The Case for
INVESTING IN MARKETING WHILE TIMES ARE GOOD: Lessons Learned from the Great Recession by Christopher J. Stockwell
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Many AE firms are experiencing growth and anticipate good performance through 2022. The author was CMO for a mid-sized consulting engineering and scientific firm that experienced growth and profitability for nine consecutive years before, during and after the
1,399 WORDS 7 MINUTE READ TIME
Great Recession (2007-2015). One of several reasons for its success was greater focus on marketing and business development (BD) before the recession hit. Investing in enterprise-wide marketing and BD initiatives when times are good can lay a solid foundation for continued growth, even through downturns. This article describes those initiatives undertaken, and offers 10 questions to help gauge marketing and BD readiness.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Effective enterprise-wide Marketing and BD initiatives can set the foundation for continued growth during lean times.
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The entire sales opportunity pipeline – active in-house proposal efforts and potential project add-ons as well as near-term and longer-term leads across all services and markets – should be accurately maintained, carefully analyzed, and reported on alongside bookings, backlog, and fees.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform use, client and market growth plans, Marketing Communications and cross-selling are often underemphasized yet offer solid payback potential.
Many engineering firms are currently experiencing growth and anticipate good performance through 2022. But the AE industry is cyclical. Now might be an opportune time to consider investing in marketing and business development (BD) initiatives, programs and tools to continue your winning ways and outperform competitors during the downturn to come. Having helped lead one ENR Top 500 Design firm successfully through the Great Recession as its CMO, I offer my own lessons-learned from those times.
SETTING THE STAGE. I joined the firm in July 2006. Between 2007 and 2015 our
company grew each year (from $42M to $122M during that period), generating strong profits and shareholder returns for the employee-owned firm founded in 1970. We improved our ENR 500 ranking during those years from 270 to 107. During our most difficult year of the Great Recession (2010) our gross revenues grew by just under one percent- not great, but better than most. Shareholder returns and bonuses were reduced. We let go a small percentage of our work force during that period, as necessary to match our staff skills with our project mix. Those were certainly leaner times. Fortunately, we had identified and prioritized a number of marketing and business development (BD) initiatives implemented between 2007-2013 that combined with several other initiatives noted below enabled us out-perform many competitors. The data on current and anticipated workload provided by our marketing and BD program allowed us to make decisions during the Great Recession to hold on to more staff, accept moderate short-term reduction in company performance, and position the firm for strong rebound as the economy recovered.
GREAT RECESSION INITIATIVES. Marketing set the table for some of that growth.
My first initiatives in 2007-2009 included making sure that: (1) our digital presence and content was far stronger than it had previously been, and superior to others; (2) our branding was very professional, consistent across the firm, and a step above; and (3) our external communications program was prolific, and more interesting and informative than others. In addition, I rolled out methods and tools for leads/ project opportunity tracking, and client, market, service, and office growth planning. We also focused on cross-selling training, and offered specialized sales training for interested senior, mid-level and younger staff.
THE PROJECT OPPORTUNITY PIPELINE. The goal of marketing and BD is of course
to identify, develop and nurture new leads through sales opportunity pipeline, get invited to the dance, and ultimately win new work. We put in place systems and tools to track our entire company sales opportunity pipeline. I don’t mean just pending or in-house RFQs and RFPs or project opportunities called out and recorded during BD meetings. I mean everything that Marketing, BD, your rainmakers, seller-doers, PMs and others become aware of, at all times, regardless of stage (with some sizeminimum cut-off for letter proposals, possibly). It all should be entered and tracked, with clear, logical coding indicating lead stage, win probability, and deal timing. We did exactly that. Doing so kept these opportunities visible to our teams over time, reminding Principals-In-Charge (PICs), PMs and BD staff to ask questions, stay abreast of the developing opportunities when visiting with their contacts, and to add value along the way as project visions develop and become more real. We insisted on accurate data for our sales opportunity pipeline in the same way our CFO insisted on accurate backlog or monthly billing entries. The resulting project opportunity pipeline metrics became a leading indicator of future backlog health. All client-facing staff participated. Our project opportunity pipeline KPIs became part
of the company’s standard reporting metrics delivered alongside bookings, backlog, fees, multipliers, and utilization. We shared our sales opportunity pipeline KPIs with our bankers during the Great Recession, something we had not been able to do before. We said that we had a robust pipeline of opportunities at varying stages of development and levels of win probability, and we had the metrics, historical trending, and accurate line-item backup detail to prove it.
KEY ACCOUNT PLANS. As I later learned at another ENR 500 firm I would join, a great way to gather opportunity-level information is to implement Key Account Planning enterprise-wide. Key Account Plans (KAPs) help client managers (e.g., your PICs and PMs) to stay closer to “A” and “B” priority clients and prospects, and offers a great opportunity to gather critical data. Implementing KAPs across the business does not need to be a heavy lift. It can be completed methodically, suited to firm culture and the participating staff’s bandwidth. We did complete many such plans before, during and after the Great Recession, but participation was voluntary, not mandatory (a lesson-learned).
ENTERING, MAINTAINING AND EXPLOITING THE DATA AND INFORMATION. It was essential that we store such dynamic client, prospect, contact, and project opportunity information in an enterprise-wide customer relationship management system (CRM). We first used MS Access and then our AEC accounting system’s lead and proposal tracking capabilities in the early years, eventually moving to a more robust CRM platform with superior user interface and real-time KPI dashboards. We developed a custom integration between the front-end CRM and back-end accounting system enabling two-way flow of key data resulting in a fuller client picture and enhanced reporting. With support of my leadership team colleagues, nearly everyone took part. Most technical folks will accept this helpful client management tool if its benefits and features are effectively conveyed. And, there are workarounds for those who will not, seeing it as just more work.
MARKETING & BD READINESS:
10 QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
MARKETING
Are growth plans in place (and effective) for key accounts, services, and markets?
Is our overall digital presence superior to key competitors? What’s missing?
Could cross-selling training for all staff, and sales training for some, pay dividends?
Do our external communications differentiate us and indicate a vibrant, growing firm?
Is our CRM actively used by technical staff or is it mostly in Marketing’s domain?
Do we have a proactive Thought Leadership program showcasing our subject matter expertise? Are articles brief, highlighting strategic value, not just technical prowess?
Do we track all leads, classifying by type, size, win probability, and timing? Are existing sales pipeline KPIs helpful? Is the data scrubbed for accuracy, like backlog?
Who do our posts, blogs and emails reach? Can we target by sector, interest, and role? What is our audience (e.g., email list, SM followers, blog subscribers) growth trend?
OTHER ACTIONS TAKEN. We brought in a Web development firm in 2006/7 (and
again in 2013) to help us design and launch an award-winning website that included heavy use of video and impressive content depth. I facilitated strategic marketing planning for several service areas and regional markets. A $59M firm FY 2008, we increased spend with our PR agency which added bandwidth and expertise to our lean Marketing team and assured professional and prolific external communications. We produced an elegant company brochure entitled “New Imperatives” mailed to 2,500 clients and prospects at the recession’s height (also available as an e-brochure) that emphasized compelling narrative over technical jargon. We enhanced our brand and presence at key conferences with superior yet economical booth appearance supported by customized collateral materials. We diligently pursued speaking and panelist opportunities, and put in place tools for better understanding conference ROI. We held in-person cross-selling training sessions in the form of intra-company Service Fairs during shareholder gatherings and project manager workshops during those years. These were essentially our own trade shows for our own staff consisting of up to 30 table-top exhibits complete with descriptive backdrop banners. Each table was hosted by one or two of its subject matter experts. We created customized selling support materials for these occasions highlighting the “how-to” steps for introducing these services to their clients. The sessions were quite popular and had outstanding ROI. All new leads and associated next actions to be taken were entered into our CRM and tracked just like any other lead through their life cycle. I recall generating over $2 million in new cross-selling opportunities from one of those fairs. We also offered a formalized vendor-led sales training program to cohorts of PMs interested in advancing their BD skills, and provided introductory BD skills training during those years to dozens of budding PMs with curricula focused on effective listening, curiosity (e.g., asking questions), emotional intelligence, and networking. Other initiatives strongly contributed to our growth before, during, and after the Great Recession. These included two acquisitions; numerous excellent seller-doer hires; sharing and cross-training certain technical expertise across geographic regions to greatly expand our markets and project opportunities; and more. We were able to move forward on all these efforts with confidence based on the data provided by our marketing and BD program. Every initiative contributed to our success. Now years later, the more things change in the industry the more they remain the same. Promoting the firm has become far more digital in focus and message delivery, expedited of course by the pandemic. And, our markets seem more competitive than ever. Yet, clients still purchase professional services from firms and people they know, respect, trust, and generally like. Our AEC industry remains cyclical. And, some firms under-invest in marketing and BD initiatives, in good times and bad. We invested in marketing/BD initiatives when times were good, and not so good. These program investments were important ingredients in our recipe for success.
© Christopher J. Stockwell
CHRISTOPHER STOCKWELL CONSULTING, LLC AEC FOCUSED MARKETING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CONSULTING I help firms create and implement plans, programs and tools to penetrate markets, build the sales pipeline and enhance the brand, complementing my deep marketing toolkit with strong business development and selling experience. Engaged by firm leadership, I work collaboratively with key staff to review current Marketing and BD efforts. I then recommend cost-effective solutions to improve underperforming areas, and lead or help facilitate program and tools development and implementation. All services can be delivered 100% virtual, saving time while reducing engagement cost- with minimal to no impact on collaboration or results.
Chris Stockwell Principal CHRISTOPHER STOCKWELL CONSULTING, LLC 781-424-9932 StockwellChristopherJ@gmail.com 5 Glendale Road Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
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