Selling with Integrity to Develop Your Engineering Practice

At times it can seem like a firm is relying on a few senior partners or executives to bring in work, which can be a burden to a senior partner and make a younger associate feel out of the loop. Getting everyone engaged in building the business can be accomplished by selling with integrity in a way that avoids the stereotypical image of the sales process and the salesman. Instead, the correct model for the engineer's involvement in sales is the physician. Engineers have special knowledge about what makes the built environment work and remedies for when something doesn't work. At a minimum, they are diagnosticians providing the data to the contractors or facility managers who will implement the treatment plans. As such, they have a responsibility to the "patient" (client) to ask the questions that will allow the patient to present symptoms leading to a diagnosis. But for the best results, they don't do it without a plan. Follow the author through the steps necessary for developing and applying an effective plan.