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April 2010 Newsletter
Welcome to the April Edition of AEC Managing Partner. In this months issue we are fortunate to have contributions by Barry Harrison of Resolve Digital and Brina Kinihan of Summit Performance Systems. In this Issue:
1. Creating Business Value Through Your Website - Barry Harrison
2. Preparing Your Firm For the Economic Turnround - Free Webinar April 15th
3. Leadership and the Flashlight Dilemna - Brian Kinihan
4. Dramatically Improving Cash Flow and Collections Webinar
Creating Business Value Through Your WebsiteBarry Harrison (BH) interviews Herbert M. Cannon (HC), one of the leading experts in Architecture and Engineering firm management. Although the focus of the interview is on A/E firms, Herb's comments apply to any professional service firm looking to get more business value from their site.BH. Most A/E firms have a website but few have a clear idea about how can it deliver business value. HC. The first thing potential clients do is check out your website. So your site's number one job is to establish your credibility. I don't believe any A/E firm has made a sale because of what someone saw on the website, but it has certainly started the sales process. It also plays a role confirming a decision the potential client already has in mind. BH. Does the website replace or supplement the print brochure? HC. The website has taken the place of the print brochure. When I started out in the A/E business, you had to have a brochure. It probably cost $25,000 to $50,000. The expense of a website is pretty much the same. Now firms have different sheets which they package depending on who they're sending to. BH. What about doing brochures through the website? HC. I look at a lot of A/E websites and I've only seen one case and I'm really impressed with their ability to do this. The firm is RTKL. Their website is a great model of how to convey useful information to prospective clients. BH. What makes a good website for an A/E firm? HC. A good website provides meaningful information. It positions the firm as an expert in the field and particular project type the prospect is interested in. The big mistake most firms make is talking far too much about themselves and their philosophy. Nobody cares about their philosophy! Think about the decision-maker who visits your website. He's asking: "Does this firm demonstrate an understanding of my business?" BH. When you see, for example, several high-rise projects on an architect's site you feel a certain confidence. But pictures aren't enough to tell you "we understand your business." What else can they do? HC. Good pictures are important. Clients want to see photos of completed projects, not renderings. Here's one thing A/E firms should be doing: Case Studies. From the architect's point of view, the project stops once the building is completed and occupied. But in the client's mind, the majority of the story is just beginning. Nobody's going back a year later, three years later, to ask: "How is it functioning?" Another example: Engineers project energy savings and clients invest money expecting to recoup their investment over a certain period of time. Go back and ask "Did it meet our expectations? Did it exceed them?" I know a developer of an office tower whose savings far exceeded the estimates. There are stories to be told. We're not capturing or sharing those stories that are so meaningful to prospective clients. BH. How many projects should an A/E firm show on their website? Firms in business for a long time may have, for example, 40 or 50 completed school projects. Do they show them all? HC. Showing too much can hurt unless you don't have good images. I'd divide them into sub-categories by year completed, or region, or grade, or all of the above. Consider a "featured project" section to showcase your best projects. It's important to demonstrate depth of experience but not every project belongs in your portfolio. A list of completed projects can be a great supplement. BH. What information about the staff and principals should A/E firms include? HC. It comes back to offering information that establishes credibility. It's nice to have a photo. Visitors want to know where the principals went to school, their professional designations, awards, and the major projects they've headed. Employee info beyond the principal level can become a tool for recruiters so you have to be careful. BH. How can your website address visitors in the research stage? HC. Say someone comes to me with a request: "Herb, find 5 local architecture firms that have completed major university projects in the last 3 years." I'd research 10 -- 15 firms to come up with the list. I need to be able to find the information quickly. Sites with simple navigation, clear project categories and succinct descriptions make my task easier. So many firms' sites are caught up with being clever at the expense of usability. If you think about a person needing to come up with a list of firms in two days, they don't have an hour to spend on each website. BH. Many firms seen enamored of Flash. What is your opinion of Flash websites? Is it necessary for branding? Continue reading the interview http://www.aecmanagementsolutions.com/public/229.cfm Visit Resolve Digital Preparing Your Firm for the Economic Turnaround A Free 1-hour Webinar April 15th 10am - 11am PT / 11am - 12pm MT12pm - 1pm CT / 1pm - 2pm ET
Are you ready for the economic recovery? Are all the pieces in place to take maximum advantage of the upcoming opportunities? During the go-go years of never ending economic expansion most firms had more work than they could handle. Their main focus was on hiring enough people to get the work done on time. An unfortunate consequence of too much work is that it masks the problems that invariably creep into most organizations. When revenue is running at 110% of maximum capacity some areas of the firm simply get neglected. Now that we are seeing the first signs of an economic turnaround every firm should be taking action to identify and resolve these problems . This Webinar will outline an action plan that will help you to take maximum advantage of the economic recovery. Presented by Herbert Cannon of AEC Management Solutions, Inc. Herbert Cannon founded AEC Management Solutions in 2000 with the simple goal of helping A/E firms of all sizes earn the profits they deserve for their creative efforts. He has over 25 years of hands-on experience and is one of the nation's leading experts in the management of A/E firms. Sponsored by Axium Software Leadership and the Flashlight DilemnaBrian Kinihan Summit Performance Systems I recently wrote about a universal framework that business leaders can use to reliably generate greater profits and higher morale. The framework I described is similar to other powerful business methods, processes, frameworks, and interventions in one important way: you have to actually use it to get the benefit. That's what I call the flashlight dilemma: a flashlight is a powerful and simple tool, but a flashlight that isn't turned on will not light the darkness. I think most of us who have been around for a while have observed thatknowing what to do is often easier than doing it. This is clearly the case in business, where there are thousands of business books, seminars, experts, and consultants. Most all have something valuable to offer. But all present the same challenge: how to get people to act on what they've learned. One reason people don't act is because the solution seems simple at first but is actually more complicated than expected. We can't really know what it takes to do something until we try it ourselves, and when we do we sometimes find it's too hard. But we also fail to act in situations when the solution is quite simple. For example, we all presumably want to be fit and trim, and it's simple enough to do -- i.e. eat less and exercise more -- but do we? We usually don't, and that's because we don't want it badly enough to start with or we get discouraged and stop half way through. Another challenge mentioned by David Maister (a management guru for professional service organizations) in his recent book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is that people find it hard to sacrifice today for a long term payoff when things today seem "good enough". To overcome these challenges, individuals sometimes hire coaches (e.g. fitness coaches, life coaches, career coaches), and sports teams always have coaches. But what about companies? Companies have leaders (aka CEOs). Leaders: " Help people accept short term pain for long term gain " Identify practical, doable ways to achieve the gain " Keep the team motivated to go the distance What are some ways leaders do this? Short term pain for long term gain " Leaders help the organization identify vivid and exciting long term objectives (e.g., #1 in our industry) that drive the requisite new behaviors. In doing so they create a sense of excitement about how things could be better and simultaneously create dissatisfaction with today's "good enough" so that it no longer appears so. Practical ways to achieve the gain " Leaders find time-proven, practical ways to achieve business success. (e.g., strategies, tools, processes). Some of these are better than others and some are more appropriate to a company's needs than others. Picking the right one is critical. " Leaders also give people the training and tools they need to do what is necessary. They don't set ambitious goals without appropriately equipping people to achieve them. Staying motivated " Leaders keep the long term vision alive so that people remain excited about it even when faced with daily difficulty in achieving the vision. " Leaders provide encouragement by celebrating interim achievements. " And, perhaps most importantly, leaders convey through their words and actions that they will most definitely see the project through to the end.
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