Connecting with Spec Writers

Last night's CSC Ottawa Chapter meeting. The Subject -- EIFS Quality Assurance Program. Sure, the topic is dry, but what happens when your building leaks?

If you are a general contractor, sub-trade, building product manufacturer/distributor, or technology provider, I can think of few better places to connect than your local Construction Specifications Institute or Construction Specifications Canada chapters.

Why?

Who is most likely to know and have a sense of what is about to be built than the people who create the contract documentation for the project? And who will influence the choices of materials and technologies more than the people who tell everyone else down the chain what they must do to comply with the contract?

Of course, participation in your local specifications writers group is not a short term fix. You won't get far (or achieve meaningful results) by joining and pumping for leads. Rather, the knowledge and relationships you build over time will expand your connections and awareness of the industry and lead to the critical early understanding of what is happening, and where things are heading.

Affinity marketing -- Can you find the association?

Members of the Society for Marketing Professional Services in Washington, D.C. gather in December for their annual Christmas networking event Most architectural, engineering and construction businesses in the commercial, industrial and institutional markets would benefit from SMPS membership where you can learn industry-relevant marketing approaches even as you develop relationships that create lasting and powerful business opportunities.

Real estate broker Martin Bertrand explains in a guest posting in Bruce Firestone's EQ Journal Blog how he leveraged his experience with a credit card company to develop a powerful affinity marketing relationship with his university's alumni association.

I knew I had developed the ability to establish and nurture meaningful business relationships and the skills to negotiate contracts and manage them too.

So I got in touch with my University of Ottawa Alumni Association contact (the same person I knew while I was at MBNA) to discuss how we could structure an affinity program and provide services to uOttawa Alumni. The idea was simple but had never been done before in Real Estate (at least as far as I can tell.)

After much discussion, we had an Agreement—it is a great value proposition both for students and for members of the alumni. The Plan for the Alumni was to provide a rebate on each Real Estate commission AND provide cash back when buying a property. Both are terrific incentives.

The Alumni Association would benefit as well. We developed a scholarship fund whereby we would make a donation for every successful real estate transaction by an alumnus.

For me, it provided a fantastic, and unique way to generate leads, thus enabling me to meet more potential Alumni clients and to provide services in the Real Estate industry, an industry I truly enjoy.

As it stands now, I am one of the uOttawa Alumni Association’s partners. My name and logo is right beside MBNA’s name and logo on the Partnership website! Something I am truly proud of.

Bertrand, of course, has captured one of the most effective marketing ideas anyone in the architectural, engineering, and construction business should apply. Leveraging key relationships through associations where members are likely to benefit from your service or trade takes you places much more effectively than banging on doors or sending in responses to dozens of RFPs once they go public. As well, association affinity marketing is usually inexpensive when you contribute in time, shared services, and rebates to the association only when you acquire new business from the relationship.

For our business, association relationships are our single most effective marketing methodology (outside of nurturing and encouraging repeat and referral business, of course, but even these correlate, because our clients are often really connected with their associations).

How do you determine which association with whom you should connect? Here are some ideas.

Who do you know, who respects you, now?

Clearly, Bertrand parlayed his previous relationships with the University of Ottawa association to build his marketing. You may have friends and existing connections who you can simply call to start the ball rolling.

Which associations and groups do your current clients belong to? Can you connect to their groups, with referrals from them?

By nature, your existing clients can be powerful guides. If the associations or groups are important to them, you will deepen your connections with current clients by connecting to their associations, and find like-minded colleagues.

Is there strong mutual benefit?

Here, the services and resources you can provide the association result in real value for the group. We, for example, work closely with construction and specialty trade associations whose members can benefit from advertising in our publications. This benefit often as great for the associations themselves -- support with free advertising services saves the association money, and really helps their cause.

Can you be creative?

Say, you are a general contractor and sense you can get much business with a property-owners association? Can you ally with others to produce services of value to the association and jointly prepare your program? You may build relationships and bonds on even greater and deeper levels.

Finally, here are a few words of warning about association-related marketing. This approach is rarely if ever a quick fix to your problems. You need to put immediate gratification aside, and focus on your sharing and giving, rather than on the business you can hope to build from the relationship. However, when you think longer-term, you will reap rewards that transcend your efforts, and achieve profitable, durable, results.

An interdisciplinary perspective

This image is from Improving Construction: Connecting Virtual Models with the Real World, an article in the newsletter of Spar Point Research LLC.

This blog, and our regional publications, deliberately look at the construction industry from an interdisciplinary perspective. I am interested in the marketing challenges of residential sub-trade contractors serving small communities, and giant international conglomerates bidding on -- and hoping to win -- multi-billion dollar projects. These varying interests are rarely covered under one roof, er, blog. I think, however, the limitations of reporting on matters of interest to only one part of community are more than offset by the cross-fertilization of ideas across sectors and segments within the industry.

The foundation of the approach here relates to the characteristics and objectives of our local publications. Reflecting the community orientation, we are interested in anything that impacts the construction industry within the area. Our approach in fact mirrors that of many general contractors in rural areas. In smaller communities, the successful contractors build out a generalist business; doing work that would normally be only handled by specialist contractors in larger markets. (And these generalists must compete -- and win against -- the specialists, or engage in joint ventures with them, in their local markets.)

I also see how various professions and trades work together and, when things aren't perfect, overcome conflicts. Sometimes the biases and tensions are obvious; sometimes hypocrisy is blatant. Relating to the blog's editorial philosophy, I report here on the "good" but not so much the "bad" and "ugly" -- instead, taking the behind the scenes stories I hear about the less-than-perfect aspects of our industry to find examples of where problems are overcome, and things are done properly.

One important additional element completes the picture. With a local focus, across different markets and circumstances, sometimes I'm able to drill down and find ideas in one place that can be shared elsewhere, such as Mark Parlee's innovative presentation materials. We all are richer by sharing ideas, insights, and observations.

Focus and diversity

The Center for Construction Industry Studies (CCIS) is a multidisciplinary research center at The University of Texas at Austin's Construction Engineering and Project Management (CEPM) Program . . . an example of an effective interdisciplinary initiative.

This blog, like my business, covers many disciplines and areas within the construction industry. I write about issues relevant to architects, and sub trades; to the marketing departments of large multi-national corporations, and the one-person band, just trying to get a business started.
Is everyone's interest the same, and is this blog trying to be too many things to too many people, at the same time?

I hope not -- though there is a paradox here. The blog's multi-disciplinary focus is because we publish geographically regional publications. Within the geographical area, there are clear economic relations and direct linkages of interest between the different sectors -- the supplier for residential contractors, for example, will also serve ICI specialists within the community; labour force issues and social problems/challenges affect everyone, and where there are occasional tensions and controversies within the industry, these are real and valid issues to report in a local construction industry publication.

I started the blog about a year ago as a resource for our advertisers; to give them something 'extra' and beyond the ink on paper and invoice. Since then, I've immersed myself in as many aspects of construction industry marketing as possible. My objective: to provide the advertisers with something far more than they originally expect to receive -- to offer them practical, highly effective and totally without cost consulting services so they can improve their businesses and profitability.

So what happened?

Well, some of our clients have expressed interest, but they are a small minority. I tell them about the blog, the extra services, the 'connection' and resources available, but they simply pay their invoices and buy more ads. This is obviously not a problem for me.

Meanwhile, the blog is morphing into something better and different than I originally expected. It is connecting me to people around North America -- and the world -- and is leading to relationships and contributions that transcend the original concept.

I perceive that other bloggers can focus more closely within specific industry sectors and activities, and others can develop truly useful regional blogs; these blogs will of course be welcomed to permalinks without reciprocal expectation.

But I still find it amazing that, despite the obvious value and potential revenue gains with the free consulting service for our advertisers, there are few takers, so far.