When construction marketing is easy, it is effective

One of the biggest paradoxes of business development and marketing is that effort doesn't really correlate with reward, but if you don't put effort into the process (and accept that success can take a LONG time) you won't achieve much in the way of reward.

Gulp.  When you read this sort of posting, you might think that the right thing to do is wrap it up, buy a few lottery tickets and hope for the best.

That isn't exactly what I am seeking to communicate here.

Let's phrase it a bit differently.  You've probably heard the phrase that it is better to work smart than hard, but it is even wiser to work smart and hard.  "Hard" work might be grinding out dozens of responses to RFPs, whether or not you have solid relationships with the clients, "Smart," might be focusing your energies and bidding only work where you can be profitable and have a reasonable chance of success.  "Hard and smart" is taking the long-range view, focusing on activities you enjoy, and working through these enjoyable activities to build satisfying relationships with the people who count and can put you on the inside track for successful bids or RFPs.

In other words, allowing for the fact that it takes time to achieve success, doing things you enjoy but which put you in contact with potential and current clients is smart marketing.  Yeah, that means if you like golfing, it is okay to spend lots of time on the course -- if you enjoy writing, well, blogs are pretty effective (over time) and if you like sports, spending some time with teams and groups interested in both the sport and your business area will probably get you to where you want to go.

The ideal venue for these relationships is often relevant client-focused associations.  Spend time there, and you'll make things happen.

These ideas won't generate instant construction marketing success.   They are smart, however, and don't need to be too hard to implement.

Business and proposal development: Quantity, quality or both

One of the surest signs you are heading down the path of failure in construction industry marketing is when you are chasing and pursuing leads and project ideas you have a faint chance of winning.

This often happens when you start getting desperate: You can see your order and project backlog is drying up and you want to get work started, fast, to prevent the crunch of idle workers, expensive capital equipment and (if you are the marketing manager, rather than the boss), the threat of losing your job when you know few other employers will rush to hire you.

Trouble is, of course, you run into the all-to-common situation where the harder you try and "work", the poorer results you achieve. Hours spent on public bid proposals will do your company little good if the competition has already been wired in favor of an incumbent, or at least a much smaller short-list group; worse, is if you make the short list as an outsider through sheer effort, then pour your heart and soul into the final presentation, again, only to discover that the incumbent or special friend of the bidding authority has already really made its decision.

On another level, what good do you gain by attracting a group of 500 "first degree contacts" or 1,000 "followers" on Twitter, when you know nothing about the people in your contact list, and your followers are just following you because you've induced them to sign on, somehow.

So what should you do?

Here, you run into another irony. If you've been "relying" on referrals or repeat business, or (even worse) if you have put all your eggs into a very small number of client relationships, and these businesses either have failed, or your individual relationships no longer are influential or control the picture, what do you do? You are in deep and serous trouble.

The answer to these challenges of course is effective marketing, and systems for lead and relationship qualification and development. Setting numeric goals is important, and following guidelines and rules for relationship and business development can be helpful. Sometimes it is wise to work with large numbers.

For example, I cited the example that it is folly to blindly seek connections within the new electronic or social media groups. But since individual connections require little effort, and could in some way help your business, it isn't necessarily a bad sign to have a large online network. Your challenge is to communicate and give enough value to your group so that you can earn some "reciprocation" points -- at the right time, members will, knowing your business and its priorities, share valuable insights, leads or projects with you. (This is why you are best posting useful information rather than self-promotional notes when participating in online discussions and forums.)

When it comes to public RFPs and competitions, once again, you need to be pragmatic and selective. Rarely is it wise to go all the way in a public presentation exercise with the hope that you can perhaps win a future job; you need to find some way to find and develop your relationships away from the "stand em up and shoot them down" approach to business development.

But information about public proposals and projects may provide you with key insights into what is planned for the future, who the key players are, and where their network exists. You can decide if you want to invest time and energy in developing these relationships perhaps through selective association involvement, seeking relationships through your existing network, or the like.

If you need a short-term fix, your answer is either to connect with your existing clients and look for ways you can enhance or add on to their business (or simply in some cases, ask for a little work), or to figure out innovative adaptations to solve problems and present/communicate directly with your prospective clients, perhaps after building a knowledge base of referrals and connections.

In other words, if you know you can save money or provide value before the prospective client even is thinking of putting it out to public bid, you can develop your relationships and often gain an audience for an unsolicited proposal. This can be a lot of work, and you risk your efforts being "stolen" by someone already on the inside, but your chances are much better in succeeding than when you heed the cattle call and rush, like a lemming, to follow the crowd into preparing a submission to an open RFP where dozens have already applied.

How to win your pitch

Here's my video review of Joey Asher's book, How to Win a Pitch.

You also can read my earlier posting on this topic, which outlines his five fundamental points for success.

How to (really) win a pitch (2)

Joey Asher in his book, How to Win A Pitch, outlines five fundamental points. Here they are:
(I'm stretching copyright but don't think he will mind me repeating this page:)

Fundamental number one: Make sure your presentation focuses on one thing: your prospect's needs. No one cares about your firm's history. Your prospect only cares about how you will help them solve their business problems.

Fundamental number two: Keep your message simple Most presentations are too complex and try to make too many points. Your message will stand out if it's simple and disciplined.

Fundamental number three: Show passion. Most presenters speak with a boring "serious" business voice. You will separate yourself if your voice and face show that you really want this job. Be intense. Be passionate.

Fundamental number four: Make the presentation as interactive as possible. Interaction allows the prospect to get a true sense of who you really are. That separates you from the competition.

Fundamental number five: Rehearse. One of the best ways to show that you really care is to come in well practiced. It's always apparent to the prospect who has researched the most. That is another separator.

Execute these fundamentals every time you deliver a pitch and you'll win more than your fair share of presentations.

Here, I'll disagree slightly with Asher. You won't win "more than your fair share" of presentations -- you'll win your presentations because you deserve to win them.

In an email overnight, Asher wrote:

Hi Mark.

Thanks for the great review! and I completely agree with your take on presentations in the AEC market. I'm going to do my best to drive people to your site. I want everyone reading your review!

BTW. The book is going to be available on Amazon in May. The official release date to the book trade is May 19. It's available now at www.speechworks.net.

Asher also can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JoeyAsher. I'm at: http://twitter.com/publisher10

How to (really) win a pitch

When Joey Asher approached me with an invitation to review his book: How to Win a Pitch: The Five Fundamentals That Will Distinguish You from the Competition my first reaction, frankly, was to recoil.

The word "pitch" conveys everything that is wrong about marketing within the AEC environment -- the stand-em-up, shoot-em-down BS-filled presentation which will never work unless you are so well connected with the project that you really shouldn't need to pitch, anyways . . .

Well, turns out Asher and I agree on the basics: Most pitches are terrible, and most pitches fail because they are, well, pitches!

(Asher doesn't define it this way, but I'll give my definition of a "Pitch". You receive your RFP or "Invitation to Bid" and you bring out your team and hash out some ideas, then show up with your standard power point presentation, and proceed to, boringly, "dazzle" your prospective clients, who had actually chosen someone else already . . .)

Asher makes it quite clear that in most cases you haven't got a chance in a thousand to win this type of "pitch". You have to have a relationship with the people and organization to whom you are presenting -- at least enough of a relationship to know the story behind the story; the real reason they have requested your proposal, and then, your job is to develop a well-thought and researched (and enthusiastic) presentation showing the prospective client how you can actually and truly solve the potential client's challenges.

In other words, you need to wire this story in your favour before you even go into the conference room to deliver your presentation. And you want an environment where the people in the room are peppering you with questions, so much that your focus is engaged in a conversation rather than a "pitch" with the people to whom you hope to do business with.

Of course, once you've done your homework, and followed Asher's advice, you'll likely stand out from the crowd. His point is if you make it to the point where you are on the short list of finalists, you obviously have enough technical capability to win the work: So the real decision is going to be on how you relate to the people who are making the decision -- and the best way you can relate to them is to share real ideas and insights, and involve them in the process, and be really prepared.

There's lots of good stuff in this book. Asher is effectively using it to promote his pitch-preparation and coaching business. But you don't need to pay for his extended services to gain value.

So, he succeeded.

Asher's "pitch" worked because he knew his market and the obvious relevance of his book to this blog.

Next posting, I'll share with you his five fundamentals.

If you want to buy the book, you can find it at Amazon.

Proposals . . . and proposals

Architectural, engineering and construction industry marketers face constant challenges in responding to RFP deadlines -- especially when technical staff fail to provide materials in a timely manner. Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) members recently discussed these issues on their email Listserve.

Many members of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) have the sometimes unenviable task of preparing the documentation for RFP (Request for Proposals) submissions for large scale architecture, engineering or construction projects. The problem is the people doing this work are not the technical experts: They can't (themselves) decide if the proposal makes sense, has a realistic chance of success, and should be submitted in the first place. Adding to the problem, the technical specialists are often 'too busy' on current projects to bother providing the documentation and resources necessary to complete the proposal, so they wait until the very last second. And things are even worse now, because with work drying up, companies are rushing out more and more proposals for "possibilities" rather than "probabilities" in the faint hope that somehow the out-of-the-blue proposal will stick.

Jack Hennings at Bartlett & West headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, observed:

Please don't all laugh at this.

Getting technical staff to meet proposal production schedules has always been a challenge. The task of developing persuasive project approaches and updating project profiles and team resumes frequently takes second (or third) place on the priority lists of busy engineers faced with client deadlines.

We have lived with this for years and tried to manage it as best we could. And, of course, we have never missed a submittal deadline.

With the economic downturn has come increased competition for a shrinking number of projects, and the situation has gotten worse. In addition, firms are going after more and more projects.

Our marketing coordinator is facing situations where PMs are turning in key elements of proposals just hours before it is due with increasing frequency.

I won't ask how many of you are seeing similar trends. The question is, what practical steps are you taking to keep technical staff on a schedule to make sure not only that a proposal is submitted on time but that the process has had the necessary time for effective quality control.

Share your secret weapons!

Larisa Langley at Facility Programming and Consulting in Texas, responded with a short (and elegantly simple) solution:

Don't laugh at this back.

Lie about the deadline.

Others shared more comprehensive answers.

Fellow SMPS Marketer contributor Matt Handal at Trauner Consulting Services in Pennsylvania, wrote:

Jack and everyone.

I wrote an article called "What if the proposal doesn't get there." It appeared in the August 2007 Marketer. I think the whole issue can be downloaded from the SMPS website. I suggest anybody who interacts with proposals read it.

Here is what I said regarding this problem back then.

Solutions
1. Remember this is your responsibility. If there is anything you can do to work around them, do it. Don't wait for their piece to do everything else.
2. Be proactive with help. If you feel confident enough to take a first stab at the technical approach, do it. You probably read a million of these and your best attempt might be equal to their version of "calling it in." It may be less intimidating for them if they only have to improve upon what you have already done. Just make sure your first draft doesn't end up in the final proposal.
3. Be empathetic, often these people are "last minute" because they have too much on their plate. Think in terms of what you can do to help them.
4. Never be late with your internal deadlines. You must lead the proposal process by example.
5. Decide on a firm deadline for their section and then move that deadline back a day or two.
6. Talk in terms of when the proposal is "going out" not when it is "due."
7. Never lie about deadlines, but refer to #5 and #6.

PMs giving you stuff "hours before it is due" is not something you fix in a day. Because you enabled that behavior for so long. Its going to take some time to change behaviors, starting with yours.

I personally schedule proposals going backwards. The due date is when it gets delivered. The day before that its in the air, on the ground, or in an email. The day before that it is in production. The day before that we need a full day for revisions. The day before that we need a full day of review. And the words "Proposal is due on ____" never crosses my or any of our marketers lips. We always say the "proposal is going out on _______." People now ask "When is this proposal going out?"

You have to get it out of your head and the heads of others that proposals get delivered the day they are due.

Another thing that I mention in the article is that this whole proposal thing is your responsibility. If that technical person gets hit by a truck, the owner is still going to expect you to get that proposal to its destination. So the question is not "how can i get them to do this by the right timeline?" The question is "what physical thing can I do to help them get this done within the timeline?" That may entail you and
your co-ordinators "stepping up their game." Going from someone who listens to a song to someone who can pick up a guitar and play the song. You don't have to be a Beatle to play a Beatles song. And you don't have to know how to design a streetscape to draft a proposal about how you will design the best streetscape project.

You gotta give to get. The "This is my job. That is your job." mentality is BS. Too many marketers have it and it only causes internal strife. One thing I did at my job was tear down a 20-year long animosity-filled relationship between marketing and the technical staff. If you honestly care about them, show compassion, and go the extra mile...they will do the same for you. Proposal success is often dependent on the internal relationships you build.

P.S. Lying is never a good strategy in this life.

Pamela Rigling Caffrey, Director of Marketing at John Poe Architects, Inc. in Dayton, Ohio, observed:

I learned very early on not to wait for project approaches, work plans, schedules, etc. After the first couple, I started writing them myself. You will be amazed at how
much you can regurgitate, just by having read a few and learning the lingo. And I would say that, as a GENERAL rule, marketing professionals are better writers than technical professionals. I also think the technical folks find it more palatable to edit something rather than write from scratch. And they like bullet points. If you ask for bullet points (which you can then eloquently transfer into poignant, passionate
and persuasive prose) you are much more likely to get something back.

The December issue of "Marketer" has a cover story that asks "What does it take to get to this table?" I would say we have to immerse ourselves in this world to the point where we can confidently author project approaches and work plans. We need the technical people to review things, answer questions and guide our understanding of project work but I think it might be easy to pile things on them that we should be able to do ourselves.

Marketing IS the voice of this business. Don't buy into the intimidated belief that we are on the outside looking in to some mysterious, inexplicably technical world. Jump in there and grab the bull by the horns! Think of how empowering it will be to not have to wait on someone else!

Here are my thoughts on this issue:

• The most important thing in RFP situations is the 'go/no go' decision. You need to know whether you have a reasonable probability of success. Most publicly set proposals are wired ahead of time and you won't win the job no matter how much effort you put into it; and if you put in a half-baked effort you will undoubtedly lose. You need to ask "why bother" before even straiting the process.
• Really good internal communications processes are absolutely essential. Hopefully your business has a systematized weekly meeting process. In these routine meetings (which can be co-ordinated by teleconference for remote offices) clear rules and schedules are set and followed -- and you don't waste time. You may find effective a meeting process including review of go/no go decisions, and then, once they are made, specific action item commitments on the part of technical and marketing staff.
• The marketing department should have template material honed and developed over time for the basic proposal structure. This will lessen the stress and speed up production and sign-off of the document. Note: There is an argument that a picture is worth 1,000 words, so include images of relevant work examples if allowed in the RFP documentation rules.

Finally, although Laurisa Langley's answer "lie about the deadline" is probably not the entire solution (or even the right answer), something is said for simple, brief, and insightful solutions (which this blog posting is definitely not!). Does it feel right to proceed? Is this a waste of time? You need to know -- and have the courage -- when, and how, to say "no" to wasteful or ineffective proposals. Otherwise, you are wasting your company's time and draining its energy from real opportunities.

Proposal development costs (one solution)

For AEC businesses, one of the biggest marketing costs is the challenging and expensive business of preparing responses to RFPs and tender opportunities. Much time and work must be put into the process, especially for complex projects -- where estimating and budgeting errors would result in horrendous losses if you bid too low.

Of course the best way to get around this problem is to respond only to RFPs where you are sure (or at least likely) to win: This is especially important in situations where the game is wired in and set up in favor of one business or another.

Really successful marketers take things a step further -- they get their clients to pay for their proposal preparation. In other words, not only do they wire things in their favour, but they actually receive cash to get started.

This happens when the trust between you and your client are high enough that your client, appreciating the effort involved, and really wanting you to succeed, is willing to help out. You don't of course abuse this respect: The money you charge is at the low end of your billing spectrum and you may expect just hard cost recovery.

But even if you need to go out of pocket in your proposal preparation, I would advocate strongly you spend more on fewer proposals -- make the ones you really want to win so incredibly good, and well researched, that you will get to the short-list, and then, prepare properly for the final presentation, even if you know you have a natural edge or 'in' (and these are frankly, with few exceptions, the only proposals I would bother submitting.)

Recently, we enjoyed the experience of preparing a winning proposal. Our team took time to prepare an exceptionally detailed graphic presentation. The day arrived for formal presentations, and we arrived early. The chair of the committee greeted us warmly outside the meeting room, saying he was happy to see us, considering that some of the other people scheduled to present seemed to be late or absent.

Sitting in the reception area, we watched as two other candidates for the competition arrived, and then went into the meeting room to make their presentation. I found the experience of watching the 'others' go into the lions den somewhat saddening -- did they not know who would win this one? (Though the other candidates may have suspected something was 'up' -- our team had three people ready to go into the room, they were walking in alone.)

Our turn came up, and we made our proposal clear, and then equally made it clear that we weren't going to 'buy' the job -- either by over promising sales totals, or by guaranteeing significant revenue sharing with the prospective clients.

I knew things were working well when, after our presentation (the last of the day), the entire committee applauded. (Sheesh, this is a somewhat technical proposal, not a concert performance, but I suppose we got the technique right.) Not surprisingly, an hour later, we received the acceptance call, and the project is now well under way (and significantly ahead of projections.)

The point here is that you really need to think carefully about how you go about participating and responding to RFP situations -- pull out the stops, and do a great job (and spend money) on the ones where you know you should win because of your connections, relationships, and inside knowledge, or when you know the competition is truly fair and no one has an edge. (It sometimes happens that way, if rarely). If you have the inside track and a good idea where the proposal process itself may be of value to your client, I wouldn't be afraid to ask for compensation, at least for cost recovery, in setting things up.) Then, you may find that, your marketing process becomes cost neutral or in the best of circumstances a revenue source.

The complex proposal process: Who should be involved?

The Art of Engineering is one of several publications/resources available at the Aker Solutons website.

Nicole Dufour, Business Development Manager at Wink Design Group in New Orleans, LA, posted this crucially important question on the SMPS members' listserve today:

To what extent should or do Architects, Engineers, Technical Staff, etc. participate in the proposal process? I'm involved in a discussion about this and I really need your input.

* One school of thought says that marketing should be responsible for putting together everything, including technical narratives and information for final review by project manager. In one job description, I have seen the following: Marketing should "research, write and edit proposals for final review by management, requiring only limited input on content for architecture/engineering teams."

* However, my school of thought and -- practice over the years -- has been to do this more as a team effort from the very beginning. Everyone, the Architects and Engineers and marketing department, agree at the beginning on the proposal content and each plays a role in pulling it together.

You kick off the process with a meeting with the principal-in-charge or project manager and other key team members; organize the proposal process and teams; work together to create an outline; designate which narratives or information should be provided by principal or key team members and marketing; interview principal or team members if they can't provide it in writing themselves; interact and communicate with consultants; oversee graphic design, production, etc. This also includes research, writing and editing, of course. But my point is, I see this process as a team effort.

What do y'all think?

Her posting elicited these responses. Marcia Kellog, Marketing Manager at Standard Builders in Newington, CT, wrote:

Your school of thought is correct IN THEORY, however, as you and many of us can attest to, this is not one of the best practices utilized by most design firms. Having worked on the design side of the industry for 15 years, I have found that this rate of dysfunction increases with the amount of proposals that are processed. Technical staff are scrambling to meet deadlines too, and a marketing meeting to review proposal outlines is the last thing they want to do.

My suggestion would be to review the RFQ/RFP as early as possible and make a separate sheet of crib notes, or better yet, right on the RFP page, and make enough copies to the appropriate individuals. Along with this information, I would make a list of bullet points for the project that may include, discussion points and questions that need responses, etc. Then on your cover sheet provide the project statistics along with a proposal process timeline. If you do not get any response to this memo, then I would issue a meeting invite, stressing the urgency of the meeting to get all required input so that the proposal can be as comprehensive and custom as possible.

Providing them with this information as early as possible will be helpful and provide them with a head start, so that they feel as if they do not have to start with nothing. The input you get in this meeting will provide you with enough information to begin preparing the proposal, and hopefully, others in the group will have their assignments for information gathering and narrative writing.

That's the extent of the research you should provide at this point, and it will fuel the discussion so that your marketing meeting can be productive. You can spend the same amount of time preparing boiler plate proposals, but I guarantee you that it is a waste of time and money for your firm, and the results will be realized in your hit/win rate.

Later in the day, Ellen Moore, Communications Manager, Sales and Marketing, at Aker Solutions in Houston, TX, observed:

Once a person has walked through the proposal process here, there can be NO doubt that proposal development MUST be a team effort. Our proposals require very detailed technical information, which must come from our engineers and engineering technicians; a price component derived by hours and hours of very complex costing work by procurement; the costs involved in moving people and raw materials to destinations where project work will be done, as estimated by our planners; the labor hours, attendant costs, and time required to manufacture and transport finished equipment, as calculated by manufacturing estimators; and three or four other categories of very unique-to-our-industry proposal information that must be provided by people with very specialized skills.

Then, of course, there are those of us who actually put all those pieces together,
review, rewrite, return for revision by one or more departments, then produce these proposals. There is NO WAY any proposal here could be generated without the
There is NO WAY any proposal here could be generated without the participation of all these proposal team members.

That being the case, and given the trackable costs involved in proposal production, I
simply cannot understand how senior managers can overlook the chunk of change they pay annually for proposals -- especially for proposals their firms lose. Immediately, many of these managers will say that the more time technical staff spends working on proposals, the higher the cost. I beg to differ. If the managers of the technical staff are on the ball and supervising effectively, a planned approach and use of SCHEDULED (and therefore, limited) time on the part of the technical staff can create both a winning proposal AND an acceptable labor cost for their work on the proposal. Unfortunately, what I observed hundreds of times over the years is that technical staff (engineers, in my case) were assigned to develop technical input for proposals. Very few engineers (in my experience and observation) like or want to do proposals. Most believe proposal work is not important, or at least, not nearly so important as project work. Many engineers believe so because that is the attitude and behavior their managers emulate. Their managers believe it because they see and emulate the behavior of their managers -- the senior principals or officers of the firm. The result? Engineers assigned to the proposal find every imaginative excuse NOT to work on their assignments until the last 36 hours before the proposal goes into production, OR until the poor Marketing Coordinator starts beating on them. Then, at the last possible moment, the engineers -- possibly inspired by a motivating visit from their manager, who just heard from the Marketing Manager -- finally start working, and spend from 10 to 20 hours doing work that really should have taken perhaps 6 or 8 hours.

I know this, because at a previous employer, when overall marketing costs rocketed to 10% of the firm's annual revenue, and the hit rate plummeted in the same year(going back to the issue of very expensive losing proposals), the senior officers put their collective foot down. One of the new rules they mandated was that each practice area manager MUST attend every proposal kick-off meeting if that proposal would require input from one or more of their subordinates. Moreover, thosepractice area managers were accountable for the number of hours each approved on his or her subordinates' timesheets for proposal work -- which, by the by, began being charged to the unique number assigned to each proposal, eliminating a lot of payday "dodge and weave." Any total in excess of 10 hours charged on one timesheet to one proposal number and approved by that engineer's manager bought the manager theopportunity to explain to the firm President WHY that much time was required by one person.

Of course this precipitated MUCH wailing and gnashing of engineer teeth. BUT, in short order (about 3 months), I noticed a significant change for the better: Engineers
assigned to develop technical input for proposals were actually meeting 65% of their internal deadlines. Amazing! And, the quality of the information they provided was noticeably better. And, in about another 3 months, we began to win projects for which we proposed. And -- because we monitored proposal preparation costs VERY closely -- we began to see a noticeable decline in the cost of technical labor hours allocated to proposals. And, although the engineers still did not like doing work for proposals, they were complaining less.

Human nature being what it is, various proposal team members embrace their assignments with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Of course there are team members who push the limits of everyone's patience and goodwill. Of course deadlines are missed without good reason. Of course we who make proposals feel that back-to-the-wall is a chronic condition. And we do wonder at our own stress, extreme pressure, frustration, and ingratitude on the part of our internal clients. BUT -- in the last 12 months, we have wracked up a significant win rate. In the last 16 months, the cost of our proposal making has stabilized and is more easily managed now. There IS growing awareness among my firm's senior management about the importance of the proposal process AND the contributions of those who labor in the Proposals group. Those are all significant improvements.

Yes, we certainly do have proposal TEAMs here. And, as in families, although you frequently do not get to choose who your relatives are, you might as well make the best of it, because you are all in the same boat -- at least for the duration of the proposal.

Clearly, this dialogue shows the important challenges and business decisions involved in preparing proposals and competing for important, complex, and challenging projects. Marketing here encompasses a range of issues -- the dynamics of internal communication, the actual expertise of your company's staff (both technical and marketing), and the subtle and not so subtle internal and external forces that go into the ultimate decision-making processes. Clearly, you need to be successful on several levels to achieve marketing success, including knowing which RFPs to answer, and, then, once the "go" decision is made, how to respond in the most effective and compliant manner possible.

This is not the stuff of amateurs. It is expensive and risky, but vital to your business success. And the thoughts here show why, if you belong to an AEC business doing this type of high-end stuff, you should be a member of your local SMPS chapter. You'll have a network of peers for support and, in many cases, for joint ventures in preparing the complex submissions and winning the sophisticated projects that require more expertise than your firm alone can handle.

Bernie Siben

Persue the client -- not the project

Bernie Siben's blog, in his August posting, "The Wrong Stuff Part 3" makes a solid point about why you should not persue RFPs where your business doesn't already have a relationship/inside track. He says this type of initiative, besides wasting your time, could irritate your potential future clients because you are wasting their time, as well.

Your opportunity to express your viewpoints in a special survey

Image from facilityplanners.com (Brailsford & Dunlavey)

The high cost of bidding and RFPs

How much does it cost to prepare bids and RFP responses? Are there problems with owners and consultants either downloading bidding costs on your business; or are the requirements to prepare the bids increasing your costs substantially?

These are rather important questions because in the construction industry and allied professions, the ultimate point of marketing is to win the opportunity to bid on projects you have a good likeliness to win, and profitably conclude. So we've set out to find some answers to the bidding cost questions with a special survey, which you may have received if you are a subscriber to the Construction Marketing Ideas newsletter.

You can complete the survey by going to this link. I welcome your comments.