The 2.0 Practice: What One Innovative Architect is Doing to Attract New Clients

At a time when even top design firms have been laying off their entire staffs and shuttering their doors, Mark English, a San Francisco-based architect, has tripled his client base in the last year – during the biggest recession and housing crisis almost since The Great Depression. In this interview, I ask Mark about the innovative, “Sales 2.0″ thinking that enabled his growth.  I also ask him to describe his experiences with new media: How does he use his separate blogs to reach different audiences? How do tools such as Twitter and Facebook expand his reach? How did he get started, and to what does he attribute his success during challenging economic times?

Anneke: Tell us about the business opportunity you capitalized on this year.
Mark:  Like many business owners, I started the year wanting to grow my practice.   With the help of a business consultant, though, I came to the conclusion that a lot of the work we do is not scalable.  But I also realized [that] we had a unique opportunity. When I started my business in 1992, it was a lot like today’s economic climate.  I started doing energy and structural calculations for other architects just to get me through the recession. The energy compliance work was boring, specialized, and tedious – but unavoidable. Just like taxes. My energy compliance work (known as “Title 24”), which leads to repeat business several times a year, was my ticket to growth during a slow economy.

Anneke: When you came to the realization that energy compliance work could drive your business growth, what was your experience level with social media and social networking?

Mark: A year ago I had no clue what Facebook and Twitter were, or how I might use them for business purposes. I had to have someone sit me down and actually physically take me through them.  At that time, we had 15-20 clients on the energy compliance side of the business, without any active marketing.  The goal was to get to several hundred clients using social media.

Here’s a picture of how I integrated social media into my traditional marketing approach:

Anneke: So how do you use the social media sites for business benefit?
Mark: We looked at what would differentiate us from other architects out there.  We were ahead of the curve in recognizing we needed a web site as a way to advertise and present our services online.  We then started putting out newsletters in PDF format. People liked that.  We got a couple hundred subscribers.  Then we decided to do a blog that talked about our services but was attractive for other reasons.  That became “Green Compliance Plus”, which has two main goals:

1.    Provide Title 24 energy compliance documentation tailored to the specific needs of architects and other design professionals.
2.    Foster education and discussion on energy compliance and green residential design concepts within the design and engineering communities.

We made a strategic decision to create all original content, which we felt would be more valuable than re-posting other people’s content.  Without Rebecca Firestone, my writer and business content developer, none of this would be possible.

Anneke: Tell us about the content.
Mark: We started interviewing.  We included conversations with green builders, suppliers of energy efficient heat, power and lighting systems, solar companies, lots of people in the green industries.

Anneke: How did you drive people to your blog?
Mark: We started cold calling architects who were our prospects.  Many of them subscribed to the blog right away.  After that we started doing lunch meetings.  Of 100 people we invited, 50 would respond and have lunch with us. Sometimes it took several months to schedule.  Eighty percent of those lunch meetings turned into a sale.  And every time we post to the blog site, we send an email link to our subscribers.  This way we stay on top of everyone’s mind.

Anneke: Are you using a system to track your contacts? How does it help you win business?
Mark: We have everything in salesforce.com.  There’s not much work out there right now for residential or commercial architecture, but we have these new clients on the energy side.  They hire us for small jobs, which the system helps us track, and as the economy improves, there will be more.  The system helps us stay in touch with customers and produce recurring revenue.

Anneke: You have another blog, as well, right?  How did that come about?
Mark: On the architecture side, we created “The Architect’s Take.”  The genesis for that came from my experience as the building architect for the Metropolitan Homes Showcase in June of 2009.  I met a few of San Francisco’s top architects working on that project and realized I needed to find a way to get to know the others to increase my visibility in the architecture community.  I decided to do a second blog featuring architects we like.  We interview them about themselves, not just their work.  As an architect, I want to know what makes someone tick.  The Architect’s Take blog is a way for me to access well-known architects without barriers.  No one has turned us down for an interview yet.  From a professional point of view, this gives us a much higher profile with our peers in San Francisco.  That kind of visibility can lead to awards, jury invitations, and other opportunities.

Anneke: How exactly do blogs and Twitter generate prospects?
Mark: We have three sites: our main website, our “Green Compliance Plus” blog and our “Architect’s Take” blog and they all work together.  We use WordPress as our blog tool and it has an automatic Twitter engine.  Whenever we post something, it sends out a Tweet (Twitter post).  The Tweet shows up on a follower’s computer or mobile phone, they click on it and it takes them to the original blog article.  We find people retweeting (RT) our tweets to their own networks which expands our audience exponentially.  I’m also using design blog sites like houzz, which is an online portfolio for architects and designers.  You upload photos of your work.  People can sift through the content visually.  We get 12-15% of the flow to our web site from houzz.com and it has already provided several work opportunities for us outside of San Francisco.  There’s another one called Apartment Therapy that’s really big.  That also drives traffic to our sites.

Anneke: What have the business results been?
Mark: We’ve tripled our client base. There’s no way to do that in this economic environment without the support of the blog sites.  They give us credibility and a competitive advantage.  Very few architects are doing this.  Some may be on the web, or have a blog site but they don’t update them very often or they’re doing re-posts of existing content.  We’re providing high quality content and case studies of actual clients.  The case studies are documented proofs of concept that give us credibility and plausibility. They show our value to  clients and prospects.

Anneke: What is the volume of opportunities coming from Twitter and how do you track it?
Mark: Through Google analytics, we can see what comes from Twitter.  Twitter provides 20-25% of the flow to our blog sites.  I’m at 2,500 – 2,600 followers and adding 100 to 120 a week.

Anneke: Where are your Twitter followers coming from?
Mark: Mostly from other networks.  One article on the “Green Compliance Plus” blog site was immediately retweeted (shared with other people’s networks on Twitter) twenty times to eleven other networks.  I got fifty new followers from that.  Companies we interview often include a link to our blog posts on their web sites.  In one case, we got 500 hits right away and the post still generates five to ten visits per day.  I also use the Tweet Adder engine to search and follow other prospects we might be targeting.  A large percent of them follow me back.  I would say that Twitter has become extremely useful.  I get a lot of e-mails from Twitter followers.

Anneke: So you’re not just writing two blogs and using Twitter and Facebook to publicize links to your own content.  You’re also following other people’s content and retweeting the information you believe your prospects will find valuable. How do you have time for all that on top of running your business?
Mark: During the week, I get to the office a little early and spend maybe fifteen to twenty minutes finding articles of interest on other sites like CNet Green Technology, the Contemporist, and houzz.  I tweet those and many of them get retweeted.  Every email I send includes links to our web site, blogs and my Twitter and Facebook links.

Anneke: You just spoke at an AIA (American Institute of Architects) event on December 4th with two other panelists using social media in their practices.  What did you learn from them?

Mark: Mike Plotnick from HOK spoke about using blogs to personalize client experiences and develop internal esprit de corps with a giant multinational company.  He stressed that designers and planners within HOK have willingly signed up to participate on his blogging team, even though writing blog posts is in addition to their regular jobs and they do it on their own time.  He also talked about how he, a self-described “traditional PR guy”, had to give up control to embrace new media.  The firm launched its social initiative in mid-2008 as part of a recruiting strategy to present a young, hip, cool, creative vibe to attract the right talent.  This was during a time when unlike today, there were limited candidates looking for jobs.  Mike also said there was initially no formal mandate to blog; they simply starting experimenting on the sly.  He does very little to control what his team blogs about.  The only rules are “nothing illegal, unethical, controversial, or confidential.”

Joel Robare, a designer who runs JR Studio, told the audience something completely different: he abandoned his blog in favor of Twitter, when he realized he was pushing content out to no avail. He claims his clients don’t have time to read long posts and favor the faster, more immediate information exchange that Twitter provides.   Joel said he posts 5-10 times per day, which he writes all at once in the morning while he is microwaving his breakfast, using a tool called TweetFunnel. His posts fall into three categories:

1.    What is going on in the market?
2.    His own insights
3.    Advertising for his business (no more than once every 15-20 tweets)

Joel checks where his prospects are spending their time online by entering their e-mail addresses into a product called Spokio. And he predicts that video blogging will be the next big thing.

Anneke: After the panel spoke, someone challenged you by asking how many decision makers have the time to read blogs, follow Twitter or Facebook streams.  How did you answer that question?
Mark: I gently suggested he think outside the box and look beyond a direct cause and effect.  I can track specific, measurable business results to my new marketing approaches.  But it goes beyond that.  I am building awareness and reaching an international audience at an extremely low cost. This, in addition to my pedigree, leads to credibility and trust.  People in my field now recognize my name. That’s worth a lot. There is no doubt in my mind that my activities are increasing revenue and profitability.

Tags: Blogs, Green Compliance Plus, Joel Robare, Mark English, Sales 2.0, social media, The Architect's Take

Confessions, True Stories & Free Drinks: Social Media Session at the Chicago Sales 2.0 Conference

After a long day of sessions covering Sales Lead Management 2.0, Customer Engagement Strategies,  and the Sales 2.0-Driven Sales Process,  we knew we had to wow the audience of 250 people to keep them engaged. Along with expert moderator David Thompson, CEO of Genius.com, my social media panel-mates, Kevin Popovic, President of Ideahaus, and Nigel Edelshain, CEO of Sales 2.0 LLC, and I  took to the stage last Thursday with beers and glasses of wine in hand.  David, who knows how to warm a crowd,  kicked off our session by announcing “the bar is open!” and set the stage with an overview on the incredible growth of social media (More than 275 million blogs! More than 300 million active Facebook users! ) Kevin, who looks the part of a social media guru (think blond California surf god) kicked off the panel with a staggering survey of all things social media and an introduction of his concept of Satellite Marketing (TM).   Part professor, part British comedy guy Nigel, who authored the popular e-book, “Don’t Cold Call. Social Call” spoke next and showed how prospect outreach + social media to research and personalize conversations produces greater than eight times better results than traditional prospecting (love those metrics!)

I started my presentation with a confession: “a  little over a year ago, I was a social media skeptic.”  Much to my surprise, I’m now considered enough of an expert in using social media and social networking in the sales process that I am invited to speak on the topic at events such as this.

How did this happen?!

Earlier this year, I was introduced to someone who became my company’s largest client this year.  This may sound commonplace except for one thing: the introduction was made on Facebook. It was enough to make a convert out of me.  Given my own experience starting out with some serious doubts about the ROI of using new media in sales, I focused my talk on a live demo showing  three examples of success featuring real people in real companies generating real results. I told personal stories to show how social media and social networking are helping sales and marketing people generate qualified leads and revenue.

Example #1: Dell Computer’s DellOutlet Twitter team
Dell has generated $2million in revenue in 2 years by attracting over a million followers to its Twitter property, which promotes returned and refurbished products; $3million if you count the additional $1M in sales generated from new products purchased from its main dell.com site that originated from a link in Twitter. It took Dell 18 months to realize the first $1M from Twitter and only six months to generate its second million.

Example #2:Dan Harding, Regional Director of Sales at ConnectandSell

Dan claims 80% of his qualified leads are coming from referrals, social networking and social media, which he considers technologies that leverage his personal referral network.  I wrote about Dan’s use of LinkedIn, which includes using SlideShare and frequent updates to his status to stay front of mind with his contacts, in an earlier post, “Social Networking in Sales: Show Me the Money”. Every time I talk to Dan, who exemplifies a Sales 2.0 leader,  he has a new successful approach to report. He recently closed sales worth 50% of his monthly quota by using social networking to stay connected to customers who have changed jobs.  He learned of these customers’ job changes through LinkedIn Messages and then requested an introduction (via LinkedIn, of course) to the new company.  The new sales closed within 30 days. Dan also “social calls” by reading his customers’ blogs, blogs that are popular in the vertical industries he targets, and blogs that his customers read.  RSS feeds alert him when updates are available, which triggers new personalized customer contacts. Dan then weaves the blog content into his outreach message, letting prospects know he is following them, their industry, or their area of interest.

Example #3: Mark Hamilton, former VP of Marketing at newScale

Mark, who recently left newScale’s CMO post to found a stealth startup,  launched a mixed media campaign which included both traditional programs (press releases, email, webinars) as well as new media (blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn Groups) to announce a new product to a new market and offer a free trial.  The social media used content as the draw to the offer rather than a traditional product push. Within 30 days, $3million in incremental revenue was added to the sales pipeline, 2/3 of which came from social media and networking. 50% of the traditional sales opportunities were qualified opportunities. 90% of those coming from social programs were qualified. As a result, newScale is increasing its investments in social media.

Gerhard Gschwandtner, conference host and Publisher of Selling Power, concluded the session by letting us know he is a strong advocate of social media in sales.  Not only is he on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among other social networks, he is also blogging once a day.  Check out his post on the Social Media panel for another perspective.

How are you using (or thinking of using) social media and social networking in your sales and marketing efforts? What results are you seeing?

Tags: Sales 2.0, Social Calling, social media, social networking

How to Get Prospects to Act: Another Perspective

Thanks to Jeff Weinberger, who wrote the Afterword for the book, Sales 2.0, for this guest post, which suggests that sales executives share something in common with sustainability and nonprofit professionals: we all need to establish a relationship with our buyers, prospective members or constituents, starting with raising awareness and culminating in purchase or action.

Jeff runs the green initiative for Cisco WebEx and works extensively with not-for-profit organizations. This post,  “Not Just Hammers”comes  from his blog, Disruptive Marketing.

A journey of a thousand miles may begin with a single step, but you don’t get very far unless you take the second step (and then the third, and the fourth and so on…)

Not long ago I was having dinner with a friend who also spends time supporting not-for-profits and we were lamenting how hard it can be to get people in general (the general public, mass audiences, whatever you want to call it) to do the (sometimes simple) things it takes to make a big difference in the world, whether in human services, environmental protection or any number of other fields.

Which is the same challenge marketers face every day – how to get people to act, or specifically, express interest and buy.

How is this the same thing? When we talk about lead generation, demand generation, the marketing funnel, prospect and customer engagement and any number of other terms we use to describe the parts of the journey from first prospect contact to closed sale and beyond, we are really describing a journey of increasing commitment by the buyer to the seller (and, I hope by both to the on-going relationship)

Let me offer this as a way to think about the development of the buyer-seller relationship:

Start with Awareness. Someone in the market becomes aware that we offer a product or service that he or she may need. From the seller’s point-of-view, we become aware that there is a group of potential buyers in a target audience. One example of how we make this happen is advertising.

Then we move to Interest. That same prospect has determined that there is a potential that our offerings may meet some needs and is willing to explore further. We see positive response to our communication (regardless of vehicle) and become interested in pursuing the potential buyer. We provide information, marketing offers and other ways to engage and get this information.

Next is Motivation. Now the prospect has determined that she has a motivating need and that our offering can help. He or she now actively wants to pursue a purchase. And we see the possibility of turning the developing relationship into a source of revenue. We might offer a sales call.

And then comes Action. The prospect buys. We sell. We deliver.

Finally, at that point we have a developed Relationship. The customer wants to succeed with our offering, we want the same. We provide help and support to make that happen and cultivate on-going sales and other offers as we learn about more needs.

Granted, there’s a bit more complexity here and we all know it’s never that linear. And you probably label your process and funnel stages quite differently, but I have not found many people who’d disagree that Motivation precedes Action, that Interest precedes Motivation or that Awareness precedes Interest. It might all happen in an instant (think about the last time you bought a candy bar at a grocery store register display – “there’s chocolate”, “I like that”, “I’m hungry/craving”, “I’ll buy one”, granted not much of an on-going relationship there if you don’t count, as Ms. Morgenstern would have called it, the relationship between the chocolate and your hips!)

So, now back to the problem.

The problem, remember, is getting people to take the actions they might know are right, beneficial or helpful. For example, we know that recycling is good for the environment, but most of us don’t recycle much of what we could. The same can be said about the other small shifts we can all take to improve the environment, better support the not-for-profits we choose and act in a number of other ways that seem obvious to us (side note: I now see that this is true of preventative healthcare as much as sustainability)

I’ll spare this rant, but please consider there to be a long set of paragraphs aiming to debunk the economic view of people as rational beings and that all of this is a result of utility maximization. Suffice to say, it’s not.

Let’s look at how we convince people to do green acts, and participate in (volunteer, donate) not-for-profits.

Many not-for-profits (this is particularly true with ones focused on diseases and serving the under-privileged) try to generate Awareness. They want people to know about the cause or problem.

That’s an admirable goal, and an important step. But not nearly enough.

Once I know about your cause, why you think it’s important and how big the problem is (usually what I hear from these organizations), now I need a reason to move to interest. At this point, I am more likely than not to say something on the order of “that’s nice, I hope you solve that problem” and move on.

What we leave to chance is Interest, Motivation and Action.

So why don’t many organizations succeed at these steps? Mostly from not having built tools. Often, the question is asked “OK, I’m ready and willing – what do I do?” and without the tools in place, action is not possible

No sales organization would consider trying to get a prospect emotionally charged about their offering then just sit back and expect the prospect to show up with a contract, check, cash, whatever, in hand. There’s a process, there are specific actions every sales rep takes and tools they use to give their prospects as many ways as possible to close the deal.

Not-for-profits can learn a lot from their commercial counterparts.

And dare I say, many of those commercial counterparts can learn a lot about where their marketing is missing a step just by looking at their customer’s journey and on what parts they are not partnering.

I know from my work in sustainability and not-for-profits that we have lots of problems that need to be solved. Now.

I also know most of them don’t look like nails. But let me suggest that we at least start showing people how to get hammers. And whatever other tools they need.

What tools do you supply your prospects who ready to buy – or move to the next step? What can your business learn from nonprofits, the sustainability or healthcare reform movements?

Tags: Action, Awareness, healthcare, Interest, marketing, Motivation, nonprofit, Sales 2.0, sustainability