by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM, Vice President / CMO
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to research, write, and present about the seller-doer (aka doer-seller, closer-doer) model of business development. This is a common approach in architectural, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) firms, and typically involves principals, partners, vice presidents, project executives, project managers, and lead designers engaging in the sales process. In some cases, these seller-doers focus their activities on existing clients, like when a project manager works to mine an existing account through cross-selling and expanding work to other locations. In other instances, seller-doers are doing proactive business development to establish relationships with new prospects.
Unfortunately, there is a widely-held misperception among many professionals in A/E/C firms that business development means cold calling, which is actually very uncommon. Rather, seller-doers are using a series of techniques that not only create new business, but also build their firm’s brand while enhancing their own personal brand.
I recently wrote a two-part blog about these tools for my Marketropolis blog on the Engineering News-Record website (www.enr.com), and I’ve now compiled them into a short ebook to share with your seller-doers.
10.5 Business Development Tools for Seller-Doers includes the following proven BD approaches:
- Account Mining
- Networking
- Social Media
- Writing
- Public Speaking
- Referrals
- Direct Mail
- Publicity
- Warm Calling
- … and the 0.5 tool: Research
Download the complementary ebook here.
JDB Engineering is also pleased to offer a continuing education program, 10.5 Business Development Tools for Seller-Doers, which has been approved for 1.0 AIA Learning Unit. Surf here to learn more.