Coping with a Chaotic Market: Using Standard Presentation Processes

It’s no surprise to anyone in our industry that the market is heating up and that A/E/C firms are writing more proposals and preparing for more presentations than ever before.  Unfortunately, the extra work isn’t translating into higher hit rates or increases in the bottom line.  Firms are working harder for less work, and marketing departments are becoming increasingly stretched and stressed. 

I’ve written before about the importance of being more selective in the projects we pursue and about making strong go/no go decisions.  However, it is true that even when we do our homework, A/E/C firms are still competing for work and their marketing departments are completely tapped out.  So, what can we do?

I’ve recently been working with firms to develop presentation “templates” and standard processes.  In addition to standard visuals, such as always having a site aerial (Google Earth and Terraserver.com are great sources), these might include templated presentation preparation processes, including checklists and meeting agendas.  And, we might go so far as to design standard presentation visual templates or designs for backdrops, boards, or PPTs.

The more we can do ahead of time, before a pursuit, to make the time leading up to the actual presentation easier, the better.  Such planning saves our teams in time, money, and stress.  In our “Winning the Shortlist” video instructional materials, we’ve provided some easy to use checklists and preparation techniques.  One of these tools is a process to get a team ready for an interview in three meetings.  I call this the “Four Stages in Three Meetings Process.”  In this process, marketing professionals can establish clear expectations for pre-meeting preparation and for the outcomes of each meeting.  Before the first meeting, for example, team members receive a “dossier” of information about the project, including the RFP and the submittal.  Each team member is expected to read the material and, if applicable, visit the site prior to the meeting.  In that first meeting, the team starts the development of presentation strategy.  In the second meeting, the team “stumbles through” the presentation content and finalizes visuals.  By the third and final meeting, the team is ready for choreography and rehearsals.

While for a large, high profile project, we may need more time right before the interview, we can establish standard processes to streamline the design and delivery of most interviews.  By having a documented process, marketing professionals – with the support of their leadership – can share the responsibility for interview preparation with their teams.  The process, and the shared responsibility, helps firms compete more successfully with less cost to their teams and organizations.

I also recommend firms use checklists for pre-interview and in fact, pre-proposal, reconnaissance.  This checklist can also be found in the instructional guide and includes basic information that marketing professionals and teams can and should gather.  This includes information about the project, the client, the site, the selectors, the competition, the interview, and the selection process.  For example, every team member should be able to answer why the project is being done and who stands to gain or lose from the project.  And, this information should be integrated into the entire interview.  On the presentation I just finished, my team started our coaching process for a $30 million project with a clear understanding of what we needed to communicate to beat the competition.  We also finished the coaching by checking the list to make sure our messages were clear and unambiguous.

We can’t change the fact that for marketing professionals and our firms, the market has heated up. But, we can work smarter.  Most of us are already working harder.  Now’s the time to put in place some templates and standard processes to be more successful in this chaotic environment.