Category:

The Main Reason You Should Have A Blog?

4/14/2014

I didn't work enough at developing a blog to see any results when I had my firm. This points up the fact that it is a long range project. The sooner you start the sooner you get results. My first blogs were on Blogger and later Tumblr. I was attracted to the 'free' part of the equation. Both are good blogging platforms. Blogger, a Google offering, lends itself a bit more to text and has more features. Tumblr shows off photos better, which I think the many users of Tumblr would agree with. WordPress, which I have not used, seems to be very popular these days, so it's worth investigating. They all work a lot like developing a website - pick a theme that will control fonts, colors, and organization of the page, then start adding content. It is pretty easy. Of course, a service like Weebly* includes a blog, which makes the integration tighter. However you can always link to your third-party blog in your menu system if blogging isn't part of your website's capabilities.

This CRM System Is Better Than Yours

4/10/2014

I have confessed to being “distracted” when it comes to Business Development. My favorite tool for overcoming the distracted-ness is a contact management tool developed by 37signals called Highrise.* The thing I like about Highrise is that with the minimum of effort you can track the development of a relationship with a prospect. I blind copy or forward my emails into the prospect’s page, set tasks for making the next contact or the needed follow-up, and add notes from meetings and phone calls. I end up with a chronology of all my interactions. With just a few minutes a day, which works much better for me than once a week, I am able to keep all my efforts moving forward.

The four main features I use in Highrise are Contacts, Tasks, Cases and Deals.

Contacts: individuals or organizations that you want to manage a relationship with

Tasks: TO-DOs related to contacts or other efforts, say, your website. You can get notified by email or SMS when due.

Cases: this is a way to pull together multiple contacts to make it easier to manage the effort to win a potential project where several people are influencers. Perhaps members of a board or building committee...

Deals: once a project is formed, you can use a Deal to track RFPs, interviews, value of the fee, wins and loses.

Check this all out at their website.

The One Skill Every Architectural Firm Needs

3/31/2014

I am not particularly good at the key skill that every architectural firm must have - SELLING. You might have the same problem that I do. I have always had to wear too many hats, and one of those other hats always seemed to 'need me' more than sales. Being an introvert doesn't help either. Nevertheless, I have learned tons about how you are supposed to do it; and I have a pretty good track record when it's crunch time.

My preferred strategy, which happens to fit my personality, is to:

research who I would like to work for
find a way to meet them
keep in touch at least every three weeks - by email primarily
find ways to help them (info, maybe a sketch or two)
rinse and repeat until a project idea comes along that I can help formalize

When it does, listen carefully to what it takes for their project to succeed. There's really no “selling” involved. Perfect for me.

One of our largest projects was a private high school that took 7 years to get to the point of getting hired. Then, I helped the Owner put together an RFP process to meet oversight requirements. Needless to say, with what I had learned about them and the project in 7 years, we were the obvious choice - even over a couple of alums.

There Isn't Any One Way To Go About Sales

The 2 Main Things About Project Signs

3/30/2014

How tall does a sign need to be to be readable from a mile away? I needed to know that because a regional airline we were designing a hangar for wanted a sign readable from the terminal across the airfield. Luckily hangars are big. We needed a spot that would accommodate a 25' long x 12' high 6-letter logo - 'Comair'.

Font Size vs Distance
I had been vaguely aware of the relationship between font size and distance. I knew from past experience that 10" letters worked well on schools, but that was about it. I think I found a rule of thumb in Graphic Standards; and, once we had a graphic, we verified the suitability with the sign manufacturer.

Signage Rules Of Thumb

Is Facebook For Architects?

3/27/2014

Architects and Facebook

I once advertised on Facebook to gain more 'Likes', and it worked pretty well - on the surface. Facebook marketing was opaque to me. I had been able to lure about 20 friends into liking my Architekwiki page and then I was stuck. So I read up on how Facebook advertising works and spent, I think, $50 promoting the page. I now have 121 likes. Most of the new ones are due to spending the $50. Not too bad. But, it seemed odd to me that 80-90% of the new likes came from folks with Hispanic names and no apparent connection to architecture, design, construction or any of the arts. This is not like my Hispanic Twitter followers, who are involved in one of those ways. I was beginning to wonder if FB really was an architectural marketing tool. Then a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon the explanation in this YouTube video.

So if paying for 'likes' doesn't provide you with people interested in your page, what does?

Here's A New Tool With Some Marketing Potential

2/16/2014

You may have noticed that I have a poll running. Take a sec and vote. Polldaddy is embedded in Weeby and is pretty easy to use. I think the actual free Polldaddy account is even easier, and it has the benefit of offering a few more features - like quizzes! Take my Masonry Expert Quiz below to learn a bit about masonry and see how Polldaddy works/looks. BTW there are several themes/color schemes for your polls, surveys and quizzes.

How did you do?

Marketing Tool?
Well I explain here why I think surveys are a handy marketing tool. With a survey you accomplish several things at once.
First, you get feedback - you learn something from your audience.
Second, with a properly worded survey, you can leave a marketing message by, say, giving the impression that you are on top of some topic that interests your audience.
And third, you put yourself in front of your audience another time, reminding them of your existence and your brand.

Besides Marketing
There are other more mundane things that you can do with a poll, or survey. For instance, find out which date is workable for a meeting; see what the crowd thinks of going bowling; test out an idea with ratings (thumbs up/down or number of stars); you get the idea. There are a number of ways to collect the data. Besides code to embed in a website or blog, as I've done here, there are links that you could add to an email; or even create a group email with the tools on Polldaddy's site.

My new toy will probably appear here a few more times before I am distracted by the next shiny thing.

A Proposal Database Is A Handy Reference

1/14/2014

The ideal follow-through on your fee calculation efforts would be to capture all the key parameters of the fee and project. Put this data in a table for future reference when you are proposing the next fee. Strictly speaking this is not necessary, but there will be many times that you wish you had this information. Besides this table, keep a copy of your calculations in one folder for easy research when you have a similar project or client under consideration.

I recommend setting up the table as a spreadsheet. Place each fee proposal on a row and use the columns to capture the data. The spreadsheet will let you sort the proposals by any column or even filter out proposals that are not relevant.

Here is a master listing of column headings you might consider, but just use the ones that pertain to your type of work.

PROPOSAL NAME - a description you will remember
CLIENT - client name
REPEAT CLIENT - yes or no
PUBLIC - yes or no
CONTRACTOR - yes or no
DESIGN/BUILD - yes or no
GSF - give number
STORIES - give number
SITEWORK - give acreage or other meaningful
USE GROUP - list building code designation
CONSTRUCTION COST - the dollar amount
PROGRAM AVAILABLE - yes or no
BASIC SERVICES - yes or no
MODIFICATIONS - describe any adjustment in Basic Services
ADDITIONAL SERVICES - describe any
LIMITS - describe any limits in the fee (e.g. SD or CA)
ESTIMATE OF SHEETS - the number of CD sheets needed
FEE - the dollar amount or estimate
FEE TYPE - lump sum, hourly, guaranteed max, percent
$/SF - calculate for reference
$/SHEET - calculate for reference
TYPE - New, Addition, Remodeling, Interiors, Renovation
STD CONSULTANTS - yes or no
SPECIAL CONSULTANTS INCLUDED - list their expertise
REIMBURSABLES INCLUDED - yes or no
SPECIAL FEATURES - describe any
WON / LOST - yes or no
PROFIT / (LOSS) - the dollar amount or percentage

You may never need to print this table, so don’t worry about how wide it is getting, but use ’word wrap’ and vertical column headings if you prefer. If you do need to print it, use 11x17 in landscape or your plotter.

As you can see from the list, not all information that you want to have is available when you are working on the proposal. Fill in what you know right after you complete the proposal. Then update any blanks in the table the next time you work on a new proposal.

Over time I think you can see just how valuable this information will be.

Let's Pick On Jargon

1/13/2014

Image credit: David Grossman

Every profession has terms that are specific to it. Jargon. Jargon within the profession can have a clarifying effect and can often be a shorthand for more wordy concepts. So jargon has a worthwhile effect WITHIN the profession where everyone understands what is meant.

A profession’s jargon when used with the public or with clients has the opposite effect - obfuscation, confusion. It doesn't matter whether you intend to make it difficult to be understood, or if it is unintentional. The result is the same. You have chosen (intentionally or not) to rely on the authority of your role as a specialist instead of making yourself clear. I think that this comes across as arrogance. I think it is another way of saying, "Just trust me." Trust is earned, jargon gets in the way of trust.

Everyone has experience with obfuscation. You are in the minority if you don't find it at least annoying.
Why would you choose to NOT be understood? I can think of one or two scenarios, but they are outweighed by many more that are not very attractive.

What if you think in jargon? Well, that clears up your motives for using it, but you are still left with poor communication and lack of understanding.

Whenever you need agreement, jargon works against you. Even if you get the agreement, the client has an escape hatch - "I didn't know that's what we agreed to" or "I don't remember discussing that".

You can tell that I am not a fan of jargon. I don't think it is just me. If it sounds better when you use jargon, I think it is because the jargon conceals the weakness of the idea(s). Do we want weak ideas? I don't.

But let's go back to the trust issue. I have heard it said that there are two things you must demonstrate to win a design job - technical competence and trustworthiness that you will deliver on your promises. For many clients judging technical competence depends on past experience. Have you done this before or not? But all clients can judge trustworthiness. They do it all the time. So I think jargon lets you down in the exact scenario where you are really depending on it to make you look like a good choice.

Lack of understanding (jargon) and trustworthiness travel in different circles.

A Survey As A Marketing Tactic

1/11/2014

Using a survey as a marketing tactic is an interesting idea I heard about from a university development director. He uses a survey to ask for prospect's help in determining what is important for the university and ends up knowing what is important to them. He then looks for opportunities to focus on what is important to them.

For instance he would ask prospects to rank 8 initiatives in order of importance. (These initiatives are plans that his development department is working on.) Then months later he can use their ranking to go back to them and tell them about what was happening on that issue. And perhaps win their financial support.

This approach accomplishes two important things. First, you are gaining an insight into what your prospect's interests are, which can inform your approach to them in the future. Second, you are creating a basis for interaction before a project is launched. Asking for help is a well-known tactic for building a relationship. A third benefit is that the process offers an additional opportunity to remind your prospect that you exist.

My development department friend asks for an appointment and does the survey in person, taking notes. That is a very powerful way to implement this tactic. However, the time and attention this requires might not work in every case. Plan B is an electronic survey distributed by email. Survey Monkey is a free (and easy) survey tool you could use. There are others.

You should keep the survey brief and state up front how many questions and how long it will take. Make it as brief as you can while still getting some useful feedback. Below is an example/sample survey. Feel free to use these questions as-is or customize to suit yourself. Each of the first four questions offer the same choices to choose from.

Needs Analysis
Identification of Obstacles
Schedule Development
Cost Estimate
Evaluation of Project Context
Other [__________]

Example Survey

If you were planning a building project, which of these five key issues would you rank as most important?
If you were planning a building project, which of these five key issues would you rank as least important?
If you were planning a building project, which of these five key issues would you need the most help with?
If you were planning a building project, which of these five key issues would you need the least help with?
Select all of the following issues that are important to you.

Building Committee Selection Criteria
Selecting an Architect
Selecting a Contractor
Understanding the Building Project Process
Environmental considerations
LEED certification
Minimizing Energy Consumption
Identifying Hidden Obstacles
Estimating Soft Costs
Minimizing the Storm Water Tax
What ways of funding are available
How can you speed up the process

We once surveyed all of our past clients about their experience with us. The feedback caused us to make some improvements. You might consider that use of a survey, too. Or you could make it part of your project closeout. Or make it an annual event.

orig post date Dec 2012

The Four Value Propositions

1/3/2014

There are four Value Propositions for any business:

1. Best quality.
Richard Branson once said that being the best at something is a pretty good business model, and I agree. Think of brands that set a standard, like Louisville baseball bats, Benjamin Moore paints, and Stradivarius violins. You don't have to be a sports nut to have heard of the 125-year history of the Louisville Slugger, nor do you have to be a classical music aficionado to have heard of the legendary Stradivarius violins. Brands that set standards are sometimes luxury brands, but not necessarily. You don't need luxury to set a best-in-class standard. Brands like Benjamin Moore define quality in their categories. That's an enviable position and a value proposition that works.

2. Best bang for the buck.
Recessionary woes have amplified the fact that some consumers will always buy on price. Best-in-class value doesn't always mean lowest price, however, but rather the best quality-to-price ratio. Jet Blue is a good example of a company that, though it may not offer the cheapest or best in comfort travel, does a good job of communicating its value relative to its price point. Dell, Chipotle, Ikea, and Toyota are other good examples of best-in-class value, and their value propositions have been sustainable through the years. Incidentally, the founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, has regularly traded places with Bill Gates on various world's richest lists.

3. Luxury and aspiration.
On the other end of the spectrum from bang-for-buck players are luxury providers that promise the experience of a wealthy lifestyle to aspirational consumers. Ralph Lauren is one of the masters of a lifestyle luxury brand; others are Rolex, BMW, and Hermes. While the luxury segment was hurt during the downturn, it is almost certain that as the economy rebounds that customers will return to luxury goods as their discretionary spending increases.

4. Must-have.
One of the most attractive value propositions we have seen and studied are the "must-haves." These include basic goods — certain foods, for instance. During my prior work with Thomson Reuters, we often talked about "must-have" content that business professionals could not do their jobs without. The critical legal information and tools WestLaw provides to lawyers are an example. As long as there are legal cases, there will be a need for legal information. It does not mean there will not be competition, but if the category you are pursuing is must-have, then the market leaders will have a great prize to share.

Lifted from an article titled "Value Propositions That Work", by Anthony Tjan on the HBR Blog Network.

orig post date OCT 2012

How Can An Architect Use Social Media - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, G+?

10/10/2013

What does marketing mean for an architect?
The classic answer is : "Marketing is what you do to make the phone ring."
The short answer is "name recognition".
The long answer is "recognition as an expert in a type of building or service".

How does Social Media fit in?
First let's be clear that we are talking about Marketing, not Sales.
Social Media is not a Sales tool. Unfortunately, you are more likely to reach 'influencers' with Social Media - not the decision-maker (who is not likely to make a decision based on a tweet). So we are definitely talking about the short and long answers describing marketing, and mostly the long answer - building recognition as an expert.

With Social Media your content can be pushed out to a wider audience than you might reach with email or waiting for an organic searches to find your website or blog. But your credibility is tied to publishing.
The timeline or stream of Social Media means that posts must be made regularly, measured in hours rather than days to be effective.

The interesting thing about Social Media is that your ’reach’ goes beyond your immediate audience (Followers, Likes, Connections, Circles). By reach I mean all the people who ultimately are exposed to your information. If you send an email to 100 people, they all get the email. That is the strength of email. A few may forward it to others. So your audience was 100, but your reach was maybe 105. Interestingly the people who received the forwarded email are more likely to pay attention to it because the act of forwarding it acts like a recommendation. The reach with Social Media can be many times greater than email and enjoys the same ’recommendation’ aspect.

Here’s how reach works with the four main Social Media services. In each case we assume your audience and everyone else's is 100. And remember that it is much easier to share the information with Social Media than it is to forward an email.

Marketing - Simple, Cheap And Easy

10/9/2013

Managing Complexity Through Planning

6/27/2013

"30% of all projects are cancelled, nearly half come in over budget, 60% are considered failures by the organizations that initiated them, and nine out of ten come in late."

These statistics apply to the development of computer software; but they feel just about right for building projects, too. In both kinds of projects the traditional methodology has been a "waterfall" model. One phase follows another in a sequential process.

The hidden defect in this approach is that the millions of decisions that must be made throughout the course of even a small project are hard to anticipate in the earliest phase. So as each succeeding phase tries to build upon past decisions there is a tendency to cobble together a compromise that allows the process to move forward. Often you reach a point where this doesn't work, and then it's back to the drawing board. With this in mind it is easy to see why the statistics above are so grim.

What is needed is a process that creates a touchstone for dealing with those millions of decisions. That touchstone is Planning. Planning is the much-overlooked initial phase of a project. Done properly, Planning sets the criteria by which to judge the success of the project. So, this same criteria guides you in making those millions of decisions. Planning amounts to a thorough evaluation of the six key issues that every project faces. Approached this way Planning will develop a complete description of what the project needs to achieve. Planning is a service that your client needs before embarking on design and one that will differentiate you from other firms.

Those six key issues are

Needs - the space and features that are required
Character - the 'image' that the finished project should convey
Constraints - the obstacles that stand in the way, e.g. code, zoning
Context - the location of the project and the influence that it has
Budget - where the funds will come from and how they will be allocated
Schedule - the timeline for planning, design, and construction

Start Your Own Firm - Pt 3 - Sales

5/30/2013

So what do you do after the phone rings? Or after your potential client answers your call, or responds to your marketing?

There are two things every client is looking for: technical competence and trust. In other words, do you know what you are doing and can I safely put my project in your hands? Once you have your prospect's attention, remember "it is all about them". Let your marketing take care of the competence stuff. If they have concerns, let them bring them up. A competent person doesn't try to convince you of how competent they are. Take the approach of the doctor, but rather than "What seems to be the matter?", start with "What do you have in mind?". Then listen -like a psychiatrist, "I see…"; "What do you mean by that…"; "Tell me more about that…". Let them do 90% of the talking. They don't want to hear what you would do for them until they are sure that you know what they want. From time to time recap what you have been told. Take notes to show you respect their information and want to capture it. If this is a real project, this conversation will go on for an hour or more.

If they see you as a commodity, they will ask for a proposal long before an hour is up. Depending on how much you need the work either comply in writing or decline right there on the basis of not knowing enough about their project to prepare a meaningful proposal. Things are not likely to go well for the client that doesn't have time to tell you what he has in mind. When it doesn't, they will remember the guy who 'screwed it up' AND the guy who wanted to do it right.

At the end of the meeting promise a recap in writing as quickly as you are comfortable doing it. Don't over-promise and under-deliver. (That's a good rule to live by.) Seeing their thoughts in writing is very powerful. They know they told you this stuff, but this is evidence that you heard them, that 'you get it'. As part of this recap, suggest that you meet again to review what you propose for them. The next meeting is about some first steps that they might want to take. THIS IS NOT A BASIC SERVICES FEE PROPOSAL.

Every project has five or six key issues that need to be understood - space needs, desired character, context in which it will occur, legal, political and managerial constraints, a timeline, and a budget. Propose to investigate one or more of these for them. Give them as quick a turnaround as possible (to keep the ball rolling) and a fee that seems reasonable enough that they don't feel like they need to get a second quote to do this 'small study'. This should be in writing and you should outline several first steps, but propose the one that you think will answer a question they want answered. Follow through, and repeat.

There are many branching-off directions that this process might take. Improvise. Or better, get some real training from one of the gurus. My recommendation is Stu Rose and Trina Duncan, Professional Development Resources, Inc. They authored The Mandeville Techniques that I have been describing here. They have well-thought-out methodologies for everything - cold calling, proposals, interviews/presentations, everything.

Invest in yourself and your career.

LINKS TO OTHER ARTICLES IN THE SERIES
PART 1 - PROJECTS & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
PART 2 - MARKETING
PART 3 - SALES
PART 4 - FINANCIAL MATTERS
PART 5 - ADMINISTRATION

Start Your Own Firm - Pt 2 - Marketing

5/29/2013

“Marketing is what you do to make the phone ring.” And you have to do a lot of it without much feedback. Marketing tactics are non-client and non-project specific. The marketing activities you should consider include such things as working on developing your niche, building relationships, networking, promotion, RFQs and numerous image or brand-building opportunities.

I will touch on each of them starting with the least powerful. However every one of these activities can contribute to what you want your firm to become.

IMAGE
This is an incomplete list of things that reflect on you and help/hurt your image: firm name, logo, stationery, business cards, physical location, website look and feel, domain-name email, project signs, automobile, clothes, etc. These things don't matter much if your image is a struggling, hungry start-up. However, to the extent that you want to "punch above your weight" and be considered for 'where you are going' rather than 'where you are', they matter a lot.

RFQs
RFQs take two forms - the private and the public owners. To some extent providing RFQs might be a temporary necessity, but they lead to becoming a commodity. Nevertheless you want to put out information that a private client might find worth considering. The format is up to you. The public clients, like state, federal, and governmental agencies have their qualification processes that vet the firms who want to work for them. At the federal level this is the Standard Form 330. The idea for both types of clients is to put information in front of the people that you think will be selecting architects.

PROMOTION
Promotion takes several forms such as direct mail, newsletters, ads, sponsorships, events, Facebook(?), and so on. Direct mail consists of sending a letter/post card/brochure/pamphlet or similar piece to a mailing list. Response rates are normally very low, so you are just trying to remind the recipient that you exist. Newsletters could take the direct mail approach or be the email version, which has the benefit of costing about 5% of the hardcopy version. The hitch is that it will take much, much longer to build an email list than a mailing list. Ads are obvious; most are expensive for their return, except the electronic variety using, say, Google AdWords, Facebook or LinkedIn. A sponsorship of someone else's event is like advertising; or you could hold your own event to celebrate a milestone or support a worthy (and related?) charity or civic project. Facebook is a good way to keep your name in front of your "Likes". This could be especially useful if your target audience is individuals rather than organizations.

NETWORKING
Networking is basically making connections - in person through the Chamber of Commerce, social clubs, alum organizations, church, friends, family; or electronically through LinkedIn, perhaps even Facebook qualifies as networking as long as there is interaction. See Matt Handal's article on how to do it right.

RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING
Relationship-building is a takeoff on networking; but, at least in my mind, it is different because it is more targeted - you are seeking out people to contact with the sole purpose of finding a way to help them and become their go-to person for all their design and construction questions.

NICHE-BUILDING
As I have mentioned before, building a niche, while time-consuming (and measured in years), is the ideal form of marketing your firm because eventually you have your clients seeking you out because of your specialty. There is not only less competition, there may be none. Your fees are whatever the market will bear and your productivity is sky high. I would recommend that you do all of these things with the idea of establishing your niche ... say, biophilia-inspired dwellings!

LINKS TO OTHER ARTICLES IN THE SERIES
PART 1 - PROJECTS & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
PART 2 - MARKETING
PART 3 - SALES
PART 4 - FINANCIAL MATTERS
PART 5 - ADMINISTRATION

Start Your Own Firm - Pt 1 - Projects & Business Development

5/28/2013

There is no one time that is better than the next for starting your own firm. There is one key ingredient though. The key ingredient is a paying client with a project. So, as the cliche goes, don't give up your day job … until you have the key ingredient. To a lesser degree you also need to feel competent to do the work you are hired for. Let's cover that first.

PROJECT SERVICES
You have to feel competent to work on your own or to have colleagues that can assist where you need help. However you can always hire the expertise you need to do the work. Nevertheless you should have a little experience in all facets of designing a project, getting bids, and administering construction. But you wouldn't even be thinking about the possibility of your own firm if you didn't have this issue covered.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
If you can get the clients, you can always find a way to get the work done. The opposite is also true, but with a footnote. It is much easier to hire design help who will produce results than it is to hire business development help who will produce clients. As far as I can tell, this is because the more dependable the business development helper is at corralling work, the more likely he/she will be to start their own firm or find a better-paying opportunity elsewhere.

It is more likely, at least at first, that you will need to develop your business yourself. So how will you go about this. Well it helps if you have family connections, but you will find it easier to grow the firm more dependably if you develop a system for getting clients rather than only take advantage of work that is offered to you.

So what methods of business development should you consider?

develop a niche
networking
relationship building
promotion
RFPs

Keep in mind that you will need to use aspects of all these systems at least some of the time. I will go into these five and marketing in general in Part 2.

LINKS TO OTHER ARTICLES IN THE SERIES
PART 1 - PROJECTS & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
PART 2 - MARKETING
PART 3 - SALES
PART 4 - FINANCIAL MATTERS
PART 5 - ADMINISTRATION

Twitter For Architects?

5/20/2013

Is Twitter useful to architects?
Unlike business cards or a logo, which every architect can relate to as a marketing tool, it is not so clear where Twitter fits into an architect's business development toolbox. I think this will provide a little clarity. Let's start with some PROs and CONs for Twitter.

PROs

Can reach a wider audience than FB, but not wider than a website.
Can target tweet placement to reach your audience for $1 per click.
Enhances your position as a thought-leader on your area of expertise.
Marketing tool.
Can make use of content in another way.
Can drive visitors to your website.
Only takes about a half hour per day to prepare and schedule tweets.
Can be delegated.

CONs

Not a Sales tool.
Fairly difficult to find help or specific expertise through Twitter.
Credibility is tied to publishing.
Timeline / stream means that tweets must be sent regularly, measured in hours rather than days to be effective.
Takes up a half hour of time per day.

BOTTOM LINE

The key to benefitting from Twitter is whether or not you are publishing your own information about your area of expertise. If you aspire to be recognized as a thought-leader in your specialty, Twitter can enhance the perception you want to build. It can also harm the perception you want if your followers don't see a stream of new information coming from you. So whether you use Twitter or not depends on whether you are publishing worthwhile content regularly.

For content to be worthwhile it has to tell your audience something they would like to know about a topic that they care about. Even a mundane specialty, say school design, can do this. But a generalist will struggle to find a topic that appeals. A strong specialty, say cancer research labs, should have an easy time demonstrating expertise.

Are you interested in writing about your specialty in addition to practicing architecture? The actual writing can be delegated, but you will have to be involved to create the topics and manage the tone. Twitter can assist you in building a reputation, but you will need to do the heavy lifting of building a specialty, which is a very worthwhile endeavor on its own.

What Is The Barrier To Starting Your Own Firm?

5/19/2013

What is needed to start an architectural firm today?

This is a thought experiment. If you were starting an architectural firm today, how would you do it? At the time of the American Revolution, what did an architect's office look like? Probably not much different than in 1900, except the projects may have gotten bigger. In 1976, what would the differences have been? Well things have changed on the technological front. There are electric lighting, telephones, electric erasers, adding machines, light tables, automobiles for site visits, diazo and mimeograph printing for plans and specifications respectively. There is still that timeless part about needing a client with a project, however. Programming is more sophisticated. But designing and detailing a project isn't really any different.

What about today? In 2013 what would be different? What could be different? What should be different? Except for that timeless part - a client with a project - EVERYTHING!
You don't need: an office, a phone system, a plotter, a fax machine, a library, flat files, a conference room, a reception area, a server room, a network, a GBC punch and binder, past project files, etc.

What DO you need? You may already have some of this.
Computer - $1,000
iPad - later ($750)
Smart phone - $200
CAD - DesignSight - FREE
Basecamp subscription - $25/project for now
Invoicing System - PayPal account
Bookkeeping service - Wave - FREE
Insurance - later ($500) - once you have work
Website/Domain/Email - Weebly - $100
Google Apps with Drive - part of Weebly
Dropbox - FREE (for additional shared storage)
Wide format printer-copier-scanner - $300
Total to get started - less than $2,000 the first year, and about $200/month expenses.

You may not need employees for some time. You can farm out work that you need help with to other self-employed architects, who could be anywhere. India? You really can't overstate how much Internet-based services change the need to be in one place with your design team. Add Google Hangout to your repertoire with its ability to share your screen with up to 10 people and you may just be old-fashioned if you think an office is necessary.

So, work on getting that client. That is the only real barrier to having your own firm.

Vittle, The Presentation App

5/10/2013

If you are always presenting ideas - to clients, bosses, team members - here is a new tool for your arsenal, an iPad App called Vittle developed by Qrayon. Vittle has real possibilities for $9

“Turn your iPad into a recordable whiteboard.”

“Write a video as easily as an email.”

This YouTube video will give you a glimpse of the possibilities.

From Qrayon’s website, here is another short video of ideas for use in the workplace.

You can download the free version from the App Store to try it out.

And finally, their brief Users Guide gives you an idea of the tools at your disposal. You can copy/paste work from their note-taking app that I reviewed earlier this week, InkFlow Plus.

My Three Favorite Blogs

4/25/2013

I keep my eye out for interesting people and ideas on Twitter. Three of my favorite people and their blogs are:
Matt Handal - Help Everybody Everyday
A/E/C Marketing Advice, Training, and Support Group

Mel Lester - E-Quip Blog
Practice Management Insights for A/E firm managers

Bob Borson - The Life of an Architect
what's it like to be and work with an architect

Here is a sample from each of them. Check them out.

Matt Handal - Helping Everyone Everyday
The Networking Mistake That Causes Distrust. Are You Making It?

I see it all the time. People go to networking events and immediately give people a reason to distrust them. And worst of all, they have no idea they are doing it. So, I’m going to explain what this mistake is and give you an easy way to avoid it.
But first, let me tell you a personal story.

I used to say, “I’m not a shmoozer.” I hated going to networking events because I had to turn into someone else, someone that wasn’t me.

Oh man, it was painful. Here I was walking into an event with people twice my age. I was wearing a suit and tie, which would only come out for funerals and networking events.

I knew what I had to do…get these people to give my firm work. I had to get these people, who I had nothing in common with, to like me so I could steal away their project before someone else did. It was a lot of pressure, which made me nervous.

Just going up to people, knowing that I wanted something from them, was awkward. But I put on a big smile and did my best to play mister friendly sales guy Read More...

Mel Lester - E-Quip Blog
Can You Escape The Commoditization Trap?

Over the years, I've heard a lot of angst expressed about the growing commoditization trend in the A/E industry. Yet I've not seen many firms do much about it. Firm leaders are often quick to blame our profession for much of the problem ("we're too eager to discount our fees," etc.), but too many of them seem to think there's little they can do to escape the commodity trap.

The fact is that in every industry overtaken by commoditization, there are always companies that have found a way out. Take personal computers, for example. While most computer manufacturers have been grappling for their piece of a shrinking market by continually offering more for less, Apple has resolutely balked at joining the fray. They've charged significantly more than their competitors and yet have seen their U.S. market share grow from 4% in 2006 to almost 14% in 2012. And this while the performance differences between Macs and PCs have narrowed. Read More...

Bob Borson - The Life of an Architect
The Ethereal Decision-Making Process For The Creative Mind

The decision-making process can be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. Me? I prefer simple because it’s simple. That seems pretty obvious to me but I am constantly amazed just how often I see people who make the decision-making process sooooooo complicated.

But don’t mistake simple for easy. That’s why there are millions of ways that people process decisions – or at least I think there are millions of ways. Have you ever sat down and thought about your own decision-making process? I haven’t – which is part of the reason I decided to write this post. Read More...

6 Building Blocks for Communicating Your Value Proposition

3/11/2013

6 Building Blocks for Communicating Your Value Proposition
(Borrowed from The Rain Today Blog by the Rain Group) http://www.rainsalestraining.com

Even when people know their value, many find it difficult to describe it.

Let’s say someone asks you the simple question, “What do you do?”

How do you answer? Of course, you need to get your value across, but as we note here, when communicating your value proposition, you don’t want to deliver the same canned speech for everyone.

What you need to do is first craft, then learn to deliver specific nuggets of information you can use to get your value across. Put all these nuggets together, and you have what we call a value proposition positioning statement.

A value proposition positioning statement is a compelling, tangible description of how a company or individual will benefit from buying from you.

For example, we might start ours with, “We at RAIN Group help companies to improve their sales performance. If you want your salespeople, professionals, and leaders to sell more, we can help.”

This is the umbrella under which we operate. It’s a nugget of information we use in the early part of conversations. And it’s an important nugget as it’s the ultimate reason why clients eventually hire us!

But there is always a set of factors and specifics that sway them to choose us versus:

doing something themselves
choosing someone else to help them, or
choosing to do nothing at all.

Obviously, as the conversation moves along, we (and you) need to communicate more if we want to tip the scales in our favor.

To get a full picture of your value across, you need to be able to cover 6 areas, including:

Target customers. Whom do you serve? What makes for an ideal customer regarding industry, location, size, type and so on? This allows the person on the receiving end to know if you work with companies and people like them. Know your target customer so you can craft messages that will resonate with them. In addition, the more you can position specialization for a particular buyer set, the more you typically resonate and differentiate.
Need/business problem. What types of needs and business problems do you address? How do you help? This helps prospects understand how and when they should use you.
Impact of solving need. What are the rational and emotional benefits of solving the need? Getting this right is a major factor in whether or not you resonate.
Your offerings. What’s your product and service approach, how do you run your company, solve problems and work with customers? Notice that company and offerings are a fourth here. Think buying first and selling second, and frame your offerings within the context of the needs you can help solve.
Proof of concept. How can you demonstrate that your approach has worked to solve similar problems for others? How do you substantiate your claims? How do they know that what you say will happen, will actually happen?
Distinction. Why is your offering preferable to other options for solving the need? Do you have something special about you that’s worthwhile to share? Is there some way to highlight how you’re distinct from others?

Once you’ve built all of these nuggets, practice it as one statement until you have it down.

Then forget it.

At least, forget delivering it in one slick mini-speech.

If you deliver all six of the building blocks in one big long breath, the person you’re speaking to will be thinking “elevator pitch…here it comes.”

Often they’ll tune out.

When you introduce yourself and someone asks you, “What do you do?” The best thing to do is start with a few important nuggets that can help you get a conversation flowing.

We started our example with, “We at RAIN Group help companies to improve their sales performance. If you want your salespeople, professionals, and leaders to sell more, we can help.”

We didn’t yet cover the target market, impact, our distinctions, proof of concept, and so on.

When it’s time, we can and we do! But we do it as the conversation unfolds.

We might start here and then ask the other person, “That’s us in a nutshell. What do you do?” and they’ll answer, often following our lead and keeping it short. Then we ask questions to learn more.

In the natural flow of conversation, we’re likely to learn enough to share (and customize!) relevant details that will continue to position our value. As well, ask someone something and they’ll often turn the question right back at you.

For example, you might ask, “Can you share with me any specific examples? And curious to know as well how it panned out.’

Then they’ll tell you the story and say, “What about you? Any examples in my industry?”

And you can hit the rest of the building blocks as you continue along in your great conversation.

Documenting Additional Services

2/15/2013

A project without Additional Services is pretty rare. No one likes to talk about an increase in fees. Which do you prefer? Losing money, but having a content client? Or getting paid fairly even if there is some discomfort involved?

Or maybe you are working by the hour or your fee is a percent of construction cost. Charging by the hour takes care of additional work automatically. The fee as a percent of construction cost might work if the change increases the cost of construction proportionally to the extra work. Often it doesn't. A fixed fee never gets you paid for a change. So here's what you do. Adopt a simple one-page form that you can complete in a minute or two and email to the client for a yes or no. We use this simple form. Here are the ways that it plays out.

You get the form back, signed and move on. (~33% of the time)
You get a call or email canceling the proposed change. (~25% of the time)
You get neither #1 nor #2. However, you now have the perfect reason to make a contact for clarification, "Do you want us to proceed with the change? I haven't received the authorization yet."

We have found that no one faults you for being business-like unless they were hoping to take advantage of you. Getting paid for everything that you do is a form of Business Development!

The Supplemental Authorization form (Word Docx) for documenting additional services is now offered in the Archives as part of MGMT-01. Get access when you Sign Up.
See revised version of this topic.
UPDATED Mar 30, 2015

Selling Consulting Services by Mike Schultz

1/27/2013

This is a helpful report you can learn from. Although it is a couple of years old, I don't think the ideas have aged at all. Mike Schultz at RainToday.com is a good source of sales advice.

Over the years, I have found that the best way to absorb information is to pay attention to it when you notice it. My theory is that noticing it is an indication that you are receptive to that type of learning at the moment. Even if you are too wrapped up right then, bookmark or copy or 'Instapaper' it for consumption later. Conversely, when you sign up for a seminar, webinar, or follow someone else's suggestion (like now), you are less likely to make the information your own because it wasn't your attention that put it in front of you.

Depending on how you like to do things, you might download this report and file it away, bookmark RainToday.com or simply remember that you found it here.

The YES! FAQ Sheet

11/28/2012

Here is the concept of this technique: Give the one word answer at the top of the page and then list all the questions that can be answered with "yes".

I stole this idea from the 37signals blog. Its simplicity and positive directness is very attractive.

Besides a website FAQ page there are other ways you can use this concept.

In a proposal to answer why you should select our firm
As part of a design presentation to answer, "What will this design do for you?"
As part of your request for a raise/promotion
As part of wooing a new employee
As part of your office policies explanation
In your marketing material
In your internal task methodologies, e.g. "Does every plan drawing or detail require a north arrow?"

In a rare case you might want to turn this upside down and make the answer to every question 'No'.
If nothing else this approach adds a little fun to some boring checklists.

How To Generate Leads Using LinkedIn

11/26/2012

HubSpot provides website development and hosting that is focused on Inbound Marketing. The concept of Inbound Marketing is that people who need what you have to offer find you, rather than you finding them. Social media plays a large part in the methods that HubSpot helps you with. HubSpot also provides a lot of very good 'How To' information to encourage people to find them. This booklet on how to use LinkedIn to generate leads is an example. More help from HubSpot is available.

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