Selling Is Everybody's Business

If you think selling is not your job, Think again!

Today’s economy requires that everyone provide value to your organization and business leaders need everyone to contribute to winning new work.  Whether you’re responsible for generating revenue or just engaging with your customers, you’re involved in the sales process. Today, being great at what you do is just not enough.

AEC Organizations need to retain existing business, cross-sell services among practice groups or divisions, and find new opportunities for work – a formidable task in a marketplace that is competitive and crowded.   It requires brand differentiation, well planned business development initiatives, and proving to your clients that you understand their business.  To execute, it requires alignment between sales, marketing and operations and requires that everyone contribute.
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Here are 3 steps to getting everyone aligned and involved in winning new work:

Step 1  Define Your Business

The AEC Building Industry is saturated and highly competitive and organizations risk being selected on price if not fully differentiated from their competition.  The more defined you are about what you do and how it benefits your clients the better positioned you are to win more work.  Make sure you have a well-defined Position Statement and Value Proposition and make sure that everyone in your organization understands your message and how to tell your story.
Most importantly, be clear about what your customers value about doing business with your company. If you are not sure, do your homework and talk to your customers.

Step 2   Develop a Plan

A Strategic Sales and Marketing Plan helps to provide direction and focus for all employees. It points to specific results that are to be achieved and establishes a course of action for achieving them. A strategic plan also helps the various departments within your organization align themselves with common goals. Without a clear plan, expectations are developed in a void, priorities change constantly and there is little or no alignment with common goals.  For technical Doer-Sellers, establishing a personal marketing plan is the key to finding time in your schedule for sales.

Step 3  Set Personal Goals

In sales, goals are the engine of productivity.  One of the most powerful things about establishing specific goals in your Sales and Marketing Plan is that it becomes your scorecard – it includes indicators for how you are doing.  These indicators allow you to look critically at your sales and marketing activities and make adjustments.   Regular reviews to analyze your results and make adjustments will keep your plan relevant and on target.

Whether you are in a sales and marketing function for an A/E/C company or whether you are part of the technical team you have some responsibility for impacting new business development – whether it is in your job description or not. You have to sell yourself and your contribution to the business every day.

Start with the 3 steps defined above, or contact us or how we can help your team:

• We use a structured process to develop a scalable program for your Organization.  The SDblueprint is based on AEC best practices and was developed over decades of working with the best design, construction and business development professionals in the AEC Industry.

• We arm your key project professionals to help win work...without becoming salesmen.  We use research, facts and data to arm your team with the insights needed to become successful doers and sellers of work. We eliminate the noise of typical sales training and focus on actions that drive AEC project awards.

• Our Seller-Doer Blueprint combines learning, practicing and doing - producing immediate results for your company and building confidence in your team members for long-term success.

Blueprint Growth Consulting advises business owners, leaders and organizations on how to plan to win. With a mission to arm everyone in an organization to help win new work, we offer a practical approach to planning and implementation that demystifies strategy and guides our clients through key steps to building a plan for growth.

Read more about our results by visiting www.BDblueprint.com/results