Seven key tips on winning new surveying business and finding the right staff by Bruce Baker, CEO ISGroup

In this exclusive interview, Bruce Baker, CEO at ISGroup, shares his insights on the most relevant issues for the geospatial and surveying industry. Watch the questions below to find out what it takes to grow a geospatial business, find the right staff and get inspired by ISGroup’s approach to marketing and strategy. We’ve condensed Bruce’s essential tips and provided you with tools to encourage you to win new business and upskill your staff. Stay tuned for a second part where Bruce will dive into their technological and strategic approach. 

Q1 What is your role in ISGroup, and tell us a bit about the group now? 

Key tip: Identify areas of new businesses, such as utility mapping. Structure your business for growth and rethink how you manage risks, marketing and finance.

Key tool: Click here for ideas to take your business to the next level and adapt new service offerings.

 

 

Q2 You established various geospatial services and assembled them under one big umbrella group. Why did you go that way?

Key tip: Be tactical about the brand recognition and the marketing associated with those brands. Get a branding that people recognise as soon as people see the business’s name and identify the services provided.

Key tool: Watch short videos from your peers on how you can offer new surveying services or adopt more efficient processes.

 

 

Q3 Do customers move across the brands of the ISGroup, or does each brand have its group of customers?

Key tip: Consider clients have unique needs and work in different phases of the engineering lifecycle. Each business or service has a unique part to play in each stage of construction.

Key tool: Get inspired to deliver civil engineering surveying services on time and within budget while reducing waste and increasing safety in every construction phase.

 

 

Q4 What is your overarching growth strategy for the ISGgroup?

Key tip: Strategy is about understanding your clients’ needs and problems and is underpinned by four pillars: data, people, technology, and markets. Every client has different needs and wants geospatial data sets that can add value in a specific stage of the lifecycle of an asset.

Key tool: Visit our site to learn how to add value in every phase of construction for infrastructure.

 

 

Q5 How are you trying to find the right staff?

Key tip: Look at the people and skillsets within the business to recruit internally. New employees need to meet the company culturally and be open-minded. It is not only about bringing new employees but new disciplines and capabilities to enrich the business.

Key tool: Visit our Improve your Survey Skills section and explore our learning resources to help your staff master all surveying applications and be more productive in the field and the office.

 

Q6 What are some of your key tips for those trying to get the most out of their sales teams?

Key tip: Doing new exciting stuff needs new resources and capabilities. You can win new business beyond pricing and provide added value through capability service, people or deliverables.

Key tool: Explore the technology that can help you win new business and achieve the most accurate measurements and up-to-date data.

 

Q7 What is your approach to marketing?

Key tip: It is about recruitment and telling like-minded people what you do so they’re interested in coming and working for you. Marketing internally is equally important and is about the retention and trying to keep up with all the projects through new stories, such as case studies, that highlight the type of environments you work in.

Key tool: Explore customer success stories to see what others are doing and the type of environments they are working on.

 

Visit Pure Surveying to get inspired on how you can take your business to the next level and adapt new service offerings.