relationship

The Truth About Selling

November 15, 2021 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Pamela A. Scott

“I hate sales!” “I could never sell anything!” I wish I had a dime—maybe a dollar—for every time I uttered phrases like that.

My first business coach helped me break that thought pattern. Here is how the thinking goes:

You are an engineer who excels at (fill in the blank).
You happen to meet Chris, whose company does (fill in the blank).
Chris mentions that he/she really needs help filling a client’s request for (what you provide).
Upon hearing that, you say, “I/we can help you with that.”
Chris says, “I’d like to learn more. Call me.”

Did you sell anything? No.

Did you tell Chris you could help with the problem? Yes.

Did you have to take Chris down some long sales conversation to get his/her interest? No.

Will you close the deal? The likelihood is high.

Change Your Thinking

Selling isn’t about selling in that icky, slimy way that you have perceived it. Selling is about you providing a friend/client/stranger with a solution to the problem they’re trying to address. In return for your help, you get paid.

7 Mistakes to Avoid As an Engineering Mentor

July 2, 2021 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Lauren Groff

The mentor/mentee relationship is one that needs to be defined early on to ensure that engineers get what they need out of it. Most of the time it goes great, and everyone is happy. Sometimes though, things go wrong and that’s how relationships get damaged. Because of this, you need to ensure you’re not making the following mistakes as an engineering mentor. Review the mistakes listed below to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Remember Who You Work For

September 7, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Mickey Addison, MSCE, PMP

When someone asks a leader who they work for, the best answer is “I work for my team.” That’s obviously not a complete answer, but it speaks to a mindset. Leadership is service, and leaders who approach their roles with that mindset are more likely to be successful. It’s not the complete answer, of course, so to that end, let’s spend some time thinking about respect. Leaders must demonstrate respect, require it in the team, and be able to move our organizations forward in a rapidly changing world.

Everyone Deserves Respect

Building Real Friendships That Can Get Engineers Hired

November 21, 2018 By EMI

This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

It might sound contrary to the idea of career professionalism but building real friendships can and will get you hired. In fact, if you’re not making friends when you network, you’re not doing it properly.

Networking is the most powerful job search strategy because it will lead to getting referred in for jobs that aren’t yet advertised, meaning you’ll have much less or no competition going into the interview process.

Building real friendships works extremely well when they’re based on genuine attraction and interest; think about this not as ‘what someone can do for you,’ but rather, ‘what you can do for someone else’ without expecting anything back. That’s how you make a new friend. Help without expecting anything back. Genuine friendships always make sense and feel good when they originate, and they will always pay off in the long run.

Build Real Friendships That Are Genuine

Better Marketing for Engineering Firms Through Better Public Speaking

October 1, 2018 By EMI

Better Marketing for Engineering Firms Through Better Public Speaking is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.

Colter has been enjoying working at his job as an engineer at a regional engineering firm. He is good at his job, liked by his co-workers and management, and has moved up a couple of rungs at the company. At his last performance evaluation, he visited with his manager about starting to take on client relations and they agreed Colter should look for an opportunity to begin creating a relationship with a client. He was motivated by the prestige of being a client manager, saw it as the chance to make another move up in the company, and begin planning how to cultivate the new client relationship.

A couple of months after his evaluation, Colter was invited to sit in on a strategic planning session for the company. One of the discussions was about how the firm could grow through the acquisition of new clients and specifically, how they could find new municipal clients. They listed about a dozen cities they would be interested in pursuing and it turns out that Colter knew the assistant public works director, Tim Harrison, in one of the cities. They had met through the local section of ASCE, served together on a couple of outreach projects, and usually sat with each other at the monthly luncheon.

Delivering Stellar Client Service to Engineering Clients

September 10, 2018 By EMI

Every A/E firm talks about delivering stellar client service and many deliver to that mark. Why? Well, before I can provide my opinion let’s set the definition for what constitutes stellar client service.

From my foxhole, stellar client service = responsiveness, collaboration, and establishment of crystal clear expectations. Without these three elements, you will certainly not develop stellar anything, let alone client service.

Thirty years ago, I learned what delivering stellar client service was as a bus boy, then as a waiter, in a posh restaurant. We in the A/E industry can learn a lot from the hospitality industry when it comes to client service and “delivering an experience”. From my time servicing clients on two-tops, then four-, six- and eight-tops, I learned how to gauge what our guests (i.e. clients) wanted and when. How to read body language, how to interact with the guests to establish rapport beyond a transactional relationship, and how to ensure they left with an experience, not just a meal.

In short, I learned how to turn eating into an experience. I also learned that when it’s done correctly, your fees (i.e. tips!) go up.

Delivering stellar client service in the A/E industry requires engineers to transform the technical act of engineering services from the technical stuff many clients don’t understand (or want to), into an experience. This is much like the transformation of eating dinner from a biological requirement into a memorable experience.