MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS: Are you just another buyer with a bunch of cash?

With today’s hot AEC M&A market, many prospective sellers are getting inundated with inquiries from prospective buyers all day long. Most of these inquiries are very generic and boilerplate…”We want to buy your firm. Let’s talk.” Would you respond to this? Probably not. To stand out in the crowded M&A market, you need to work harder than this. Share some specifics on what you find attractive about the selling firm and how they would benefit from joining forces with your firm. Even better, send a certified mail letter that includes more information about your firm and your interest in their firm. Get more tips for M&A success at PSMJ’s AEC Mergers & Acquisitions Summit heading to Palm Beach Gardens, FL, on February 18-20, 2026.

TALENT OPTIMIZATION: Don't waste your money on counteroffers. 

When one of your top performers tells you they are leaving to join another firm. The knee-jerk response is to offer more money in a last-ditch effort to get them to stay. Don’t. They took the call or maybe even sought out the opportunity. They’ve shown where their allegiances lie. Throwing money into a counteroffer is an extremely short-sighted effort and is almost sure to yield nothing in the long run. If you were providing an engaging and rewarding work environment, and they still took another offer, were they really even one of your top performers? Get inside secrets for finding and keeping the best talent in PSMJ’s best-selling book, Build Your AEC Dream Team.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Use the "two drink" rule to dial in your content marketing efforts. 

Content (or “pull through”) marketing is a fantastic and underused tactic to generate demand…particularly in today’s operating environment with younger and busier buyers of architecture and engineering services. But here’s the trick to get eye-popping results and lead flow. You need to really dial in on the current issues and challenges that your clients are facing right now. Regulatory changes, digital transformation, and similar issues that either generate revenue for the client, save the client money, or prevent the client from getting into trouble. Need help figuring out what these are? What are the pain points that your client would discuss with colleagues over two drinks? Cover those!

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: Your next CEO might not be a technical professional.

Conventional wisdom for the CEO role in AEC firms is that this role is often filled by a technical professional who has risen up through the ranks. To be sure, some amazing leaders come up this way. But don’t sleep on some non-technical areas. Great marketing leaders understand revenue growth strategy better than anyone. Solid financial leaders know how to make the right moves to achieve sustainable growth. The best-in-class HR leaders can punch through what is often the biggest constraint to growth. Don’t get too hung up on tenure and technical expertise when looking for your next CEO!

PROJECT MANAGEMENT:  Don't just "manage" clients, lead them.

Too many AEC Project Managers treat clients like volatile substances. That is, handle carefully and say yes to everything. But clients don’t want order-takers; they want guides. Strong PMs add clarity to complex issues and make clients look good. That doesn’t mean always agreeing…it means educating, redirecting, and sometimes saving the client from their own bad idea. You’re not in customer service; you’re in trusted leadership. Get more tips for becoming a go-to Project Manager in PSMJ’s AEC Project Management Bootcamp.

This is content from the PSMJ Newsletter, exclusive to PSMJ PRO Members. PSMJ PRO is the fastest-growing network of AEC firm leaders. Not a PRO Member? Try a 50-day trial (no credit card required). You can request a trial here: https://bit.ly/50dayLI