Cynosure Communications offers training on the following topics. Specific seminars are shown under each topic, and others related to the topic can be developed for your specific needs. All can be offered in a variety formats, from luncheon presentations to full-day and multi-day workshops.

Contract Procurement

• Finessing the Selection Interview—That Elusive Tie-Breaking Chemistry
• Responding to RFPs—Proposals that Make the “Short List”
• From the Client’s Perspective: Top Ten Do’s and Dont’s

Maximizing Your Marketing

• Effective Marketing Plans—Plans That Do the Work
• Integrated Marketing—Just What are the Tools, and How to Use Them?
• Market Research—What Do You Need, Where Can You Get It?

Plans That Make Things Happen

• Marketing Plans—Your Road Map to Revenue
• Public Relations Plans That Do Their Job
• Plan Basics—Business, Project, Sales or Any Kind—Make it Work!

Media Relations

• Getting Your Story Told
• Preparing for the Media Interview
• Writing Press Releases That See Print

Presentations and Interviews

• Finessing the Selection Interview—That Elusive Tie-Breaking Chemistry
• From the Client’s Perspective: Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts
• Is PowerPoint Powerless? Effective Use of Presentation Technology
• Projecting the Better Half—You!

Writing to Win^SM
Some years ago, a client asked Marcy Steinberg, founder of Cynosure Communications, what her “hit rate” was—the percentage of proposals she worked on that won the work or made it to the next level of competition. It was in compiling that data that Marcy realized that she must have a winning writing method, because every proposal or award application she personally wrote (for herself), and almost every one she wrote with a client team committed to participating fully in her process, won. With that eye-opener, Marcy decided to map out her process. It is based on asking the right questions, hearing and understanding the true relevance of the answers, and writing in a style that allows the intended audience to also hear and understand the relevance of the message. The following seminars are all built around Marcy’s Writing toWin^SM approach to truly effective written communications.

• Proposals That Win the Work
• Get that Grant!
• Award Applications—Winning the Recognition You Deserve
• Resumes and Cover Letters That Get You to the Interview
• Transmittal Letters—the Underused Sales Tool
• Powerful Copywriting (for brochures, direct mail and other sales material)
• Newsletter Workshop—Writing, Producing and Using Newsletters Effectively

Selling Intangibles
Professional service providers can’t show a client the product they are going to deliver. This makes the sales job a special challenge. And the people who go into design and many other service professions are often those who least like to “sell,” as they understand sales to be. The good news is, they actually already have the very skills that many traditional salespeople spend their careers trying to develop. These new seminars, developed by client request, approach sales from the special needs and special skills involved in selling what can’t be seen or touched.

• Warming Up the Cold Call
• Beyond Networking
• Know Your Client, Close the Sale
• For Architects: If You Can Program, You Can Sell

• Task and Function Analysis—Do You Know It Well Enough to Explain It?
• Audience Assessment—Can You Speak Their Language, and Should You?
• Proposals That Get What They’re After (internal and external)
• Procedures and Instructions That Get the Job Done Right the First Time

Business Writing and Communications Series:
Cutting the Clutter, Getting Results

This series was first developed as a full course which engineers and technical workers could take for college credit, while also having the option to audit only those workshops that most directly applied to their in-house needs. Since then, the Business Writing Basics, Business Correspondence, and Proposal segments have become popular stand-alone seminars. All are available as stand-alones or grouped according to your needs. Call 520-326-8619.to discuss packaging exactly the material your people need into exactly the format and delivery they can use best.

• Business Writing Basics
• Business Correspondence
• Effective Memos
• News and Announcements (for non-writers who submit articles or announcements to newsletters, trade press, and local media)
• Informational Reports (Progress, Research, Status)
• Procedures, Policies and Instructions
• Proposals (RFPs, Grants, Recommendations)
• Presentations (before committees, boards, team meetings, or large audiences)
• When NOT to Write: Effective Spoken Communication in the Workplace

Inspire Customer Loyalty: What Clients Have to Say

• What do our clients have to say about the service they are getting from A/E/C professionals and the service they wish they were getting?
• What are clients' biggest headaches working with A/E/C firms?
• What are clients' greatest needs, and where can A/E/C firms be doing more?
  
• What are the most valued characteristics of the firms our clients go back to again and again?

You might be surprised at some of the answers clients are giving.

After close to eight years of ongoing client research on how to acquire that first project with that new client, Marcy is now conducting nationwide client research for SMPS and PSMA on what it really takes to retain that client. She is interviewing owners, facilities managers and procurement officials in private and public market sectors such as health care, higher education, transportation, environmental services, commercial and residential development, municipalities, GSA, and more. She is also talking to contractors and primes about their loyalty to the subs on their teams.

Marcy is asking who is involved in the decision to continue using a designer or contractor and what most influences that decision. She is learning when, how and why clients can justify sole-sourcing and what role low-bid plays in their process. She is finding out what clients say are the most common problems with A/E/C service, why they might choose a new provider even when they are happy with their current one, and what is really outstanding about the firms they go back to over and over again.

Marcy will share her research with us as it comes in, through this specially-commissioned series of seminars. Each session will provide:

• Insight into what sparks customer loyalty
• Client data from both a national and a regional perspective in a range of market sectors
• Roundtable lunch discussions with actual clients
• Six learning hours applicable for CPSM CEUs, AIA LUs and other licensures and certifications.
  

Calendar

Upcoming Presentations

Recent Presentations

Professional Services Management Association (PSMA)
Northern California Chapter
Running a Market-Driven Business
A dual track, “best practices” business curriculum for firm leaders and emerging leaders

Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS)
Writing to Win™ - Proposals that Get You to the Interview and BEYOND

Professional Services Management Association (PSMA)
Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS)
Inspire Customer Loyalty - What Clients Have to Say

San Francisco
Chicago
Orlando
Denver

American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Arizona North
Marketing Plans: Your Roadmap to Revenue

Wind2 Software
Positive Difference 2003 Annual Customer Conference
The Inside Scoop:
Proposals and Interviews from the Client's Perspective

SMPS Arizona
Beyond Networking:
How to Make the Most of Attending a Conference

Southern Arizona Architects and Engineers Marketing Association
The Inside Scoop:
Proposals and Interviews from the Client's Perspective

How Do Our Marketing Efforts in Tucson Stack Up?
Panel discussion with panelists Chuck Hollingsworth, EEC; Bill Carol, Stantec; and Marcy Steinberg, Cynosure Communications