AEC marketing:
10 steps to
By Matt Handal
Special to Florida Construction News
Many years ago, in response to an
article I wrote for the Society for Mar-
keting Professional Services (SMPS)
Marketer magazine, I was emailed by
someone who was starting out as an
AEC marketer for an electrical de-
signer/contractor in the Midwest.

(NOTE: we refer to marketers in the
architecture, engineering, and con-
struction industry as “AEC mar-
keters”). He asked me how you gain
the respect of engineers and get
them to listen to your marketing
ideas. He was trying to figure out “in
essence, how does a 21-year-old con-
vince a strong AEC firm that there are
areas to be improved?”
What follows is a slightly-edited
version of my light-hearted, yet frank,
response to him. My “10 Steps to
Making it BIG in the AEC Marketing
World” still hold true today and can
help just about any marketer.

Mike: First, congratulations for having the
audacity to approach someone of my
stature and accomplishment. As I
stand here in my darkened office,
peering at the dots scurrying around
the city below, I often wonder to my-
self…”was I once one of them?”
You see Mike, after you have
achieved a certain level of success in
the AEC marketing world, it is hard to
remember what it was like starting
out. But I will do my best to recount
how I became what I am today.

Maybe you can learn from my jour-
ney. So climb up here on my lap. Ok,
this is a little story that I like to call
“10 Steps to Making it BIG in the AEC
Marketing World.”
8 – SPRING 2018 — Florida Construction News
success 1. Prove yourself to the
technical staff
As an AEC marketer, (or proposti-
tute) or whatever you would like to
call yourself, you are going to have to
prove yourself to everybody.

How do you do that? First, you
have to realize that your job is to sup-
port the people in your firm, not just
in your marketing position…but as a
member of the team. So, look for op-
portunities to do that.

You need to walk in their shoes
and learn everything you can about
what they do. For example, I served
as the marketer for an AEC designer
and would “tag along” to project sites
to help them survey projects they
were going to design renovations for.

That’s the first time I stuck my head
up in the drop ceiling. I was also al-
ways around to help out when a proj-
ect was going out the door.

I would involve myself as much as
possible. By doing so you learn what
it is they are doing, meet their clients,
and earn a little bit of their trust. For
me, it would even get to the point
where 6 p.m. would come around and
clients would call me asking, “Where
are our drawings?”
True story, one time I walked back
to the engineers and I saw a project
manager spot me and run out the
door with drawings under his arm. I
wasn’t his boss and had no control
over him, but he knew that I was
walking back there with the client’s
interest in mind and took me seri-
ously enough to respond accordingly.

2. Always think in terms of what
you can do for others to help to
make them successful
Live your life with other people’s
goals in mind. You will feel better
about yourself than if you live a self-
centered life. If you take actions to
make others look good, they will
know that you have their best interest
at heart. That’s when they open up to
you. Once they know that you are truly
looking out for them, they start taking
your advice and looking to you if they
have a problem. Don’t approach po-
tential clients or coworkers looking for
something from them. Be the guy
that people come to when they need
something. Go out of your way for
people and always be 100 percent up-
front and honest.

3. Read the SMPS Markendium,
then read it again
This comprehensive resource has
replaced the Marketing Handbook for
the Design and Construction Profes-
sional, which you can still find on
Amazon.com. This SMPS resource is about $159
($123 on Kindle) and I wish I bought it
before I knew all the stuff in it. It
would have saved me a hell of a lot of



time. It covers the basics of AEC mar-
keting, and by reading it twice you will
gain enough knowledge to sound like
you know what you are talking about.

Which brings us to #4.

4. Fake it until you make it
This is important. Now that you
have read my article, you know just
about as much about the subject as I
do. But what makes me seem more
knowledgeable than you is that I
wrote the article and you read it.

It’s important to know what you
know and what you don’t know. But
it’s more important to say just enough
to sound like you know what you are
talking about. For example, your boss
might ask, “How much do we spend
on our marketing efforts this year?”
Having completed #3, you may say,
“Well, typically the larger firms spend
around nine percent of their total
gross revenue on marketing and busi-
ness development, but a firm our size
should spend around 11 percent.

Fourteen percent would probably be
the point where we know we are
spending too much.” Where did you
get that information? “It’s based on a
survey of AEC firms done in 2000. I
can get more recent numbers if you
want, but my gut tells me the num-
bers are relatively the same.”
Don’t talk about stuff you know
nothing about. Go search out just
enough accurate information to make
you sound credible.

5. Don’t make contacts,
make friends
The long and short of this item is
that you don’t want to be the guy with
the huge business card collection and
no recollection of who these people
are. Contacts are powerful, especially
in the AEC industry.

Let me give you an example. When
I was starting out, my boss took me
to a local engineers’ meeting and
said, “You are not leaving here with-
out at least one business card.”
Yipes. So, I searched out the friendliest
face amongst a sea of grumpy old en-
gineers and awkwardly went up to in-
troduce myself. He was very pleasant
and I got the card. Job complete and I
got to leave that night.

What my boss should have said is,
“See that guy over there… he is going
to get you your next marketing job
and tell you how to win your future
wife’s heart.” Because, believe it or
not, that’s exactly what happened.

The first guy I ever got a card from
had gotten a hold of my resume years
later and handed it the person who
hired me for my current job.

He also told me the secret spot to
take my now wife to on our first date.

Needless to say she was impressed.

That’s the power of developing rela-
tionships and helping other people to-
wards success. In the AEC industry,
20 solid relationships will get you far-
ther than 1,000 contacts.

6. Dress slightly better
than the boss
As the marketer you need to por-
tray a professional image. But that
varies from office to office. So dress
slightly better than the boss. If the
boss comes in with a tuxedo, you
come in with a tuxedo and top hat. If
he wears khakis and a polo shirt, you
come in with dress pants and a polo
shirt. If he wears a dress shirt but no
tie, you wear a dress shirt and tie.

Dress like the person you want to be
seen as, not the person you are.

(Note: Most AEC marketers are fe-
male. And of course the same con-
cept applies with all genders. I’m sure
you’ll figure out what to wear.)
7. Be productive
I highly suggest you get the book
“Getting Things Done” by David Allen
and use that as your bible for how
you manage all the requests of your
time. Your time in the business world
is finite. You only have so much of it.

However, people’s demands on you
are infinite (especially if you are in
marketing). So you’ll need training on
how to be productive.

Not many people do this. But if
you live this book, you will be worlds
more productive than everybody else.

People will know you as the person
who can move a project from start to
finish. 8. Forget about company loyalty
Sounds like you work for a great
company, but the odds are that you
won’t be working there in five years.

The AEC industry is often changing
and is very incestuous. People move
around from job to job. It’s basically
how you get substantial raises.

In addition, the AEC industry has
its highs and lows. Industry reces-
sions come and go. As soon as you
need to be cut from the accounting
books, you will be. Most likely they
hired you for this position because
they didn’t want to spend the money
for someone with tons of marketing
experience. Use this opportunity to
the greatest extent possible, but keep
your eyes towards your professional
future. In short, you need to market your-
self as Mike X, not as Mike X from
ABC Engineering.

9. Beg for forgiveness rather
than asking for permission
If you have an idea, run with it and
record the results. Always use com-
mon sense, but don’t go running
everything up the flagpole.

Most great ideas get stuck up in
the flag pole. Just take the ball and
run with it. If you can show it was
successful then you are a hero. If you
fall on your face, then beg forgive-
ness and hopefully you don’t get
fired, if they even realize you did it in
the first place.

Don’t be afraid to take some risks.

10. Keep your eye on the prize
As a marketer, the song you will
hear most is “What have you done for
me lately?” Concentrate your market-
ing actions on those that will help
bring business into the door. The
number one thing you can do to earn
your keep is bring business in and ac-
tively track what business you bring
in. At the end of the day, that’s what
you need to show…the business that
you have brought in.

There is plenty of work out there,
you just have to find it. Most bosses
won’t argue with proven success.

I hope this information has been
useful to you and your AEC marketing
career. Sounds like you have a lot to
learn, but I think I outlined how to get
90 percent of that knowledge.

Matt Handal provides an extensive
array of resources for AEC marketers
at HelpEverybodyEveryday.com.

Florida Construction News — SPRING 2018 – 9