Marketing 101 For Architects & Engineers

It's a shock to many an architect and engineer. After years of college where no one ever mentioned sales, marketing, or business development they find themselves in an architectural/engineering design firm working on a qualifications document or a proposal or, heaven help us, having to make a sales presentation. Many will protest this disturbing development. Their protests take several forms from the dismissive - "I don't have time for this, I have real work to do." to the haughty - "I didn't get a degree in (pick one: architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, planning...) to work in sales." Ah, the pure designer, the artist, the least versatile member of the team. Does that sound like a strong career move to you? Fact is, no one gets to design anything until the job is sold and the technical disciplines absolutely have to participate in sales. After all, no client you'd want to work for is going to award a multi-million-design job to an English Major, no matter how scintillating the cover letter may be. Clients want to know about price and scope and how you're going to handle problems and what's it going to be like working with you, the design professional. They want to evaluate you and your capabilities. They know they won't be working with the marketing staff on the project and they won't hire your firm unless they can evaluate the technical team first hand. They want to get to know the design professionals who are going to bring their vision to life. Want to design? Then you have to sell. Rather than fight this fact, here are two reasons why this should please you: 1. In most firms, those who bring in work earn far more than those who don't. 2. Why trust others to bring in enough work to keep you employed? I suggest you help bring the work in. You'll have plenty to design, you'll be more valuable to your firm, and you'll earn a higher salary. What's not to like?

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