A/E/C Business Development Bootcamp
Detailed Course Agenda
First Day
Launch (30 minutes)
- Opening remarks by one of the leaders of the firm
- Personal introductions and objectives
- Defining marketing and business development
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Self-evaluation forms for marketing and business development
Differentiation and Positioning (100 minutes, 130 minutes cumulative)
- The importance of brand and storytelling (Tell, don’t sell)
- How to be different in ways that matter
- The role of pricing in client decisions
- What you need to know in order to position effectively
- DISCUSSION & INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Understanding and Conveying Your Brand
- Win on your strengths, tie on your weaknesses
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Positioning
Clients (90 minutes, 220 minutes cumulative)
- Understanding and selecting markets
- Trends in clients’ needs and expectations
- Communicating with clients
- Focus on the right clients
- Keeping your best clients
- Targeting and snagging new clients
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Targeting and Developing Clients
- Identifying cross selling opportunities
- How and when to cross sell
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Cross Selling
Direction (50 minutes, 270 minutes cumulative)
- Vision and leadership
- Creating a client-focused culture at your firm
- Have a plan
- Roles, responsibilities, and accountability
- Benchmarking performance: Using PSMJ surveys
- Finding the time to do this
- Budgets
- DISCUSSION: How It’s Done at Your Firm
(This section could include a presentation by someone from the firm)
Marketing (45 minutes, 315 minutes cumulative)
- A deeper dive into considering your brand
- It’s not just done by surrogates anymore
- Thought leadership and content marketing
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Developing fresh ideas and spreading the message
- Marketing tools and techniques
Relationships and Opportunities (90 minutes, 405 minutes cumulative)
- The why and how of networking- It’s OK to be an introvert
- Managing networking
- Information is currency
- DISCUSSION: Overcoming the Roadblocks
- CRM and other networking tools
- Finding, tracking, and strengthening leads
- Chase less, win more
- How to really understand an RFP
- Selecting the best opportunities
- Focus on WINNING, not just getting to the short list
- How to learn what you need to know about the client and project
- It’s critical to maintain a high hit rate
- Using your firm’s go / no go form and process (If there is one)
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Go / No Go (Using actual current RFP)
Wrap Up for Day One (5 minutes, 410 cumulative)
Second Day
Tell a Gripping Tale—It is THE Key to Winning (100 minutes)
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: You be the Client
- Addressing RFP questions AND telling a story
- Share their vision, solve their problems
- Focus on real issues and solutions
- Developing and using win themes
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Telling THE Story (Using actual RFP or mythical project)
Proposal Strategy and Management (45 minutes, 145 minutes cumulative)
- Roles, responsibilities, and accountability
- Using a red team
- Strategic teaming
- When you’re the prime, when you’re a sub
- Following up
Proposal Language and Style (60 minutes, 205 minutes cumulative)
- Make them want to read your proposal
- Make it easy to read your proposal
- Layout and Language
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Proposal Writing Skills Development
- Looking at proposals by your firm and other firms
- Templates
- Dealing with page limits
Section by Section Guide to a Strong Proposal (70 minutes, 275 minutes cumulative)
- The all-important cover letter
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: How Strong is Your Message?
- Looking at proposals by your firm and other firms
Time to Red Team YOUR Proposal (30 minutes, 305 minutes cumulative)
- INTERACTIVE EXERCISE: Proposal Red Team Exchange
Winning Presentations (45 minutes, 350 minutes cumulative
- What clients want to hear
- Roles, responsibilities, and accountability
- Preparing for the presentation
- Using tools and telling a story
- Delivering the presentation
Wrapping Things Up (20 minutes, 370 minutes cumulative)
- Lessons learned
- What are you going to do tomorrow?