We all have to do some selling in our lives, even if we don’t have to meet monthly sales budgets. In many business situations, we sometimes have to “sell” our own credibility and competence. In new social situations, we may have to sell our potential as an enjoyable companion.
Four years ago I learned about Hubspot and went all in. I really enjoyed the specific internet marketing knowledge that it demonstrated and clearly showed principals of a agency how to follow. We had them convert our site and did everything they suggested. We got one client to implement it and that has been a great success. Not so much for the agency. Face it, the internet is mostly marketers, you can’t sell generic marketing in the internet, just like you would be a fool to hire a brain surgeon online. Myke Amend, our web guru, recently created www.industrialwebdevelopment.com, specifically about web design and management. It worked great and we have signed two new clients. Myke followed the Google instructions to create a great website. They are light years past Hubspot. In fact, you can’t do what Google suggests with Hubspot. We’re still a Hubspot Partner and I’ll continue participating because in spite of their lack of advancements, they are still a very good general best practices and agency management tools.
Hubspot told you to build it and they will come. The Society for Marketing Professional Services tells you to deliver the most fantastic service you can, find similar clients and sell them the same type of work. To grow sell new services to existing clients. If that is successful, try selling it to other clients. it that simple.
The management part of it is simple too. Clearly define marketing activities and their objectives that you can measure. I’m looking forward to defining what we’re good at, adjusting for each of our personalities, and implementing SMART goals next year – Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Timely.
I started at the drawing board 40 years ago at my Father’s advertising agency. $3.10 per hour. I lived in the basement of a nearby home for $45 per month. I remember the first night I stayed there, the gays above me were having a huge shouting match! I enjoyed sucking Rapidio pens and drawing mining equipment. And slowly made a name for myself because I enjoyed preparing perfect materials for the printer. I still don’t know how the vice president knew I had been up all night working on the boards. Must have been something in my eyes.
I learned everything from client relationships, the friendships, the events and creativity from my Father. They all were important in a people business like advertising. I came in during a depression and we grew a little after that but never regained the glory days of the agency in the 60s. Dad left for the Florida Keys in the 80s and started other businesses. I took over the day to day and to this day I think about him at 5 pm when he used to call after the rates went down.
Dad passed away in 1999. That was the high point of the agency. We almost broke one million in sales. Then 9-11-01 and we were struggling like every other consultant. The economy recovered and seemed to be on fire, it was. I got involved with SMPS on the advise of Pete Strange the president of Messer Construction. I found the chapter very welcoming and volunteered for the board of president Alison Tepe-Guy. I served two terms but then the housing crisis hit. I gave up on growing the agency with building material clients. Until the last couple of years in which I have attended Greenbuild, the premier show for high quality building materials. I’m looking forward to putting to use all the information I have absorbed from trying to pass the exam over the last ten years.
Recently I listened to the award story for a theatre. It told several stories about the different types of groups that went to the playhouse. The young girl going to the Nutcracker for the first time with her grandmother. The story of a young couple going to Romeo and Juliet. The older couple enjoying an evening together with friends. And the young professionals so anxious to see and be seen. They had the director crying. The patrons wide eyed about the world that could be created as a part of their legacy. They are now seeking more funds to realize their dream.
This is a true story. The work went to a firm that wasn’t known for their theatre work. Another secret ingredient was bringing in the best sound designer in the world. True Industrial Marketing Proposals follow this path.
Be sure to follow the instructions so you don’t get uninvited to the party. And be careful you don’t show your hand to your competitors. Many times subs will be included on several proposals, they aren’t your friends.
The first business development question you need to ask yourself about a potential new client or business relationship is if you can trust them. Trust them to do what they say. Trust them to take you calls. Trust them to champion your relationship with the account. In exchange, you have to act in their best interest. If you want to grow your company, you need to build on your people and the successful work you have done. Everything can lead to another thing, and it’s the best business marketers that uncover those opportunities and nurtures their associates to fill those new needs.
What markets are growing, what markets are shrinking? What people skills to you have to move into different markets. But that’s the research part of the problem. Once you have the research, you need to go after the market.
Marketing planning will match your employee’s talents to the emerging markets you have identified. Client and business development will manage the budding client relationships. Proposals will get you the work. Promotional activity will help your first successful project in the new industry be known. Professional management will put into place the tools needed to rinse and repeat.
The Certified Professional Services Marketer exam will make you an excellent resource for your company and your career. It brings together a rock solid methods for understanding your company’s strengths and getting new work in new industries. It’s not hard to continue to get work similar to your current expertise. All you need to do is very high quality work, on time and on budget.
It’s much more difficult to enter new markets that you don’t have experience in and no body knows you. The CPSM Domains of practice show you how you start with your people and their talents and grow from there. The case study uses a firm that has designed schools and illustrates how they used industrial marketing research to successfully grew into a similar building type, high end retirement homes.
I’ve been studying for the Certified Proffessional Services Marketer exam ever since I joined SMPS in 2004. I wanted to grow the agency in the building industry and on the advice of Pete Strange, the president of Messer Construction, I joined SMPS. He said it was the best way to get into marketing into the AEC space.
I joined and was accepted quickly into the group by a great bunch of marketers for local architectural, construction and engineering companies. Served on the board under Alison Tepe Guy and Jason Ulmenstine for a few terms. It was going well, and I was learning a lot until the market crashed in 2008. Nearly 50 percent of the professionals in the industry were out of a job.
I put studying for the exam on the back burner in lew of passing the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional exam and getting my office awarded LEED Platinum in 2011.
This type of marketing is much more closely aligned with the type of industrial marketing Lohre & Associates has been doing my entire 40-year career; large, expensive mining, chemical, electrical and mechanical machinery. Selling the design and construction of a building is very similar.
After several failed attempts to properly study for the exam, this year the local chapter, led by Melissa Lutz of Champlin Architecture, developed a study group and incentives to pass the exam by the end of the year. It’s crunch time and I’m working hard to re-read and absorb all the materials to pass the exam. The building industry has finally recovered and there are excellent opportunities to do more work in this industry.
The exam is broken up into six different domains: Marketing Research, Marketing Planning, Client & Business Development, Proposals, Promotional Activity, and Management. It was after the last page of the last book that the whole field came into focus for me. I’m going to use that case study as a jumping off point to write about the entire Markendium as SMPS calls it and hopefully hard wire the knowledge in my brain to pass the exam.
The epiphany came when I realized that all of industrial marketing comes down to people. Marketers are the ones that research other people, plan to reach other people, learn to engage with other people, make proposals for people, plan activities and manage people.
Everything about industrial marketing revolves around this simple case study that follows the path of a successful young college graduate that gets recognized and becomes a leader. That’s what I want to do. Just goes to show you are never too old, 64, to learn something.
Featured Image (above) from Technical article in Forging Magazine Good Technical Articles are Often More Valuable than Ads We hear a lot about content marketing and social media (and we believe in it), but in the industrial marketing and industrial…
