Tuesday, May 22

Free for SMPS members; $10 for non-members

Networking: 8 – 8:30 am; Program: 8:30 – 10 am
Terracon, 4 Thomas Drive, Unit 3, Westbrook, ME

Many firms claim to offer excellent client service and a wide variety of expertise to serve their clients’ needs. In today’s competitive climate, how do you ensure that your firm consistently wins work? If your firm is struggling with not being selected for work you know it can do, you need to focus on what sets your firm apart from the competition. Outstanding client service and a depth of expertise are no longer unique qualifiers; they are simply the threshold of experience that clients demand today. How can you talk about your firm in ways that really stand out as clear differentiators?

This 90-minute recorded webinar will equip you with tools to define your firm’s competitive differentiators and communicate their value to your clients. You will learn four areas, called Differentiation Circles, in which you can compare and contrast your firm with the competition. Understand how to research and define these areas, and find ways to make them work in your sales and marketing process. Once your clients understand what makes your firm truly different, you are no longer competing on price alone.

Learning Objectives

• Listen to what really matters to your clients and not what you think matters.
• Discern your firm’s key value differentiation and learn how to integrate it into your sales and marketing process.
• Use research to define your firm’s experience and translate it into unique client value.

About the Presenter

Wendy Nemitz, Principal, Ingenuity Marketing

Wendy Nemitz is the founding principal of Ingenuity Marketing Group LLC, a firm focused on helping professional services providers grow thriving practices and create strong firms. Since 1992, Ingenuity Marketing has been helping CPAs, attorneys, financial service professionals, engineers, bankers, consultants, and other professionals grow their businesses through facilitating firm-wide and leadership retreats and developing mission, vision, and comprehensive marketing plans. Ingenuity also helps firms by researching opportunities and recommending new lines of service and niche markets, as well as creating and implement marketing and sales tactics that showcase their clients’ expertise, including fresh brands, Web sites, collateral materials, and PR.

 REGISTER NOW!

The SMPS Northern New England Beacon Awards are coming!

Find out more about how to enter and sponsor the event that recognizes professional services marketing and communications!
Entry deadline: May 11th

Click here for entry information

Thursday, April 26, 2012
4 – 5 pm;  5 – 6 pm networking

SMPS members: $30; Non-members: $45

After April 20th:

SMPS members: $40; Non-members: $55

Great Bay Community College
Pease International Tradeport, Portsmouth, NH

Register Now! 

What is your biggest marketing challenge? When you arrive at this highly interactive session, you’ll fill out an index card with the answer; then these two authors will devote  the entire session to addressing your challenges. Learn new ways of thinking about marketing your firm’s expertise; leave with strategies and tools you need to put these concepts into practice. Two authors – one with a focus on using firm knowledge to drive traffic to your firm, and the other an innovative/strategic business development professional – join forces in what should be a lively session – be prepared to talk!

Kathleen Soldati is an innovative corporate/nonprofit executive with significant marketing and public relations expertise. She is the co-author with Brenda Richards of Business Comes to the Expert, a pro-active marketing plan for professional service firms (The Greenway Group). She has produced international events for Nelson Mandela and Jane Goodall, obtained coverage in the New York Times and on The David Letterman Show, and has taught marketing at UNH, Boston Architectural College and for the Boston Society of Architects. After serving as Director of Marketing for JSA Inc., she opened Soldati PR which provided marketing services for predominantly AEC firms. Since 2006, she has worked as Director of Marketing at The Music Hall in Portsmouth.

Elizabeth Wylie  has spent 20 years in the museum field as a curator and director and now directs business development activities for Finegold Alexander, a Boston based planning and architecture firm with a national practice. Elizabeth is a member of SMPS (active on the Program Committee of the Boston Chapter), the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the New England Museum Association, and is actively involved with PIC Green, a Professional Interest Committee for the American Association of Museums. She is LEED AP BD+C, and is a nationally recognized advocate for Green Museums. Together with Sarah Brophy, Elizabeth has written the first and only handbook for museums seeking to become more environmentally responsible: The Green Museum: Primer on Environmental Practice (Altamira Press 2006). The pair has also co-authored three articles for Museum, the journal of the American Association of Museums: “Saving Collections + the Planet” (January/February 2010); “The Greener Good: The Enviro-Active Museum” (January/February 2008); and “It’s Easy Being Green: Museums and the Green Movement”(September/October 2006).

contact info:

• Anne Weidman :  aweidman@jsainc.com  ¦ 603- 239-1282
• Kathleen Soldati: ksoldati@comcast.net ¦ 603-501-0355
• Elizabeth Wylie: ewylie325@comcast.net

Click here to learn more

The 2012 SMPS Northern New England Beacon Awards are just a few months away! Join us Thursday, June 7th at 6pm at the Landing at Pine Point in Scarborough, Maine to view the award submittals and network with others in the industry.

 The categories include:

• Advertising - a piece, online or print, designed to reach a target audience and placed in a specific publication or online community.
• Corporate Identity – the rollout of a new logo or graphic standard for all marketing and identity materials; may include identity standards that appear on letterhead, business cards, firm capability brochures, newsletters, note cards or an internal or external newsletter in either print or electronic format. Submittal requirements: please include “before” and “after” comparisons, where appropriate. Please identify any included collateral pieces with a small label identifying their use (e.g. standard office brochure cover, thank you note card, letterhead, etc.)
• Holiday Piece – One-time piece such as a card, party invitation, client appreciation gift, calendar, etc. produced for a specific holiday
• Internal Communications –a piece(s), either online or print designed to deliver specific message(s) to employees and staff.
• External Communications – a piece, either online or print designed to deliver specific message(s) to interested public.
• Promotional Campaign – printed piece(s) and/or unusual item(s) representing an effort for a special event.
• Online Communications – Any website, blog, e-promotion created to promote a firm or created by a firm to promote a specific project.
• Newsletter – a regularly distributed publication, either electronic or print.

 Judging will be based on the following criteria:

• Effectiveness of copy & concept to target audience
• Visual impact of the design (graphics, illustrations, photography)
• Ability to meet the objectives cited in the clarification statement
• Cohesiveness of concept and copy
• Marketing results

Click here for entry information

Sponsorships are available for our biggest event of the year!

Welcome the start of Fall! Join us for an exclusive, after hours tour of the Shipyard Brewery. You don’t want to miss this event, which will include a tour, beer tasting and pizza, and networking with your colleagues!

Please make sure to wear appropriate footwear (no high-heeled or open toed shoes). Sneakers or the like work best. This is a limited attendee event, so register early!

About Shipyard:
Since 1994, Shipyard Brewing Company has been brewing fine quality products with a wide range of style profiles. We use only top quality ingredients and pride ourselves on the consistency and freshness of our products. All our beer is hand crafted from recipes developed by master brewer Alan Pugsley, one of the most influential people in the craft brewing movement in North America.

Event Details:
Date:              Thursday, September 29th
Time:              5:00pm – 7:00pm
Cost:              $20 Members / $30 Non-members
Location:        Shipyard Brewing
86 Newbury Street, Portland, Maine

Parking is available in the adjacent Ocean Gateway garage. Hope to see you there!

REGISTER NOW!

SMPS is here for you.  Here’s our SMPS Build challenge:

• Build your potential.  Join  a committee made up of great people, gaining knowledge and expertise through our new education programs, and attending our panel programs to broaden your own network;
• Build awareness. Represent your firm and its business while attending our networking, panel programs, and special events; and
• Build business.  Implement the tools you take back and the relationships you build that will bring you closer to your clients, directly benefitting the growth of your business.

This year we celebrate the 20^th year of SMPS Maine and are making an energized commitment to become more inclusive of our region by changing our name to SMPS Northern New England!  Vermont?  New Hampshire?  You’ve always been part of our membership … you will soon be part of our name. 

I look forward to greeting you all as we kick off the season on the evening of September 29th with SeptemBEER, social networking at the Shipyard Brewery in Portland.

Join us for our new season and let us make you a part of our SMPS community!

 Best,

Anne Weidman, CPSM
SMPS Maine (Northern New England) 2011-2012 Chapter President
Marketing Manager/Associate, JSA, Inc.
aweidman@jsainc.com

http://www.smpsmaine.org/smps/archives/840

Education/Programs:

• Programs led by SMPS Fellows on:
  • client debriefings
  • effective writing strategies
• Plus great programs on:
  • corporate social responsibility
  • integrated project design
• Client panels related to
  • the Maine/NH bridges issue
  • the future of sustainable design
  • hospital master planning
• Each of these events had time for networking built in, plus we had three great social events as well.

• 15% of our members are now Certified Professional Services Marketers – which is very good comparatively speaking – but we’d like to see that number grow even more. Katy Hews is very passionate about advancing the number of CPSMs in our chapter, so if you have interest, please email her at katy@marketivity.com, as she is trying to assemble a study group.

Membership:

• Despite losing some members who have had to leave the industry due to the challenging job market, and losing others whose firms have had to cut back on expenses, our Chapter has grown by about 10% since the beginning of the year.

• We are really hoping to get some traction in regard to membership, and would love for all of you to help sing our praises to your colleagues so that we can add members, which in turn will add value for everybody.

Financial:

• We are in a tough economy, but by taking a conservative approach to spending and raising our non-member event fees, we have been able to build our balance sheet back up to a place where we can really start to make investments in the Chapter again.

Sponsors:

• A big part of the reason we have been able to get back to a good place is through the generous support of our sponsors:
  • Bronze: Logo Owl Promotional Advertising
  • Silver: Woodard & Curran, SMRT, and Maine Turnpike Authority
  • Gold: Mainebiz, Northeast Technology Alliance, and GEI Consultants
  • Platinum: Terracon

The other people I really have to thank are our board members:

Being on the board of a non-profit professional organization isn’t always as glamorous as it might seem, and we couldn’t do it without the hard work of these people and the support of their firms.

We have a few people who are finishing up their terms, so I’d first like to recognize them:

• Secretary: Kim Stiver, CD&M Communications
  Kim has been a great resource to us, as she comes from outside our industry and has always provided unique insight into the challenges that we face.

• Director: Scott Tompkins, Maine Turnpike Authority
  Scott has been so valuable in providing guidance to us over the last few years. He is extremely well-connected in not only the A/E/C community, but the community in general, and his knowledge and relationships have been invaluable.

• Past President: Katy Hews, CPSM, Marketivity
  Katy is passionate about making SMPS Maine a place for great educational programs that result in our members being able to elevate themselves within their firms and grow their careers.

Our 2011-12 board is very diverse in terms of geography and is representative of all facets of the A/E/C industry:

• Director: Paul Stevens, SMRT (Portland)
• Secretary: Allison Lynch, Ledgewood Construction (South Portland)
• Treasurer, Kevin Gendreau, CES (Brewer)
• Past President, Jen Andrews, CPSM, Woodard & Curran (Portland)
• President Elect: Allison Sovetsky, CPSM, Woodard & Curran (Portland)
• President: Anne Weidman, JSA (Portsmouth)

I know Anne Weidman has a lot of exciting things planned for next year and the incoming and outgoing boards will use the summer months to get a really solid approach together for the 2011-12 SMPS year, which marks the Maine Chapter’s 20^th anniversary. If you have any thoughts or want to volunteer to be on a committee or sponsor, please let me know and I would be happy to talk to you about it!

Jen Andrews, CPSM

SMPS Maine Chapter President

jandrews@woodardcurran.com

It was a beautiful night for a cruise around Portland Harbor!