The Many Benefits of Membership

For me the value of being a member of SMPS is priceless, and there are so many benefits to being a member of SMPS. The two reasons I’m a member are the education and the networking. Both have helped me in my career and my business.

The education is extremely important in not only developing myself but developing teams. Through SMPS education, one learns a plethora of information about the AEC industry. There are a ton of educational resources for members to take advantage of which include the Marketer (bi-monthly publication); mysmps.org (marketing resource center with lots of examples and templates for marketing documents); Blueprints (career guidebook); multiple reports, white papers, and research; webinars; lunchtime learning labs (FREE webinars); conferences (regional and national); workshops; Certified Professional Services Marketer designation (credentials to make you legit); and Markendium (online learning portal). I have used each one of these at least once, and many times monthly, in solving a problem.

From the networking standpoint, you meet a ton of people in the industry with similar goals as yourself. Many of us in the SMPS Wichita Chapter are the “only ones of our kind” in our firms. Most of us work for small to medium-sized firms that only employ one or two marketing and business development people. It’s nice to have a community that understands marketing and developing business for AEC services. Nationally, you can connect with other individuals to learn from those people by accessing the SMPS National Membership Directory. I can call any SMPS member and get a response back, many times within 24 hours. My SMPS network has helped me in good times and in bad. My SMPS network is like my second family.

If you aren’t a member of SMPS, consider joining our community. If you are a member of SMPS, please make sure you are taking advantage of all the wonderful benefits to being a member. Should you have questions about membership, please contact Candace Wilson (cwilson@ucict.com).

Thanks to our members who have invested in themselves and those principals that have invested in their people through the SMPS membership.

Lindsay L. Young, CPSM

SMPS Wichita Chapter President