Transcript- 2021 Planning and Budgeting: What AEC Firms Should Include in their Sales & Marketing Plans Next Year
Katie Cash:
Hi everyone. Katie Cash here and thank you for joining us today for the AEC Marketing for Principals podcast. It is that time of year folks. We are nearing the home stretch of 2020. I know if you are like me, we are so ready for this year to be over. But now is the time to start thinking about 2021 and setting those marketing budgets and getting your marketing plans in order for what next year looks like. And under typical circumstances, you know, clients and firms across the design and construction space would be setting their marketing budgets aside for, you know, things like websites or branding initiatives, or they might be putting money aside for communications consultants, either for internal or external needs. Some of them might be looking at allocating funds for business development and client entertainment activities. Remember those things? Like golf tournaments and trade shows, conferences, you know, big client events? And, you know, those are the typical line items we would normally see during annual budget planning. But we all know that 2020 was no normal year and things have been a lot different. And so those line items that you had planned for in 2020 got reallocated. And now as you sit here planning for 2021, if you were like any of our clients, you might be scratching your head trying to figure out, well, what do we keep that used to be the way we go to market or we would approach sales and business development, pre pandemic? And what are some of the activities that we’ve been doing here recently that we want to continue doing?
So I’m really excited to be talking about this topic with you today. And I thought there’s nobody else. I’d rather share our thoughts and perspectives with on it rather than Judy Sparks. So, Judy, I know today we’re gonna be talking about, you know, how should firms reallocate dollars that were typically reserved for the high touch society into the new low touch economy that we are anticipating we’re going to stay at for the next few months or foreseeable future. So let’s get started.
Judy Sparks:
Awesome. Katie, I’m so glad we’re talking about this and taking the time to really focus on it. I know we started season two of our podcast introducing a new word for many, the word liminal. I learned, I came across this word and I thought wow we really are living in a liminal space and you know, it really signifies a space where we know where we’ve been, but we don’t quite know where we’re going. So it’s just this great transitional time. And we find ourselves here. I’m trying to look into a crystal ball and say, you know, what is next year going to look like for the built environment? How strong will the economy be? How do we plan for the unexpected? And so you’re right, firms are looking at their marketing expenditures differently than they have in previous years. And personally, I think it’s a really good thing. I think that, you know, the industry as a whole has become a little stagnant, a little comfortable with, you know, Hey, we’ve always gone to this trade show, so we need to do it again. My favorite is if we don’t go, they’re going to think we’re out of business. Well, for all of you, who’ve been on the fence about, do we continue to do this or do we not continue to do this? And maybe there’s some relationships that you have to consider in that decision. You will never have a better time than now to make that change. And people will understand because everybody is changing their plans right now. So I think it is an opportunity in disguise for AEC firms to really rethink where do we get the highest ROI from our marketing spend? Let’s really examine what’s working for us.
Katie Cash:
Yeah. And I think, you know, it’s kind of sad reflecting on this fact, but you know, that the design and construction industry traditionally are not very early adopters when it comes to how they approach sales or marketing tactics. And it really did change how our industry, as a whole went to market when, you know, the nation was shut down because of COVID. And so, you know, as I’ve talked with some clients, they’ve shared some little stories and they go, telling me, Hey, we’ve been rear ended to this version of, you know, online marketing, and some of them are really excited about it. Some of them have really caught the bug if you will. But I mean, just looking at, at how this year has changed for me, when I used to jump on a plane and travel all over to coach teams getting ready for in person interviews while I’m doing all of that.
Now from behind a screen talking about, you know, how do you not have resting Zoom face and looking engaging for a virtual interview. You know, how do you master that version of empathy and connecting with an audience when you’re doing it from a screen and also talking about how you keep your brand relevant. You mentioned going to trade shows and conferences. Well, in lieu of that, we’re working a lot with clients on managing their brand online through digital avenues, just to keep their brand top of mind, making sure they know that they have not gone out of business. So whether it’s organic social media or paid advertising, or some clients that have really jumped ahead and launched their own podcast or some doing webinars, it’s really, really exciting to see the evolution kind of happen quickly in the design and construction space where they really adopted some of these tried and true methods that other B2B industries have been using for a while. I think I read recently, you know, just looking at LinkedIn from January to now they’ve seen a 29% uptick in sessions and they’re out there approaching roughly 700 million members. And, you know, I think we’re still having those conversations with some firms, but most firms now at least understand that they should be online and that they should have company profiles on LinkedIn. So I think we’re moving the needle in the right direction, but let’s talk a little bit about the future and, you know, help our listeners out there that are trying to determine what they should be planning for for 2021. And I think Judy, you and I talked about, you know, five key things that we want to make sure you guys are planning for in the future. And the first one I think we want to start with today is just this whole idea of investing time and resources around seller doer development.
Judy Sparks:
Right. So seller doers are or a seller doer model I should say is definitely the dominating sales model in our industry. The truth is, is that, you know, the design and construction industry sells solutions most of the time to really complex problems. And when you’re selling professional services, typically the owner prefers to buy from the expert. So while some firms do have dedicated business developers and what a blessing they are, I tell you if you work at a company that actually affords some luxury of having somebody full time on your payroll, that does nothing but develop business for the firm. That really is phenomenal, but you know, that person or even handful of people, there’s only so many hours in the day. And so I think that the idea that it’s everybody’s job to sell, I mean, it’s going to persist forever. I think as a business owner myself, I have an expectation that if you are a part of my company and you come to work every day with a Smartegies hat on, then you are a part of the solution.
And part of the solution is to sell the brand and sell the promise. And so I think that’s true for most of our clients. So seller doers are not off the hook when a BD person is in place. And now that we have this new normal of connecting with people through technology, it’s a really great opportunity for seller-doers to hone their skills. So we are seeing a lot of companies, very focused on training, doing sales and marketing training with their seller doers. I think firms are really starting to realize that this is not something that people can do intuitively these these, you know, seller doers are wicked smart people. They can solve the most complex problems when it comes to your facilities, but when you look at their training and their background and the curriculum that they had in their college years those soft skills of how do you influence and entertain audiences where they would want to do business with you is something that definitely deserves training. And, you know, we talk a lot about, Katie, how important it is when every shortlist is comprised of qualified firms. It’s very, very rare these days to see a shortlist with four or five firms that do not really neutralize one another, because they all have deep resumes or they all have a strong connection or relationship with the owner. So how do you cultivate your seller doers to play the long game? How do you, you know, teach them how to build sustainable relationships for the long term? And so that is, you know, big picture seller doer training, and then there’s tactical things like, how do you give a presentation properly? Right. I mean, we are doing so much presentation training these days and everyone on the shortlist is qualified. So you are literally winning it or losing it in an interview. And then you couple that with the fact that it was hard to make a connection when you’re in the same room, now you’re going to do it through a screen. So for firms out there that feel like they can throw their seller doers into an interview environment through a Zoom lens, and that they’re going to excel at it with no formal training. I mean, there are firms that can pull that off, but most of the ones that we know and that we talk to most of our clients admit, well, I really would rather avoid that embarrassing moment. And I would rather arm my seller doers with the proper training and confidence that they need to forge ahead and be successful. So we’re seeing a lot of seller doer investment going on, and I think it’s all their professional development, like you say.
Katie Cash:
I think the second item want to talk about that we are continuing to see emerge and build some traction in design and construction is the philosophy around account based marketing and account based sales and how firms have really used this time to evaluate their customer relationships and really evaluate who their ideal customers are and which clients make the most sense for them to service. And building some of those tiers around who they want to work with and how to solidify those relationships for the long haul. Judy, you might give some background to some of our listeners that might not know what account based sales or account based marketing is. And certainly as a followup to any of you guys that haven’t listened yet, we do have an episode from season one last year from Katie Fisher from JLL, where we did dive a little bit deeper into the topic and how you might deploy such a program within your organization, but Judy for our listeners today, just high level. If you want to do a quick definition of account based marketing.
Judy Sparks:
Sure, Katie. The first thing you need to know about account based marketing is that it’s been around for about 20 years. Most of your large B2B industries have adopted account based marketing as their standard strategic approach to go into market. And so as you teased earlier, Katie, our AEC industry is not always known to be early adopters of new, new ways of doing things. But I think that we were starting to see an uptick in account based marketing and sales strategies, pre COVID for sure. For the last couple of years. And since COVID again, just getting rear-ended into the future, I think that companies have really been forced to focus on their highest value customers. And that’s really all that account based marketing and sales is, is the alignment of your marketing and sales resources with one another. And then the alignment of your sales and marketing resources with your strategic business schools, where you are focused on your highest value customers. And there’s a couple of different ways that firms are doing this. They’re realizing, Hey, we work for this healthcare system or we work for this university, or we work for this private developer, but we don’t get a hundred percent of their business. I like to say we don’t have a hundred percent of their wallet. So there is room to grow our book of business with said client or said organization, and that client or organization becomes a market unto themselves. And there’s a very strategic approach to landing and expanding the relationships within that organization that would yield more revenue for your firm and drive new opportunities for your firm, whether that’s in different markets or different geographies with the same client. So the other thing we see clients focused on in terms of account based marketing or account based sales are these micro clusters, also known as studios or market verticals or business units, typically they’re aligned with a vertical market or a client type: healthcare education, aviation commercial office. So, recognizing that you have, you know, buyers within that micro cluster that have common pain points and to be able to take those pain points and talk about them in such a way to position yourself as a visible thought leader. Repetitively. I think that’s the key is being visible repetitively in front of a micro cluster where you deem the highest value customers and opportunities reside. So I think that it’s, you know, we’ve been kind of flirting with this idea of being super targeted in our industry. Sometimes like here in the South, we like to say it’s a rifle approach, not a shotgun approach. But we’ve all heard variations of that, right. Being more strategic rather than playing the numbers game. So I think that ABM and account based sales, ABS, are proven strategies or methodology even to reaching your highest value customers and making sure that their marketing dollars are aligned with that. So there’s less waste.
Katie Cash:
And I think that goes nicely, really to, to our third tip, which is really embracing digital advertising. And you mentioned, you know, part of account based marketing is making sure that you have that, that thought leadership and it’s, it’s tailored to the audience so it can meet them where they are, but also the repetition of that messaging. And I think that’s, what’s so been so influential in the design and construction space over the last few months is just the realization that it takes someone more than just one time of seeing your company name or, you know, more than one time of just reading one blog post on a particular topic, say it’s healthcare or say it’s, higher education or transportation. They’ve got to have some frequency and some repetition before they start building that association of your brand and their market. And that you’re the leader that they want to work with.
And so, you know, in lieu of trade shows and conferences, and even in lieu, in some cases of, of those, you know, one-on-one client events that a lot of people in the design and construction space have traditionally relied on for having that opportunity to build relationships and promote their brand front and center where their target audience we’ve seen a lot of clients adopt some digital advertising aspects to their, to their plans this year in 2020. And I think a lot of them are going to continue that in 2021. And, and Judy, I don’t know if you share this opinion or not, but a lot of the clients where I’ve been working with them and they’re doing digital advertising, they love it because it’s quick, it’s easy to scale and believe it or not, it’s more cost effective than say sending a whole group of people down to, you know, the coast for a long weekend, at a conference where they’re going to have to, you know, forego being billable. And then they’ve also got added expenses of golf and entertainment. So I don’t know what your thoughts are, but I do think digital advertising is here to stay in design and construction.
Judy Sparks:
So Katie, my thoughts are it’s about time. I mean, honestly it just, I think that the average consumer, regardless of what profession you’re in, would agree that Google runs the world. Right? And so I don’t, I really always had a problem understanding why it was such a stretch for the design and construction industry to wrap their head around marketing online. And one of the silver linings that I’ve seen come out of COVID is forcing our clients to try new things. We had some really progressive clients before COVID that were well invested in ABM and account based sales and digital advertising strategies and really leading the way. But for the most part, the most of our clients were still marketing like we have been 10 years ago you know, relationship-based sales. And I think that there’s still a place for that, but, you know, the world has changed a lot in a decade. And technology has been at the forefront that so.
You know, adapting your marketing approach and how you go to market to include a heavy digital channel seems logical to me. So even though it seems logical to me, I think that there was a real hesitation in trying something new. So again, a silver lining of 2020 is that it has forced firms to realize, okay, if I, if all my trade shows and conferences are canceled all those calls for speakers that I submitted on are no longer happening. I’m not speaking anymore. All the golf tournaments are canceled. And gosh, I can’t even go to a industry association luncheon these days. How am I supposed to do my job as a business developer? Or how am I supposed to, you know, fulfill my obligations as a seller doer, to continue to hunt for business and bring it through the door to, you know, feed our family. So I think that we started to have a lot of calls in March that sounded like, Oh, this will pass. And then by April, we had a lot of clients asking us, okay so we know that the rest of the year is canceled. Do we just stop marketing? What do we do? Katie, your favorite word that starts with a P is
Katie Cash:
I think it adequately summarizes what we’ve been doing all summer and that’s pivoting.
Judy Sparks:
Pivot. Yep. So tradeshows became webinars. You know, those call for speakers where you were selected finally as a speaker. Well, you said, forget the trade show. We’re going to put on our own show. We coupled that with some digital advertising to drive registrations to the show, we have clients that have decided, you know, that they are going to have one-to-one Zoom cocktail parties,uor happy hours. So I think that, you know, digital has become the normal. As people have discovered you really can work remotely and you really can grow connections remotely. So how does that have a trickle effect on the rest of your marketing? So I think that what we’re seeing for 2021, at least all of our clients, all of our retainer clients are taking a close look at the effectiveness and affordability of digital and marketing online. Uand those of our clients that are progressive and have been at it for two or three years, they are increasingly allocating,ubudget to online channels versus traditional channels. Ujust simply because it’s affordable and it’s,ujust easier to undertake. I think that you’ve had a lot of experiences going to our fourth subject with this whole idea of becoming your own media company. I think Katie, that you could probably do a whole podcast on podcasts.
Katie Cash:
I think there’s a podcast for that already.
Judy Sparks:
You could do a podcast on webinars, you know, but it just seems like, you know, before March of 2020, we did what, less than five webinars in the last, you know, three years and since March, how many have you done know your clients? Dozens?
Katie Cash:
I know, I think it’s so funny. You know, you mentioned, you know, we had some clients where, you know, they were wanting to get ahead of the curve, you know, pre COVID and then around March, that April time we started having calls from clients and, and just folks in the industry wanting to know what to do and how to pivot. And I think it’s so funny now we’ve got folks calling us that are okay, I’m going to chase this project. I need a digital campaign. I’m going to host this webinar and we’re launching an internal podcast now because the external one was so like, they’ve really gotten into it, right. This whole idea of telling their own story and being in control. And then they’re also what I think is working so, so well is they are meeting their audience where the audience is and the audience, you know, being private sector owners, public sector owners, industry, peers, and partners still need answers to common questions that they’re facing every day. Their worlds are evolving just as quickly as ours. And they need their thought leaders from design and construction to help answer and solve some of those problems. And they also need to get those continuing education units. And I think a lot of firms have been very smart at adapting and pivoting and moving those, you know, lunch and learn programs that they used to do one at a time getting, you know, their AIA credits out to those folks and putting it in a digital platform or, you know, they’re hosting their own events, talking about their projects or lessons learned or whatever that might be in the form of thought leadership and connecting with the audience.
So you’re right. I do think webinars and podcasts have kind of helped to feed our need for information and for learning. And it also provides, you know, that user experience where I can register for a webinar, Judy, and you might be hosting it now, but I know that I can go back and watch it later. Like you’re meeting me where I need to be. I’m not having to commit to driving downtown or, you know, I’m not foregoing my, my daily needs at the office. Like I can fit it into my personal schedule wherever it works. And I do think that that’s going to continue being a trend in 2021. And we’re going to see more and more brands launch their own, like you mentioned, these, these media components to their firms, whether it’s podcasts, internal, external, that webinars, we’re starting to see firms even launch full blown conferences where they’re bringing together, you know, their clients and their partners to talk specifics about, say a given industry. And they’re really trying to think tank through what the future of hospitality or retail looks like. So I do think that’s something that all brands large and small, you know, generalist or specialist should look at is how can you take that communication platform to an online event, whether it’s digital through podcasts or webinars and what you can do there.
Judy Sparks:
Can I just add Katie that one of the things that makes digital so relevant aside from its affordability and ease of using it you know, the buying audience is getting younger and even though we think of millennials as a new generation, the truth is, is that our youngest buyers of professional services are in fact millennials and they build relationships differently. They grew up in a technology age where it’s perfectly normal to meet a stranger online and to have conversations and engage online. And so know it’s a big shift for our industry that has been so one to one relationship focused. And that’s how they’ve gone to market forever to think about a scenario where, you know, a younger buyer who is very adept and comfortable with technology as a means for connection to have professional connections using online mediums. So we, you know, we are running digital campaigns for professional program managers large, you know, global construction companies who are selling to, you know, some of the greatest engineering minds, you know, in the world with your big brands, Google and Microsoft and Apple and those, you know, those decision makers or even within a healthcare system, those decision makers that are in their, you know, mid twenties to mid thirties that are sitting on the other side of the selection committee, you can reach that audience online a lot easier than at an in person event. They’re in, they’re in that weird part of their career where they’re not senior enough to go to all the events, but they are senior enough to have influence over who the selected architect, engineer, or contractor will be.
Katie Cash:
Yeah, they’re definitely on that upward trajectory for sure.
Judy Sparks:
So reaching them, you know, through the screen might be the only way you can reach them.
Katie Cash:
I think the last item really to talk about for planning for 2021, it might not be something that everybody should consider, but certainly something that we’re seeing happen more and more frequently and brands approach more strategically is the whole idea of mergers and acquisition and the continued consolidation that’s happening within design and construction.
Judy Sparks:
Well, Katie, so in a year that has had so many challenges, I am really surprised by the volume of M&A work that we are seeing in our shop these days. You know, it’s a great time to buy a company. And I think a lot of companies that are financially sound and have plenty of cash are looking for opportunities to make strategic acquisitions. And so the thing about that is that it is a time this liminal space of uncertainty. And so while financially it might be a great time to make an acquisition. I think there’s a lot of care in the way that those acquisitions are handled in terms of the human integration. The communications internally, how do you communicate with your existing client base on both sides? So we’re seeing a lot of firms pay very close attention to the communications aspects of mergers and acquisitions. How do you bring those brands together? What is the value proposition to the employees? What is the value proposition to the customer base? So I think that, you know, the other big trigger that’s happened in 2020 is making firms really evaluate their exit strategies. And then those firms that are, you know, in the mood to buy are finding great deals out there. So I think that we’re going to continue to see that trend through 2021 and maybe even beyond.
But so in summary, I guess what we’re saying is that the five things that firms are really actively immersing in these days that we see and that where we would recommend firms set aside budget for 2021, where you might have not set aside budget in the past are one, investing in some formal seller doer training. That can be anything from how to present in an interview down to LinkedIn training. Number two would be setting aside some dollars to invest in an ABM strategy, an account based marketing strategy, where you’re aligning your resources with your highest value customers. And for those that haven’t done it before, I would suggest that you set aside some budget to pilot an ABM program to test its effectiveness. For those of our clients that have been at it a while they are investing significant dollars to further penetrate the markets that they’re already in. So the third thing is investing in digital advertising, making sure that you set aside budget to market digitally. You know, this is not always the case, Katie, but we always are asked, what is the proper budget for that? And outside of the creative time, you know, typically rule of thumb, we’re telling firms to set aside $25 a day per campaign per platform to be able to reach digital audiences. For the most part, that budget has been more than adequate to yield the type of results that our clients are looking for. The fourth thing that we’re seeing companies budget for is some sort of production. A media asset, either a webinar series or a podcast series. These things, if you’ve never done them before, same, very daunting, but you know, once you have your platform set up and organized, it really is a pretty easy way to execute your thought leadership. And I think firms are really finding their voice pun intended in this digital world in being able to speak on their own platform on the subjects that they desire the most, rather than waiting back and having their topics selected.
Katie Cash:
Before you go on, I do just want to chime in and say, you know, if you’re going to launch a webinar or a podcast is you definitely want to make sure you allocate funds for digital advertising to promote those events, because you don’t want to just put it out there and just hope people will come. You want to get the message out there. So I just wanted to make sure that for the audience that’s listening, that you tie those two together.
Judy Sparks:
Absolutely. And then finally those firms that are either looking to acquire or looking to be acquired firms are setting aside budgets to properly merge those brands and tell those stories. So those are the five areas where, you know, you typically don’t see line items in the marketing budget for, but I think that in 2021, these are the five areas that could make a real material difference in your effectiveness.
Katie Cash:
Yeah. So we hope today’s discussion has been helpful for you all. If there is anything that we can do for you guys, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can contact us at Smartegies.com, S M A R T E G I E S.com. And until next time you guys stay safe out there.
