I was recently talking with an engineer who is new to business development. We got onto the topic of why it’s so hard for engineers to wrap their heads around BD. His confusion made total sense.
Engineers tend to look for formulas and equations. They want black-and-white answers.
For the technical person, business development can be challenging because it is full of gray areas. The equation is always changing, and the answers are never the same.
What I mean by the equation being different every time is this: you may meet a client at a tradeshow, then take them to lunch, and then provide technical information about their project to help them solve their problem. Then you may land the project/client.
In another case, you may see them at multiple networking events over the course of several years and follow up with them multiple times between networking events by taking them to lunch or coffee. You also set up meetings to communicate your services and how you can help them on future projects to solve THEIR problems.
Then it may be seven or eight years later when you get the opportunity to provide a proposal and then they become a client. Yes, you read that right. Seven or eight years.
Business development is a long game. There is no instant gratification like there is when you design and build a project. You can put together the plans, schedule and budget (with flexibility, of course) but there is an eventual endgame to the project. There are steps and checklists you have to go through to get the end result.
But even though the business development equation is always changing, one thing remains constant: building trust. Without trust, you will never obtain and retain a client. TRUST is the core of any good relationship. It has to start with TRUST.
Trust can take months, sometimes years to build with the client depending on how you connect with them and how often you communicate. Business development takes patience and investment in relationships. It has to be nurtured over time.
Zoom and text are great for efficiency, but they can’t always capture the nuance of a conversation. The shift in someone’s tone, or a slight head tilt of confusion is the moment you can tell they’re not quite sold yet. That kind of reading-the-room only really happens in person.
Each client is different, too. They have different needs and interests, and they will ask different questions of their design and construction professionals. You also have to take varying personalities into account.
Some people instantly connect while others take more time to warm up to you. It’s about connectivity, which is another component to business development. Connectivity is relating to the client and understanding what they need. It’s about reading between the lines in some cases.
When first building a potential client relationship, it’s important to find a connection with the other person. It may not even be business related. It may be that you both enjoy the same genre of music or went to the same college. You can always find a connection by asking the right questions.
People naturally gravitate toward doing business with those they like, understand, and trust. At its core, business is less about the exchange of services and more about the connection between you and the client.
And here’s the thing, technical people are actually really well-suited for this. You’ve lived through the projects. You can answer the hard questions on the spot, share real examples, and walk a client through exactly how you’d solve their problem. That kind of credibility is hard to fake.
For instance, if a client asks a question mid-meeting about how a specific site condition was handled on a past project, a traditional BD professional might pivot or deflect. But the technical person who lived through that project? They can walk the client through exactly what happened, what they learned, and how they’d handle it even better next time. That kind of answer doesn’t just inform. It builds trust.
A strictly “BD only” professional can sell the relationship, but a technical person can sell the relationship and back it up.
With the right training and a good mentor, business development stops feeling awkward and starts feeling natural. It just takes time and a willingness to put yourself out there.
