost verbatim, it’s better to just use your own words to confirm that you have heard them correctly.

Good stock questions that make people feel listened to are:

What do you mean?
Why do you say that?
What happened next?
Can you give me an example?

Finally, empathic listening.

If you want to truly connect with people, empathic listening is the best method. It means playing back the emotion you hear behind what the other person said. An empathic response shows that you hear the emotion behind the words. An active question may make someone feel listened to, but an empathic listener makes someone feel understood.

Empathic listening requires a thoughtful response. If a client’s response to your simple query of “How’s it going?” is a sarcastic, “I’m living the dream, staring at spreadsheets all day again,” an empathic listening response would be: “You’d rather be doing something else.” Or “Sounds like that’s not the most exciting part of your job.”

Empathy Is not Easy but Blocking It Is

For most of us, the empathic response is not our stock response, and it takes some work to learn. In fact, some of our stock responses to the people around us who need empathy result in exactly the opposite: we further alienate them. We fall back on these “empathy blockers” when we seek to distract from a trying situation and force someone to move on from it, whether or not they’re ready to.

If you find yourself having cliché, knee-jerk reactions to the complaints of those around you, you may be blocking empathy. If your response to the above client is a throwaway line like “Yeah, I spend way too much time in front of Excel too,” or “Maybe you should hire an assistant,” or “At least you have a job,” you are not helping them. You are blocking empathy — and the possibility of a deeper connection.

How to Practice and Improve

Ceasing to block empathy is a positive step, however, to build empathic listening skills takes practice and you master it gradually. Start small: instead of using every communication interaction you have with every human you interact with, to get practicing, pick one person from your work life and one from your home life.

By having one person in each environment in mind to practice empathic listening, each time you encounter them will be a trigger for you to stop, listen attentively, and really try to get at their emotion. Try this for a week and when you’re comfortable, pick one more person to focus on for the next week.

Generally, it takes about a month to develop a new habit — if you work at it. In the case of listening, you will quickly notice people responding to you differently, and the value added to your business relationships will last your entire career. And it will show up as new opportunities in the pipeline and more revenue on the books.

Want to Get Better at Listening?

There are many good resources for improving listening skills.

Web Articles

If you are on ToolsHero, go to https://www.toolshero.com/communication-skills/empathic-listening/

Harvard Business Review has a nice summary:

https://hbr.org/2016/07/what-great-listeners-actually-do

Moving from Active Listening to Empathic Listening:

https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/EmpathicListening.htm

Web Videos

Communication Coach Alex Lyon has a great session on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO1gpzakbik

Therapy in a Nutshell has a good video with strong examples for your personal life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGdgUP8XLwc

Print Books on Listening

The Lost Art of Listening: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships (Michael P. Nichols)
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (Chapter 7: Seek First to Understand)
Working with Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman)

How to Market Your Firm During the Coronavirus Crisis . . . Without Shame

March 22, 2020 by Jim Rogers

Right now, as you try to find your footing in the time of the Covid19 pandemic, you may consider marketing and sales to be insensitive or distasteful—but it doesn’t have to be.

It’s vital that you shore up your business—now—before your competitors do a better job of it. This is a justifiable time to protect your client relationships and to position yourself in the market without feeling guilt or shame. To actively do so isn’t opportunistic—it’s simply good client service and good business.

On the other hand, hoarding 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and trying to gouge consumers is shameful and criminal.

Marketing during a crisis is about maintaining and deepening relationships with clients. Yet that effort requires a delicate touch.

The key to delicate touch is just to:

Show that you care
Share knowledge that helps clients work better, faster, and cheaper during the crisis.

To read specific suggestions for how to market your firm, confidently and without shame, click here for the PDF.

Then click here to send me an email and tell me what you thought of it.

Be well and be safe. Jim

Marketing Professional Services Without Shame During a Crisis (by Jim Rogers) revised