Perkins and Will is a global, human-centered design firm focusing on sustainability, resilience, well-being, diversity, inclusion, and research. Its team of more than 2,700 creative and critical thinkers provides services in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and urban design. Fast Company named Perkins and Will one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies in Architecture.
By Chris Waight, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
How does your firm define its business development strategy?
Our firm takes a “Seller/Doer” approach to business development, meaning that the people who win new work also lead the project teams in doing the work. Thus, the business development leader of each market sector needs to have a significant number of billable hours each year. We don’t usually employ people who do nothing but business development. We find this level of project commitment essential to project success and client satisfaction and retention.
We use a multiprong business development strategy for introducing our firm to potential new clients, reinforcing our relationships with existing clients, and demonstrating our expertise. Our goal with all these approaches is to be a “first call” firm, the firm that new and existing clients think of first when they need an architect.
What are some of the techniques that you use to implement that strategy?
We have several ways of introducing ourselves to new clients. The first is through public relations—getting our name recognized and building our reputation. Next is meeting potential new clients face to face, through cold calls and at professional events. And we use existing relationships with consultants and contractors to meet new clients and future projects.
Clients look for expertise in their designers, so we take every opportunity to demonstrate our expertise to potential new clients. This can be through speaking at conferences, participating in panel discussions, and writing articles for professional publications.
Maintaining relationships with existing clients has two major benefits: The first and obvious benefit is that clients who have been satisfied with our work in the past are more likely to hire us again. Second, individuals employed by existing clients often change jobs. By maintaining good relations with existing clients, and with individuals working for those clients, we can not only keep existing clients but gain new ones when the individuals take new positions with other companies.
How do we strengthen a client relationship? What does a strong client relationship feel like?
We strengthen our existing client relationships by continually checking in with them through email or phone calls, by having lunches with them, by sponsoring events they are hosting, and by encouraging them to join us when speaking at conferences and participating on panels. We often host panels and events in our office, for which we invite clients, consultants, and contractors to attend and participate.
Explain how the firm has achieved a “market breakthrough.”
Market breakthroughs—that is, winning a project for a building type we’ve never done before—are difficult. After all, why would a client hire us when there are plenty of other architects with stronger portfolios in a particular building type? But, such market breakthroughs are important; they are how firms grow. Here is one example of we made a breakthrough into a new market:
California has seen a recent boom in student housing, which has been crucial to increase retention and graduation rates at campuses across the state and the nation, but our Los Angeles and San Francisco offices had no experience with that building type. However, our Boston office has a deep portfolio in student housing. Our experts from Boston joined us on numerous road trips to visit university representatives in California to present our firm’s expertise and portfolio. Because many large student housing projects are delivered through design-build or public-private partnerships (P3), we also visited major contractors and developers. As a result, our San Francisco and Los Angeles offices were able to find developer and contractor partners for two recent University of California student housing projects. In its first student housing pursuit, the L.A. office was on one of three shortlisted teams. While we didn’t win the project, we did achieve a breakthrough: The developers of the winning project admired our design so much that they agreed to partner with us for future pursuits. This has since led to several student housing wins for us—our “breakthrough” into the student housing market!
In the ever-changing marketplace, how does one maintain competitive focus?
We maintain our competitive focus by always looking for what’s next. That includes what projects are on the horizon (and thus which potential clients we should be developing relationships with). This often involves studying masterplans and capital improvement plans to see what universities are planning well into the future. We also need to know what’s next in our areas of expertise. To help with this, our firm employs knowledge managers for each practice area; their research into future trends helps us maintain our competitive edge. We also have regional and national market sector meetings that keep everyone abreast of what is going on locally, regionally, and nationally so we can react quickly if we see trends changing or moving.
Strategic partnerships could be the strategy that wins a client, how does that happen?
With design-build becoming the delivery method of choice for many institutional clients, we pursue strategic partnership strategy with leading design-build contractors. After forming these partnerships, we look for the right project opportunities. When we see a promising upcoming project, we will meet with the client to show how our team of designers and builders would be the right one for this project.
As an emerging professional who rarely leaves the office, how can I help business development?
The best way to develop new business is by building our reputation through successful built projects. Therefore, everyone in our firm contributes to business development by producing great projects. Beyond that, we engage our emerging professionals in marketing efforts by having them research clients and project types and including them in interview preparation (and sometimes the interview). We have even had emerging professionals bring in new work through relationships they have made in school or through community organizations. Finally, emerging professionals in our firm are key to the vitality of the office. An emerging professional fresh out of school has a new depth of knowledge that inspires us all; we just need to unlock that door and let it out.
What is the role of outside activities, relationships, etc. in generating opportunities and new business?
Outside activities are essential in developing new business. As stated above, conferences are great opportunities for us to show our expertise and to demonstrate how we are on the forefront of a practice area. Having personal contact with potential clients through community involvement can open doors for us that we could never open through traditional marketing efforts. And social gatherings, such as dinner events and open house parties is a way to meet new clients in more relaxed conditions.
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Christopher A. Waight, AIA, LEED BD+C, is a senior associate with Perkins and Will in Los Angeles and leads business development for the firm’s Southern California higher education practice. He is a licensed California architect, a member of the Society for College and University Planning, and a graduate of Southern California Institute of Architecture.
(Return to the cover of the 2019 PM Digest: Developing business)