Hiring a New AEC Marketer: Onboarding and Training
Congrats – you found the often elusive marketing team member for your AEC firm! The job market is tough to say the least right now, so filling this role likely took some time, effort and financial resources. A new marketing team member is an investment for your firm and now that they’re onboard, you want to continue to support them to fulfill their role in the strongest way. Depending on the experience of your new hire, their onboarding and training may need to be more or less comprehensive. Here are some important elements we suggest you consider as part of this phase:
#1: Marketing for the AEC industry is B2B; not B2C like many young marketers learn in school.
The hard truth is B2B marketing, especially for professional services firms, isn’t as snazzy and fast-moving as B2C marketing is, and colleges and universities know this. More and more are offering B2B marketing classes, but the vast majority of students are still largely exposed to B2C marketing. It’s a lot different to put together a case study trying to sell the latest and greatest iPhone to the masses versus market your firm’s structural engineering prowess. New hires will need training on what B2B marketing for an AEC firm entails and how it’s different from the B2C world they’ve largely been exposed to.
#2: We have lots of technical terms; get them up to speed on the industry jargon.
From FF&E to CM at Risk, the AEC industry uses a lot of acronyms that new hires need to be knowledgeable about quickly. Since your new marketing person likely doesn’t have a background in our industry, there are a lot of terms to learn. And since they will be putting together your firm proposals and likely representing the company at industry events, you want to dedicate time to educating them about important terms so they can be the best representative possible for your firm as you try to win new work.
#3: Proposals are a beast you don’t get training on until you’re in the field.
Proposals and qualifications packages are still the vehicles that our firms use to win work, stay profitable and stay operational. As a new marketer at an architecture firm, I had never heard of a proposal even though it was my second job post-college. If your new hire will be involved in the proposal development process, it is critical to dedicate time early on to all facets of proposal training – from how prospective clients use them to award projects, the different types of proposals, graphic design, writing and layout.
#4: They might be a lone marketing ranger. Connect them with your firm’s staff.
Many firms have very small or single-person marketing teams. There is nothing wrong with this, but take it into consideration as you train your new team member. It might be a no-brainer to connect them with the senior member of the firm who is responsible for marketing and business development, but don’t discount connecting them with the rest of the firm including technical staff. As they learn how to best market your firm, getting to know the people truly building the projects is an invaluable way for them to learn your business and represent it strongly out in the market.
Need help getting going with training your new marketing hire? We are here to help and have onboarding and training packages to ensure it’s a smooth and educational process for all. Get in touch with our team here to learn more!