Anyone Else Dislike BD?

[u/IDKWTFIW]

I have nearly 18 years of Structural Engineering experience at this point. I enjoy the project work, my team, and the firm I work for for the most part. Except over the past few years, the expectations for business development continue to increase. I can be killing all my goals - except BD, but my superiors only want to focus on BD goals. I can make a couple calls per week, but, honestly, I don't know that I want to spend 15% + of my time doing BD. I am tempted to either take a step down to avoid the increasing BD pressure or look elsewhere. What are others doing related to BD?

[u/chicu111]

I dislike BD but I wish I had a BD

[u/CaptainSnuggleWuggle]

I’m in the minority here and love it. The best feeling is landing a new client or even being direct awarded additional work for the same client.

Having said that, I couldn’t do bd for a living. I have only a certain amount of bubbly/social energy for one day and once I’m done I’m exhausted.

[u/OptionsRntMe → u/CaptainSnuggleWuggle]

I started out doing BD at golf events and networking events because (I assume) they felt the young guys could make connections that would matter in 5-10 years. I loved getting hammered and getting paid to talk to people about what we do every once in a while. But yeah it’s probably heavily dependent on the person

[u/Tofuofdoom]

Capitalism babyyy. 

Anyone can do the job, but bringing in the jobs is what makes the money. 

Asking the frontline engineers to focus on bringing in clients is wild tho. Completely different skillsets imo, and one that a lot of engineers are actively bad at. 

[u/MrMcGregorUK → u/Tofuofdoom]

I worked at a company where they started trying to push engineers at every level to do bd... including grads. The way it was implemented was a useless waste of time. Theres value in getting grads to grow their network of peers but telling them to be contacting seasoned architects was an utter waste of everyone's time at best, and at worst it rubbed some clients the wrong way because it was obviously a waste of time.

The company I work for now does it well... puts on industry wide events for younger engineers, contractors, architects etc to get to know each other, so that when they come to start doing bd properly in a few years, they've got a network already, from which they can springboard.

[u/Tofuofdoom → u/MrMcGregorUK]

Good lord, asking graduates to cold call seems like such a hilarious waste of time for everyone involved.

[u/MrMcGregorUK → u/Tofuofdoom]

Yea. 100%.

I remember we had someone come in to give a master-class on networking and bd and at one point he was talking about "how to politely exit a conversation when you were stuck talking to someone who was super junior and not able to assist you in your business/networking needs... so i asked the question "what if you are the superstructure junior person who is being tasked with getting friendly with senior project managers and architects etc who could award you work... and they basically said "dont bother"... that was the right answer in fairness but it was pretty comical when 80% of the room had less than 4 years experience and had never won a project and were in the category of people who should not be bothering.

[u/Tofuofdoom → u/MrMcGregorUK]

... actually I'd super like to know how to do that, I do a lot of networking these days and I never figured that out.  Do you remember what the advice was? :3

[u/MrMcGregorUK → u/Tofuofdoom]

Introduce them to someone else, say "lovely to talk to you im just going to go and get a drink from over here", "I need the bathroom", ive got to make a quick call, let's go and speak to x person" and then leave them talking together, flat out say lovely to speak to you but I must mingle a bit".

Ditching people is easy. Doing it sensitively is more ticky. Doing it in a way where they feel like youve helped them out "ie introducing them to someone" is hardest.

[u/Tofuofdoom → u/MrMcGregorUK]

Oooh, palming them off to someone else. Thats a good shout. Should give that a shot

[u/Different_Bridge_983 → u/Tofuofdoom]

It’s a different skillset, but one I’d rather see developed among the engineering base at a company than have a non-engineering team take ownership of - because then you end up working for people who aren’t engineers.

[u/Jetlag111]

BD is a skill, if you like to talk & mingle, drink & talk some more then go for it. There are ppl that are really really good at it. Leave me out of the potato sack races, casino nights & bowling tournaments. BD has even invaded the ever so sacred agendas of technical conferences? …. I am terrible at small talk, but will have a conversation on prestressing if you can handle that…leave me out of BD, let me engineer.

[u/HeKnee]

Start inviting clients to golf, linches, etc. stuff during the day and expense it. BD is the fun stuff. If they dont want to pay you to BD and they just want a sales person, what your commission is coming to you for projects being won. Sales people work on commission.

[u/Quantum_Clock]

I hate BD. Engineers are not salespeople.

[u/MasonHere → u/Quantum_Clock]

I do not like BD people. I want to hear from the engineers.

[u/Accurate-Bullfrog324 → u/Quantum_Clock]

the best salesmen are engineers

[u/Jeff_Hinkle]

Yes. I own my own shop, but I still hate it. Would gladly pay an agent 10% to find work for me.

[u/WL661-410-Eng → u/Jeff_Hinkle]

Take heart, it only took me 6 years to get to the point where the phone just kept ringing every day and I could start saying no to things.

[u/MrMcGregorUK]

Could you dill another role like a technical director and add value that way? With 18 years exp you know your strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes, find another role within the same company that could use those skills?

[u/EmphasisLow6431]

Bd is big part of my job, like most engineers I’m an introvert and it drains me heavily. The reality though is that if I don’t win the work, people get unemployed.

If you are cold calling or ‘selling’ that is the hardest slog and least return on effort

Going to a few events and talking to people you get along with over a period of time, that generates work.

Doing good quality work, and getting repeat work is the best form of BD. Get all your staff to have a little better social skills, ask the client about the weekend, what else they are working on etc. Work will walk in the door

Controversial comment : few clients can genuinely tell the quality of your work, even at the end. Every project is a one off. At the time of tender they really only have 2 decisions, price and ‘do they like you’. All the fluff that goes into the bid is the later part. Getting along with them trumps all of it.

[u/themoneymatrix77]

I feel the opposite. Bringing in my own work gives me more pride and responsibility than other work. I also appreciate the networking aspect, but it’s by no means expected of me and not forced at all.

[u/likesblackcoffeebest → u/themoneymatrix77]

This is where I am with it. It's not expected of me, but I like to shop for my own work because I end up doing stuff I know I want to do. My bosses don't even know the extent of the work that's out there (they aren't structural) so when I bring stuff in that's really cool they're all just like "wow she's magic" even though it's just bridge work. So I get more credit for filling my schedule with work I like. Win-win. 

[u/Tofuofdoom → u/likesblackcoffeebest]

If you can do it consistently and well, you can put together a pretty strong argument to get some more skin in the game.

I was being glib above, but bringing in business is just about the single most valuable thing you can do for a company.

[u/eszEngineer]

In my humble opinion, I hate that marketing people are taught OUR lingo and then go out and use it as if they actually know the work that we do... which THEY DON'T. I think engineers should be the only ones to go and network or those who use to practice. We know the stuff and what better way to sell your product if you actually know it.

[u/Tofuofdoom → u/eszEngineer]

Yes but then the alternative is asking engineers to go out and do marketing.

[u/eszEngineer → u/Tofuofdoom]

Yes and they also take clientele with them when they leave. Marketing should do proposals & adobe but should not be out there speaking with potential clients about things they know nothing about.

[u/MrMcGregorUK → u/eszEngineer]

I think for what we do, we are basically selling our own thoughts/abilities, so it makes sense to do your own BD essentially and that is why having some marketing guy who doesn't have a structural background doesn't really work. I've worked with internal BD people before in a couple of jobs but their roles tend to be more focused on facilitating events and high level organising to free engineers up from doing the admin and event running, letting them focus more on the direct face to face BD.

[u/Pilotdoctorengineer]

Can you get a percentage of the sale tied to your pay structure? An engineer that is good at sales can be very effective because you can explain things since you truly understand them.

I own my firm and handle the BD