How Not to Kill Your Proposal's Chances

You have just written the most incredible proposal of your professional life. It made the short list! The prospective client asks for a presentation. You’re ecstatic. You call in the team, prepare, and rehearse. You’re psyched and can hardly wait to launch your speech. After all, you work at the greatest firm in the country…in the world, no?

David Stone, in his new book, Wired! How to Crawl Inside Your Client’s Head for Success in Business Development, explains what must be done when meeting with the client. More important, he tells you what you should not do. Many a consulting firm has lost the deal because the presentation was trite, duplicated exactly what competitors said, and never once addressed the needs of the client!

• Don’t open your presentation with a joke. It’s not professional.
  
• Don’t open your presentation with dictionary definitions of "marketing," "service," or anything else for that matter.
  
• Don’t say “Thank you for the opportunity to present to you today.”
  
• Don’t apologize, if you arrive a little late to the presentation. So what? You are late... Get on with it!
  
• Don’t start by discussing administrative details. No one cares.
  
• Don’t think small. Be bold!
  

You'll have to read the book to learn the reasons for this specific advice. But here's a few free tips from Stone about using visual aids:

Slides can be deadly; overheads are nearly as bad. Flipcharts and boards are better; but embellishing the text with diagrams, flow charts, and graphs is much better. They should not be pretentious, but clarity is essential. And certainly don’t simply parrot what’s on the flipcharts.

Pursuing clients, doing marketing, preparing proposals, making presentations, and following up are not the easiest things to do, but Wiring offers powerful and clever ideas. Gleaned from hundreds of real-life situations and ingenious suggestions on how to get beyond the monotony that plagues design marketing, the ideas in this book are especially important for those of you who are marketing today the way you’ve always done. This book will be available in September, but reserve your copy today. 160pp, 2000. #L-332. Order by fax (202-789-7220) at $49 members, $69 nonmembers, $4 s/h.

• Results of ACEC’s Business Trends Survey
  
• Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX) Speaks About Government Competition
  
• Do E-Signatures = E-Liability?
  
• Check Your Firm’s Ethics Before They Check You
  
• Pitfalls of Prepared Contracts - How to Avoid Liability Problems
  
• ACEC’s Fall Conference Registration Program
  

ACEC Thanked for Support of Estate Tax Repeal

In a July 10 letter, Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn (R-WA) thanked President Arnie Spiess “for lending the substantial resources of the American Consulting Engineers Council to our effort to pass H.R. 8, the Death Tax Elimination Act.” Dunn went on to state her sincere appreciation for “the efforts of your Washington, D.C., team and your active grassroots network.”

ACEC has been working closely with Congresswoman Dunn and the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition to repeal the estate tax. The estate tax issue is one of ACEC’s top legislative priorities, and ACEC has been working hard in supporting congressional passage of the bill. A parallel Senate bill also passed. A final bill will be sent to the President to be signed into law, but he has threatened to veto the bill.

Demographic Trends That Affect You, Clients

Demographics, the study of human populations, forms the basis for most business decisions. At a three-hour seminar scheduled prior to ACEC’s Fall Conference in San Diego, Dr. David K. Foot will lecture on “The Future World of Business and the World of Work: A Demographic Perspective.” He will cover three issues: (1) demographic trends in North America and around the world, (2) market implications of changing demographics, and (3) human resource implications of changing demographics. Foot consults for governments, organizations, and businesses, and is professor at the University of Toronto. “An understanding of demographics adds a deeper level of appreciation for the diverse subjects covered during an ACEC Conference,” notes ACEC President Arnie Spiess who heard Foot speak during FIDIC’s Conference in Edmonton, Canada. This seminar is scheduled from 8:30am to noon on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2000. Use ACEC’s Fall Conference registration form located at www.acec.org to enroll. Note: $175 registration fee includes a copy of Foot’s best-selling book, Boom, Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift. Additional copies can be purchased at the ACEC Bookshop.

2000 Engineering Salary Data

The latest statistics on salaries are now available to ACEC members. And, through an arrangement with the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), ACEC is offering the NSPE 2000 Income and Salary Survey at a special price to ACEC member firms.

This 34th annual national compensation survey reveals the median annual income for engineers to be $75,000. But fresh-out-of-school college engineering graduates are asking for higher starting pay these days. And in this era of serious staffing shortages, you may want to have this practical and current compensation information at your side.

This book publishes figures for every discipline of engineering, for every job level, and for every major metropolitan area. It analyzes salaries by length of experience, level of education, level of professional responsibility, branch of engineering, job function, industry or service of employer, registration status, managerial responsibility, and region.

This survey is available from ACEC as publication #223-00, at $90 for members, $130 for nonmembers plus $3 shipping. Order by fax (202-789-7220) or e-mail publications@acec.org, with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, expiration date, contact name, and street address.

Editor: Francis George (fgeorge@acec.org)

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