About the webinar
Ahmed Badruddin, CEO, Citylitics, shares six key strategies to enhance your Architecture, Engineering, or Construction (AEC) firm’s success in securing future Public Infrastructure projects. Tailored for professionals to learn practical techniques to identify, pursue, and win these valuable projects.
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to:
- Identify new project opportunities 1 to 5 years before RFPs are issued
- Proactively engage with potential clients and influence project outcomes
- Build stronger relationships with key stakeholders and become a trusted advisor
- Use Early-Stage Sales Intelligence to drive client action plans, pre-qualification priorities, call planning, and proposal development.
- Use future opportunities data summaries to help Seller-Doers to prioritize business development activity.
Webinar Summary
The Value of Early Pre-positioning (Why it Matters):
- Higher Win Rates: Pre-positioning can increase win rates significantly (e.g., 25-30% vs. <3-4% for late RFP responses).
- Project Influence: Early engagement allows you to shape the project’s scope, budget, and delivery model, aligning it with your firm’s strengths.
- Stronger Relationships: You become a known and trusted partner to the client, rather than “just another bidder.”
- Better Proposal Quality: More time enables a more tailored and aligned proposal.
- Pricing Power: Compete on value and differentiation, reducing pressure to discount margins.
- Improved Team Preparation: Sufficient lead time allows for better internal preparation for both the RFP and project delivery.
- Thought Leadership: Being proactive and engaged early positions your firm as a thought leader and partner.
Understanding the Client’s Journey (The Multi-Year Process Before RFP):
- Issue Identification: Cities start with a problem (e.g., population growth, aging infrastructure, new industry).
- Planning & Pre-design: They prioritize needs and begin conceptualizing solutions.
- Project Funding: Securing funds through bonds, rate cases, grants, etc.
- RFP & Award: The formal solicitation and contract award.
- Key Takeaway: The “left half” of this journey (issue to funding) is where you can significantly influence the RFP.
Leveraging Data and AI for Early Opportunity Identification:
- Traditional Methods Remain Vital: Relationships, travel, and trade shows are still crucial for trust-building.
- Data as an Extension: Data provides broad coverage where individual BD professionals cannot.
- Sources of Data: Over 40,000 entities (municipalities, counties, utilities, etc.) constantly generate data.
- Types of Documents: Agendas, meeting minutes, budgets, capital improvement plans (CIPs), master plans (MTPs), work plans, etc., contain valuable insights.
- AI-Powered Intelligence: Platforms like C.Lunix use AI (similar to ChatGPT) combined with industry expertise and data analysts to extract actionable sales intelligence.
- Examples of Opportunities Found:
- Planning & Studies: Mentions of budgets/funding requests for studies (preliminary engineering analysis, master plans) 1-3 years out.
- Design Engineering: Mentions of upcoming infrastructure projects where design hasn’t started for at least a year, with allocated design budgets.
- Construction: Projects where construction hasn’t started for at least a year, with mentions of teaming partners (design engineers).
Data-Driven Engagement Strategies:
- Account Research:
- Contact & Stakeholder Mapping:
- Identify decision-makers and their influence levels.
- Recognize political/public figures who might impact the project.
- Find project-level individuals who can be champions and shape direction.
- Purposeful Call Planning:
- Opportunity Context: Know the city’s plans, funding status, priorities, and stakeholders.
- Objective: What do you want to learn? What value/expertise can you offer?
- Next Steps: Plan follow-up materials (case studies, presentations).
- Effective Outreach Tips:
- Right Contact: Identify the champion for your firm/project.
- Speak to Their Needs: Differentiate by showing you’ve done your research and understand their specific challenges, not just a generic pitch.
- Unique Value Proposition: Clearly communicate how your solution fits their plans.
- Reference Case Studies: Show proven success with similar projects.
- Clear Call to Action: Define the next step (lunch & learn, site visit, presentation).
Data-Driven Go/No-Go Pursuit Evaluation:
- Window of Influence: Is there 1 to 3 years to influence, or is it an imminent, fully scoped RFP where you haven’t been involved?
- Stakeholder Access: Do you have existing relationships, or enough time to build them?
- Strategic Fit: Does the opportunity align with your firm’s strengths, market focus, geographic reach, and expertise? Are you pre-qualified, or can you get pre-qualified in time?
- Teaming Potential: Are there strong, known teaming options early in the process?
- Relationship History: Do you have a positive past working relationship? Are there strong incumbents that make it less likely for you to win?
Prioritization Framework for Seller-Doers:
- High Priority (Strong Fit, Early): Focus on early engagement and business development.
- RFP Response (Strong Fit, Late/RFP Stage): High priority for proposal response if you’re well-positioned.
- Reallocate Bandwidth (Weak Fit, Late/RFP Stage): Consider disqualifying these to free up resources. The speaker noted some firms halved their RFP responses but doubled their business by focusing on better-fit opportunities.
- Lower Priority Early Engagement (Weak Fit, Early): Still an opportunity to influence, but not a top priority for immediate action.
- 2×2 Matrix:
- Y-axis: Strategic Fit (Strong <-> Weak)
- X-axis: Time Available (Early <-> Late/RFP Stage)
In essence, the webinar emphasizes moving from a reactive, RFP-driven sales approach to a proactive, intelligence-led strategy that focuses on influencing projects well before they become formal solicitations. This shift leverages data to build stronger relationships, increase win rates, and optimize resource allocation for sales professionals in AEC firms.
