Five key considerations every A/E/C marketer should include in their next kickoff meeting to ensure a smoother pursuit process.
Proposals may never receive the time and resources they deserve. However, cross-team collaboration equally depends on engineers and marketers to deliver quality submissions that win the projects that keep their companies running.
Project engineers and technical leaders wear many hats. They’re expected to be billable, attend client meetings, deliver successful projects, mentor young engineers, network, and volunteer with professional organizations. So, it’s no surprise that they struggle with time management and marketing meetings get pushed … and pushed to the last minute.
While successful pursuits depend on countless variables, a marketing-engineering pair can reduce back-and-forth, avoid late-minute revisions, and meet deadlines by setting boundaries and getting to the heart of the proposal at kickoff. Below are five key considerations every A/E/C marketer should include in their next kickoff meeting to ensure a smoother pursuit process.
1) Set a Flexible Schedule
It’s easy to make verbal commitments at the kickoff meeting only to fall through on them when other priorities arise. That’s why it’s valuable to establish a schedule that considers the technical and marketing teams’ commitments from the beginning. Inevitably, schedules will shift. Some proposals require more work than others, needing additional brainstorming, revisions, and time to develop proposal content. Both marketers and engineers have to anticipate and be amenable to shifting deadlines or adding an extra draft. To account for this, your initial schedule should feature a buffer for each milestone and include follow-up meetings to protect your progress.
2) Dig Deep
Your team is responding to Request for Proposals (RFPs) that rarely contain all the project details. Sometimes, the engineering team has valuable insider knowledge they don’t think to share with marketing. As marketing professionals brainstorm how to make their proposals stand out, asking engineers questions like the ones below can quickly uncover their company’s edge.
1. Have you talked to the client before?
2. Who’s the competition, and how do we differentiate ourselves?
3. What are the project’s key drivers?
4. What does the client care about?
These qualitative questions aim to align the technical and marketing teams around the client’s “why,” centering the proposal’s messaging, strategy, and relevant technical information from day one.
3) Establish a Decision Maker
Marketing relies on the technical team to make decisions for the proposal process to progress. But decisions can hang in the balance when more than one person has the final say, leaving proposal writing in gridlock. Assigning one person to be the ultimate decision maker at the kickoff (typically the technical lead, the future project manager, or the proposal manager) cuts through the semantics that delay proposal writing. This role is responsible for making a choice at the end of every meeting, such as picking which graphics best display your message.
4) One Topic Per Meeting
Follow-up meetings are usually the most effective form of communication for gathering technical information. However, getting technical staff on the call can be difficult, especially if the meeting’s purpose is vague. To encourage engineer participation and clarify their role on the call, focus on one page or section of the proposal per meeting. This practice can also decipher who is (and isn’t) needed on the call and keep these meetings brief.
5) Set Internal Deadlines
This one is project- and company-dependent, but the marketing team can set scheduling boundaries with engineering from the start by establishing internal deadlines and revision limits. This practice gives engineering a timeline while making space for the marketing team to arrange the final draft, submit it, and move on to another pursuit.
Try It Out
The proposal process will always be a balancing act. However, A/E/C marketers can maximize their time with the technical team by establishing boundaries, getting to the core of a proposal, and setting expectations early on. Ideally, incorporating these practices from the kickoff meeting to submittal will result in more proposals the team is proud of, fewer late nights at the office, and more wins for the company.
Article written by Archana Sharma, PE, PMP, ENV SP, LEED AP, and Andrew Dugan, PE.
Archana Sharma is the water market leader and senior project manager at Mead & Hunt, leading business development in Texas. She is experienced in the design and delivery of municipal water and wastewater infrastructure projects in the US. She serves as the delegate-at-large for the Water Environment Federation and as a board member and committee leader for the Public Communications and Outreach and DEI committees at the Water Environment Association of Texas.
Andrew Dugan runs WaterWrites, a utility-focused copywriting and creative agency. He helps technology companies, engineering firms, and utilities communicate their work to any audience. Andrew actively volunteers with the Water Environment Federation and is the editor of Rocky Mountain Water Magazine.
