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Find a niche market

Your next task is to ideally zero in on an area that you will specialize in—or at least find a way to differentiate your services
from the competition.

Many surveying services are in essence the exact same thing, regardless of the company completing the work. That’s why
another important marketing step is identifying ways that you stand out, or specific areas where you excel.
Do some quick research into your competitors as starting point. Who are they? What do they specialize in? How do they convey
that through any marketing they do?

“Find that niche that sets you apart from someone else selling the exact same service or product. We’re all engineers, we’re
all surveyors. What sets you apart when you’re sitting in front of a client?” says Jay Janisse, the survey manager for Jones and
Carter in Texas.
Jay’s found that one of the ways to excel in a crowded market can be not services themselves, but customer service.

“Something that we really promoted at Jones and Carter is service,” he says. “It’s that consistent product and the service. It’s
meeting deadlines. It’s having daily or weekly touches with your client. This is where we are on the project. This is where we
are on the budget. Taking stresses away from the client so they can focus on their life.”

Steve Gangwal, a consultant based in Arizona, says that narrowing in on more focused marketing worked noticeably better for
him.
“When I worked for a small suitable survey business for a while, one of the things I struggled with was, did I want to do this
shotgun approach or a very laser-focused kind of approach as far as promoting our services? I actually tried both, but what was
more successful for me was the laser-focused,” he says.

“Instead of just going out there and saying, ‘Hey, we do survey. Who needs a project, who needs this, who needs that?’ I believe
we fell down the path of more of a qualifications-based selection type of consulting services versus hard bid, low price. That
didn’t work for us,” he says.

Focus on internal marketing

Marketing isn’t just about communicating with
the public and prospective clients. It’s also
about maximizing your internal connections,
especially if you work at a large company.

Bill Swope is the survey business development
manager at Half Associates in Texas. With
close to 1,000 employees, most people
already recognize the name of the company, so
branding to the public is less critical.

As Bill’s been working to get the company’s
new geospatial practice up and running, he’s
seen the value in internal marketing.

“I probably spend half my time talking with
other groups just in my own company. I’m
also looking for new prospects outside of the
company,” he says.
“Being as large as we are, I may not know that somebody else at the company has a contact with them, or has a relationship.
And so there’s a little bit more of trying to figure out where we are historically with firms that we’re trying to work with.”

Educating yourself on your own company inside and out can also help you to more effectively cross-sell.

“Learn about the services that your company offers outside of survey,” Jay says. “I go to a lot of meetings with our business
development person and I’m there to back him up on the survey side of things. But I know about our water department, I
know about our sanitary, sewer, and our LIDAR department, all these things. Because cross-selling is huge when it comes to
marketing.”
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