Business Details

BY FRANK A. STASIOWSKI, FAIA

Pursue clients, not projects

If your marketing program focuses on chas­ing projects, it's probably more expensive and less cost effective than it should be. It's probably not increasing your project win rate and ultimately will fail. I will explain in this article how to structure your marketing efforts around winning new clients, and, as a result, win their business again and again.

Before we get started, let's take a moment to examine why you and every other designer loses clients. PSMJ Resources, Inc. has done numerous studies on why clients defect from design firms. Every examination leads to the same conclusion: Your clients leave you because of your indifference, your lack of response and your unwillingness to do what is necessary to make your clients feel special. When your competitors pay more attention to your clients than you do, you lose clients. Need a second opinion on your client-management skills? Invest in a third-party perception survey and ask former clients directly.

Ten Client-Centric Strategies

1. Make clients feel special from the beginning. Little things make a huge difference. Respond quickly to phone calls and e-mails. Hand-deliver reports and other documents. Provide online access to project files. Share the home phone numbers of your key personnel. Invite clients to your company events. Clients need to feel like you are a partner in their business.
2. Be more personable than the competition. Communicate even when you don't have to. Set up regu­lar meetings with clients in person or by teleconference — preferably every week — whether you have something to report or not. Clients love the opportunity to check in with you, and it prevents them from interrupting you at inconvenient times with questions that can wait a few days. Send them copies of all project correspondence. Write regularly to let them know how smoothly the proj­ect is going because of their help, cooperation and respect for the schedule. Send short congratulatory notes when your clients are reported in a favorable light.
3. Tend to details. Date every paper that crosses your desk. Take notes on important phone calls. Remember and honor the details of the project. Show that you listen to the client and care about everything.
4. Confront problems directly. Tell the client about a problem immediately, accept responsibility, explain what you'll do about it and report back when you've solved it.
5. Directly benefit the client's cash flow. For example, a Maryland firm guarantees permitting for marginal land, then earns success fees for getting it done. An Ohio firm understands every process to get federal and state funding for public schools. Instead of being only a cost to their clients, these firms are contributing to the cash flow.
6. Work with the "hot buttons." Understand the issues that are driving the project and will determine its success. Everything about the project should relate to those issues. Some of the hot buttons might be hidden. For example, if your client is the mayor and he's up for re-election, he expects that the success of your project will help him win. Reinforce your understanding of your clients' hot-button issues by sending copies of articles that relate to their business, e-mailing Web sites that have beneficial information and telling them about important industry-related trends in their field.
7. Surprise clients. Provide something useful, unexpected and free. For example, print a special edition of your firm's newsletter and feature the client's project, then offer to provide reprints they can give to customers. We know one consultant who usually tells clients that a project will take a little longer than she thinks it will. She has a built-in leeway if she needs it, but normally doesn't, and surprises the client by finishing "early."
8. Do it faster, cheaper and better. While working on a project, you might discover a material, a process or an innovative idea that will improve the final results while making the project faster and cheaper. Share the benefits with your client.
9. Show your commitment. The best design-firm leaders are so committed to client service that this value becomes infused throughout the organization. Partners or principals put continuous energy into inventing new systems, techniques and processes to provide better service, and staff members are always implementing the improvements. Client service is built into performance reviews and salaries.
10. Build a family of loyal clients. Clients like to believe they used good judgment in hiring you. This belief will be confirmed when they meet other satisfied clients. Invent a reason to gather your clients together to network and share their own stories about your excep­tional firm. Traditionally, firms use golf outings or picnics for this purpose. But how about your own "client university" to provide continuing education for your clients, their staff and/or their families?

The Bonus Benefit of Pursuing Clients

When you pursue a client-centric strategy, you can also get key clients to be your trusted advisors — people to help you gain access to other key decision-makers in the markets you serve and communicate your unique competitive advantage. You should make the strengthening of your design firm/client relationship a factor in determining the success of your projects.

Some firms have established client advisory groups out of their best clients in order to gain critical insights into the markets they serve. These groups provide invaluable advice on how to promote the firm's brand image and educate prospective clients on the firm's services.

Don't forget: The average design firm spends about 80 percent of its business-development resources chasing new projects when most of the average firm's work comes from existing clients. Take care of the clients that take care of you.

For more on this topic, check out Winning More Profitable Work from Your Best Clients at www.psmj.com.

Frank A. Stasiowski, FAIA, is president of PSMJ Resources, Inc. in Newton, MA.