Now playing at a Jobsite near You… “BIM and the Fakers” 

 

Having worked on projects throughout the nation, I have seen some fantastic BIM efforts underway as well as companies that do a wonderful job with integrated project delivery (IPD) and overall project collaboration. However, that’s the exception to the norm. Most are faking it really well and creating models that are inaccurate and/or have no utility past the construction lifecycle of the project.

The scenario goes something like this, “Hey boss, there’s the really big job and the bid package requires us to collaborate with all A/E and other trades and utilize a BIM. What should we do?” The boss answers, “We have Revit, and our CAD guys created a 3D to land us the job—that should work. We’ll figure out the rest later."

So Contractor X shows up on the job and is lacking the competent VDC staff, software, or, even worse, they just don’t care about the collaboration piece. By the time they figure it out, if they figure it out, it’s too late. It becomes a mad scramble to stay on schedule and just get it built.

That means the model that’s given to the owner isn’t accurate. It also lacks the true benefit of the original intent—to create a model that provides an accurate as built condition that can be used throughout the life of the project. And most owners are complicit in problem because they themselves don’t know how to use the model that was created, let alone hold someone accountable for its deficiencies.

How to Avoid the Dumpster Fire 

Here’s a fun fact, BIM works. It works if the project team, from the A/E to the GC, and all the subs that follow are competent in modeling, have a sincere desire to work together and have mutual accountability.    

What it does is ultimately save everyone involved in the project the two biggest expenses on a construction project—labor and materials. It’s that simple.
And if the owner is competent, they are involved from the very beginning and receive at the end of their project a new BIM on the structure that was just built. If used properly, this can last for years and provide extremely valuable information on the existing condition for maintenance and later renovation.

Just BIM it! 

There are many reasons why BIM should be implemented on projects. And as owners mature in their understanding of the advantages, it will become the norm in the construction world. Below is a partial list of why it will happen: 

- Reduced labor expense—increased efficiency

- Reduced material cost 

- Improved schedule compression

- Offsite fabrication capability (pre-fab)

- Fewer change orders

- Fewer RFIs

- Improved value to the owner

- Electronically transmit plans/data

- Enhanced visual communication

 

BIM Meets Laser Scanning  

There are two obvious types of construction—new and retrofit. Many understand the advantages of implementing laser scanning to capture the existing conditions—it’s the fastest, most accurate form of 3D measurement on the planet. And it’s affordable.

What only a small percentage understand is to get the true value of scanning, it should be implemented on a renovation or new construction project during the milestones of the project as a QA/QC tool. The federal government estimates that 12% of new construction costs are the result of rework expenses. Using laser scanning during construction to identify errors when as they occur can significantly reduce this expense. And laser scanning should be used to true-up the BIM if you want an accurate product at the end of the project.

Adapt or Face Slow Death! 

If you’ve made it this far and still don’t see the advantages of BIM and how it can benefit you, I’d make one final argument to its implementation. The world has been working in 2D since the caveman. With the evolution of the computer, we no longer accept 2D as a form of visual communication. We expect to see the world in 3D, and this demand will only increase as younger generations take over the workplace. The fact is 3D modeling is coming…and BIM is your ticket to the show.

My Truck Cost More than My Laser Scanning Business 

Laser scanning is still in its infancy, but there is no disguising the fact that it’s easier and less expensive to put a horse in the race than ever before. The accelerating democratization of lidar technology integration into a variety of work spaces, fueled by the lower cost for software and hardware, is making it easier than ever - with an increasing demand. Adding fuel to the fire is the continual emergence of “3D” in our society, making it more desirable than silly old 2D.  

Most small business start-ups require substantial capital investment; a long-term franchise agreement; personal guarantees, or a line-of-credit against your rich old uncle’s house. Conversely, a laser scanning service providing company can be up and running from their garage and a home PC for under a $100k. Aside from owning a hotdog cart, how many other start-ups, dare I say “technology” businesses, can make the same claim?

Damn Rookies 

So with the emergence of The Rookies, what does this mean? Some would argue it’s horrible because projects are now going to these low bidders and they’re going to screw up the ground the early adaptors have been paving. Another problem is The Rookies sometimes are so enamored with the technology they might not understand the business of the business … software costs, annual renewals, calibration of instruments, gross profit on labor, and the biggest anchor of all, employee training. Assuming they understand all this, do they have a plan for marketing and securing long-term revenue?

Or perhaps they’re revenue starved so why not take work for cheap to keep them in the cash flow, and impress the new client at the same time. We’ve had this experience with the small guy trying to tackle a big client and the big client coming to us wanting to know why I’m ripping them off. Really??

I of course encourage them to investigate the experience level and history of the new provider before they pull the trigger.

It doesn’t seem right that you worked hard to pioneer the introduction of laser scanning, 3D modeling and BIM … only to have others steal the prize. How are we supposed to compete with that?    

The Glass Really is Half Full 

My bar stool logic suggests that the new guys will actually help us all. Have I lost my mind, or was it the whiskey talking? I believe that as new as the provider industry is, the added competition will help us all.

Why?

There will be more opportunities for all of us. The more zealots spreading the word about the benefits of scanning, the less time you’ll spend educating and the more time you can spend bidding to what we hope is an educated client. HINT: INCREASE YOUR BID LOG.

With more players in the market, it will be easier for the law of the jungle to prevail. So the strong will survive. Those who are doing it right - offering a quality product - will prosper over the long run and the fakers will be smoked out. You can differentiate your company easier now than in the past. HINT: BUILD YOUR REPUTATION.

As the technology continues to improve (the same technology opening the doors to the new guys), you should become better at what you do. Your own scanning and post-processing time should be reduced … and isn’t labor the true variable cost for all of us providers? So take your experience and leverage it to your benefit. HINT: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR EXPERIENCE, AND HELP YOUR CLIENTS ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS.

The increased competition will force you to become more financially savvy to the metrics of your own business. You’ll be forced to make better business decisions than ever before because you can’t survive if you don’t. HINT: KNOW YOUR FINANCIAL METRICS.

How many markets are still really untouched? In other words, what industries can benefit from fast, accurate measurement? If you break it down, the list is huge. Examples include ship cargo hulls; luxury estate management; theatrical stage design; computational fluid dynamics (think energy efficiency); etc. So the new competition should open up doors to otherwise dormant markets. HINT: IDENTIFY YOUR VERTICAL MARKETS

Improvise, Adapt, & Overcome 

(I have a soft spot for our Marines.) We cannot control the industry, but you can control your business. You can make a difference to your clients because no two projects are identical. We are a long way away from having this become a commodity market. Have a plan and get your team ready to execute the plan.

“I See Dead People” 

Do the manufacturers get it? I mean do the hardware and software manufacturers truly understand the market opportunity before them? Which company offers outstanding customer support? Do they engage Building Information Modeling? Does their product pricing make sense? Do they support the industries in which they’re trying to sell their products?

Laser scanning in its simplest form is measurement. It’s highly accurate, incredibly fast, non-contact measurement. If you owned an instrument or software company working in the laser scanning industry I’m assuming you would understand this cornerstone. Logic dictates you would develop creative marketing strategies that drive sales by working with industries that rely on measurement. And you would support industry trends (i.e. Building Information Modeling, Facilities Management, etc.) that would push product sales. It also makes sense to work with service providers to assist them in their efforts to educate the masses about this wonderful still new-to-most technology?

We’ve been scanning longer than some, not as long as others, and travel throughout the United States on a regular basis with our fleet of scanners. So we have experience in working with a variety of software and hardware manufactures. With perhaps one or two exceptions, we are generally frustrated with the lack of support and customer service we receive.

Myth-Busters 

So why does this situation exist? Some possible reason might include:

·      Manufactures don’t understand what to do with their data and haven’t taken the time to explore and/or develop the entire workflows used by end users.

·      There are still too many plug-in software packages to reach a desired end product with poor interoperability. The situation is exasperated by so many different deliverable products.

·      Some companies are too big to make tactical moves and adapt quickly to the ever-morphing 3d environment.

·      Some manufactures have sales forces focused on old school distribution channels who themselves are struggling.

·      Most don’t recognize industry trends—or if they do, they’re taking the wrong indicators.

·      It seems many are worried about what the industry is doing rather than what they are doing to capture market share.

·      Some manufacturers become immediately alienated if you choose a competing product.

·      Perhaps they’re making a lot of money doing just what they are and there’s no great reason to pursue a different direction.

·      Are some companies positioning themselves for an acquisition or take over? Is their goal to be gobbled up and cash out?

Predict the Future by Understanding the Past 

The future for these companies that ignore customer satisfaction and don’t have an attack plan is bleak. Think how IBM disregarded the PC market. Or Blackberry scoffed at the iPhone and didn’t listen to their customers. Others invaded the market with products and services that met the changing needs of the consumers.

Post-It Notes were an accidental invention, and most people don’t see the white arrow inside the FedEx logo. Sometimes people don’t see the obvious. Laser scanning is about measurement. Those hardware/software manufacturers who help provide a solution and offer outstanding customer support will continue to rise to the top.

There’s plenty of debate out there by service providers—surveying firms, engineering companies, and others about photogrammetry replacing lidar with bargain pricing on point clouds. Attend any bleeding-edge conference and the murmur in the background is usually something to the effect of “…you think lidar will even be around once photogrammetry takes over?”

Why Should I Care 

Regardless of the claims—the fact is that photogrammetry is "now," and will continue to impact our industry as service providers. Here’s why:

• It will create confusion. As the cost basis of investing in lidar continues to drop, more businesses enter the service provider space. Some will offer it as their core business, while others will bolt it on to their existing services. In either case, clients will be offered a low-cost alternative to lidar deliverables in the form of photogrammetry. Furthermore, some of these new revenue hungry providers will say it’s better than lidar. At this point already under-educated marketplace will have another option to consider.
• Photogrammetry will eventually go mainstream. The appetite for 3D from everyday consumers is growing and will continue to do so. This is partially fueled by younger generations and techies who expect their world to be in 3D. And finally, consumers already carry the data collection tool—their cell phone.
• It’s too inexpensive to ignore. It will be easy to make a nominal capital investment in hardware and software and provide a 3D deliverable. The typical barriers to entry—the Leica C-10 for $110k plus $15k annual calibration—are no longer necessary to create a point cloud.  
• Photogrammetry is not limited by socio-economic class or cultural boundaries. Unlike typical measuring instruments that can be pricey and are limited to those with the cash, photogrammetry will be made easier because of the Internet; open sourcing; and the democratization of computing power in the cloud.

Raise the White Flag? 

So if photogrammetry is the latest/greatest … how can my laser scanning business survive?

Today there remains a distinct line between the two technologies. Laser scanning provides extremely accurate non-contact measurement. And it still hasn’t fully enjoyed the market elasticity that it will one day. In other words, there will remain a need and market as laser scanning hardware and software become less expensive and existing "end client" software packages begin to increase scan functionality. The market saturation is still less than 5 percent of the total opportunity.

Secondly, photogrammetry is still in early stages of development, implementation, and integration into mainstream market sectors. The mission critical piece to this equation becomes your company’s ability to educate and differentiate the two product offerings. Instead of running from the technology, embrace it but make sure you and your clients both understand its uses and limitations. Think of a novice user believing that a time-of-flight is the same thing as a phase-shift scanner. They’re different tools that can provide different results depending on your specific goals.

There seems to be another differentiation between the two technologies—at least for today. Lidar deliverables typically provide distinctive measurement; whereas photogrammetry is still better at telling a scalable story. Photogrammetry is a fantastic 3D visual communication tool. Your clients need to understand the difference and how it applies to their workflow.

How can Wayne Gretsky help? 

Take the legendary hockey player's advice. When he was asked what his secret to success was, he replied, “I skate to where the puck is going to be.”

Make a plan on how you are going to offer photogrammetry. Identify your current and targeted clients and consider their needs. Remain an expert and consultant by continually educating them on both technologies. Help them understand where the puck is going to be. 

The purpose of this blog is to talk about how service providers can become more successful. So today’s rant is about the pilot fish that attaches to the shark—at least conceptually. As we all learned in grade school, the pilot fish and shark have a symbiotic relationship, or, in simple teams, they share a “mutually beneficial” relationship.

(Actually, sharks have symbiotic relationships with lots of different kinds of fish...)

As service providers in a still-emerging marketplace, we struggle to have continuity in our monthly and quarterly revenues. With a few exceptions, most have a difficult time seeing revenue streams out past six months. The obvious strategy is to hire a business development person who can shmooze potential clients and feed the machine. But most service providers have limited staffing and may not be able to afford a business development person. Or worse, they employ someone to do business development, but in an effort to save money end up hiring either a rookie or someone without any sales/marketing experience. In either case, the likelihood for failure just increased.

Casual Hook-ups 

One strategy to grow your business is to establish relationships with other service or product providers who are calling on the same clients you are, but may look a lot more like sharks. For example, as laser scanning providers, it would make great sense to ally your company with the local Autodesk or Bentley retailer. They've got established client relationships, but might be looking to sell them on the newest packages that incorporate point cloud data. Well, you gather point cloud data! 

Identify their leadership and ask to assist them in their business development efforts in the reality-capture space. Once you get the management brought into the idea—then work down to their sales force. The goal is to get their sales effort working in tandem with your efforts.

Other great alliances for scan providers would be surveyors, engineering firms, and architectural firms. All these businesses are pursuing clients who benefit from fast/accurate laser scanning.

The critical component is to make certain that you aren’t just trying to suck leads out of them—instead, you are providing them with solid market intelligence such as contact names, local industry gossip, buying habits, etc., that they can benefit from. Your chance of success is zero if you don’t offer value to them as well. And, honestly, you’ll have to take the initiative to develop the trust in the relationship by sharing some solid marketing intelligence.

You must provide an initial and sustainable benefit to them while establishing trust or this won’t work.

“…to boldly go where no man has gone before” 

Other symbiotic relationships may include industry associations, non-profit groups, and/or local networking groups. The internet is a great source for you to search out these groups. Once identified, you need to qualify the group and see if their membership is your target audience.

Then engage. And by engaging I mean getting your technology in front of the members—notice I’m emphasizing technology versus a sales pitch about your company. Don't forget that there are still huge groups of people who've never even heard of a laser scanner! Focus on what the technology offers and share it with others so they can see the benefit. You’ll impress and develop relationships that will provide you with previously unknown opportunities. Your business will grow.

From there, seek out presentation opportunities, news article options, or participation on their subcommittees. All of these will allow you to leverage your business at a low-cost basis.

Remember Me 

Every company has its own unique personality. Those that are more memorable have greater chance to succeed. Identify what makes your company different and in establishing these symbiotic relationships make sure your allies know why you’re different. It will make it easier for them to talk about you. If they have an elevator speech about your company, you’ve got it made.

The Carrot 

Finally, never (NEVER) let leads thrown your way go unappreciated, or you’ll kill your chances for future leads. Make sure you thank the lead source and if possible, let them know the outcome. In doing so, you’ll provide sense of mutual accomplishment. 

Assuming you accomplished something...

Jim Parker, ex CEO for Southwest Airlines, which makes more profit than ALL other airlines combined and leads the airline industry in customer satisfaction, has authored a book, Do the Right Thing, that I’d highly recommend. In the book he discusses how, on many different levels throughout the organization, SWA employees exemplify this do-the-right-thing attitude on a daily basis. In fact, he explained how the permeation of this simple concept is one of SWA’s most significant competitive advantages.

Traveling throughout the nation on a regular basis, I’ve witnessed the SWA culture versus others airlines many times. And there’s a huge chasm between the competing companies. SWA is famous for having off-duty employees assist the working crew during a flight and not earn a single penny for doing so. When I met Parker he summed it up this way, “Everyone needs to hand out peanuts … Create a culture where people want to do the right thing … understand you can’t make them do it. They have to want to.”

Take a Truth Tablet 

How does your business score on this scale? Ask yourself the following:

• Does your organization—from top to bottom—all have the same concern for customer satisfaction?

• Are they working to help the customer achieve their goals, or are they simply collecting a paycheck?

• If all your employees were interviewed individually, would they recite the same company goals?

As scanning providers, I’d suggest the most successful are those who, like SWA, have a culture within their company that focuses on customer satisfaction. Don’t over promise and under perform.

How to Do That 

So how do you implement a ‘do the right thing’ attitude within your company? It needs to start at the top by establishing the cornerstones of what your business goals are and how they relate to the customer. This has to be followed by internal recognition, training, and genuine appreciation of your team. Set clear expectations and allow room for honest, one-time mistakes. Without a common playbook and mutual respect, your team won’t want to help each other, and they certainly won’t be concerned about the client experience.

The Most Important Sales Person—Really 

So who’s the most important sales person in your company? I’d suggest it’s not really a sales person at all, rather the laser scan technician who represents your company and is face to face with your client on an intimate project basis. He has the ability to single handedly make the client experience positive or negative. Sure, management has an effect, but the point of contact in the field will represent your company and can make or break a client experience.  

“Your honor, if it please the court…” 

If your company were on trial, being accused of providing an outstanding customer satisfaction experience, is there enough evidence to convict you?

Too often, a business starts out with a great purpose and foundation of ideals only to be corrected by natural market forces. 3M started out as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, which had nothing to do with adhesives or Post-it notes. Nokia started out as a paper mill. In both instances, the companies morphed into what they are today as a result of identifying target markets and profit opportunities.

Target Markets 

As a service provider we need to clearly understand who our customers are. I get the sneaking suspicion that most providers don’t really know who they’re trying to target with their laser scanning business and, as such, implement a rather helter-skelter marketing effort. This is very evident at conferences when attendees are always looking for someone who’s found the honey hole for laser scanning.

I would suggest that more companies need to find their target markets—maybe two or three—and work to develop them. How? The first step is to identify the players in that space and work to educate them on the technology. What can laser scanning do for them? How can you provide a solution to a problem? How can you provide value? This needs to be followed closely by constant vigilance … find reasons to stay in front of them. We’ve made that mistake more than once. We do a great job educating the target client, only to have someone else bid their work nine months later and we never had the phone ring.

If you’re going fishing, you know what you’d like to catch and you choose the right bait. I’d suggest that growing your business should implement that very simple strategy as well. Who are you targeting and why?

Got CRM? 

Customer Relations Manager—or CRM—is typically a software tracking program, and there are many to choose from, that allows you to track your target markets and clients. It is a tool that should be implemented for anyone in your organization who has customer contact. It allows you to identify the progress of your business relationship with your client from marketing, revenue, and personal relationship building foundation.

Furthermore, when used correctly, it will help you clearly see what markets are profitable and where your success is coming from. And doing so should help you dial in your marketing and growth efforts.

Product Offerings 

It’s been my experience that we have a tendency to overwhelm clients with what laser scanning can offer them. We get excited to tell them about point clouds, software, 3D models, and sometimes forget that we need to keep it really simple. It’s possible to impress the client about the technology but still forget that if you don’t provide them with the ability to implement it into their company all you’ve done is provide water cooler conversation.

I’d suggest the best method for developing your products is to ask a lot of questions up front. What has been their experience with laser scanning? What is their level of experience in 3D? What software do they use? What’s the existing workflow? What is their specific goal on the project? What’s the ideal situation?

With the answers to the questions, show them the workflow from start to finish. Don’t just provide them with a deliverable—rather, you need to act as their consultant from start to finish. Create a partnership with the client and you’ll get more of their work.

Can we do that?                   

In identifying your offerings, you need to understand what your capabilities are internally. Do you have the staff and the knowledge to give the client what they want? If you don’t, then don’t fake it because it will blow up in your face. And one explosion will leave a scar for life. And the better you understand your capabilities, the more you’ll be able to dial in your target markets.

Practice Sucks 

I’m a pure capitalist. I believe in making as much money as possible. To do so, it’s important your team understands where you make profit. Notice I used the word profit; not revenue. Do you know what type of jobs make you the most amount of profit? Are you using job costing analysis to identify your home runs? At the end of the day, this is a labor business. If you can understand your cost basis—employees, software, hardware, scanners, rent, overhead, marketing, etc.—you have a chance to make it. Some confuse revenue with success. Spinning your wheels to drive revenue instead of focusing on the profitability is only giving your team practice.

At the recent SPAR International conference this week there was a lot of talk about new and emerging technology. Cloud computing, 3D printers, drone scanning, augmented reality, and the dreaded -- as one person put it the “scanner killer” -- photogrammetry were all presented.

Many in the audience showed visible discomfort at the possibility that the lidar service they’ve been offering may not materialize into the golden goose quite as planned. One attendee asked me if there was any true opportunity to go big as a service provider. He was concerned that the business he was working so hard to create may be dead very soon.

Are we climbing the proverbial ladder only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall?

Others shared a concern and were frustrated that they couldn’t keep up with all the new technology and its required investments. And by “investments” I mean the human resource element, not the hardware or software expense. After all, how can you make money when the rules seem to keep changing?

Don’t freak out just yet.

Reality Check 

It’s only my 3rd SPAR event but I must admit that many of the shiny baubles that I once believed to be cornerstones of our business are no longer there … or maybe never really existed. Perhaps it’s age, but more likely it’s because I’ve learned from my own mistakes over time. It’s through those lessons and being fortunate to have honed some of my own skills that I don’t quite believe everything I saw presented this week.

Framed another way—nobody comes to SPAR to present who doesn’t have a desire to be the expert within their profession. And human nature dictates that we don’t want to look like knuckleheads in front of our peer group. So, from my standpoint and that of several I spoke with, there were some fantastic presentations, but if you looked behind the curtain there was some blur between fact and fiction at times. Sort of the way food has some additives to make it look better than it really is.

So somewhere between the real bleeding edge and lipstick-on-a-pig, we learned a lot. And I would suggest that makes all attendees better as it serves as a catalyst for innovation. One person makes a claim and others try to replicate it, or destroy it. Either way, it leads to more discovery and speeds evolution.

I like to look at SPAR as a cattle prod for my brain that forces me to rethink my own business. And it benefits our industry overall because it’s not loyal to any one manufacturer.

It’s All Good 

So don’t push the panic button just yet. I think the fantastic advancements in technology we witnessed can have two significant benefits for service providers. First of all, we are getting more tools to in our arsenal to meet our client’s needs. The more focus you place on making your customers successful, the more customers you’ll get. And when you get to that position, you move from a simple service provider to a consultant. Profit margins are always better when you’re consulting than when you’re competing on an open bid. 

Secondly, the evolution in technology places you ahead of the players who are new to this 3D space. You have the experience that others don’t. And with further democratization, you’ll have to work less to educate the client (fun, but very cost inefficient) and have the ability to spend more time on activities that directly relate to driving revenue.

Furthermore, the innovations you witnessed should make your job easier. From ClearEdge’s new modeling abilities to Mantis Vision’s ability to create point clouds in a matter of seconds, it helps us all by ultimately reducing costs. So while your project revenue may decrease, I’d suggest your margins should actually improve.

Got Strategy? 

There are thousands of business books out there regarding strategy and I think most all of them deal with the topic of change. So in the face of the continuous changing technology, I’d suggest your company have a strategy that embraces it. Most of the world doesn’t attend SPAR and is still naïve to the latest and greatest technology. So you have time to capture some lower hanging fruit while planning for the future.

What do your clients want and need today? Don’t overwhelm your customers with too much … don’t offer a trip to the moon, if all they want now is a bounce on a trampoline.

What we do as service providers is measure things really fast and very accurately in 3D. And there’s a lot of opportunity to measure out there, at least for the remainder of your lifetime. Now that you’ve seen some new ideas, build your business to accommodate where you think the ship is sailing.

The point is while we all want to know where this industry is taking us -- and we got a glimpse into that at SPAR last week -- I’m not convinced we really completely know. However, I am convinced that if you listen to your customers, don’t over complicate things, and provide a quality service, you’ll be in great shape with whatever the future holds.

You can’t control the technology train … so embrace it. The scenario played out at SPAR reminds me of a story: As winter approached, the native Americans and the National Weather Service both cared greatly about the upcoming winter forecast. The tribe members kept watching the NWS report about the upcoming winter and the news kept getting progressively worse, so they put away an enormous portion of their harvest and introduced severe austerity measures. Then, the NWS reports grew more threatening about the adverse winter ahead to the point of near panic. The tribe bunkered down and took measures that hadn’t been implemented for decades.

Finally, someone though to ask the NWS about why they had projected such a horrible winter forecast. They said they had never seen the native American tribe take such austere measures and it could only mean a rough winter was ahead.

It’s worth pointing out that anyone who owns a scanner is a player in a new and emerging market with constantly changing variables. Sure, there are some companies that have been offering laser scanning for some time - Direct Dimensions, Metco, and GKS to name a few - but most of those companies have offered laser scanning as an additional service to their core business. Many of these early adopters have jumped in seeing this as the vision of the future. Most laser scanning and 3D data capture service providers have been established within the last several years and are trying to find their way in a previously unknown space.

Secondly, there is very low market penetration and understanding of laser scanning within the potential marketplace. Even though we are offering the fastest, most accurate and most economical way to measure … it’s still not a common element within the A/E/C industry. Weird - considering how ‘measurement’ is a fundamental cornerstone of these trades. I would suggest that there are endless possibilities, and as the technology becomes easier and more cost effective to implement—we are on the verge of a significant business opportunity.

At a recent conference I attended, in a selfish desire to check my own internal business compass I'm using to guide Precision3D Scanning, I asked many attendees what they thought the existing use of laser scanning was in their respective markets. The highest percentage anyone gave me was 1 percent. So, assuming that all of the folks I asked are wrong by 100 percent and the market penetration really is 2 percent, then there is a 98 percent-sized piece of opportunity out there to conquer … or dare I say profit from?

In upcoming posts, I’ll plan on covering some of the following concepts:

• How Symbiotic Relationships Can Make a Difference

• Unexplored markets

• What is my Core Business?

• Building Information Modeling….Really?

• "The Old Guys in the Room": BIM vs. Experience

• Hunt the Elephants!

But let’s start from the beginning:

The Phase-Based Sales Approach 

The most immediate challenge the service provider faces in the sales process is educating the client on the technology. What is laser scanning? What can it do … and just as importantly, what can’t it do. You must be clear on the expectations and provide easily identified deliverable examples that are pertinent to the customer’s industry type. I’d suggest using visual examples to illustrate the process so the concepts can be clearly understood. Also imperative in this first phase is illustrating potential workflows. Show clear paths from start to finish. And in doing so, you need to ultimately provide a solution to the client’s needs.

The second phase of the sales process is to get the client to utilize your company on a project. Here you have two distinct challenges. First of all, you’re introducing CHANGE into a company. And rarely do people like to change what they’ve been already been doing and have had success with. They are where they are because of the way they’ve been doing things. So you need to make it easy for new process (habit) to emerge. Provide a rewarding outcome and the change will come easier.

Some companies have a BIM Department or Virtual Design teams who understand the 3d world and modeling, but they still don’t understand how to incorporate laser scanning into their model. And most completely miss the significant opportunity to save money by using laser scanning not just in capturing the as-is but as a QA/QC tool during the construction process.

Another challenge is the BIM staff doesn’t truly control the money … so they can’t approve the spending with you on a project. Instead you need to convince them and the specific project management team. As a good friend of mine says, “eat the elephant one bite at a time.”

Once you’ve introduced the technology, and pushed to change the existing habits, you must then justify the cost of your service. The common objection—“I really like it, but there’s no money in the project for scanning” … is something you’ll need a quick comeback for.

I’d suggest keeping it simple, yet quantifiable. And I’d ask questions before throwing out justifications. Start with “how much re-work are you expecting on this project?” Or, “how do you plan on measuring to validate the changes in the structure?” Have the client explain to you how they plan on offering a quality product. How do they convey workmanship, and client satisfaction? Then sell the scanning service back into their primary areas of concern. Help them provide added value.

I’m guessing your client goals will center on labor/materials cost, and quality reputation. Offer to become their new way to compete in a tough and changing economy by showing them how to save money and market their company.

Provide your client with a clear method of getting a “win” on this project … and there will be more that follow.