It’s been about a year since we launched our Don’t Say DM campaign—and what a year it’s been. We’ve been thrilled to see how many people we’ve connected with at conferences, through presentations and even our marketing campaigns, who have taken the message to heart and started shifting their language to include “capital renewal” or “capital need” in how they describe the issue.

At its core, Don’t Say DM is about accuracy and impact. Most of what gets lumped under the term “Deferred Maintenance” isn’t really maintenance at all—it’s capital renewal. And when you tell non-facilities folks that you’ve got a billion-dollar maintenance backlog, it just doesn’t compute. They picture leaky faucets and patch jobs, not replacing roofs and HVAC systems.

As I often say, words matter. “Deferred Maintenance” simply doesn’t tell the full story—and it makes it harder to unlock the funding needed to truly solve the problem. That’s why we’re pushing for a shift in language, to help stakeholders better understand the challenge and, more importantly, to help free up the dollars required to tackle what we now call Deferred Capital Renewal and Maintenance (DCRM).

There’s also a second layer to the Don’t Say DM message—one that’s come up less often in conversation, but that’s just as important. If we truly solve the problem, we won’t have to talk about it anymore. At Roth IAMS, our Vision is simple: to Solve the World’s DCRM Backlog Crisis. That’s our why. That’s what gets us out of bed in the morning. We want to help every organization eliminate their DCRM once and for all.

And no matter what you call it—DM, DCRM, or something else—if we can come together around consistent, defensible data that earns the trust of decision-makers, we can start to unlock the funding needed to eliminate the backlog and stay ahead of future renewal needs.

At that point, we won’t have to say DM anymore—because it won’t exist.

If you haven’t yet seen our Don’t Say DM campaign, here are a few of the ways we’ve been working to shift the vernacular—and change the conversation for good.

Let’s change the conversation and get people talking about DCRM instead of DM and let’s keep up the momentum and try to make our backlog go away altogether so we can finally Stop Saying DM!!!!