The Perils of Ignoring
Posted by ablack on Apr. 14, 2015 / Subscribe 0
“The busy man is a lazy man.” This has been one of the most convincing quotes that I have read recently. What C.S. Lewis was really getting at is that it is incredibly easy to fill up your schedule while never truly getting anything of significance accomplished. It is a habit that we have all grown quite accustomed to. We fill up our time with those “oh so important” projects, rush around like mad men trying to get it all done, and slowly but surely let everything else fall by the wayside. After it is all said and done, our to-do lists have only gotten longer and we have totally missed out on that sense of fulfillment that comes with getting things done WELL.
If I had to make an educated guess as to what every person reading this post would say is the source of most of their “busy work,” I would guess “proposals.” Case in point, there was a somewhat controversial article recently published on the subject called Welcome to the Machine…the Proposal Machine which detailed one marketer’s view on this topic. Interestingly though, I would also venture a guess that as soon as you have this thought, you talk yourself out of it. You tell yourself that proposals are the shot at the work that your firm wants and NEEDS; that they are essential and are never going away. THEN you convince yourself that nothing is going to change and that you are going to be busy doing proposals forever. Perhaps you fantasize about looking for another job with some fictitious firm that doesn’t do proposals. And then after your general malaise has worn off, you think about how much you love your company…and how much you love this industry…and before you know it, you have just strapped yourself onto the tracks for another train of “busy work” to slice you in two.
But marketers don’t have to play the part of “damsel in distress” to the industry’s proposal “villain.” We don’t need rescuing from “busy work”; we need to refocus! Let’s dissect this dysfunctional thought process before we get run over again:
RFQ/Ps are the end game. Yes, they most certainly are. There’s no denying the obvious. Sadly for many A/E/C firms, their marketing efforts don’t END with the RFQ/P issuance; they BEGIN. There is just something fundamentally wrong here. To show team work and interest in a project, technical teams regularly spend between one and two years preparing for a big win; they are hard at work designing conceptual buildings or putting together conceptual estimates to position themselves as the top choice when it comes time to direct select. On the flip side, though, marketers are regularly doing NOTHING before the RFQ/P comes out. Whether self-imposed or dictated by our firms, this “end game” as the ONLY game is a broken model that keeps us buried in “busy work.” Have we forgotten the most essential fundamentals of marketing strategy? Have we forgotten about Awareness, Interest, Desire and Need? I hope not…so say it with me: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Need…
- Awareness: In case you (or your firm) need reminding, it’s “Awareness” that marks the beginning of marketing; it represents all of the activities that earn your firm great exposure WITHOUT the guarantee of work. This is the stage when we build our brand promise and gain exposure for our firm’s name. This is also the point at which we should be learning about the opportunities that are going to take time, strategy and some serious trust building with the client in order to win. During this stage, we have no idea who is actually taking note, but we have put some serious thought into getting our firm’s name and message “out there” in a targeted manner. So when your boss says “All my buddies commented that I placed an expensive ad in the local business journal, but I didn’t get a single job out of it,” you can feel confident that the ad did its job; it got NOTICED! Do that six more times and you are really getting somewhere.
- Interest: This is the stage when your targeted audience now knows your firm’s name and you have earned some brand recognition. Not necessarily because of ads, but because of a variety of marketing activities (think speaking engagements, networking, social media, etc.). Your audience is probably ready to learn more about your firm, but not really ready to buy. Remember, it’s not “no,” it’s just “not yet.” They are investigating your team and checking out your website to confirm information like specializations and company size. They are also viewing LinkedIn profiles and website projects and perhaps even looking you up on social media to see if your firm’s “personality” is in alignment with their own. People are doing this with your firm RIGHT NOW. How does your firm measure up?
- Desire: Things are starting to get good at this stage of “the game.” Your audience has built up positive perceptions of your firm and connected the dots between your expertise and their needs. And you also know that they have a project coming up in the future. You are the perfect fit for them and it’s time to talk! Your knee-jerk reaction may very well be to quickly point out all the parallels between the client’s project and those that your firm has completed in the past…especially when your firm desperately needs the backlog and the project in question is “exactly” the size that your firm could use to fill the gap. But your focus should really be on learning everything that you can about the key players, about what success looks like to them, what their perceptions of the vital project issues are, who the unexpected stakeholders might be…and, of course, all the other things that make this project unique to and for them. This is a critical point in the overall pursuit timeline and your opportunity to absorb everything you need to win! So what is your marketing approach here? Start with case studies, proprietary software that you use to overcome issues critical to them, sell the team and their qualifications, go beyond your paper resume…dig deep!
- Need: This is when the RFQ/P comes into play. Now you are ready! And if you’ve gone through the first three stages, then you have vetted your clients and their opportunities to the point where your “busy work” proposal load is much lighter…AND your win rate is much higher. Forbidden communication? No problem. Because you already did all the work you needed before the RFQ/P came out.
RFQ/Ps are not going away. There is also no denying this one either. But bringing back the “strategy” in your strategic marketing efforts can probably get rid of one-third of your “busy work” burden. If you have a marketing plan and a targeted prospect list – and you actively work the plan and the list – then you can spend A LOT less time going after proposals that your firm has only a snowball’s chance of winning.
I will be busy forever. I certainly hope so! It beats the alternative. But my marketing hope for everyone reading this is that you put your leadership hat on and take control of your marketing processes. Don't continue to live in peril of ignoring the "strategy" in strategic marketing. Educate your peers and colleagues on what success COULD look like if your firm’s marketing efforts were approached differently. Show them that you are invested in the effort. Show them the numbers on wasted marketing dollars and hours on unworthy proposals and LEAD them through the marketer’s mantra: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Need. Awareness, Interest, Desire, Need. The busy man is the lazy man? Not necessarily…we COULD be busy with worthwhile work from here on out…if we are brave enough to get up off of those tracks.
About the Blogger: Danielle Feroleto, MA, CPSM is the owner and president of Small Giants LLC. But the real fun in her life begins with her husband of 12 years and her 6-year-old daughter. What other dynamic duo could convince her that two chickens in the backyard would be a good idea? When not tending to livestock, they love to hike, have princess tea parties and family movie nights!
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