Friendly marketing.

During the next few months, POB’s contributing editors will be bringing you timely messages dealing with survey issues related to POB’s Editorial Mission. In the hit song “Highway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin are the lyrics “sometimes words have no meaning.” With all the articles in print and the amount of data available, I get the feeling there is a lack of real meat. POB magazine is renewing its effort to bring to the reader concise and aggressive coverage of issues important to the surveying and mapping industry.

I never started out to be anything but a surveyor. My love is and will always be surveying and mapping. One of the first articles I wrote for a national magazine was “The Friendly Approach to Marketing,” written in 1984. Surveyors nationwide tell me they still have the article and read it occasionally. Let me review some of the important points from this article.

Marketing Principle

A deal will not be closed at the first meeting with a client. It takes time to develop this relationship. Professional services are contracted only over time with clients who have become known to you on a first name basis.

Self-image

The relationship between you and your client is based in part on your own self-image. Are you proud of the services you offer for the monetary compensation you receive?

Define Your Market

Evaluate your existing services, upgrade with competent personnel, modernize your equipment and only practice in a field of expertise in which you have proper background and training. Clients who value your services and are willing to pay a fair market value for these services are the ultimate goal. What more could anyone ask?

One last important item: I hear from many areas of the country that there is a slight cooling down of the economy. This would be a good time to start taking a good look at how you are running your business. For almost ten years most companies have had more work than they could produce in a normal workweek. Getting your company back to 40-hour workweeks and practicing better project management is the ticket to future success.