Context & Clarity for Small Firm Architects

Most of us didn't learn many actionable lessons about marketing in architecture school, so what are we supposed to do? How do we learn to build and implement, and stick to the systems that are necessary for us to even just be functional marketers?

Leads, pipelines, contracts, timelines, and sales cycles may not be your favorite terms when it comes to the business of architecture, but they're all things we need to pay attention to. Maybe that's why we need to pay attention to them. Those terms may represent somewhat tedious, possibly uncomfortable work that plays out over a long period of time. That’s why it’s so important to track your marketing efforts. The question is, how do you track your marketing efforts? What tools do you use?

I often use the analogy of a pipeline because that's a visual that helps us understand that we have to put leads in one end and that sometime later some of them will come out the other end as signed contracts. It’s also important to understand that not every lead will or should turn into a project, so we have to know where our leads come from and how to find more so that we can keep that pipeline flowing and stay off of the feast or famine roller coaster.

How do you build momentum for your business?That's the question we'll start with Thursday, June 17th on Context & Clarity LIVE.Katharine White MacPhail and I will welcome speaker, author, educator, and marketing thought leader, Mark W. Schaefer to Context & Clarity.Join the conversation as we talk about building momentum for your ideas, business, and life.Share your perspective, and bring your questions to the conversation this Thursday, June 17th at 4:00 pm ET.Context & Clarity LIVE is live-streamed on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, and YouTube.

Everyone needs a plan, right? After all, it’s hard to have a system if you don’t have the plans to design it and run it. I’m sure your life and your work revolves around plans… master plans, demolition plans, framing plans, all kinds of plans… so, why wouldn’t you have a marketing plan? If marketing is not your favorite thing, having a plan in place will make it easier and make you better at it!

What are your goals for the rest of the year? Are you dreaming big or are you keeping it practical? According to Mark W. Schaefer in his latest book, your goals are a necessary part of the Cumulative Advantage, so let's talk about how your best ideas translate into what you'll accomplish the rest of this year.

Is there a system for building momentum for our ideas or our business? Is there a method for getting noticed and spreading our ideas and our influence? There must be some reason that some people rocket into the limelight while we toil away in obscurity. The good news is that there is a system and a strategy and it's fairly simple to understand.

If you feel like you've been fighting the good fight, but toiling away in relative obscurity while others are being noticed, there may be one key character that's missing from your story; the influencers. If you want your work and your ideas to be noticed and take hold, you’re going to need influencers to help you spread the word. Who are the influencers that are important to your success?

The idea of adjacent possibilities that Steven Johnson talks about in "Where Do Good Ideas Come From?" Is a good illustration of why we need to connect with people if we want our ideas to be a catalyst for motion. If we want to build momentum for our ideas. So, where do you connect with people? I guess we're in an interesting time when your answer may have gone through some serious evolution over the past 15 or 16 months from pre, during, and post-pandemic. 

Shannyn Lee - Winning Work For Your Architecture FirmHow do you win work for your architecture firm?That's the question we'll start with today on Context & Clarity LIVE.Katharine White MacPhail and I will welcome marketing and business development expert, and Head of Coaching for Win Without Pitching, Shannyn Lee to Context & Clarity.Join the conversation this week as we talk about marketing, developing business, and selling while positioning yourself and your firm as a valued expert.Share your perspective, and bring your questions to the conversation this Thursday at 4:00 pm ET.