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Good afternoon!

I’m Polly Carolin, Planning Director with SAIC Las Vegas.

I’d like to start this session with a definition of marketing. It often gets confused with selling. Marketing is what gets done to find out who is contracting for consulting planning services and what they want done. When the RFP or RFQ arrives, that’s when the selling begins. If the marketing doesn’t get done – if you never hear about the RFPs and the RFQs – you can’t do any selling -- if the potential clients don’t know who you are before your statement of qualifications or proposal arrives – your selling is much less effective -- and it’s tough to get work.

Selling is about convincing the prospective client that you and your firm are the best choice for the particular job. Much the same as selling widgets, selling points out the firm’s strong points that best meet the client’s needs and, if this is a cost proposal, that it’s a bargain at any price.

For consulting planners, marketing and selling our services is something we must all do. In large firms, it is how we advance in our careers – indeed, how we stay employed. In small firms, we do it, because there is no one else.

I have worked at firms that have marketing people. It seems the results are always the same. The marketing people can ferret out the big jobs, but it ultimately rests with the professional planners to get the jobs offering less than six figures. There simply isn’t enough profit in the smaller jobs to support a marketer. Since most of our work comes in jobs less than six figures, we ultimately wind up doing our own marketing.

So, this afternoon, I bring a little discipline I learned from my husband who is, among other things, a marketer. I have yet to come upon a better strategy for ferreting out the work.

Marketing is most effective when it accomplishes four things:

1. Creates an awareness that you exist.
2. Opens information sharing channels.
3. Identifies, defines and meets the needs of your potential clients.
4. Promotes endorsement by anticipating and positively overcoming objections.

To be most effective, all four things are done at the same time and as a regular part of your day.

Let’s go through these things one by one.

Create an awareness you exist. Pinch me. I exist. I think, therefore I am. "What kind of nonsense is this?" you ask. Is this woman’s husband a guru?

Yes, I look in the mirror and I know I exist – a bit older than I would like, but real nonetheless. But, for the marketer, the mirror is a trap. It’s not what I am, but what I can do for my client that counts. It’s not that I know that I exist, it’s that my potential client knows that I exist.

Recently, I joined a new firm. At 41,000 people it’s a very large firm. Oddly enough, it does very little marketing and, in Las Vegas, only to its historic clients in the federal government. I am told that the firm does so much work that is secret, it is only in recent years that offices have been allowed to put their names on the door let alone market!

As I called my friends to tell them of the move, over and over I heard what’s SAIC? Do you know? Probably not. You’re probably asking yourself, "What do they do?" Believe me, you’re not alone. Talk about "creating an awareness you exist!" That’s usually what I do to let people know how to find me and to introduce myself to other planners, but, in this case, I am introducing my firm as well.

Early on, I made a list of everyone I knew in my professional life, particularly in Nevada, and starting calling them all. It quickly became apparent that a little informative piece about the company is in order. As I have time, I make a sheet for each job the company has done that is relevant to something I just talked with a friend about.

SAIC has wonderful paper it uses for statements of qualifications. It’s divided into two columns: one about two inches wide on the left. The wider column on the right describes the project and the narrower one shows the address and phone number of the office and has room for such things as client contacts and pictures relevant to the project. We also print a version of our annual report we can hand out and keep a supply of embossed folders to hold it all.

When I visit with someone, I bring one of the folders stuffed with relevant project descriptions, the annual report, and my business card. People may or may not look at it right then. The purpose is to give them something for their files, so when the RFP or RFQ list is put together, they know who to send it to. I call it a "leave piece", because I leave it.

As work areas are discussed, I make a note on an Excel spreadsheet I keep. If it is an upcoming project, I make a note on another worksheet in the same file.

Within a few weeks, the Excel spreadsheet had become a marketing tracking devise. When was the City of such-and-such going to issue that RFP? When did so-and-so say they’d have made the decision about proceeding with that project? To whom was I referred at the County? The separate files for each potential client are in the drawer and the worksheets tell me which ones I should be following up with.

This phase is called "Opening information sharing channels." They tell me what’s coming up and I tell them what we can do for them. Sometimes I have to say "nothing, but I know who can help." Worse yet are those times when I’m asked who the RFP should go to and it includes me!
Those of you who are consultants know what I’m talking about. Something grips my gut when I have to recommend others for work I think I can do as well or better than anyone. You in the public sector have just learned how to really hurt a consultant.

Then I remember this is about information SHARING. I grab the latest issue of the Private Practice Division directory, look up the topic and go through the list with whoever’s asking. I know they’ll call back whenever they need help and I will have accomplished the task at hand.

I’m also good for free advice. I’ve talked myself out of small jobs from time to time, but, in the end, we’re both winners, because I have an opportunity to explain the best way to hire a consultant.

When all is said and done, I know people want to hire the best firm available to complete the work they want done. Just as the best marketing recognizes the needs of the client, the best consultant selection process recognizes the needs of the consultant. If the firm has enough work to keep its people busy and many opportunities to propose for future work, the firm can pick-and-choose which solicitations to pursue. This is the very type of firm the hiring agency wants to hear from: a firm that is busy doing the kinds of things included in the RFP.

Because it is likely the hiring agency will prefer a consultant who has completed similar work in the past and who may have some knowledge of the agency’s particular community or type of community, it is most efficient to begin with a request for qualifications or RFQ.

An RFQ consists of a brief description of the work to be undertaken and the criteria by which firms will be evaluated. Almost all firms that consider themselves qualified and that are interested in the work described in the solicitation will respond to the RFQ.

Generally, an RFQ will provide responses from a relatively large number of firms that do the work requested. Then, the hiring agency may select those firms most appropriate for the job. The RFQ process need not take long. A two week response time is doable and a month is more than adequate.

I suggest the agency select no more than five firms and as few as one firm from which to solicit a cost and scope proposal, usually called a Request for Proposal or RFP. Responses are likely to be best when the RFP clearly describes the work to be completed. If there’s no description of the work to be completed, the municipality will get many proposals that include things it doesn’t want and don’t include things it does.

I suggest the requesting agency provide at least an order of magnitude of money available for the work. Why should the agency tell the consultant how much money is budgeted for the work? Because it will allow the agency to compare proposals and determine which firm offers you most of what you want. At the risk of using hyperbole to make a point, if firm "A" thinks the agency has $50,000 for the work, its proposal will be very different from firm "B" who might think the agency has $500,000. If the agency isn’t sure or has some room to maneuver, I suggest they provide a range. At least everyone will be in the same "ballpark."

I also suggest the agency be clear about the selection process. Who will review the proposals, whether or not there will be an interview. This allows the consultant to write the proposal to a specific audience. Knowing who your audience is always makes for a better proposal.

Lastly, I tell agencies not to be shy about insisting that only those people who would actually work on the project be included in the proposal.

With this broad kind of information sharing comes some idea of what the client’s needs are. It’s only when I’ve identified those needs that I can really determine whether and how we can help. This is step three of the marketing program: Identifies, defines and meets the needs of our potential clients.

We’re back to looking ourselves in a mirror now. People spend lots of time telling themselves what a great company they work for. They put together descriptions of the types of things they do, biographies of the founders and histories of the firm. Then they stop and they can’t figure out why the materials they spend so much time on don’t work.

I call that "mirror marketing". Aren’t we great, we say, looking at ourselves. The company "story" is a good way to break the ice with a stranger, but that’s all.

I have to put the mirror down and use the information I’ve gathered to tell the client what my firm can do to meet their needs. The company founder can be Daniel Burnham himself, but, if the new "Miracle Mile" is not what that client needs, if it doesn’t speak to the City sign ordinance that needs revision, Daniel Burnham’s done me no good.

The project descriptions, selected to meet the client’s needs, are much more effective. As objections are raised to my approach or my people or my price, I have a chance to overcome those objections, because the people I’m talking to know me well enough to express them and respect me enough to give my responses the benefit of the doubt. They know I’m are listening and trying to help. I can actually get to step four of the marketing program: Promote endorsement by anticipating and positively overcoming objections.

I see many experienced and successful private practitioners in this room. I’ll bet they’ll tell you pretty much the same things in different words. The rest of you have taken a positive step just coming to this conference. The people you meet will learn of your existence. The friends and acquaintances you see again will be reminded. The seemingly innocuous conversations about who you’re working for, what projects you’re working on, are step one in the marketing program.

Listen when people talk about their needs. Make little notes to yourself. And work on being the kind of professional they want to hire.

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Author and Copyright Information

Copyright 2002 by author

Paulette M. “Polly” Carolin, FAICP
Planning Director
SAIC
3960 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 200
Las Vegas, Nevada 89109
(702) 792-0221
(702) 733-0661