Marketing Brain Stems

Years ago back in the 90's a engineer friend of mine used to stop by the office, and provide some much needed comic relief.  His name was Mike, and he was (and still is) what you would call "a character".  One day we were all CADDing away, the HP pen plotter rolling out another plot, the office stereo was playing Tom Petty: "Running Down a Dream" , and he stopped by.  He started telling story after story, talking about engineers he had worked with.  He described one or two of these guys as "brain stems": engineers you could just shut up into a little room, occasionally sliding pizza under the door.  They would never interact with other people, just sit there and crank away at their designs all day.  You could never put them in front of clients, they were just not meant to see the light of day.  The old joke about engineers is true:  How can you tell the who is the extroverted engineer?  He's the one looking at the other guys shoes.

Now, all of us engineers have a little of this brain stem mentallity in us.  We can be content to just whack away at calculations all day, and not see another person.  This works just fine when the phone rings, and work just flies in the door on it's own.  But most of us will need to hit the street and press the flesh in order to get the projects/work/clients we need.  This involves getting out there, being a "joiner", speaking to groups, and generally mixing it up with potential clients.

One of the first things I did when I opened my firm in 1991 was to join ACEC, I also attended AIA meetings (not AA).  I avoided NSPE, as I did not really see the point in hanging with other socially challenged engineers.  I wanted to be where my clients were, and civil engineering firms and architects needed my help with MEP design.  I always kept a stock of business cards in my wallet, quick on the draw.  I even made "cold calls", just walking into architects offices unannounced and started talking.  I did pretty well with that approach, much better than trying to get through on the phone, and more often than not, I came back to the office with some floor plans ready for engineering.  Sometimes clients would ask me for a price, right on the spot.  I would always say that I needed time to study the project a little, and get back to them within 24 hours with a nice, written proposal.  The very few times that I have just thrown out numbers, I have been very sorry in the long run.  Our is a business of exactness, and a well written proposal is the only way to start out a well though out design.

Next time, we shall talk a little about "collecting that fee"...