Establishing Leadership for You and Your Firm
Being seen as leaders in your technical area of expertise
There certainly are a lot of firms in the transportation/A/E/C world vying for projects these days. Many firms look to set themselves apart from the madding crowd and establish niche expertise. This strategy can create a strong competitive advantage if you can create awareness of your firm’s expertise and technical leadership with your client base. Creating this awareness is not rocket science, but takes a strategy and the ability to implement it (and some time!).
There are several ways to establish technical leadership for your firm. Here are a few to consider:
The easiest (and least expensive in the end) is to take opportunities to speak at industry conferences. Being seen as the “technical expert” on a conference program already sets you and your firm up as the expert on a topic. Many conference organizers are looking for speakers and will often welcome you with open arms! Often you have the opportunity to speak with a client about a project you or your firm has worked on. This can be an excellent opportunity to broaden your network of contacts and create further awareness about your expertise.
Another way to create awareness of your technical leadership is to present a webinar focused on a particular topic or project. If you have web conferencing software available, it’s a small investment to develop content that would be interesting to potential clients or teaming partners. You have the opportunity to influence or choose the invitation list, as well as the content of the webinar. After the webinar you can follow up with attendees who clearly have an interest in your topic and start a conversation.
Another idea is to write an article or a blog for an industry or professional services publication. You may already have much of the content at your fingertips from client deliverables or presentations. Many publications welcome articles and blogs and it is very effective way to establish technical leadership in your field.
For firms in very specialized service areas, focus on how your industry experts have developed solutions to client’s problems. Your competitive advantage is having the foremost experts in your technical area with a wide range of project experience that can be brought to bear on client’s issues. Market solutions-based expertise in proposals, presentations, and meetings with clients.
