How We Do It: May 2000, Design Teams

Two years ago, the dynamics of our design sales staff were changing for the worse at Lied’s – Landscape Design & Development, Sussex, Wis. A couple of our designers left to pursue other opportunities, our top design salespeople were buried with referrals, and many of the new sales people, starving for leads, were forced to make cold calls.

The situation came to a climax when two more of our landscape architects approached me and said they did not see a professional future for themselves at Lied’s because they were not comfortable dealing with the demands of our high-end clients.

After conferring with other allied professionals, I learned that a concept native to architectural offices could also work for Lied’s. As a result, I decided to switch our operation from a design group of individuals to a group of design teams. The design teams were composed of:

• A senior design salesperson with a history of client success – one of the leaders in the department;
• A newer design salesperson with three to six years of experience and a strong client focus;
• A designer with a great deal of technical knowledge in computer-aided design, construction and horticulture; and
• A recent university graduate with relatively little experience but great promise.

This mix of different levels of experience worked well, creating a synergy that increased profits and raised the enthusiasm on our staff considerably.

Some of the reorganization’s benefits include:

1. Better training for new staff members. We never did a great job training new design salespeople. When we trained them and sent them out to meet our clients, sometimes the training worked and other times, it did not. Now we can slowly integrate new people into our system. They can work closely with our senior designers and landscape architects, learning not only the design process, but more importantly, our client service philosophy.

2. Taking advantage of all employees’ strengths. Instead of developing a group of generalists, we develop specialists within each design team. Designers are not forced into roles they do not feel comfortable with – they can choose to be in a client service role or in a design and technical support role.

3. More balanced workload for each employee. Our senior design leaders can more comfortably bring projects into the company knowing they have their team’s support to complete projects on time. The senior designers can focus their efforts on design and client development, while other team members can handle administrative aspects.

4. Employees are better able to handle large projects. Our design/build projects have grown considerably in size during the past five years. Having $1 million commercial projects and $250,000 to $500,000 residential projects is not uncommon for us. A design team with varied talents is better equipped to handle large projects than one person is.

5. More interaction between designers. When everyone worked individually, design collaboration occurred sporadically. Without input from others, designers fell into ruts. Now, collaboration happens everyday, keeping the design process new and exciting.

The transition from a group of individuals to several design teams was not without its bumps, including making the shift go smoothly for employees at all skill levels. But I believe the best evidence of our success is our sales numbers, which have increased 30 percent during the past two years using the same number of design professionals.

Restructuring the department helped to bring out the best in the people we had. The saying is true: “The whole is better than the sum of its parts.”

The author is vice president of design and development at Lied’s – Landscape Design & Development, Sussex, Wis.

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