How do you win projects?

[Maximusprime]

Hey all, new guy here.
I wish I had found this earlier in my career! There is a lot of great advice here that I learned the hard way!

I have always been interested in the business end of the engineering business. it seems to me that the best way to make this profession pay off, it to be the guy bringing the work in. I do not fall into the typical stereotype of the nerdy engineer, and I want to chase down business, and lots of it!

How do you senior guys go about getting projects? The firm I currently work for is a MEP consultancy, and most if not all of our clients have been using us for longer than anyone can remember. Most projects tend to come our way by default, from architects who we have worked with for ever and ever. We have no program for finding new clients and our business development is focused almost entirely on maintaining relationships with several firms who have used us for the last 30 years!

You could say I am the young blood in the company. What do you recommend to attract new business? I don't have the grey hairs (working on them) or the decades of acumen that some of the principals have but I want to win a big one for the firm. What should I do?

 

[TJOrlowski]

Maximusprime,
Welcome! There is a forum under the heading "How to Improve Myself and Get Ahead in My Work." I think this question would get much more exposure (and responses) if posted there.

-TJ Orlowski

 

[Maximusprime]

Thanks TJ, reposted in the other forum.

 

[willard3]

The nerds tend to be here.

 

[DrRTU]

Max,
You got the correct forum. As the owner of a d/b firm, I welcome and encourage your ideas with my staff. I have financial incentives in place to look for new opportunities. I have seen the issue you are trying to work out. You need to look at the organization of most small to midsize MEP firms and you will see how new work is acquired. Relationships are the keys to driving jobs / revenues. You need to position yourself in role in which you are directly dealing with the client. As architects float between firms, they will contact the person they trust for preliminary concepts. These relationships will turn into proposal generators and jobs. The process take time - years.

Don’t aim for the win for the big one - that’s like swinging for the homerun. You will earn the big one after you (not the firm) have had a successful track record of projects. Look at the process from the letting side, would you trust your work to an unproven sub firm to do a substantial project? Be the 300 hitter and rack-up numerous simple successful from the clients point of view – even if the margins are low. This will require 110% .

Move yourself in the direction the “grey hairs” have not gone. IE VRF systems, LEED simulations or advances in DDC. Sometimes old dogs don’t want to learn new tricks so they need the new guys to apply it. Use that to get to the client.

Follow the money. Get involved in the budgeting process to understand how estimating of hours & job costing works rates and proposals are generated for future projects.

Do not lose your sense of “team”. You said you want to win “a big one for the firm” Today, most young guys are – me me me. The money will flow based upon how well the firm does. Trust them but keep track. Look for a mentor in the firm that has your team values and find if he/she was compensated fairly when they helped with building revenues.

Take a hard look at your talents and the future of the company.

Steve

 

[walkes]

I agree with Steve, but also bear in mind that the Grey hairs and their contacts are getting older. You may not need to make contact with the other firms' grey hairs but your counterparts in those firms. The young architects are likely in the same boat as you, trying to build relationships to keep their careers moving forward, make sure you get to know them too (they may only be exposed to the Grey Hairs in your firm and not know much about your firm beyond that)

 

[Maximusprime]

Very good advice. I never thought about it that way.

I need to start hanging out with more architects (puke)

 

[walkes]

By hanging out with the Architects you can train them too

 

[Waramanga]

Yeah people can move on and up pretty quickly. You might be doing a small job with a mid level architect and the next thing you here he is doing a large project for many millions of dollars and looking for an engineer. As far as I can tell, unless you have an exceptional sales skills you need to deliver well for your clients and over time your network expands. If you do a good job they wont hesitate to chat if you call and ask whats coming up soon in their world you might be able to help out with.
You will also need the full support of your director. No use landing a big one and not having the resources to deliver on the promises!

 

[Drazen]

whole your business in that field is tied most of time to role of subcontractor.

your clients - architects and project management firms - depend on those who hold the bank, their clients, and your role is always supportive.

that largely limits your overall business opportunities, and it is necessary to get use to role.

the worst thing is that all the fancy stuff you could offer future building owner or developer is "filtered" through architects and that way your whole marketing is limited. architects may like some fashion things, but building developer may have some specific request that you will never know about because you cannot talk to him directly.

some years i worked in "higher" role, means for project management companies who treated architects as a team members only, not those who hold all power, and that enables some very interesting developments.

currently, in consulting, say i manage to contract once in ten times (or 20 times) bypassing the architects and such jobs most of time bring much more joy and money.

of course, you cannot actually compete architects, you only find some open niche now and than thanking to many contacts.

all of them want you to respond very timely, at the same time preserving opportunity not to call you six months before that. in such circumstances having more architects and more employees in your firm is actually better, as you have much more opportunity to cover varying work burden, and more opportunities to find jobs.

most of time i could bet that your older colleagues sized your firm according to number of good contacts they have for years, and you would likely need to increase number of employees before largely spreading your architect pool, as getting too many jobs without proper workforce can destroy you - it is not uncommon to win multiple projects but not be able to stage your work, as all of them will give you deadline at very same time. that is destiny of subcontractor.