The
past several years have seen sweeping changes in the economy, brought on by the
information age and an accelerating rate of technological change. In this
challenging economic landscape, no business can afford to stand still without
losing its place in the market. A/E
Business Development Cookbook provides
your firm leaders with the information and strategy to manage and grow a sales
organization in an increasingly complex world.
A/E
Business Development Cookbook provides
your firm with indispensable information, including:
- How to identify, capture and qualify
opportunities
- How to coordinate your marketing and
business development efforts
- Whether or not to hire a dedicated
business development professional
- Strategies to help your firm build
lasting client relationships
- How to make go/no-go decisions,
negotiate, and close the deal
- How to develop an individual business
development program
- Why customers defect and what you can
do about it
- How to align your business development
goals with your firm’s mission and strategic plan
- Why everyone in your firm plays a role
in business development
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The
past several years have seen sweeping changes in the economy, brought on by the
information age and an accelerating rate of technological change. In this
challenging economic landscape, no business can afford to stand still without
losing its place in the market. A/E
Business Development Cookbook provides
your firm leaders with the information and strategy to manage and grow a sales
organization in an increasingly complex world.
A/E
Business Development Cookbook provides
your firm with indispensable information, including:
- How to identify, capture and qualify
opportunities
- How to coordinate your marketing and
business development efforts
- Whether or not to hire a dedicated
business development professional
- Strategies to help your firm build
lasting client relationships
- How to make go/no-go decisions,
negotiate, and close the deal
- How to develop an individual business
development program
- Why customers defect and what you can
do about it
- How to align your business development
goals with your firm’s mission and strategic plan
- Why everyone in your firm plays a role
in business development
In
an ideal world, potential clients would recognize your firm’s value to their
project, and would virtually line up at your door, begging you to let them hire
your services at whatever price you named. You would have few or no
competitors, so you would have no trouble filling your sales pipeline with
terrific opportunities whenever you felt the need. In the real world, it’s
another story. In the real world, opportunities are lost every single day
either because you aren’t looking for them at that precise moment, or because
you don’t have the time to deal with them when they come up, or because you
don’t have the knowledge to address them.
This
book is about what is happening in the real world and will prepare you to
identify and make the most
of real business development opportunities. You will learn why it’s important
to identify the rainmakers in your firm; how to turn your doers into sellers;
the best way to find leads; why it’s necessary to coordinate your marketing and
business development efforts; how to hang onto your valued clients; how to
write compelling proposals and make winning presentations; what is meant by “widening
the funnel,” and how to identify and articulate “fit”. These and other subjects
are addressed in the A/E Business Development Cookbook.
If
you’ve been curious about how other firms handle business development, the case
studies section of the book will give you an inside look at other A/E firms and
the strategies that have led to their success. Get helpful advice from
companies just like yours. See how they.ve developed a business development strategy,
ramped up financial and other resources, created a sales-and-marketing culture,
and developed and managed client relationships. Learn how the leaders and
managers in these firms have maximized opportunities and used ongoing sales and
marketing techniques to keep their businesses on track, even through tough
economic times. Go behind the scenes in the life of business development
professionals to see how these people organize their day-to-day operations and
use skills and strategy to grow their firms.
Business
development is not one-size-fits-all, and this book also recognizes that no two
companies are alike. To create a successful enterprise requires a thorough
understanding of your own firm and its employees, the economic climate, and the
A/E industry-at-large. Business practices that have worked for many successful
A/E firms can be applied; however, to be assured of success, a company must
examine its own history, resources, and goals. The A/E
Business Development Cookbook will show you how.
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Foreword
Chapter 1: Getting Started: Why Business Development Matters
- The changing landscape
- Today’s new marketing paradigm
- The value of business development
- Defining marketing, sales, and business development
- Creating a dynamic system
- Why we avoid business development
- The first law of business development success
Chapter 2: Finding and Capturing New Opportunities
- Identifying opportunity
- The opportunity pipeline
- Widening the funnel
- Qualification: Turning leads into prospects
- Building connection and credibility
- Understanding who’s who
- Asking the right qualifying questions
- Identifying and articulating “fit”
- Overcoming client objections
Chapter 3: Proposals, Pitches, and Presentations
- The go/no-go decision
- Gathering information from the client
- The pre-proposal meeting
- Writing the proposal
- Winning presentations
- The right presentation team and the right preparation
- Coaching presenters and presentation teams
- Visuals
- Better presentations
- Debriefings
Chapter 4: Negotiating Agreements and Closing the Sale
- What really matters
- The art of the deal: Successful negotiation strategy
- Discussion: The heart of the negotiation
- Difficulties in negotiation
- Closing the deal
Chapter 5: Relationship Building: Taking the Long View
- Relationships, not transactions
- Superb account management
- Individual relationship building
- Developing a communication strategy
- Relationship marketing
- Client relationship management
- Why clients defect
- A final thought
Chapter 6: Developing a Personal Approach to Business Development
- Contact development: Widening the funnel
- A personal business development system
- What to say
- Networking; from cold calls to warm calls
- The value of networking
- Developing a personal brand
Chapter 7: Business Development Inside Your Firm
- Developing a strategy
- The building blocks of strategic business planning
- Getting a seat at the planning table
- Who are your sellers
- From doers to sellers
- Bringing in the big guns
- Getting the whole staff on board
- The BD cycle and process
- What are you selling?
Chapter 8: A/E Business Development Case Studies
Appendix: Resources |
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