Really Busy? Now's the Time to Get Marketing Working for You

Business is booming, so why take the time to read an article on marketing? You have more pressing matters, don't you? Depends on your perspective. Are you just riding the wave for as long as it lasts or are you planning ahead for sustained success in any economy? Are you taking whatever sales opportunities come along or are you specifically targeting certain markets and clients for growth?

Here's the thing: Marketing (as contrasted with sales) is almost never a priority in the A/E business. When times are good, we're happy to think that marketing is humming along in the background, keeping our name out there and polishing our reputation in the public square. But when business drops off significantly, marketing is one of the first expenses to be cut (witness the many marketers shown the door during the Great Recession).

Odd, isn't it? When we need new business the most, marketing is one function we decide we need the least. Why? Because most firms don't really expect much from marketing, and they don't track marketing outcomes enough to know really what to expect.

The crux of the matter, in my opinion, is the loose connection that typically exists between marketing and sales. This came into focus again for me as I was assessing the marketing function for a mid-sized engineering firm. In interviewing their key seller-doers, several openly questioned how much marketing contributes to their sales success. Even those who viewed marketing most favorably could only speculate how marketing might improve their ability to sell.

Why do we need marketing if not to help us sell more? The problem is that most firms can't explicitly show where marketing improves sales performance. The benefit is only assumed. Now is the time to put such assumptions to rest and identify demonstrable ways that marketing increases sales success. Why now? Because when your seller-doers are too busy to sell, you need effective marketing to help keep the pipeline full. Marketing also helps you better position your firm with the markets and clients you really want to do business with.

Another key reason for investing in marketing now, as I alluded to at the beginning of this article, is building a hedge for the inevitable downturn. It's always easier to optimize your business development process in good times than when you're desperate for work. The Great Recession hit most firms hard, but others did pretty well. The primary difference between the two groups, according to research, was not external circumstances but internal competencies. There's no better time than now to be strengthening your marketing capabilities.

I'm quite bullish on the potential of marketing to deliver tangible, bottom-line benefits in good and bad times. But not in the usual configuration. Marketing needs to go beyond the ethereal image building and collateral creation, and help drive the sales process. It needs to be the clearinghouse for marketplace insights. It should be a prominent voice in shaping business development strategy. That's the role of marketing in most industries. Let's make it that way in ours.

A few thoughts on how to make that happen:

Your marketing should be a substantial lead generator. Done right, marketing and sales aren't just complementary activities; they are different stages of the business development process. Marketing attracts interested buyers; sales secures their commitment to do business together. Sound overly idealistic? Data and experience prove otherwise.
Let's first contrast two approaches to marketing: (1) outbound marketing (the traditional method) is centered on producing promotional content like press releases, advertisements, brochures, and newsletters that focus on your firm's activities and accomplishments; (2) inbound marketing is centered on producing educational content like articles, white papers, blog posts, regulatory alerts, conference presentations, seminars, webinars, and newsletters that focus on issues of vital interest to clients.

Now some data: Companies that employ inbound marketing generate over 3x as many sales leads and spend 62% less than those using traditional methods. Professional service firms that generate half their leads online through posting valuable content grow 4x faster (unfortunately, the A/E/C industry only produces 8% of its leads online). According to Zweig, A/E firms win 74% of the time when the sales lead comes through their website.

I could go on with the evidence, including from my own experience as an A/E firm marketer, but you get the point—the best way to start integrating the marketing and sales functions is to turn marketing into an effective lead generation machine.

Shift focus to creating content that serves clients. This is inherent in making the change to inbound marketing, but I think additional emphasis is warranted. Transitioning from self-congratulatory content to client-centered content is a big step for many marketers in our business. Unfortunately, many of them think they're already doing content marketing (essentially a synonym for inbound marketing) because, well, they're creating content. But content that serves the interests of clients is far more effective than the usual promotional content.

Seller-doers often help stunt the transition to client-centered content. What they usually want marketing to produce are service- and market-specific brochures and SOQs to hand out to buyers. But an article, white paper, or checklist that offers advice and information directly relating to the buyer's concerns works better, in my experience. Content that demonstrates your expertise is always better than content that just tells about it.

Don't let proposal production consume your marketing resources. This is the classic marketing challenge in smaller firms, and even in some larger ones. The so-called marketers in these firms spend the vast majority of their time working on proposals (a sales activity). But the real problem is that they often are spending 65-75% of their time on losing proposals. That's a tremendous opportunity cost.

I know, we've grown so accustomed to this that it's become normative in many firms. But firms in the top quartile in overall financial performance sport win rates of 10-15% higher than average. Best way to get there? Be relentlessly selective. One of my clients during the last recession, a 100-person engineering firm, was struggling mightily in acquiring new business. After studying their situation, I advised that they cut the number of proposals they submitted in half. They were stunned.

But eventually they (mostly) agreed to try my approach. They reduced the number of proposals the following year by 42%, increasing their win rate to 46% from 26%, and increasing sales by 31%. A key factor in their turnaround was reallocating marketing and seller-doer time to focus on higher-priority lead generation and sales pursuit management. That resulted in a much better integration of the two BD functions.

Consider getting marketers more actively involved in guiding key sales pursuits. I just made the case for preserving marketers' time for marketing. Do I now contradict myself? Technically yes, but I have a broader objective in mind—the integration of the marketing and sales process. Keeping marketers strictly within their marketing box doesn't help achieve this goal. Nor do we want seller-doers to be uninvolved in marketing. The two should work seamlessly.

The seller-doer model still predominates the A/E profession, and it has many advantages. One big disadvantage is that when seller-doers become overwhelmed with doing, they aren't likely to be doing much selling. Who will help maintain the focus on business development? It can be a sales-savvy marketer, particularly when it comes to major pursuits that deserve special attention. Such pursuits, done right, blend marketing and sales tactics over the course of the sales cycle in an orchestrated collaboration.

In many cases, marketers are better positioned to prioritize the sales process, keep it moving when the project workload tends to crowd out everything else, and see the big picture in weaving together a winning strategy. And you know what else? Such involvement in sales makes them better at marketing.

Invest appropriately in market and client research. Being something of a research wonk myself, I marvel at the paucity of business development-related research in the typical A/E firm. I remember the old days when market and client research involved a half-day trip to the university library. Now I can get better information online in a fraction of the time.

So why isn't such research on the increase? Same answer as above: Too busy. Same solution: Dedicate people to conducting regular research—marketers being a good choice. The benefits seem clear. One firm picks up market and client insights primarily from casual conversation with clients, consultants, contractors, and vendors. Another firm conducts regular research and knows the status of every facility in their region that they might have interest in working with. Which firm has the competitive advantage?

One study found that professional service firms that conduct ongoing research grow 10x faster and have 60% higher profits than firms that conduct no formal research. That finding jives with my experience with firms in both categories. There's no justification in the digital age for foregoing regular market and client research. I recommend assigning this responsibility primarily to marketing, which is where the function normally resides in other industries.

Imagine being the firm known for its thought leadership, delivered through a variety of media and formats. When clients consider certain issues and challenges they face, they naturally think of your firm because yours is the most visible in offering relevant advice and information. You receive frequent inquiries from prospective clients because of your client-centered marketing.

Those inquiries often lead to discussions about how you might help further—essentially the start of your sales process. That process guides a series of planned conversations leading to an eventual decision to do business together. By the time the RFP is released, your firm is at the head of the pack and knows exactly what they want to see in your proposal. Throughout the entire sales process, you are supplying the buyer with valuable content that helps them define the path forward.

This is the vision for a strong marketing function, merged with a seamless business development process (as illustrated below). Most A/E firms aren't there yet, in large part because the role of marketing hasn't been properly valued and aligned. There's no better time to take care of that shortcoming than now.