Category Archives: JDB IQity

Marketing & Business Development: How Many "Touches" Before a Sale?

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” If you were a kid growing up in the 1970s, you heard this question in a series of commercials in which a boy queried a cow, fox, turtle, and owl. While the […]

Stop! Should You Really Submit that Proposal?

  By Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM Note: this blog post originally appeared as a LinkedIn Article as “Proposals: Red Flags and Dirty Tricks.” If you’ve spent any amount of time creating proposals, then you’ve undoubtedly seen all sorts of questionable behavior by proposal requestors. Sure, they send out an RFP (or post it online), […]

Seller-Doer Tools: Networking (Free Book)

By Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM In previous posts within the Seller-Doer Tools series, we looked at several techniques that involve limited personal interaction with prospects and clients – content marketing, which takes many forms including blogs, and social media, which is a way to connect with prospects online and create a “virtual network.” We […]

The State of the A/E/C Industry

By Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM What are the current economic conditions within the architecture, engineering, and construction industry? How are the market sectors and geographic regions performing? There are quite a few indicators that track the health of the industry, and we’ve gathered many of the major metrics in one place to make your […]

The Secret Value-Add to Your Project Team: You

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM I’ve been a member of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) for more than 25 years, and in that time I’ve contributed more than a dozen articles (solo or with co-authors) to Marketer, The Journal of the Society for Marketing Professional Services. Below you’ll find my latest article, […]

When Should You Up Your Business Development Game?

By Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM You’ve probably heard the one about the company that got so busy working on projects that they stopped doing business development. And why not? Their phone just kept ringing with new opportunities. But then the phone stopped ringing – that was okay, it seemed, because there was still work […]

Productivity: Getting Sh*t Done

  By Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM If you’re like most people, your To-Do List is a mile long. You have no problem adding to it, but it can take forever to remove something from it! Sound like anyone you know? Perhaps someone you’ve seen in the mirror? What does that mean for your personal […]

Seller-Doer Tools: Social Media & Social Selling

  by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM Should seller-doers be engaged on social media, or is it a waste of time – a series of distractions about cat videos and what your friends had for dinner last night? Social media has changed greatly since the early days, and today most A/E/C firms have some level […]

May 2018 A/E/C Environmental Scan

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM What’s happening in the architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) industry right now? Firms should always be paying attention to the industry indicators, whether those metrics are leading or lagging. Below you’ll find a current snapshot of some of the best-known metrics in our industry. American Institute of Architects The […]

Seller-Doer Tools: Warm Calling

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM If you’re like most A/E/C professionals, you probably don’t enjoy conducting sales over the telephone, especially if you are prospecting. Yet sometimes you still need to pick up the phone, no matter how much you hate it. It makes sense. Traditional “cold calling” is now considering “interruption marketing,” meaning […]