Bringing in business for your company.

[Parrapit]

Hi

It would be nice to hear some thoughts.

We are a fairly small company doing pretty well we have been in the business quite a while and getting a lot of work with out needing to market.

At the moment our target is upmarket residential some commercial and so on but nothing big.

I want to bring in a big job talking about like 2mil dollars for our fees into my company but not sure how to go about it or who to speak to.

We are based in South Africa. This is also not requested by my bosses but It should definitely progress my career.

Is it a valid wish without any marketing or business degree. I am fairly good with people but to aquire the right introduction I believe is key.

Maybe more of the senior guys could give some good advice that are directly responsible for new business in their company.

 

[oldestguy]

Of course you can do it yourselves. However, check out the success of marketing consultants. If they are any good, they will have a list of satisfied clients as references. You might be surprised at the techniques they have, which otherwise would take away from production if you try yourselves. I speak from experience with a medium sized consulting firm. A marketing consultant, in addition to our own efforts worked well. A wide variety of techniques are available and I trust you will see some here. Hopefully you also will see some methods that didn't work well. One thing the marketing consultant did for us was critique us with our current clients. That helped us fix some internal and production problems that we were not aware of.

 

[cvg]

introductions are only part of the story. without a supporting staff (both in number of staff and in experience / ability), it will be difficult if not impossible to convince a developer or architect that your company is able to provide the kind of service they need. A two million dollar engineering fee could easily keep 10 engineers busy full time for an entire year. Do you have that kind of staffing ability to handle a project that large? from the description you gave, I would think not.

 

[AELLC]

This may be just hot air but it is something I observed when I went to marketing meetings with another engineer who supervised me, but he had marketing skills whereas I was the technical nerd.

He went to every meeting with the exact same bloated, egotistic and exaggerated sales pitch, and talked so much and so rapidly, the potential client barely had a chance to respond except at the end.

Essentially, he did not seem open to response from the client until he was finished with his pitch. Big mistake.

Now, when I talk to people, I put in a lot of pauses and watch (really focused) for facial expressions as I talk. I also see if they keep glancing at their watch, that is the sign to stop.

 

[msquared48]

Or the time to make the offer...

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[NorthCivil]

@cvg,

$2M could keep 10 engineers busy at your office for an entire year?

you'll have to forward me your companies info so I have someone to outsource to when I get too busy!!!

 

[cvg]

OK, so maybe I exaggerated, maybe only 8 engineers, not 10 - it all depends on billing rates and hours worked. But the fact is that you would need a relatively large team completely committed for the year to accomplish that much work. as well as to continue service to all your other clients, seems like this is a job for a large company with the staffing ability to handle it. The original post was clear, "a fairly small company, doing pretty well", sounds to me like they do not have an additional 8 structural engineers sitting around waiting to land that really big project

$2,000,000 fee
$125 hourly rate
2000 hours per engineer
8.0 staff

 

[ztengguy]

Plus, how many small companies doing small commercial jobs land a 2 mil fee engineering contract, putting construction cost anywhere from 100mil to 200 mil correct?

 

[brandonbw]

I worked somewhere that was getting projects like this left and right. I think it was really tough to hire quickly enough to fill the positions needed at the time. Lots of work had to be redone.

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer

http://bwengr.com

 

[PurchasingEngineer]

Hi Parrapit!

I am one of those perhaps "touched in the head" individuals who decided in 2010 to start my own engineering business. As a result, I had to take a crash course in marketing! There are a lot of really bad marketers out there, and I am a huge supporter of the sales engineer. My work is in Purchasing, so I had first learned to sit on the buying side of the table before I began learning about marketing. Long story short, I find that engineers make great sellers and buyers!

I would definitely talk it over with management first, but you can go to them with the ideas I am going to share with you below.

Two simple concrete steps you could take that have benefited me are:

1) You can go to your local library where they have online databases (I am not sure that I can name the one I have in mind on this forum, but there is one in particular that works well). These databases list companies by description, NAICS description, or SIC description. NAICS and SIC are ways that the government sorts labor (the bureau of labor statistics, etc.) You can harvest contact information for potential clients within a certain radius of your zip code. I know it is intimidating, but cold calling is a great skill for anyone to learn! For your business, I recommend property managers, developers, construction companies, and also local factories. Guess what - all of these resources are 100% free! Your local librarian might be one of the most helpful people you never knew existed!

2) Get in touch with your local chamber of commerce and attend any event that is an "executive luncheon" or "networking mixer" or "annual banquet". Joining the chamber will cost some money, but if you phone them you can often attend individual events for some $10-100 per event. If you make some good connections at each event you attend, you frankly only need to attend a few.

Engineering firms as a whole do not market themselves well! Your goal when talking with anyone is to set up a "brief meeting", handing out a pile of cards is good but it is not as effective as meeting with folks. On that topic, if you are driving and see a potential client, just drop in! Do not be pushy - listen more than you peak and be very polite. Just be mindful of no soliciting signs. Respect their wishes.

I for one applaud your ambition, and even if management does not give you the green light to proceed, I for one think that management will commend you for wanting to help out your firm!

Good Luck!