Beyond Price Cutting: How to Maximize Value and Remain Competitive

March 18, 2010
11:30 Check-in and networking
12 noon Lunch
12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Program

Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee

With mounting pressures of uncertain economic times and increasing competition for every opportunity, your firm may be tempted to cut prices and chase every lead to remain competitive. Slashing prices might seem to be a quick fix, but it can lead to negative long-term side effects. And pursuing opportunities without strategies to capture the project can waste valuable marketing dollars. Join us – SMPS Wisconsin and ACEC Wisconsin – for this exciting half-day seminar, where Dr. Janet Sanders will be on hand to identify opportunities and strategies that will allow you to focus your efforts and maintain or even raise your prices.

You will learn:

• “Hot spots” to invest your limited marketing dollars
• Relevant messages that appeal to today’s penny-pinching clients and prospects
• Tactics to win “more than your share” of whatever work that is available now in your marketplace
• Ways other firms have changed their business models to get through the downturn
• Ideas to position your firm to survive today's economy and thrive in tomorrow’s changed marketplace

SMPS and ACEC members in Minneapolis who hosted this program earlier this year gave it “two thumbs up” with comments such as “I left the program and was able to implement a couple of great ideas yet that afternoon – with more to come!”

Dr. Janet Sanders, FSMPS, has more than 25 years of research, teaching, and consulting experience in communication. Her B.A. and M.A. degrees are from the University of Maryland and her Ph.D. in Speech Communication and Human Relations is from the University of Kansas. Dr. Sanders has authored numerous journal articles and other publications, including a chapter in the 2008 and previous editions of "Marketing Handbook for the Design and Construction Professional."

Dr. Sanders' client list includes more than 200 professional service firms nationwide and Europe. She helps firms establish their brand, integrate their marketing and sales functions with their strategic goals, and win profitable work with effective strategic presentations. On business development and competitive presentations for contracts totaling over $36 billion, her win rate tops 70 percent.

Clients also include Fortune 500 corporations, retail chains, healthcare facilities, and education and cultural institutions. She has coached top executives of major corporations including Freddie Mac, Starbucks, the Federal Reserve, McDonnell Douglas, Caterpillar, Philip Morris, Monsanto, Sara Lee, Dayton-Hudson Department Stores, Prudential, and Ben and Jerry themselves!

From 1993 to 2000, she was Vice President of Business Planning and Marketing for Sverdrup Civil Inc. and was named to the firm's Board of Directors in 1995. She directed the company's sales training and services as well as its marketing strategy, information and support units numbering more than 45 people with budgets over $4 million. In 1998 the company merged with Jacobs Engineering Corporation to become the 3rd largest engineering firm in the U.S. at the time. In August of 200 her contributions to the profession were recognized when she was named a Fellow of the Society for Marketing Professional Services.

SMPS is a Registered Provider of AIA Continuing Education Credits. This program is 3 CEUs.