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In This Issue:
Register today for the ACEC Summit and National Convention!REGISTER NOW! Register today for the ACEC Summit and National Convention set to take place June 24-26, 2010 at the Fairmont Algonquin Hotel along the breathtaking coast of St. Andrews-by-the-sea, New Brunswick. With the Bay of Fundy (featuring the world’s highest tides) and the changing economy as a backdrop, this year’s theme “Changing Tides” will focus on identifying risks and opportunities in the business and regulatory landscape after the recession and after stimulus funding. Can your firm take advantage of the new marketplace - both domestically and internationally? We’ll find out from experts representing both the public and private sectors. Business sessions will include discussions on market trends; changing demands; building high performing organizations in challenging times; and trends in law, liability and insurance. Also planned are the popular Owner’s panel and the CEO and Principal’s Roundtable. A PSMJ Pre-Event Bootcamp is scheduled for June 23rd and will focus on “Strategic Based Business Development”. For delegates and companions looking to enjoy the sites surrounding St. Andrews, an exciting array of social activities have been planned. Highlights include a lobster feast, a historic bus tour, whale watching, kayaking and the annual ACEC Golf Classic. Many other tours have been planned, so make sure to check out the ACEC Summit Brochure for more details. PSMJ Pre-Event Bootcamp The PSMJ Pre-Event Bootcamp will be offered on Wednesday, June 23rd from 9am-5pm. The program will introduce strategic planning as it relates to growing your top line and the markets you should pursue. Discussions will focus on differences between niche and commodity markets and how the differences should impact your expansion into new markets. It will also address the greatest untapped market on earth; selling new services to existing clients. by BRUCE SELLERY  Where Are We Going - As Individuals and Engineers? Bruce Sellery is an experienced business journalist and speaker. He is one of the founders of CTV’s Business News Network and is currently the host of "workopolis tv", a national prime-time program all about the world of work. Sellery headed up BNN’s documentary unit and served as the New York Bureau Chief for three years, covering major corporate and economic stories. Prior to his move into business journalism, Sellery worked at Procter & Gamble where he held leadership roles in both sales and brand management. He also led the company’s Diversity Training initiative and is a graduate of the Queen’s School of Business. Registration information, along with the business program and accommodation information, is now available on the ACEC website at www.acec.ca. ACEC Summit 2010! Register for the
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Hurry, space is limited. You don't want to miss this event! Register Today!
Special Guest Speaker:
Dominic Deneault, Business Strategist at Deloitte:
Dominic Deneault has provided entrepreneurs and business leaders with advice and assistance in the development of their business for twelve years. As a business strategist at Deloitte, Mr. Deneault has led more than a hundred projects (strategic plans, feasibility studies, market analyses, etc.) in numerous industry sectors, with resulting investments and economic impacts reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr. Deneault speaks regularly in the public domain about business strategy, and has an ability to make the subject accessible and engaging.
Building Better Client Relationships
Article by PSMJ
It’s often noted that ours is a relationship business. Eighty percent of revenue comes from repeat clients. Long-term relationships typically provide our highest profits, lowest business acquisition costs, and most satisfying work.
But ask the average A/E firm about their relationship management practices, and you’ll likely get a confused look. Amidst the myriad policies and procedures pertaining to how to manage projects, deal with employees, or use email, you’re not likely to find any formal guidance on how to tackle the critical job of cultivating client relationships.
Granted, the nuances of relationship building are not easily captured in a step-by-step process. Yet how many project managers could benefit from a little more direction and structure? Based on the feedback I’ve gotten from clients over the years, there is clearly room for improvement. Thus I offer four basic steps to building better client relationships:
Start with a service mindset. The most important threshold to cross in cultivating a relationship is to earn the other party’s trust. Building trust can take considerable time, but showing that you have genuine concern for the client shortens the process. You should do this from the outset. Yet one survey of clients found that only 35% of professional service providers demonstrated real concern for the client in the sales stage. If caring isn’t evident in the “courtship phase” of the relationship, will it be after the contract is signed?
So why might PMs and other technical professionals struggle to demonstrate their concern? I suspect that part of it is a tendency to focus more on the work than the client. Sometimes clients are viewed more as an unwelcome distraction than one of the key benefits of doing project work. Another shortcoming is the lack of effective interpersonal skills, such as the ability to show empathy or to listen attentively. For many PMs, the failure to communicate often enough sends a signal—true or not—that they don’t really care that much about the client.
A service mindset puts the client front and center. It prioritizes the interests of the client rather than the PM’s self-interest. We are, after all, in a service business. Sometimes we need to reflect again on the fact that we’re in business primarily to serve others, not just to render services.
Establish mutuality. A good relationship has a balance of give and take. Usually when relationships turn sour, an imbalance is evident. At least one party perceives that he or she is giving more than receiving in return. That may be okay for a while, but over the long term a solid relationship must be characterized by mutuality—shared benefits, common commitment, genuine concern for each other.
The best way to achieve mutuality is to explicitly pursue it. While you should lead with a service mindset, you should also expect reciprocation. Make clear to the client what your needs are by negotiating not only the terms of the contract but the terms of the relationship. This is a step I call “service benchmarking,” where at the start of the project the two parties clarify mutual expectations and spell out how they will work together. Many relationship problems can be avoided if you do this, which is unfortunately not common practice in our business.
What if the client is not similarly committed to mutuality? We have all had clients who did not seem that interested in our needs and concerns. My first suggestion is to confirm what the situation is. Does the client really not care, or is it a case of unintentional neglect or misunderstanding?
Yet if the client truly seems indifferent to your interests, you should not cease to pursue a balanced relationship. Sometimes persistence pays off. Sometimes you need to take a stand. It’s best to try to avoid such relationships in the first place (use screening criteria to determine which clients to pursue), and by all means don’t be afraid to fire ongoing clients who aren’t committed to a win-win relationship.
Keep your commitments. A necessary condition of trust, of course, is trustworthiness. The need to keep your commitments might seem too obvious to merit mention here, but I’ve witnessed far too many cases of neglect in this regard. Missed deadlines, failure to heed client requests, poor quality—all indicative of things that were promised but weren’t delivered.
One solution is readily apparent: Don’t promise what you can’t or won’t deliver. Yet PMs often do just that. Have you ever been pressured into telling the client what he or she wanted to hear, and then couldn’t back it up? “We’ll have that to you by Friday,” you say, without confirming with staff that it’s reasonable, or even when you know it’s not.
Here’s a helpful client service principle to keep in mind: It’s better to disappoint the client early rather than late. Honesty is always the best policy, even when it’s not always the most popular one. Eventually the truth comes out, and if you aren’t able to keep your promises the relationship will suffer.
One other point needs to be made: It’s hard to keep commitments to clients if your project team doesn’t keep commitments to each other. A common problem I’ve observed is the failure to stick to internal deadlines, so everything slips until the mad push just before the deliverable is due to the client. This frequently results in more mistakes, less review time, and greater tension among coworkers—even if the delivery deadline is met.
Collaborate with the client. One of the best indications of a strong relationship with your client is the degree to which the two parties collaborate. By collaborate, I’m not talking about simple coordination and dialogue. Real collaboration involves a joint effort to plan, design, and execute the project.
There’s something about collaboration that fortifies the relationship. The two parties work more closely together, the client-consultant hierarchy is flattened, both benefit from the synergistic interaction with the other. I recognize that some clients are content to stay hands-off, and many PMs seem to prefer that arrangement. But such clients are typically not among your best because they don’t view the relationship as one of the real benefits of your association.
To promote greater collaboration with your clients, engage them early. Get them actively involved in planning the work and outline how the two parties can best work together. Schedule collaborative events, like design charrettes or workshops. At a minimum, keep the client involved by regularly communicating your progress and sharing the thought process behind your recommendations and decisions.
The role of project manager is equal parts project management and client relationship management. Don’t neglect the latter. Even if you knock it out of the park in terms of the project’s technical merits, you may not get another chance at bat with that client if the relationship is not strong. You don’t build business as much by the work you do as much as by the relationships you forge along the way.
Mel Lester of The Business Edge (www.bizedge.biz) helps engineering, architectural, and environmental firms improve business performance by applying best practices in client service, business development, organizational leadership, and project management. He can be reached at 540-268-2300 or mel@bizedge.biz.
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Coming Events
ACEC Events
May 6-7, 2010
PSMJ Principals Bootcamp
Toronto, ON
For more information, please contact the ACEC office at 1-800-565-0569.
June 23, 2010
ACEC/PSMJ Summit Pre-Event Bootcamp
Business Development and Strategy
St. Andrews by-the-Sea, NB
For more information, please visit www.acec.ca.
June 24-26, 2010
ACEC Summit
St. Andrews by-the-Sea, NB
For more information, please visit www.acec.ca.
Other Events
April 27-June 1, 2010
Export Development Canada
Seminars - Let’s Talk Exports
21 cities across Canada
For more information, click here.
May 10-11, 2010
Understand how US Export Control Rules Impact Canadian Businesses
Seminar: “US Commercial Export Controls & Embargoes”
Montreal, QC
Register today by clicking here.
June 8-10, 2010
Canadian Green Building Council Conference
Vancouver, BC
For more information, click here.
June 17, 2010
Canadian Water Summit
Toronto, ON
For more information, click here.
June 22-25, 2010
Air & Waste Management Association Annual Conference
Calgary, AB
For more information, click here.
September 19-22, 2010
FIDIC 2010 New Dehli Conference
Vigyan Bhawan, New Dehli
For more information, click here.
ENCON’s 41st Annual Loss Control Seminars:
October 19, 2010
ENCON Annual Loss Control Seminar
Halifax, NS
Casino Nova Scotia,
Room: Schooner Room – 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Should you have any questions or you wish to register, please contact Kathy Olson at 1-800-267-6684 or by email kathy.r.olson@encon.ca.
November 3, 2010
ENCON Annual Loss Control Seminar
Edmonton, AB
The Westin Edmonton, 10135 100th Street
Room: Manitoba/Saskatchewan – 9:00 to noon
Should you have any questions or you wish to register, please contact Kathy Olson at 1-800-267-6684 or by email kathy.r.olson@encon.ca.
November 4, 2010
ENCON Annual Loss Control Seminar
Calgary, AB
The Metropolitan Conference Centre, 333 – 4th Avenue SW
Room: Ballroom – 9:00 a.m. to noon
Should you have any questions or you wish to register, please contact Kathy Olson at 1-800-267-6684 or by email kathy.r.olson@encon.ca.
November 30, 2010
ENCON Annual Loss Control Seminar
Victoria, BC
The Fairmont Empress Hotel, 721 Government Street
Room: Crystal Ballroom & Palm Court – 9:00 a.m. to noon
Should you have any questions or you wish to register, please contact Kathy Olson at 1-800-267-6684 or by email kathy.r.olson@encon.ca.
December 1, 2010
ENCON Annual Loss Control Seminar
Vancouver, BC
The Westin Bayshore, 1601 Bayshore Drive
Room: Grand Ballroom – 9:00 a.m. to noon
Should you have any questions or you wish to register, please contact Kathy Olson at 1-800-267-6684 or by email kathy.r.olson@encon.ca.
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