MINDSET SHIFT:
Keys To Creating A BD Culture In Yourself... And Your Firm.
We start with proven strategies to overcome common hurdles to seller-doer success, with hacks that boost confidence, break large challenges into simple tasks, and lay out a PLAN to break free from stagnant growth.
- Understand your firm’s funnel and way of winning work
- How your firm's BD spending-to-success compares to peer firms, based on PSMJ’s latest benchmark data
- Choosing a market and positioning for success
- Make time to make money: how to balance utilization and sales activities
- How to develop a tailored process to select clients and projects to pursue
- Differentiating the A/E/C project marketing cycle and sales cycleHow soft backlog differs from hard backlog
- How to align what your firm does with client needsKnowing and applying your firm’s Quality Client Criteria
- What to do with clients who don’t meet your standardsHow the “elephant trainer model” for bringing in work can kill your firm!
- How to change your mindset to comfortably become more sales-driven
- The critical roles of PMs and Principals in bringing in work
- How the A/E/C project marketing, sales, and client management processes form a continuous revenue engine
HELP, DON'T SELL: How To Radically Rethink What You Provide And Grab A Bigger Share Of Budget
Most AEC technical professionals miss multiple opportunities to build backlog through new work from existing clients. Learn the metrics, CRM tactics, and relationship steps that bond them to your firm, and open the project spigot.
- Change your client relationships from vendor to partner by hearing and internalizing their pain points
- How to make current quality clients your highest priority by using the RIGHT metrics
- How to really know what your best clients think of your firmThe important difference between client satisfaction, client experience, and client loyalty
- The Number 1 reason client's defect – and how to avoid this pitfall: Indifference
- Upselling: the easiest way to gain wallet share
- Cross-selling: Most A/E/C firms’ biggest missed opportunity
- Staying in touch with clients after the project ends
- Creating a long-term organizational relationship with your clients
- Your personal networking “hot list”
EXECUTE THE PERFECT TARGETING STRATEGY: Pull-Through Marketing, Networking, And Lead-Warming
How can you stop wasting time chasing the wrong projects? How do the most successful AEC networkers make it look easy? What's the best way to leverage your firm's unique strengths? Establishing client relationships from scratch doesn't have to fill you with dread. Get new confidence and with step-by-step instructions for establishing new client relationships.
- How “pull-thru marketing” can make your firm a client magnet
- Using ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools to write proposals easier, faster, and better than ever before
- What keeps you from networking effectively -- and how to overcome it
- How to network like an extrovert when that's not your default setting
- How to use social networking effectively
- How to stop wasting time chasing unwinnable projects using PSMJ's AEC Go/No-Go® tool
- Differentiating your firm from all the rest
- How to “thaw out” your cold calls
- Position yourself as a thought-leader in target client markets
- Making your client look good with published articles and social media strategies
BE IN IT TO WIN IT: Differentiate Your Firm And Pitch, And Get Out Of 2nd Place
Converting top-of-funnel leads into bottom-line profits demands the perfect "Win Theme" and a methodical set of prospect nurturing steps. Learn how to communicate your unique advantages and what makes your firm the smart choice.
- Why chasing more proposals results in fewer sales, and what to do instead
- Using PSMJ’s AEC Go/No-Go® (included in program) to increase your win rate
- PSMJ’s IFBP process to develop a winning strategy
- How to zero in on your client’s most important issues
- How to differentiate your features vs. those of your competitors
- How to turn firm and project features into client benefits
- How to prove what your proposal claims
- Differentiating your proposal, not your firm
- Identifying and exploiting your competitors’ weaknesses
- Developing a “Win Theme”
- Beating out much larger firms for the projects you want
READING THE CLIENT AND PARTNERING ON THE SOLUTION: How To Craft Your Winning Proposal
Next, we explain how to design a proposal that comes at the project from the client's perspective, checking all the boxes and satisfying all their concerns. Just a few simple tweaks to what you're doing now can double, even triple your win rate, so learn from seasoned AEC seller-doers how to get it done.
- How clients read proposals (Hint: it’s not the way you write them!)
- How to read an RFP between the lines
- 8 steps to writing a winning proposal
- Proposal parts and pieces
- Standardize so you can customize
- How to go about it like a project
- Writing proposals that hit the client’s hot buttons head on
- Making your proposal easy and interesting to read
- How to cut words and boost client engagement and interest
- The “principle of single statement” – great for projects and bad for proposals
- Your proposal red team – the single best way to increase your hit rate
- Turn the debrief into actionable intelligence for next time, and keep the revenue flowing
CLOSING THE DEAL: Winning Presentation Strategies For Non-Sales Professionals
Not all AEC professionals are comfortable giving presentations, and even those who are can unknowingly make killer mistakes that crush the proposal, and never know why. Learn how to deliver a gold-medal performance, either in-person or virtually. and double your win rate for the most interesting and profitable projects.
- How to overcome presentation anxiety
- How do clients judge professional services presentations
- 6 things to never do during a presentation, and 7 ways to keep your audience fully engaged
- PSMJ’s 10 steps to a winning interview and 6-point “choreography” checklist
- How to avoid “Death by PowerPoint” and “B.S. Bingo”
- When and how to use handout materials
- What makes a great virtual presentation and how to avoid getting caught flat-footed by tough questions
- Capstone: Putting it all together in a presentation you make to the class
