Читать книгу Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm - Patrick MacLeamy - Страница 33

George Hellmuth loved marketing—and loved winning even more. He was a natural salesman—earthy, flamboyant, and fearless, especially when reaching out to top client leaders. He organized HOK's marketing operation around his personal style. He once said, “I know a lot about design; I've won prizes in it. But I never pleased myself with what I designed. I would rather use what I know to hire a damned good designer, then go out and land jobs for him.”¹

Prospecting for leads and finding potential new projects came first. Hellmuth subscribed to numerous clipping services, gathering bits of material from newspapers and magazines around the country. He and his long-time secretary, Dorothy Forrest, sifted through clippings every week, deciding which clients or projects were most likely to bear fruit. Then he wrote a letter to each, asking for an introductory meeting.

Hellmuth also maintained contacts with past clients, calling them on the phone or taking them to lunch. This is worth emulating. After all, if you've done your job right, past clients already like you and your work. Hellmuth would pepper them with questions: “What do you need? How can we help? Who from your company should I see? Can you introduce me?” He was happiest when on the hunt for a new project and took full advantage of the new age of air travel, flying to meet clients in other cities. Hellmuth made regular trips to Washington, DC to meet members of Congress and federal agencies. Sometimes he impressed faraway clients by just showing up at their offices. In this age of email, showing up in person makes even more of an impression.

Many architects thought meetings with potential clients were opportunities to talk about themselves and show off their work. Hellmuth was different. He believed the secret to winning work was being sincerely interested in the client—understanding the project from their point of view. Clients understood their own businesses, but little about the process of designing and building. By listening carefully, Hellmuth gained an understanding of what was most important to a client, and only then would he respond with how HOK could help their project be successful. Know this: Great marketers listen before they talk.

Hellmuth had another weapon in his sales arsenal—he was not above using flattery. When talking with a potential client, he was always complimentary, and once remarked, “Never underestimate the effect of flattery on even very important people.”²

Some large government and corporate clients leave selection of the architect to committees of midlevel officials whose careers often depend on making the right choice. What if they pick the wrong architect and the building ends up overbudget? What if the finished building is not functional? What if the design is viewed unfavorably by their superiors? Hellmuth understood the pressures these officials faced, and spent time reassuring them, staying in touch as new concerns surfaced. He became their friend and advisor, gaining their trust as they made the final choice of an architecture firm—ideally HOK.

How do you convince a client you can design a type of building you have not designed before? This is the most difficult selling job in architecture and Hellmuth loved the challenge. He cultivated sincere friendships with clients, and sometimes the bond of friendship became a substitute for prior experience. Sometimes Hellmuth won over clients by emphasizing the opportunity for a fresh look from the imagination of his design partner Obata. Sometimes Hellmuth brought Obata along, and Obata would impress clients with his careful, listening approach. At other times, Hellmuth emphasized the large size of HOK, and the people and resources he could bring to the work. By the time I joined, in 1967, HOK had become one of the largest design firms in the country, with a deep pool of talented people ready to take on particularly challenging projects.

Another hurdle Hellmuth faced was winning work outside of St. Louis in cities where HOK had no exposure. For architects, geographic expansion is hard. Clients naturally favor local architects—public clients, especially, when local tax money is involved. Local clients need compelling reasons to hire an architect from out of town, reasons strong enough to overcome their preference for spreading the wealth to local businesses. Sometimes a strong design reputation was enough to win the job. At other times, depth of experience in the building type was necessary.

Even with a good reputation and experience, winning the project often required Hellmuth to partner with local architects to share the work. This provided public officials with a ready answer for criticisms about spending local tax money on an outside architect. Sometimes it was necessary to establish a project office, where HOK and local architects worked together, keeping local tax money at home. For example, my first HOK project, the Great High Schools project in Pittsburgh, required a project office—and not one, but four, local architects.

Fortunately, Hellmuth loved the hunt for new work across the United States, and, eventually, around the world. He kept a big map of the country on the wall in his office and delighted in placing red pins in locations where HOK was awarded a new project. The map was his way of measuring progress. As HOK added offices in other cities, he used black pins to mark those locations, marking the achievement of another goal in his depression-proof-firm strategy.

By deploying all these strategies—and his own salty charm—Hellmuth was often successful in bringing a new contract back to the office, like a successful hunter bringing food to the family table. On the occasions when another firm was selected, he would return to the office and say, “I'll get 'em next time.” Sometimes another well-entrenched firm would be selected several times in a row, and Hellmuth would say, “If I can't beat 'em, I'll outlive the bastards!”

Eventually, HOK grew too big for Hellmuth to do all the marketing by himself, so he began to assemble a marketing team. King Graf became his first assistant, followed by Dan Gale and Jerry Gilmore. Hellmuth taught his marketing techniques to these successors. Their collective success set HOK on the path to becoming the most diversified design firm in the world.